Going out

Last Friday night, Diana's friend Jesus (aka Doug) had us over to his place for dinner. He lives right smack downtown, on Washington near 13th, on a strip which is full of bars, restaurants, shops, offices, and apartments. It's very well (and decoratively) lit, and the shops look like they could be on Serrano. A wonderful urban area, but it lasts just about a block, and then it's big empty streets again. The area between downtown and SLU (an area known as mid-town, which SLU is a part of) is about 3 miles, and it's a stretch of warehouses and industry which makes it seem like a veritable wasteland. On Friday, after the delicious dinner that Jesus prepared for us (including tomatoes stuffed with cheese and coriander, and fish with a wonderful sauce), at around 11:00 p.m., the young folk were fixing to go out, so I took myself off home in the car...with my heart in my throat the whole time, begging for no red lights. Let's hope that St. Louis continues to work towards urban development with mixed spaces, like where Jesus lives in that little block downtown, and like the South Grand area.

Jesus lives in the now very popular "loft" style apartment. Basically, that means an apartment with very few walls, exposed brick, and no false ceiling to cover things like the steel airconditioning vents. His whole front wall is window, so a nice view of that cool downtown busy city block. Don't misunderstand me...I like that loft look (but would probably argue for a wall or two around my bedroom and something to cover the vents...after all, I bet they charge you more not to put those things up in the first place!)

Since everything is so spread out, it does mean driving everywhere. I miss being able to walk more...but here it is just not safe! I do walk up about 4-6 blocks to get the free university shuttle to work. They moved the stop, so now we cross over Highway 44, and in doing so have to cross the exit-entrance ramps on either side of it. Mind you, there are traffic lights for pedestrians to get across the ramps, but there are so few pedestrians that cars are not used to having to stop. It's like in Madrid, when you have the little green man to cross, and the cars have a flashing yellow (meaning that they should stop if there's someone in the crosswalk), and the cars take flashing yellow to mean green. So, one is ever on the alert for all sorts of dangers. According to the newspaper yesterday, St. Louis is still the number 1 city for crime. So we are careful, and so far have felt very safe, except for the driving home at night.