I live in a tiny, cramped 2nd floor apartment on Rice street above some offices. I have all my 9 windows on one side and guess what, it’s the West side! So in the summer it’s scorching and in the winter it’s scorching. I almost never have to turn the radiators on in the winter during the day, at least not if it’s sunny. If it’s cloudy, then maybe. Once the sun goes down, between October and March, it’s #*$)(@# frreeeezing in here. Thank God I have a decent digital a/c for summer. Else I’d go berzerk.
My neighborhood is scary. The SuperAmerica has been closed since December. Everyone I’ve talked to (business owners and residents) all say it is because of too much theft. When it was open, they had permanent red plates screwed to all the gas pumps that it was pre-pay for gas purchase. The store had 2 cm-thick, clear plexiglass guard all around the counter between you and the cashier. You had to talk through a little hole in the clear window, and hold up your bread or whatever you were buying to the glass so they could scan it. There was a cop in the store after 6 at night. When there wasn’t one (which was often), the plexi-guard would go down around the counter.
I once got my purse and notebook ripped off of me while walking down the street just after it got dark out, last October.
The building I live in is for sh**.
Until the owners of the building put a lock on the outside door leading to the lobby where the mailboxes and door buzzers were, there was constantly graffiti and trash (we’re not talking the occasional paper or candy wrapper here–try chicken bones, marijuana refuse, someone chucking their half empty can of Colt 45 on the floor) all over the common areas, and someone or something was always peeing in a corner of the elevator.
People would walk in off the street, and buzz all the apartments, feigning the ‘I left my keys upstairs’ excuse. When, for the most part, they turned out to be just coming upstairs to bother tenants and/or just get in from the cold so they could smoke weed or have sex in the laundry room and basically trash the building.
Some of the people in the building are loud and obnoxious. One of my neighbors used to have loud parties at all hours, even during the week, and she was 19 and had 40 and 50 year old men hanging around. It had to be drugs or booze. 50 and 19 year olds dont have that much in common! She had a 3 year old kid out of wedlock, the product of her being raped by a man who was then her mother’s boyfriend. In the summer she would hang out her window and yell at strange men outside to come see her. She finally got evicted but there are still some characters in the building.
Once there was no washers or dryers working for 2 weeks because some dolt decided to try to crowbar-open the money receptacles of the machines to get the quarters out, thus making the machines inoperable.
I don’t know if the neighborhood is getting better, but I will move soon in any case. I just hate moving. I don’t drive and that keeps me from being as flexible as I would like. I’m considering moving back to South St. Paul because it was quiet and about $100 cheaper rent. I have terrible credit after spending years trying to get my business off the ground, so my options are limited.
This is no home. I wouldn’t put my worst enemy up in this joint. But it’s where I hang my hat for now. Until things get better for me.
Same day, different year..
Other posts on this day:
- A day without a bunch of Mexicans – 2006
I went up to the coat check lady who was the nearest “official”-looking person nearest me, and asked her about how to get my special free drink because it is my birthday. I think I even asked her the question exactly that way (keep in mind my friends already tossed a few shots down my throat).