The View

The thing that drew me in the most about our apartment was the 180 degree view from the living/dining room. We're on the sixth floor, and ours is the tallest building in the hood. So we can see it all. If you want to look up and focus on the sky, you can enjoy beautiful sunsets from the living room or the deck.

Or, if you prefer something grittier, you can look down through the dining room window and drink in the Baranof.

We are directly next to the Baranof, so we can see the sign in front, but more importantly, we can see the smoking section in the back. This is the view from the living room if you look straight down.

The area in the back is where all the action happens. When we first moved in, we were greeted by an old, fat, white man who was sitting in one of the chairs behind the Baranof and enjoying a cigarette. When he decided to needed to vacate the area in his car, he realized he was blocked by our moving truck. Incensed to the point where I thought he might have a stroke, he screamed at our movers (three very friendly, but large and fit African American men) that they needed to get the f- out of his way. To put a finer point on it, he revved the engine of his Monte Carlo until our movers relocated the truck out of the alleyway. Minutes later, after a half block drive to Walgreen's, he returned with a prescription and commenced smoking behind the Baranof after taking his pills. We named him Monte Carlo. I thought he died because we didn't see him for a few months, but it turns out he sold the Monte Carlo and got an old Ford Bronco. He's still fat and sassy, though.

If you look straight out the living room window you can see Bartell's, as well as some of the other shops on 85th.

There is a mentally ill homeless woman who likes to hang out in the doorway of a vacant storefront across from Bartell's. I think she might be schizophrenic and possibly also have Tourette's, because she screams to imaginary people and uses a lot of colorful language.

Across from the Baranof is the Crosswalk. It's a hard drinking bar, too. I've never been inside, but it looks like the kind of place where the music would stop if a non-regular walked inside. A couple doors down from the Crosswalk is Gainsbourg. I love Gainsbourg. It's a diamond in the rough of Greenwood. 

In the building next to the Baranof is an artist's collective called Greenwood Collective. It is the one that juts up and is made of brick. You can see this view from our living room, dining room and the master bedroom. The Greenwood Collective has space you can rent out for events and I think they have studio space for artists because I have seen hipsters on the roof above the space and also jockeying for smoking space behind the Baranof.

Greenwood is what you'd call "up-and-coming", but I like it. It's got some cool places to hang out, but I can still go to the Safeway across the street and not worry if I'm wearing my ratty pink hoodie, track pants from the Goodwill and no make-up.

And if I get bored, I can always spy on the Baranof-ers. The other day I overheard a guy say, "Yeah, I slipped and fell on the steps and hit the ground so hard my false teeth flew out!" And that kind of unexpected entertainment is priceless.