Valley Manor

Dorothea

I toured Valley Manor. I love the location. It's downtown, but it's close to an arts district, and it's nice for neighborhood walking. They were a little short of staff the day I visited. Now, whether that's a chronic condition or whether it just happened to be that day, I don't know, but the staff was very pleasant. I noticed that they greeted their residents by name, which is kind of unusual, but it seemed to be a very people-oriented place. The meal I had was very good and there was a nice selection on the menu. It's an apartment building with a nice garden and patio area, and beautifully landscaped. The apartments vary a lot. They allow the residents to decorate, and if they want to install things, even like a bar or an art gallery or something in their own apartments, they can do that. It's obviously at their own expense, but I was very impressed with the individuality that is permitted in each apartment.

Miriam

Valley Manor is excellent. Our friends live there, and they're very happy, and that's why we looked there. It has different sizes of apartments that one can go into and that was a good thing for us because we'd like something a little larger when we're ready. We particularly liked the three-bedroom ones, and we liked that it's still within the community we have lived in for 40 years. We like that it's accessible to lots of cultural things and it's very walkable. It's an older facility, and yet they've done a nice job of keeping things in good repair and doing upgrades on balconies and such things. I liked that it has balconies that you can open up to the outside. You can be outside without leaving your private space. The staff was incredible. They were so good at remembering names and at highlighting the residents' accomplishments. One of the people I know from my church lives there. He just turned 90 and they did a big acknowledgment of him at the Eastman Theater and lots of the residents came to acknowledge him as well. I'm sure there were a lot of people who work there that were there, but one of them who was involved in admissions recognized me, knew my name, and I didn't even remember her name. I remembered her, but not her name. They are extremely good at meeting the needs of the residents and seeing the residents as complete people, including their past and their past accomplishments in their life, which I think is valuable when one is older and maybe not as capable. We have eaten there a couple of times and it's just fine. It's not outstanding, but it's been the pandemic, so it's been very hard to hire people. It has very thick concrete walls, so it's very quiet and it's easy to regulate the temperature in one's apartment. All the rooms have floor-to-ceiling windows or sliding doors out to balconies, so they're light and airy and pleasant to be in the apartments. The general area is very nice, too. The people there seemed very happy.