Apartment for rent in St.Louis

I'm looking for a roommate this fall semester for an amazing 2 bedroom apartment in University City, St.Louis. Wood floors, gas appliances, large windows, and our personal washer and dryer in the spacious basement.

Picture windows overlook a tree-canopy shaded residential street in the safe and upscale neighborhood northwest of Washington University of St.Louis. Families live here. Walking distance to the famous Delmar Loop and ten minutes walk to the wonderful Winslow's Home. Easy access to Washington University, five minutes by car or bike, 30 minutes by bus or metrolink.

Rent is $450 a month, plus 1/2 of the utilities. Come live with me for a semester!

St. Louis, day one.

Monday we had a nice Ponca City Interlude for Saori's birthday which started with a tour of the Marland Mansion, coffee at Brace's bookstore, and an afternoon at Sun'n'Fun waterpark. Grandma Case took us out to dinner at an Italian place in the old downtown for dinner and afterwards we had cake, ice cream, and Porter Peaches (from Porter, Oklahoma). I usually don't like peaches, but I liked these.

Tuesday we headed out early and drove all day to get to St.Louis, getting in around 4 pm. The drive was pretty boring- the Ozarks we drove through were kind of pretty but not really the rugged mountainous forests I was expecting. Mom also called to wish me a good trip and I returned it, as she was at the airport, waiting to get on her flight to Buenos Aires.

Once we got to St.Louis, our landlord's father met us at the apartment to let us in- he had been there earlier to turn on the AC for us. Since we are moving in (hopefully) soon, it was natural and fitting that St.Louis would be in the middle of a record-breaking heatwave. Yesterday, we were just drenched in sweat. Saori likes the apartment, which makes me happy. Suki was not so wild about it. She kept returning to her kitty carrier and looking at us like "ok, time to go. Joke's over." We hit up Wal-Mart and picked up a bunch of temporary and permenant items like dishwashing detergent, soap, a small inflatable bed, and a few food items, as well as small trash bins. 

We also picked up some beer for our neighbor downstairs who turned out to be a really nice guy. He invited us in and we sat and drank beer and chatted for a few hours. He's working on his PhD in electrical engineering at Wash U. He seems like he's going to be really easy to get along with.

Our shipment may get in tomorrow, maybe the day after tomorrow. I think we have a plan for squeezing the trailer in place, we just have to get our neighbor's sign off since it would involve blocking the driveway to the garage. We also need to get a truck permit from the city, I think. That's what we're going to do today, while we're at city hall. We apparently have to register as denizens of the city, which involves a $25 fee for what I have no idea.

Hopefully after we get our shipment in, we'll get internet up and going shortly.

We signed the lease and emailed it monday afternoon, sealing the deal, and Saori mailed off our checks (which actually seals the deal). So we're set. At this point I have a new address. And some items to add to my list of things to do, including:

• Set up electrical account
• Set up gas account
• Get internet hooked up
• Register with University City as a resident

I got around to looking at the apartment finding company affiliated with the school, which showed a very large amount of apartments and houses and duplexes for lease. The rents were all over the place, but reassuringly, they seemed to jibe with what I'd found online in other places. Location is almost everything, especially where prices are concerned. Oh what a difference a few blocks makes. 

Speaking of relative distances, St.Louis area is incredibly segregated.

St.Louis County, (metro St.Louis if you will) is 70% white, 24% African-American. The city of St.Louis itself is 47% white, 50% black, and East St.Louis, Illinois, just across the Mississippi, is 97% black. Other depressing demographics- the city of St.Louis has 2.4% Asians, about the same number as 2.6% Hispanic/Latino. It's going to be tough to find good Mexican food. It's also going to be a bit of a change for me, very used to seeing Latinos everywhere, to start seeing black people everywhere. Even downtown Phoenix, which probably has a very high proportion of black people in the valley really doesn't have that many, or rather, downtown tends to be a big ethnic polyglot. 

So tomorrow is my last day of work. I was surprised to hear that they're actually going to have a little going away party downstairs complete with snacks. To be honest, I feel a little awkward about it, apart from my natural social awkwardness, that is. On the one hand, its great that the office is going to miss me, and it's a good opportunity to tell everyone goodbye, and I am kind of touched by the sentimentality. On the other hand, I am the first person to voluntarily leave the company in about two years. For the dozen-odd people who were laid off over the depths of the depression, there was no fond farewell for them. At least it sounds like a pretty small thing- 3pm for snacks, as opposed to a goodbye luncheon.

Live at Tulane, learn at WashU

The landlord of the unit on Tulane is giving us a go! He sent us the lease and we're going to review it. He also mentioned that he's going to send us a "lead disclosure form" which made me slightly concerned until I realized that the main concern will probably be lead in soil and paint, rather than lead in plumbing (although there may very well be lead in the plumbing as solder- we'll see). 

Anyway, I'm happy to have a place lined up, that's one major thing down. So here are some photos I took while I was there looking around.

Apartment updates

We decided to go for the Tulane apartment. Even though it is farther from campus, the location and route to school is a lot safer. Its not as convenient to other things like light rail, stores, or food, but I thought that since (A) we're new to the city (B) St.Louis has more crime than Phoenix and (C) as architecture students we tend to come and go at odd hours, it was better to err on the side of caution at least until we get the feel for the city.

View Larger Map

So, we scanned in our applications, mailed in our application fees, and now we're waiting to hear back from the landlord. The other place we had lined up, on Waterman, we let the realtor know that we were no longer interested. 

It's been really stressful, actually, since I kind of feel like the place to live is kind of a critical path. Saori's working on figuring out the specifics of how to move with a big ABF trailer. My biggest concerns right now are making sure we're reserving it with enough time (we theoertically move in about two weeks), and also the legality and logistics of parking essentially an interstate freight container on our street. And in St.Louis, which had little curbside parking even during the doldrums of summer. So that's stressing me out a little bit. 

Gotta keep moving forward though. Got a few things done on my to do list, but I've added more, so its spilling onto a second page. As I keep telling myself, everything will work itself out, and I act to direct things to work out in my favor.

Ten apartments

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in St.Louis and I ended up seeing ten apartments/houses/condos. These were all over the place, ranging from $950 a month down to the low $500s. Some were less than a mile from campus while others were more than five miles away. 

There was one apartment in a very sketchy neighborhood that had apparently been caught on fire by one of the former tenants, and which was a total disaster inside. This was actually the one that Saori and I had both liked based on what we saw on the internet (obviously the before photos) and the location on the map (without understanding what the neighborhoods were like).

There was a fantastic apartment, not too from campus but unfortunately located in a sketchier neighborhood, that looked essentially unchanged from the 1940s, complete with arts&crafts leaded glass doors in the bedrooms, decorative iron radiators in all the rooms, enameled iron sinks, and even the built in ice box. Not an old refrigerator, an actual piece of integral cabinetry that you would stick a big block of ice in to keep your food cold. Amazing place, cheap, I was almost sold on the charm, but the reality of having no central ac or heating tempered my excitement. If we wanted ac, we would have to put down a deposit for a window unit for each of the rooms.

I learned a lot about apartment hunting. Having never really apartment hunted outside of Phoenix, it was a new challenge. Here are some things I learned about looking for places in St.Louis

• Location, Location, Location. Old realtor's adage holds true. The city of St.Louis is ranked in the top five most dangerous and most segregated cities in the US. Some of the places I looked at were clearly in a bad area, some looked not so bad, but when I looked at crime maps of the area, were actually several times as dangerous as our current neighborhood in central Phoenix. 
• St.Louis is an old city. Most of the apartments I was looking in would count as historic buildings in Phoenix. Some were over a hundred years old. Things to check for: sufficient water pressure, updated piping, updated wiring, double pane windows.
• Parking is an issue. Some places only had street side parking. When school starts, its going to be a hairy mess. We get back home at odd hours in architecture and I don't really want to be hiking a million miles late at night, regardless of where we're living.
• We went in dead set to get a place with a washer and dryer. The reality is that unless you get a townhome with a private washer dryer in the basement, most places don't have them, since the buildings were built before the time of the washer dryer, and there's no utilities running to them.
• Rooms are a lot smaller. My current bedroom size is about 14 by 16 feet. Most places I saw had bedrooms much smaller than that, probably because people lived in smaller rooms back when things were built. There was also a great lack of storage. A few token closets in these places were maybe a foot or two deep, and there were not many of them. Much less storage space than here, unless we get a place with a basement.

Right now we're kind of playing the location game. Proximity to campus vs neighborhood safety. There's one place that we can see the crime stats that look pretty grim. Not bad at all for the city overall, but worse than the crime in our neighborhood, or even really central Phoenix. It's right by the light rail, 1.4 miles to campus, and to get to school, we would bicycle past all the old mansions lined up in front of the huge forest park. It comes with a washer and dryer in unit, wood floors, granite countertops, a nice sun room/bedroom, and an actual parking lot in the back. During the day I visited, I would not peg it as a bad neighborhood. Crime maps of St.Louis aren't reassuring. 

I did a contrasting study, I looked at the police beat where we are currently living in central Phoenix, and looked at all the crimes in January and February. There were 105 crimes, including property crimes. I did a similar study in the neighborhood we were looking to rent, in approximately the same area, and the number of crimes for the same time period was closer to 350. So, you could say that the neighborhood is three times as dangerous. Most of the crime is vehicle related- auto theft or theft from vehicles, although there is the periodic assault, robbery, and burglary. It's questionable. We're currently living in a higher crime area of Phoenix, and we take precautions here, and I think its reasonable that we could stay safe in St.Louis with further precautions, not traveling alone, not bicycling or walking home after certain hours, things like that.

The other place we're looking at the owner originaly rejected Suki, but has since negotiated a $300 pet deposit, and a slightly increased rent. It's really pretty, I really liked it and the neighborhood, the one on Tulane Ave I mentioned in my first blog from St.Louis, but the problem is 2.6 miles from campus, which pretty much means we either have to drive daily to bike since its about a mile from any public transportation. However, this old, private residential neighborhood is very safe, and I'd feel more comfortable walking around at night here.

Its a tough call. I'm leaning more towards the safer property, but I'm checking out one more place thats closer to campus than either one, in a safe neighborhood, but has no washer or dryer. We shall see.

But can't wait too long. I need to reserve the moving van before the end of the week, I'm sweating already since its not done. There's a bajillion things to coordinate, shuffle, plan, toss, and switch before we move, which would theoretically take place in about three weeks. Once I get the housing thing settled, I'll feel like I;ve got a better grasp of the situation. (although we still need to actually apply for the lease, be checked out by the landlords, and get accepted and sign the lease).

Apartment hunting 1

Day 1 of apartment hunting began with me waking up at 8 am. Because its 6 am Phoenix time, this was a slight endeavor. Grabbed a quick breakfast in the lobby. Like some other budget hotels trumpeting a "deluxe hot breakfast" they had a do-it-yourself waffle iron, which was provides a hot crisp waffle. I had a bit of free time before my first scheduled appointment, so first place on the list was:

Hafner Court Apartments
This looked like a good cheap option. Under $530 a month, with an in-unit washer and dryer. The washer and dryer are a plus, but that and the price are the only things going for this apartment. It's pretty cheap, very similar to the gobs of student apartments which surround ASU. Plastic laminate countertops, carpeting and vinyl tile. The place doesn't have central cooling so it relies on wall units which would be new for me. Driving up to it, I passed a big yellow street sign: Caution: Area prone to Flooding. I asked the woman who showed me around about it and she said that a few years back there were some really bad floods that actually flooded a lot of St.Louis, including these apartments. She told me that since then, the state had dredged out the rivers and that they hadn't had any problems since. It's close to the ethnic food strip, which is a positive, but according to one of my friends I met later for lunch, its in a higher crime area.

7360 Tulane Ave. 
This place I was excited to see. A house, a bit more pricey, 2 bed. The neighborhood is really nice, very beautiful with a lot of trees. Not too far from school, but a little far. Cool things- washer and dryer included, an enclosed garage, nice hardwood floors, very spacious. Historic, too. Its actually a duplex, the other guy is a WashU student as well apparently. The only catch is they dont want pets. Nada, at least, that was the impression I got from the agent showing the house. I'm going to call the owner this evening to figure out if there isn't some way to get around it. We're talking about an overweight, declawed, neutered, 11 year old cat who spend most of her time sleeping. Money, as they say, solves a lot of problems.

6270 Cabanne Ave
We had high hopes for this place. The photos make it look great, but it was kind of a dump to be honest. The current residents apparently ripped up the carpeting in the basement, which was "partially finished." Partially finished looks like the workmen just dropped their tools and walked away, leaving a kind of mess. It also smelled kind of funky and smokey. Apparently, one of the renters had lit the the building exterior on fire accidently, melting some of the vinyl siding. The neighborhood looked really bad too, it looked very run down. When I pointed out this property to my friend, he said "try really really hard not to rent there."
The rent is cheap, it comes with a washer and dryer and yes it would be our own place, but my overall impression was no thanks, not so much.

743 Heman Ave
This was the other property shown to me by the same company as the Cabanne ave house. This one was in a better location, closer to the school and very close to Delmar Loop, which is the main drag of University City. This apartment was in much better shape than the house. Not a terrible option, but not really one that gets me excited. Coin-op washer and dryer in the basement, although they do offer hookups in the unit. For the price, I'd much rather be someplace that excites me a little more.

After checking out these apartments, it was about time for me to meet up with a friend for lunch. Richard graduated from ASU's planning program and went straight into the Wash U masters of architecture. He just graduated from there and is still living in St.Louis, so he offered to show me his place and grab a bite to eat.

He lives in an apartment tower in CWE (central west end) although I think of it as the central EAST end since its on the east end of the giant central park. Its a luxury place with a garage with a guard, doormen, upgraded finishes, etc. etc. His one bedroom apartment was bigger than some of the 2 bedroom places I'd seen. It was interesting to see what apartment tower life could be like, but its not quite what I'm looking for. Pricy, and pretty far from campus.

Richard did take me to a great BBQ joint in town called Pappy's Smokehouse, which has apparently won numerous awards and is a considered one of the best BBQ places in StL. Richard warned me about the line, and indeed it did stretch out of the restaurant and around the corner. There's only 1 cashier. Actually it works to regulate the number of customers so that by the time you get to the front, there's a seat available. We spent about half an hour standing in line. By the time I got to the end, I was half expecting to get on a pig-themed ride. I got a pulled rib sandwich which was pretty darn good. Best rib sandwich I've ever had (not that I've had many) but very nice meat. Next time got to try the brisket.

Housing Wants

We’re looking for a place to stay in St. Louis. We don’t care if its an apartment, house, condo, townhome, or duplex, although I’m drawing the line at houses that used to be on wheels. Our ideal place is $800 a month or less, 1-2 bedrooms, washing machine, within 5 miles of campus, and over 700 square feet.

 It looks like the real kicker is going to be the washing machine. Unlike Phoenix, which was mostly built in the last twenty years, it looks like most of the residences in St.Louis were built in St.Louis’ boom years, from around the 1920s-40’s, I’m assuming at a time when people just didn’t have laundry machines. I haven’t had a personal washing machine since living with my parents, over seven years ago, but where architecture graduate school is concerned where we have absolutely no time, having to take laundry out to be washed at the laundromat is going to be a real killer. So we’ll weigh that pretty heavily.

The closest thing we've seen so far is this one. 

A Moving Story

It’s been a busy busy week for me. Wednesday we had a major client meeting, so it made Tuesday into a long day, and a frantic Wednesday morning. After my two supervisors left, it was especially so going as we have really reached a point where we need to know what direction the project is going in. We are still lacking a floorplan from the interior designers, which can make things very difficult when you’re trying to create a 50% design development set of drawings. To kill time after updating everything possible, I ended up creating a 2D ninja for sketchup, and uploaded it to the company server library in case we ever get a project to design a clandestine ninja training facility. Got some cool wallpapers out of it.

Last weekend, I found out that my apartment complex had an opening in a one bedroom apartment opening up for the first of november, so I went ahead and got it, since it was essentially double the size with a dishwasher, for only a hundred dollars more a month. I moved in all this weekend with the help of Saori, mom, and Taylor. It’s just across the complex, so we were able to do the move with just a few cars to ferry loads of stuff in plastic storage bins door to door, and then we all manhandled the bigger items across the complex, the largest being the couch/futon, which took the combined efforts of me, mom, tay, and Saori to manage out the door and up the stairs. It’s still not quite done, as I need to go back and finish clearing out the kitchen and begin cleaning everything. Suki’s hair rolls across the floor in waves.

We went to a friend of Saori’s birthday party a few nights ago and picked up her guitar. Saori had a friend who took a class in guitar making, and their first assignment was to repair a guitar, so they all went out and got cheap guitars, which they broke and then leaned to fix. Makes me wonder how exactly, they broke them. Anyway, the friend ended up giving Saori his repaired guitar, as he had two other guitars in his possession, and was returning to Japan with limited luggage space. So, we got the guitar after it spent many years relaxing in Saori’s friend’s apartment. Neither one of us knows how to play, but Saori has an advantage in knowing how to read music and play a few instruments. We found a few websites detailing how to hold the guitar, and where to hold the strings on the frets to make chords, but we’re not much beyond that at this point.

Alec's New Pad

I'm completely moved into my studio apartment downtown. It's about a ten minute walk to work from here. The car is still doing great. I'm down to a third of a tank, but I've covered about 550 miles so far, averaging about 50 miles to the gallon. Saori and I have been going on night drives around the city, just cruising, listening to music, and exploring. Its nice, and different, having my own car for once.



New Apartment

New Car!

I have a new car!

It's a 2007 Prius, about as green as you can get. Silver with gray interior. Sally picked me up this morning and we went to the credit union for all the paperwork. Then they gave me the key and told me to enjoy. Sally took some photos. All the DMV stuff the credit union took care of, so that was great. My plates will be mailed to me soon, and I've got a temporary plate.

It's incredible. I have my own car. This isn't a bicycle. This isn't mom and dad's old minivan, or as nice as it was, Sally and Jonathan's SUV. I drove it home, took Saori for a quick spin, then drove downtown (on surface streets to break it in, freeways are too fast) where I finished the paperwork on my new studio apartment. Got my keys and the gate clicker. Then I got a call from the glasses place and drove back to Tempe to pick up my new eyeglasses.

Afterwards, I swung back by the apartment and picked up Saori and drove up to Scottsdale for some ice cream. We returned in the afternoon to pick up my roommate Sal and drive him to the airport. He's going to spend the next two weeks in Europe with an old professor of mine, traveling to Amsterdam, Paris, and Barcelona to study architecture, interior design, and urbanism. Lots of luggage space in the Prius and the back seats fold down nicely to get a lot of space.

To start the car is radically different. I have a smart key which means, when I get within a foot of the door, the car unlocks automatically. As long as I have the fob with me, I don't even have to stick it in the dash. I just push the On button, and the car turns on, throw it into reverse, and then back out, aided by the backup camera monitor. It's really cool. When I park, I just push the park button, and then turn off the car by pushing the on button again. There's a button on the handle of the door which locks the car again after I get out.

Turning radius is great, sensitive brakes, and very easy to drive. Not sure how fast it can accelerrate, but I didn't buy it to race. The guide recommends against fast accelerations and stops anyway until I get it broken in.

Welcome to the world, Mr. Perkins!

I've realized the other day that I feel like I'm in a new studio. This one just happens to be getting set up for my next phase of life. I'm working simultaneously on getting a credit card, a car, car insurance, and a new apartment, and playing with projected income and outflows. It's a totally new world for me, as only a person without a shred of credit to his name can attest to. I've gone to several dealerships, come close to signing on a car deal, joined a credit union with $25, and am currently working with their car purchasing agent to get the best deal possible on a car.

I feel a bit like an immigrant: there are new rules, new currencies, lots of beaurocracy and paperwork, and a new language to learn: prepayment penalties, 401k plans, bodily injury liability, FICA, etc etc.

It's a daunting new world, but I'll learn it and it will soon become just the mundane minutia of life. As stressful as buying new cars is now, my first apartment was the same way. Now, I actually enjoy apartment hunting. Finding the best deals, the best floorplans, proximities, etc.
Back to work.

the design of my behavior in human behavior and design

It's been very lonely at the apartment lately. Many of my friends have taken off already or are visiting family. My roommate is always at his girlfriend's apartment, and Saori and her mom are on a trip up to Antelope Canyon and the far north of Arizona. Sal just left this afternoon back to Rio Rico, although he'll be back sunday to finish packing up the apartment. He's going on a summer abroad trip through Europe with professor Bernardi, another Argentine professor at ASU with whom I've had a class before.

Speaking of ASU, I got my final grades back from this semester with some good news and some bad. My other classes went great, but my heart was just not in my human behavior and design class. I was still staggered to recieve a C+ in the class, due to the fact I'd missed more than three classes, which meant I lost a full 10 percentage points overall, a stupid oversight on my part. However, I got A's and A- in all my other classes, including studio, which I was very pleased about.

Last night, Sal and a friend of his took me to Four Peaks to watch the Suns play the Spurs. I've really not been following the western conference at all, but I had an idea that the suns were playing particulary well this year. It was a quarter final game, and very intense, and Four Peaks was absolutely packed to standing room only. It was fun, the bar was very much into the game, and so it was a big disappointment when the Suns lost by two points, something like 76-78.

Hunting and Gathering

Well, I think I've attended the last of the graduation parties.
Yesterday I went to breakfast at Harlow's with Saori and her mom, and then we drove up to the top of south mountain to get a view of the city. In the afternoon, I started working on getting a car. I drove to the Scott Toyota on McDowell to no avail. I spent twenty minutes, inside and out, trying to get someone to talk to me. A dozen employees, some with other potential customers, walked right by me, and though I tried to get their attention, glossed over me. It's embarrassing. Do I have to get on desk, or drive over one of them for a little service? As I recall, Scott Toyota gave Mom and I a really sleazy impression when we went car shopping there a few years back. I seemed to recall them trying to give us a price nearly a third higher than the other Toyota dealers in the valley. Anyway, there are other dealerships, so I'm heading there next.

This morning I went and visited a few apartments downtown. None of them are very nice, but they're decently clean, and very well located. The one I'll probably go with is a studio that runs $470 a month with utilities included. It's about three miles from work, so I'll be able to bike pretty easily. There was a nicer one with lots of greenery closer to work, but all they have are more expensive one bedrooms. I'll look at my planned budget again and see.

I scrounged up my old blog entries I'd published on my old website, and on Xanga while I was still on that, before I switched over to Blogspot.com. I took all the entries I had between September of 2003 and May of 2007, reformatted the text to look the same, and printed it all out and had it wirebound. The resulting book is about an inch thick, with every page filled, double sided. I titled it Four Years at Arizona State University and Abroad. I wanted a hardcopy record from my time at ASU.