The Cooper

I lived at The Cooper during the June fire, and I need to correct the narrative that “new management” keeps posting under every review. Their responses about being supportive, communicative, and attentive are simply false, and anyone considering living here deserves to know what actually happened. After the fire, communication was nonexistent. Weeks and months went by with little to no real information about my unit, my belongings, or any next steps. Their replies online claim they reached out individually, gave consistent updates, and handled concerns with care. In reality, they ignored emails, contradicted themselves constantly, and left hundreds of displaced residents completely in the dark. When they finally organized retrieval, it became painfully clear that the priority was not resident wellbeing but protecting the building’s financial value. Their attorney made it obvious that their real goal was to dump my belongings so they didn’t risk losing tens of millions of dollars. And to make matters even more cruel, they refuse to tell us where our discarded belongings are being taken. Residents aren’t even given the chance to salvage anything from the trash because management will not disclose the location. They are deliberately preventing displaced people from recovering the last pieces of their lives. Instead of allowing me access to my home, they limited me to just two boxes. That was all they were willing to give me. Two boxes representing everything I owned. They claimed this was due to “mold” and “contaminants,” but that excuse doesn’t hold up. If it were truly a safety concern, they would not have given me a third box, which I only received after fighting tooth and nail for it. They could have easily given residents more items, and they chose not to. This was never about safety. It was about limiting liability and speeding up demolition so they could get the building reopened and profitable again. Adding insult to injury, when construction workers went in to retrieve my items, they used the wrong list. When I pointed it out, management’s response was essentially, “Sorry, it’s our error and we can’t do anything; the construction team won’t do a second run.” Only after pushing back repeatedly did they admit their mistake and agree to give me one more box. They chose convenience over accuracy, and it cost people irreplaceable pieces of their lives. Their refusal to allow even a 30-second FaceTime from inside my unit was another slap in the face. I wasn’t asking to walk through hazardous debris; I asked for a brief video so I could see what condition my things were in. Their excuse was that the construction team “didn’t have time.” That’s not safety. That’s apathy. Worst of all, during retrieval they forced me to sign a form stating that all my belongings were included, while simultaneously refusing to let me open or inspect the boxes because it was a “safety issue.” When I hesitated, they threatened to take the box away entirely. It was coercive, dehumanizing, and a perfect example of how this entire process was handled. The Cooper’s owners keep replying to these reviews with the same polished, copy-and-paste lines about compassion, care, and support. Don’t be fooled. Those replies are PR, not reality. The truth is that residents were abandoned, silenced, gaslit, and treated as liabilities instead of human beings who lost their homes. Their public responses pretend they personally contacted residents, offered support, and addressed concerns with care. That is absolutely not what happened. What happened was abandonment. Management disappeared when we needed clarity and guidance the most. Their lawyer prioritized protecting a $40 million asset over the rights and dignity of the residents who lost everything. And their so-called “help” amounted to empty platitudes while we scrambled to find housing, replace essentials, and cope with the trauma of losing our homes, without seeing a cent from them. I would never recommend living at ANY apartment associated with either Cushman & Wakefield or RPM.