For the past eight years, the Mercury has been located in a neighborhood that's not really a neighborhood. It's not really Northeast, since it's just south of I-84, it's not technically Southeast, since it's north of Burnside. It's technically called Kerns, but it feels more like a no-man's-land split from the rest of the city by Sandy on one side and the freeway on the other. By my count, there are more surface parking lots than restaurants. Scrappers called it "the city's armpit."

Certainly, it's a hard place to love. But since we're moving to fancy digs downtown (in the building constructed over the site of Captain Ankeny's historic home!), I asked the staff what they'd miss from the neighborhood. New neighborhood slogan: "Kerns! Don't write it off completely!"

1. Club 21's Steaks for Your Enjoyment sign, made all the better by the fact that they don't sell steak.

IMG_1260.JPG

2. All of the giant foods on top of buildings! Goodbye Sunshine Dairy, Franz Bread, and that 7-Up bottle that became a yerba mate bottle.

3. This neighbor who filled his window with a Timbers log slice.

4. Those people who dress up as the Statue of Liberty and stand on Sandy to drum up business for Liberty Tax Service. They always made us grateful for our jobs.

5. The idyllic bright Granada Court orange apartment complex on NE Oregon and the awesome art deco apartment buildings with their names emblazoned in neon (Castle Rose!)

6. The Pepsi hangar.

IMG_1248.JPG

7. The daily potential of making an appointment with neighborhood psychic criminologist Rose Ivory De Vine.

IMG_1258.JPG

8. The Oregonian credit union ATM on NE 20th which, for some reason, speaks your choices aloud in the voice of a British woman.

9. Jen and Joel at Black Sheep Bakery and the Pinhole Cafe. Their barista banter is the best. We'll miss you guys! I just took two shots of tequila at my desk in your honor. See you downtown.