Thomas Demoner, a Lorenzo resident, was waiting for one of its private shuttles to arrive at the North Trousdale Entrance. After a few passengers had departed, it became clear that there was no longer room to board. He said the shuttles were always crowded as many were left waiting for the next shuttle to arrive. 

“This was my first time taking the shuttle this semester, and I was actually surprised by how it [comes] less often,” said Demoner, a USC alum, who graduated with a degree in business administration in 2019.

An Aug. 21 email from Lorenzo said the company would effectively reduce shuttle service hours, garnering pushback from some residents that culminated into a petition with 86 signatures, as of publication. Lorenzo has since reversed some of the shuttle service changes. 

Before, the shuttle ran from 7:20 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday through Wednesday, and ended at midnight from Thursday through Saturday. The initial change pushed back the shuttle’s end time to 7 p.m. on weekdays and established a reduced schedule on weekends as well. Lorenzo also reduced shuttle service from every 20 minutes to every 30 minutes, and an hour on the weekends. The company attributed these changes to low ridership during evening hours in its initial email announcing the change. 

Lilit Berikyan, a senior majoring in business administration, organized the petition that demanded Lorenzo reinstate the original shuttle schedule and frequency. The petition cited evening safety risks and overcrowding on the Lorenzo shuttles as reasons for wanting the original shuttle schedule to return.

The petition stated that USC’s free Lyft service was not an “adequate replacement” for the shuttle, and alleged that the service was unreliable and unsafe. Organizers submitted the petition to Lorenzo management on Sept. 2. 

“Unlike the Lorenzo shuttle, these services are not communal, vetted, or directly tied to Lorenzo. We should not be expected to risk our safety in private cars with strangers in place of the shuttle amenity we were promised,” the petition read. 

Lorenzo and GHP Management did not respond to the Daily Trojan’s requests for comment.

On Friday, Lorenzo sent an email to residents with the subject, “We Heard You!,” announcing that the shuttles would return to departing every 20 minutes beginning Monday. However, the email stated that the earlier end times for shuttle service would remain.

In an email to the Daily Trojan, Berikyan wrote that although it is encouraging that Lorenzo has responded to resident feedback, it still does not alleviate safety concerns.

“The reduction of wait times are a step in the right direction, but the core issue remains,” Berikyan wrote. “We’re going to keep pushing until service is extended to 10 p.m.”

Demoner said he noticed a trend of Lorenzo services being rescinded during his time living at the property. He said the theater room, advertised as having “100 stadium seating,” is no longer working.

“[The shuttle schedule changing] reflects a lot of the other changes that I’ve seen at the Lorenzo,” he said. “It feels like they’re cutting down a lot of the amenities. They used to market it as luxury student housing; they still do. But it’s less luxury and less students now.” 

Berikyan said her frustration came from poor timing, as she said Lorenzo management waited until right before the start of the fall semester to announce the change. 

“The shuttle was kind of its main selling point for a lot of students, because it is pretty far from campus, like over half a mile away, and it’s not in a walkable location either,” Berikyan said. “It’s pretty unsafe. We all signed our leases with this expectation of the shuttle, and then, literally, one day before move-in, they sent out an email saying, ‘Oh, the shuttle hours have been changed.’” 

Lorenzo advertises itself as upscale student housing, and was developed by G.H. Palmer Associates in 2014. The company has been the target of an ongoing lawsuit from 2023 alleging that a resident’s belongings, including visa and passport, were thrown out during a routine cleaning. 

A 2019 lawsuit alleged that Geoffrey Palmer, owner of Lorenzo and several other Los Angeles apartments, kept millions of dollars in security deposits by charging tenants for generic repairs after they had vacated their apartments, the Los Angeles Times reported. Palmer agreed to pay $12.5 million to 19,000 of his former tenants to settle the class-action lawsuit in 2022.