The Waterfront at Pu'uloa

I am from the country and do not like city living. The Waterfront has a country feel to it. Driving across the old cane field (10 minute drive) can be relaxing after fighting the H1 traffic on the hour it takes to come home from Pearl Harbor. There is gate security, though it is not as thorough as it used to be. There are security personnel on duty all the time but you don't really need them because HPD or military police are usually just outside the gate, so it is pretty safe here overall. The speed bumps have been removed from most of the community and now residents drive way too fast and I have yet to see any type of law enforcement trying to stop it inside the gates, though they will set up traps outside for some reason. The yards, as I said, are wonderfully spacious and the lawn crews do a good job overall. Some residents do not subscribe the $60 for lawn care and let their lawns grow very high. Management does not seem to make them mow it and some are a real eyesore. There is ample street parking where I live. The sidewalks are level and safe and there are some nice walking paths, especially around the lagoon and it is lighted. Recently, someone removed the garbage cans from around the lagoon, which is a pain when you are walking your dog and have to carry your poopie bag the whole journey. I spoke to someone in the office about it when I first noticed it, but nothing was ever done about it. The homes are very old bungalows without insulation and it gets HOT in Ewa Beach, especially August through October. There is no central air in most of the homes so if you have maintenance put a unit you buy yourself into your home (for a nominal fee), your electric bill will skyrocket because you will be pumping a/c right back outside through leaky slotted windows and/or your plywood walls. The appliances are what you expect in most rentals, neither too crappy or really nice. Noise is an issue because the community lies on the approach to the airport and planes will fly over just a few hundred feet up. Sometimes they come within minutes of each other. Military jets are EXTREMELY loud. At nights when the plane traffic slows, it is generally very quiet and I like to sit in the yard and feel the trades blow: as I said the yard is the main reason I am still living here (the dog park on the beach that I discuss shortly was the other reason).. Power outages are common. The last one several weeks ago lasted 18 hours! My electric bill as a single person without running the a/c has never been lower than $125. Running the a/c for the bedroom a few hours each night and all weekend pushes it to $200 (running dishwasher 1 time a week and 2 weekly loads of laundry for washer/dryer). Water bill (with wastewater/sewer) is never lower than $40. There is a decent beach and we did have an awesome dog park right on the water so the dogs could run and swim without leashes: the only such park on the island. Currently it is under renovation and I doubt when the work is done that they will restore it to the dog owners. I don't have any proof, but I would be surprised if it doesn't go to some other function. The people beach I have only driven by because I only go to the beach with my dogs, is lovely with chairs and umbrellas. It is also being refurbished right now. On weekends the verandas and grills are usually occupied by a few residents and dozens of their non-resident friends. This is the only place I have lived in Hawaii, so I have to assume there are bugs no matter where you live. I have had some trouble, but not a lot. There are boring bees and flies and some roaches and one time a big 12" centipede came out from under my stove. I broke a plastic shovel on him and still didn't cut him in half: when I go home I wont complain about snakes again!. The location also means you need to add 10 minutes to all your trips because you are 10 minutes from Ft Weaver Road. It takes 20 minutes with light traffic to reach the H1 at Kunia/Waipahu. You have to pay the rent by the 5th, but the utility bill does not come until a week after that at the earliest, meaning you have to pay them twice each month. It also means you cannot use the drop box to make your payments because you never know what your bill is going to be: its archaic and totally unnecessary. They have changed payment methods. You can pay rent online but not the utilities. I actually don't even know how to pay utilities at the moment and paying rent is a story in itself, which I shall describe in a moment. Management. Both old and new are the reason this community is 1 star in almost everyone's book. I have had problems and they become invisible. I have emailed them with no response. I have left voice mails with no response. I have gotten vague letters from time to time of complaints that are never specific enough to know what I have done wrong and what rule I am even violating. Recently they changed their rental payment methods and you can pay online. I did this the first month in December and it worked fine. I was happy. In January I tried to pay it again but it kept rejecting my payment. I went into the office on a Saturday morning and told them I was having problems. I offered to pay by check on the spot but the girl in the office suggested that since she had heard of no one else having problems that I use their computer to pay my bill and they could help me. I thought that was a great idea and we did it. It worked fine and told me my payment had been processed. I was happy. I went the whole month of January thinking I had paid my rent, but when I went online to pay February's rent I found I owed over $3700: I owed January and February's rent both! I paid the full amount and again the system said my payment was accepted and I received a confirmation email. Well I was wondering why for all of January no one bothered to call me or email me or write me and tell me that my rent payment never arrived, but I was happy it had seem to go unnoticed. Now in two years I have never been late on my rent. Two days after paying the $3700 I noticed the money had not yet left my bank account so I called the resident office and told them I was again having problems paying online. They told me since I had only just paid it that I should wait a few more days because sometimes it takes a while for the payments to go through. I waited. By Friday of that week (I had paid online on a Sunday) the money still had not gone through so I called the office again. They suggested it was the bank refusing to make the payments. I called my bank and was told someone was entering the account number wrong. I am not sure if that was my fault: the bank made it sound like it wasn't. But I take responsibility for it. But my problem with Waterfront management is that when I got home from work I found a note taped to my unit threatening to evict me without further notice if my rent was not paid within 5 days or I did not contact them. I had talked to them that very day and told them their online system wasn't working for me and they mentioned nothing about the letter! What kind of people do that? I called them twice this week for help paying the rent (remember the office is closed when I get home) and have never been late on my rent, yet their first response is to threaten me. They spent lets say at least 10 minutes drafting that letter, then had to drive over and deliver it: another 10 minutes. But not once did they take 30 seconds to drop me an email or call my phone and say 'hey, we haven't received your rent' let alone something like, 'we know you've called here several times this week. did you get the e-pay thing figured out yet?". No, that is something that a business with real customer service might do. I am hoping to land a job in Honolulu later this month and that will be my ticket out of here. I do much better renting from individuals or smaller companies that have some common sense and some decency. I hate being ignored and I hate being ambushed even more. I have tried to give a fair and honest assessment of life here. There are things I truly will miss, but overall it just isn't worth it. I have heard similar stories but do not know the truth to them so in all fairness I have left them out of this review, even though they do factor into my own judgments.