Complaint Review: Alexan Palm Valley Apartments - Round Rock Texas

"The plain truth is ... the non-tobacco smokers keep the tobacco smokers alive. Without non-tobacco smoking people who offer up the oxygen/tobacco smoke free air, the tobacco smokers would simply snuff each other out ..."

  As a non-smoker you believe that you somehow generate oxygen?   That and your first rebuttal that has some neurological claims about how smokers minds work pretty much tell us where you're coming from.

  The claims you make here are refuted by your own blog, so what's the point?

Robert Irvine & Jeanski,

What to you seems like reasonable solutions does not make for truth.

Moving from one apartment unit to another apartment unit in the same community where people tobacco smoke throughout makes no sense.

If you read "carefully" then you will notice that we were given a 60-day option whereby we would be responsible to pay the rent for this time period. Who would leave their rental residence immediately and pay for 2 months rent where they are not living for these 2 months? In essence, the lawyer did not have our best interest at heart ... nor near a compromise ... when he basically is saying live at the apartment for 2 months and pay your rent. This is 2 months longer in having to breathe tobacco smoke that has been severely bothering us. Then ... and "only" then ... the lawyer says we can leave.

The contractor is Gerald Elrod and feel free to call him to find out if we gave him a hard time in coming here to do the work. His phone number is on the blog. Oh and while you are talking with him ... do make sure to ask if the "air mitigation" is not very circumstance specific.

As far as search engine ranking ... yes the info you state is on the blog. It is there for the purpose of letting non-tobacco smoking people know that if they post that they will be heard because many people have access to what they post. It only takes 1 quality person to read and be filled with passion to make a change. The odds of finding this 1 person (for example) may increase with people reading the blog in great numbers or maybe this factor may not have much impact. We don't care about search engine ranking. We just care about finding that someone/or group who can help bring a resolve.

Jeanski admits that tobacco is "toxic" and Jeanski states that he/she "enjoys breathing" and all with the admission that Jeanski tobacco smokes. This is not someone's opinion that we value.

All of you can feel free to continue on with this behavior of trying to make us appear as though we are this and that negative whatever. Yet ... the truth is ... whoever reads the blog in its entirety, will clearly understand that we are good humans (not perfect and who is) who are working toward a positive change. We have more profitable things to do than to answer people who are purposely presenting a bunch of half truths in the extreme poor attempt to put a negative spin on what we are wanting to accomplish.

We don't at all care about "search engine rankings" for the CSI blog.

- Oh really...that's why one of your latest entry on your blog has the following statement.

make a comment on the CSI blog and together lets be a big voice that has power and that leads to the solution. Who will notice? *Millions of consumers *Law enforcement agencies *Law firms *Local and national media *Unlimited consumer organizations *Top internet search engines *Attorney Generals, U.S. Postal Inspectors, The Justice Department, Homeland Security, FBI, FTC and local/state authorities *Dateline, 20/20, 48 Hours, 60 Minutes, Inside Edition and CNN *NY Times, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Money, Inc. etc

- I bolded the "Top internet search engines", and the only reason you would put that on there is because of rankings.  By your own blog the local/state authorities seem to have no interest.  As it was pointed out by Jeanski you were given what appears to be more than reasonable accomodations.  So you are just blowing smoke(yes that pun was intended) when you are talking about how the management company is ignoring you.  Which brings it back to the actual issue of you thinking that smokers don't have the legal right to do what they want to do in their OWN home, because YOU don't agree with it. 

Although if you answer no other questions, because everyone can always use a good laugh, I really do hope you answer this one.  Why do you think that the U.S. Postal Inspectors, Justice Department, Homeland Security, and the FBI would have any interest in this?

This one intrigued me because I am a smoker. I am always aware of how my smoking may affect others, and do not smoke in places where others might be affected. That being said, I actually agree with you that your neighbors' behavior affects you and I acknowledge that you are supremely irritated by it. I am also irritated by my neighbors who constantly grill out (in all kinds of weather) as my home always smell like their grill and my lungs are breathing in the charcoal smoke which is just as toxic as cigarette smoke. However, grilling is legal and they have a right to do it. I just close my windows. Yes, it's a pain because I enjoy the breeze. But I enjoy breathing more :-)

For those who haven't viewed their blog, the OP's were offered, by the management, an opportunity to move into a different apartment in the complex, and they were offered an opportunity to break the lease and move without penalty. Both seem like reasonable accommodations. They also offered to have someone come in and see if there was a way to adjust air flow and direct the smoke away from the apartment. You made it extremely difficult for this contractor to come into your home. So your comment that Alexan/TCR is completely ignoring you is just stupid and makes the rest of your reports difficult to believe.

This is no worse than having an obnoxious neighbor. If you don't like it, move. 

Quite frankly, I'm pretty irritated by all the non-smokers who think that their rights are any more important than mine. I can no longer smoke in a restaurant or bar, outside my office building, or anywhere else there might be people. OK, I'll respect that. But as long as I'm in MY home I'll do what I want. Your neighbors have the same right.

Robert Irvine,

The fact is that we don't know how these Google ads are getting on the CSI blog as we did not put them there.

We don't at all care about "search engine rankings" for the CSI blog. What we do care about is the quality of the people reading it versus the quantity. Numbers mean very little to us when the quality is lacking.

The plain truth is ... the non-tobacco smokers keep the tobacco smokers alive. Without non-tobacco smoking people who offer up the oxygen/tobacco smoke free air, the tobacco smokers would simply snuff each other out because they would lack oxygen to breathe. This is exactly why tobacco smoking people are found doing so in open areas. The tobacco smoking people deserve to tobacco smoke in confined places where they are forced to breathe in what they blow out.

It's pure arrogance for tobacco smoking people to expect oxygen from non-tobacco smoking people. Then ... it takes even more arrogance to make the oxygen-giving and non-tobacco smoking people breathe in tobacco smoke filled air that lacks oxygen.

If you think that we are out to change your opinion ... well the news is that ... we have important things to do and this is not one of them.

Paul and Dianne

Sorry that I "assumed" too much.

I mean when you post in YOUR blog an article that links Smoking to Child Abuse, I should just automatically assume that you are for smoking.  But I guess that Google Ads assumed to much too because on your blog they have an ad that links to another stop smoking site. 

When you post in YOUR blog about having the complex create an "area" where people can smoke..your right I should just assume that you don't care about where people are allowed(or not allowed) to smoke.  One assumption I will make is that this area you want is as far away from your unit as possible and still being "in" the complex.

When you post in YOUR blog that you have written government agencies and they never responded, refused to help, or told you that you needed to sue them on your own.  I am suposed to assume that the people that are smoking are doing things that are illegal and need to be stopped.

You talk about discrimination on YOUR blog, yet again you can not answer the question as to why their "right" to smoke is any less than your "right" to not smoke?  You talk about cocaine being illegal..yes it is illegal and until tobacco is illegal they are allowed to smoke.  Perhaps you are looking at this the wrong way, maby you should start a national campaign to make it illegal.  Of course with the amount of taxes that all levels of government collect from tobacco sales I think you know where that will go.

You posting didn't change my opinion on any of what you think are "assumptions", in fact it confirmed them.   I will add one more "assumption".  In looking at your responses I now feel that this report was strictly a way to increase the rankings of your blog.  And just like your comments are not going to change my opinion, nothing anyone else writes here is going to change yours.

I'm not reading your blog. I don't need to. As another Robert posted, we all get that you hate smoke. Great.

I actually saw a case like yours on Judge Judy. She decided the non-smoker should move. I've read of other cases where the tenant's association went the other way, and made the smokers move to one section of the building.

Since you don't like smoke(neither do I), and refuse to answer any questions presented to you, I'll have to assume you are just a big pain in the butt who wants everyone to do what you say.

Life is cruel. You don't get your way all the time.

Robert,

Not only do you "think" you get it (and you really do not), you are putting words in our mouths. Instead of stating what you "think" we mean ... why not quote us from the blog?

As far as legal in the United States ... cocaine and heroin use to be legal in the early 1940's. Now, these two substances are "illegal" in our country. Back in the day ... people would not be punished for the use of cocaine and heroin. Now, people are punished for the use of cocaine and heroin. In order for any of what you state herein to hold validity ... you have to first admit that we have a totally 100% righteous U.S. government that is always out for the very best interest of its people.

If you admit that our U.S. government is even 1% unrighteous and not always out for the very best interest of its people ... there is much flaw in what you speak.

Robert, staying behind the "its legal" and "its not legal" curtain does not make your case here.

Paul and Dianne

You are against Smoking..we get that.

You are talking about your "rights" being ignored...we get that.

You think that because you are a non-smoker they should do what you want..we get that.

But here is your problem.  Smoking is LEGAL and quite frankly the government should not make any laws to prohibit this in their OWN home.  So it is up to the community(as it should be) to make it's own rules.  In your community it is allowed.  You are right the lease probably didn't say that it was a smoking community, but I bet it also didn't say it was a non-smoking community either.

If you don't like it you have two choices..get enough people in your community to get the management company to change it's future leases.  If you can't get enough people to get "on board" or the management company does not want to do that then move as was suggested.

You talk about how they don't care about the "non-smokers".  Okay lets reverse this, say that they tell the smokers they have to stop smoking, even though they are allowed to per their leases.  Do they have any less "rights" than you?  Or is it a case where you basically think that because they are doing something YOU don't agree with that they gave up those "rights".  Yes you can go back and forth about health issues, and you will have the "pro smoking" people give some reports how 2nd hand smoke is not harmful, and the "anti smoking" people give other reports how even 1 minute of 2nd hand smoke will kill you(well that may be an exageration but I have seen some pretty close to that).  It does not change the fact that it is legal and they are allowed to smoke.

Oh and before you ask, it does not matter if I smoke or not.  Although this issue does go beyond smoking.  The answer to the question as to if I smoke or not would probably surprise you...but I am still not going to tell you.

Susan,

When commenting on such an issue, absolutely it is more than relevant to know if the person who is commenting tobacco smokes or not.

The ABC simple fact ... proven over and over again ... is that tobacco smoke kills whether it is first-hand (tobacco that is directly smoked) as well as tobacco smoke that is second-hand and third hand. Tobacco smoke is a toxic substance.

Everything you state ... in both of your comments ... is nothing more than assumptions. Assumptions come not from the wise and are in no way factual. In order for anything you state in your comments to hold validity, you first need to admit that tobacco smoking is a safe practice for people who do it and that it is also safe for non-tobacco smoking people who are around it.

Paul and Dianne

It doesn't matter if I smoke or not.

Is your apartment building a non smoking building?  Does it say that in the lease?  If not, why did you move there if you hate cigarette smoke so much? 

You cant just move in and expect the landlord and all the neighbors to do what you want. 

Susan, You did not state whether you are someone who smokes tobacco. This is always relevant info when responding to this type of situation. A tobacco smoking person's thought processes are much different than that of a non-tobacco smoking person's thought processes. It is certainly your opinion that moving is that easy solution. If you read every single post on the blog, you would have clearer understanding as to why it is not easy to "just" move.

Wise people evaluate a situation in its entirety before commenting. Are you among the wise or did you comment after only reading the blog in part?

Comments from those people who lack complete understanding are therefore speaking foolishly. Comments described in the latter-stated are not regarded by Paul & myself (whether they oppose our position or are in agreement with our position).

Alexan Palm Valley Apartments can allow a designated spot for people to tobacco smoke (within their community) whereby the tobacco smoke would not enter into individual apartment units. Of course, this is not the best and most healthful solution yet ... it is a step forward in further protecting those residents who do not smoke tobacco.

+++ Our lease does not state that this is a tobacco smoking community.

Easy, Move to a non smoking building.

Your lease doesn't say it is a non smoking building so your neighbors have the right to smoke anything legal.