The Towers At CCNY

One star is being very generous. There have been many problems that I have heard and encountered with the towers. First off, the location is terrible since it is located within100ft of a park nicknamed «rape park». The security officers are all overweight and do not do anything. There is no way in hell anyone would feel safe with these buffoons. There are tons of cockroaches living within ALL the floors of the building. I have heard that the 5^th floor has it the worst. Also I have seen mice in some rooms and heard from RA’s that many floors have this problem. The towers does absolutely nothing to solve these problems. I had to buy my own roach killer to keep them out of my kitchen. I’m not talking little roaches, these things were at least 3inches long. They are called American cockroaches, I did a lot of research on them because I have never dealt with roaches before and wanted to know how to get rid of them. There are also bed bugs throughout the towers.
The staff is absolutely terrible. My one friend could not live here anymore due to the constant harassment from guys who she walked past every day and living next to Riverside Park which is a sewage plant that has many negative side effects including respiratory problems and constant headaches. I had to pick her up from the subway station every night after she worked because she did not feel safe walking to the towers alone. When she wanted to break her contract and live at home, the assistant director (who is the worst person to deal with. She is the most ignorant woman I have ever come in contact with) said that she could not leave unless she provided a doctor note about the condition of her health. She provided one to the woman the next week and was told that its up to her discretion and that she’s denying her request. Which was absolutely ridiculous. The CCNY staff helped her cancel the contract finally after battling back and forth with the towers staff. 2 months ago, a pipe burst in the room above me and started leaking water into my room, luckily nothing was damaged. However, a few days ago a pipe burst right above my girlfriend’s room and water leaked everywhere in her suite. They said that they do not cover the costs for anything damaged from a pipe burst. Which is total BS. They do the least amount of work possible.
I will not be coming back here and as another post stated, the majority of students leave after only a year living here. Oh and the elevators and floors all smell like weed. The towers does absolutely nothing about this also. I would say that at least a quarter of the residents at the towers smoke weed. I have even noticed one of the security guards high during one night. Many residents smoke in the bathroom and that is what causes the smell throughout the building. These are just a FEW problems I have encountered in one year here. I would avoid this place at all cost. Way too expensive and they increase the prices every year

I strongly discourage paying for the Towers.
What I learned from my year at the Towers:
— the high price for small rooms
–random hit or miss RA events
–no lights or light fixtures in my room (lived in darkness for two weeks before I could get someone to drive me to Home Depot)
–crazy, sweaty walk uphill from the A, B, C, D stop and pretty long way off to CCNY
–really bad, spotty WiFi for the first semester I roomed
–lobby areas are nice.
The turnover rate is ridiculous (very few people stay), the administration will take no responsibility for their own mistakes (mischarging damages, waiving their own liability for options like Express CheckOut, incorrect paperwork and mischarged late fees) and there is no end to the stress of dealing with the system that the Towers has in place.
MANY horror stories. Unfortunately, some office staff are rude, most are ineffective and the most they can do is listen to you and tell you they can do nothing for you (in terms of incorrect fees, etc.). I am sure they can do their office job. But the system they operate in does not want the Towers to claim ANY liability.
They overcharged my account with the wrong bill and only told me weeks after I paid them in full. It took another trip to Bursar and two weeks to get my money back. I was wrongly charged for my missing mailbox key ($ 50) which I handed back during Express CheckOut. They not only told me that I had no proof but the first time I asked to speak to someone they turned me away (I asked the security guard on duty to walk through the process, and checked my mail right before. I have had no other problems or damage fees prior to this charge.)
I contacted the FB group and found that 3 other people believed they were wrongly charged for their mailbox key as well. I raised the issue of a technical problem to the Director (who says there is no higher level of management I can speak to or direct my letters of complaint to) and after two weeks of stress and appointments, he says that it is my word against a missing key and I now owe the Towers $ 50.
SAVE YOURSELF THE TROUBLE and don’t bother dorming here.
If you absolutely have to live here, I recommend documenting everything so there is as little a chance as possible for paying out of your own pocket for the Towers’ mistakes.

If your family is well off and you can justify spending the money, the Towers at CCNY is by no means terrible. In fact, it is really nice for a dormitory. (It’s a new building, built within the past five years)
The problem is that the cost of living is extremely high. I paid $ 15,000 all in student loans to live here from September 1^st to May 30^th. That’s about $ 1,700/mo. for a bedroom (single bedroom, not shared), bathroom, and kitchenette with no oven (common space shared with 3 other girls) IN HARLEM. This is a price resemblant of the cost of living in Murray Hill or downtown. (where it’s nice, and people really want to live)
I’m writing this because it would’ve been helpful to have some real advice from a former tenant of the Towers before laying down the loans last year when I was new to the school.
In Harlem, realistically, you can find apartments for way cheaper. Safe apartments, too. I’m not talking about sketch-​town, low-​income, half cracked out buildings. There are some nice places up here, you have to search Craigslist and schedule viewings to LOOK at the places in person. But you could easily find a spacious, secure & safe 2 bedroom to split with someone in Harlem for around $ 1,600. That would cut your rent in half in comparison to the Towers. I seriously recommend browsing Craigslist a lot and responding to anything you think looks good (as you won’t get an email back always) — really great places come up every now and then, and they go quickly.
It hasn’t been a horrible experience living here or anything, but I’ve definitely gotten upset with the way things were handled on numerous occasions solely due to the ridiculous price I pay to live here. I’ll go over a few main points —
PUBLIC SAFETY:
The public safety is virtually useless. I made friends with some of them in the beg of the year thinking they’d have my back, and for a bit they did. Then they began to flirt with me and ask for my number when they’d drive me back to the dorm… Overall, the public safety is unprofessional and a vast majority of them are not friendly. A lot of them do public safety just because it’s a job, and when they work full time for a certain amount of time, they can go to CUNY school for free… They don’t care about being good security personnel or running the shuttle buses promptly.
There were two occasions in particular where I was approached, yelled at, and followed by one guy (if it’s a group of guys you’re generally fine, but when it’s one guy he’s probably fucked up on something and might really come after you) after 11 at night coming home from an 8 hour shift. The 127^th street subway is three blocks away from the towers, but St. Nicholas Terrace & 127^th is dark and sketchy at night, and St. Nicholas Park right across from the Towers is extremely sketchy once dark falls.
Public safety didn’t take me seriously when I called for help because they thought I was being lazy wanting a ride home… That’s a big issue when you’re living in Harlem, especially, unfortunately, when you’re a female who works nights.
SHUTTLE BUSES:
The buses are driven by members of public safety or just hired bus drivers, depending on the time of day. They’re supposed to run on the 125^th loop and 145^th loop all day. Supposedly they arrive at the stops every 15 – 20 minutes, but the shuttle bus drivers are notorious, ESPECIALLY during off-​peak hours (which is usually when they’re most needed safety-​wise… 10 PM you can’t be waiting for a bus for 25 minutes on the corner of 125^th st alone) for «changing drivers» or posting «No current prediction» on the NextBus site. When you call public safety to ask, they pretty much always say «It’ll be there soon.» and don’t check the GPS tracker or try to help you out. There are some people who are really helpful on the phone every now and then who will actually call the driver and tell them there’s someone waiting, but they’re impatient 75% of the time with kids calling or asking any questions.
RA/​HOUSING HELP:
I wouldn’t count on any real help from the RA’s or heads of the housing here… They don’t want to go through the trouble of actually taking your inquiries into consideration.
Other than those issues, The Towers is a nice place. It’s really clean, free to do laundry, and when you have an issue like the light bulb blew out in your kitchen, you can report it to maintenance and they’ll come within a few days. Desk security is tough, which is good. There is hardly any partying here & any social life you have will be small groups of friends. Definitely no keg parties or anything crazy… Best that happens here is 10 people playing beer pong in someone’s kitchen.
I’m not moving back here next year because it very honestly is not worth the money. Like I said, if you’re well off financially, this is a safe, clean place to get used to Harlem in. Otherwise, I’d search elsewhere/​consider commuting for a few months until you find a better place in the area for sure.