Pros and Cons of Hi-Rise Living

We've been Hi-Rise residents for 3 weeks now and have definitely formed some opionions about the pros and cons. There are a lot of positives. #1 is the view - it is amazing. This picture was just before sunrise the other morning. It's fun looking down on the world and watch people's comings and goings or emergency vehicles zipping past with red lights and sirens going. A few nights ago there was a false alarm at the museum across the street and 8 fire turcks plus ambulances and police cars responded. It was about 9 p.m. and that was good entertainment for awhile since there was no damage. It's really neat to be able to walk to the River Market area with the shops and restaurants or to walk a block to the neighborhood pub. There is a concierge on duty 18 hours/day in our building down in the lobby. David, the day person, knows everything about everyone and where to go for what. We like dropping the dry cleaning off with him on Tuesday and picking it up from him on Friday after the dry cleaner have brought it back. The parking garage is secured with a gate and there is assigned parking. The lobby is also secured.

And now for the negatives........It's 4 miles, one way, to the nearest grocery store which isn't far but I was spoiled with being around the corner from Albertsons. Plus here, you have to wait for the elevator, walk to the car in the garage and then do down a level, wait for the gate to roll up before you even get on the street. A new thing we noticed this morning, when we went outside our apt door was the strong smell of bacon that someone had cooked for breakfast. It was throughout the halls and elevator area. However, the single biggest negative is that we don't have any place to sit outside or get fresh air into the apt. We could go up to the outside deck area on the 18th floor but that's not like opening the door and going out on the patio. There is a door in our glass wall with a French balcony which is just a waist high heavy screen thing over the bottom half of the door so you don't fall out. However, we can't open the door because you know who would immediately jump up on it and keep going over the side while practicing his flying skills so we keep it closed.

All in all, it fun for 2 months but we can't imagine being here in the Hi-Rise permanently.