I am an odd sight in the dark of early mornings &mdash; bundled in mismatched hooded sweats, orange knit cap, blue scarf and socks for gloves. Before 6 a.m., I am one of few runners out in the Northeast area neighborhood I moved to last month.</p><p>My workouts are neither a fashion statement nor fashionable. They are simply what I have done each weekday morning since 1972.</p><p>Running by the many people, homes and businesses is a way to better get to know this excitingly diverse, family centered community. It&rsquo;s far different from the nearly 2&frac12; years I spent as a downtown apartment dweller.</p><p>What I&rsquo;ve missed are the teens and children with accompanying moms and dads waiting in the darkness for school buses. When I jog past them I now appreciate the street-lighted beauty of this slice of urban Americana. This community is centered in the blocks near Northeast High School, sandwiched between Independence and St. John avenues. It is hillier than downtown but a walk-able, run-able community in the true sense of the words.</p><p>It&rsquo;s fascinating to reconnect with a real Kansas City neighborhood again. Downtown, with the Kansas City Power & Light District and Sprint Center, has morphed from a quiet, long-neglected area into an entertainment hot spot.</p><p>Young people love it, but I now realize that I prefer living with traditional homeowners. That didn&rsquo;t come as too much of a surprise.</p><p>I have lived in apartments for only four of my 54 years. The first two of those four were after I&rsquo;d moved to Kansas City to start work as a reporter-photographer for The Kansas City Times. I stayed in an apartment in the Northland and then another in midtown.</p><p>The last two years have been in a loft apartment downtown, two blocks from The Star, so I walked to work. Owning homes has been my joy, although none of those major purchases &mdash; like this last one &mdash; was well-timed.</p><p>The economy was tanking in 1979 when I bought the first house. Mortgage rates were astronomical at about 10 percent.</p><p>Yet being a homeowner at age 23 seemed like the right thing. My folks had always owned their homes. They infected me with the itch and the wherewithal to do nearly all needed improvements.</p><p>A South Hyde Park home took about a year to rehab, converting three apartments into a single-family dwelling. By 1980 it was included in the Hyde Park Neighborhood Tour. Both of my daughters were born there.</p><p>By 1989, also in the middle of an economic storm with mortgage rates again approaching 10 percent, a bigger home followed, giving the girls more room to explore and grow.</p><p>Life changes and an empty nest parked me downtown. But it felt incongruous to call an apartment &ldquo;home.&rdquo; My dad, a 92-year-old devout Southerner and property owner, kept after me to become a homeowner again.</p><p>Increasing downtown rents, crowds and constant street noise prompted me to begin a housing search in March. But it&rsquo;s not the buyer&rsquo;s market I expected. Many homes are physically distressed, and prices have not been adequately adjusted to reflect today&rsquo;s decreasing values.</p><p>The Northeast area worked for me. Like Brookside, it is a &ldquo;new urban&rdquo; community that never went out of style, giving people places to shop, dine and be entertained.</p><p>Unlike downtown, the community is quiet, without light pollution and noise of planned and impromptu parties. No one is yelling or cursing below my windows.</p><p>My 83-year-old house requires lawn mowing, hedge trimming and other maintenance. But I&rsquo;ve loved reacquiring my old tools, stored with family members and friends, and putting them to use again.</p><p>In my bungalow, no one complains to the management any more that I am playing the morning news too loudly.</p><p>In my home, I can keep up to date, exercise, enjoy the diversity of the community and have a good time doing it.