Maple Shade Apartments

The Maple Shade complex was funded and as far as anyone knows is still owned by an Indian developer who made a number of investments up and down the American West Coast. It was only finished in 1974, just long enough for it to fill up with residents while retaining a sense of newness to it.

The neighborhood the Maple Shade was constructed in is a relatively poverty-stricken area of the SE Portland Brooklyn neighborhood. It isn't far from Winterhaven Elementary, an area that is steadily improving (unlike some of the more destitute portions of Brooklyn).

Staff

Myrtle Connor Manager • Apt A10 Myrtle is a divorcee and a bank manager who took the side gig of managing the apartment complex for the break in rent on her two-bedroom apartment on the third floor (Apt A10). She is rarely in the office; if she's not at work, she's at various singles mixers or attending church (she is a life-long Presbyterian). The easiest way to communicate her is through notes left for her, something facilitated by the corkboard she's hanged on her front door, which has a handful of folded notes pinned to it at any given time.

Roger Milowski Security • Apt A01 Despite the complex's set up, Roger is the only security man on-site. (As such, the front gate is usually unoccupied, with its bar raised.) Roger has worked security most of his life, and even served as a police officer during the late 60s and early 70s, when the Portland PD was desperate for bodies in the absence of so many young men in Vietnam. He has since retired and lives in an apartment on-site (Apt A01) with his wife Emma, widely regarded as the best cake-maker in the complex.

Ground Floor

• Management Office: A sizeable office set aside for the use of the complex's manager, this office goes largely unoccupied.
• Security Office: A much smaller security office is usually manned most days during normal work hours.
• Play Area & Courtyard: A small pleasant green space where the few kids in the complex frequently play, or other residents may take in the infrequent sunshine during brighter parts of the year.
• Sanderberg Tailory (Tailor): Mr. Noah Sanderberg (Apt A07) works in this shop with his wife Esmie, who is also a seamstress of some experience. Between the two of them, they maintain a robust service.
• King's Salon (Beauty Salon): A small beauty salon run by Lori King and her sisters.
• Fast-Shop (Corner Grocery): A small corner grocery with a variety of shelved and cold goods, and a small selection of fresh foods, the Fast-Shop is owned by the Scott sisters (Apt B09).
• Vacant Shopfront: A glasswares boutique shop for about six months, the specialty shop closed down suddenly in very early 1976. Since then, it has been vacant. It has been set up to shop to prospective tenants, but no one has leased the space yet.
• Apollo's Athenaeum (Bookstore): An esoteric book shop, of the sort made popular in the "Age of Aquarius." It has a loyal following of hippies and former hippies, as well as a somewhat more academic group called the Daughters of Portlandia.
• Excelsior! Comics (Comics Shop): A small specialty comic shop, something almost unheard of. Still, it has managed to attract enough business to do well for itself.

Excelsior! Comics
	Conrad Doom Owner The owner of Excelsior! hardly has time for comics or the shop anymore. He's given his apartment over to Lucas Beloi, as well as management responsibility for the shop while he lives a party lifestyle with his new, rich girlfriend.
	Toby Heyndricks Assistant Manager The ultimate authority in most things comics-related, Toby is easily distracted in his work and very prone to arguments about the minutia of fictional worlds. Still, he generally has no place better than the shop to be, so can always be depended to cover for Lucas.
	Dave Jones Part Time Clerk A high school student, Dave is the perpetually bored geek with the "social skills of a dead possum" (to quote Lucas). That said, he's very dependable and gets his work done, making him a very valuable asset.

First Floor

• Apartment A01: The Milowski Family: Roger (security for complex), Emma
• Apartment A02: (unoccupied)
• Apartment A03: The Thomleys
• Apartment A04: The Forrester Family: Craig, Cassidy, Emily
• Apartment B01: Rex Bagby
• Apartment B02: Vivian Blackstone
• Apartment B03: Martha Schneider
• Apartment B04: (unoccupied)

	Emma Milowski Housewife • Apt A01 For all that she's never had any kids of her own, Emma is everybody's mom. Happy to help her neighbors out by babysitting, Emma seems most pleased when her house has a few little ones in it, and they tend to agree, given Emma's love of feeding them cake. When dealing with other adults, Emma tends to be a little on the sweetly awkward side; she doesn't have any close friends, but has plenty of neighbors with whom she's on good terms.
	Craig Forrester & his daughters Cassidy and Emily Construction Worker widower & daughters • Apt A04 Craig is a construction worker whose wife and brother died in a car accident a few years ago. Craig spends a lot of his time working, so his social life is fairly anemic. His daughters Cassidy and Emily love dogs, and are polite, delightful young girls who spend lots of time with babysitters (mostly Emma Milowski, who adores them).
	Rex Bagby Biker Record Seller • Apt B01 Widely regarded as possibly the most handsome man in the complex and without a doubt the coolest, Rex rides a motorcycle and works in a record shop downtown. He always has the best new music, and is usually out at the discos most evenings. He's fairly quiet spoken, though, without any of the bravado or obnoxious "party animal" ways that lots of people might expect from him, and has been known to swoop in like a guardian angel with feathered hair to help his neighbors.
	Martha Schneider The Cat Lady • Apt B03 Syrupy sweet in personality, Martha knows everything about everyone. Despite the fact that nearly everyone knows she is an inveterate gossip, it's hard not to find oneself in conversation with her. She has a handful of cats that live with her in her apartment.

Second Floor

• Apartment A05: The Windalls: George, Shirley (Slaughter)
• Apartment A06: Russel Diggs
• Apartment A07: The Sandberg Family: Noah, Esmie, and son Eli.
• Apartment A08: Ralph Carson
• Apartment B05: The Yales
• Apartment B06: The Denly Family: Tom, Minnie
• Apartment B07: Estelle & Bea Kinderly (sisters)
• Apartment B08: Lance

	Shirley Slaughter Punk Chick • Apt A05 Brash and aggressive, Shirley takes no shit from anyone. She is very enthusiastic about the burgeoning punk scene coming out of New York and the U.K., and wishes fervently for a punk scene to take hold in Portland. She is good friends with Rose King. She lives with her dad, George, who is a trucker; her estranged mother lives in Malibu with her two younger siblings.
	Russell Diggs The Recluse • Apt A06 A larger man with a somewhat unsettling way, Russell keeps to himself for the most part. He has a habit of watching people in a very direct manner, particularly women. He doesn't ever say anything, even in response.
	Noah Sandberg Tailor • Apt A07 Trained by his father in a craft that is largely falling victim to high-volume clothing retail in the modern day, Noah stubbornly refuses to abandon his vocation. In the past, a man of his skill might have been immensely successful; these days, he barely scrapes by. He's a sullen man who works incredibly long hours.
	Esmie Sandberg Seamstress • Apt A07 Noah's wife and business partner, Esmie is easily as skilled as her husband. Esmie worries about her husband's health and her son's distance, but other than continuing to keep everything afloat, there doesn't seem to be anything she can do about it. She is a gregarious woman who gets to know her neighbors; it's an open secret that she would love to host dinners, but she is an awful cook.
	Eli Sandberg High Schooler • Apt A07 A quiet young man, Eli is largely self-sufficient, with his parents working long hours. His grades are high and he never causes trouble, but his mother worries about him: he tends to restrict himself to his room when his parents are home, and can go entire days without actually speaking to his parents.
	Tom & Minnie Denly Janitor, Waitress • Apt B06 Tom and Minnie are a young married couple. He works as a janitor at Winterhaven Elementary, while Minnie is a waitress at an Italian restaurant a couple of blocks away. They are relatively quiet and unassuming, polite without maintaining active friendships with most of their neighbors, although they do seem to welcome Emma Milowski when she pays them a visit.
	Lance The Biker • Apt B08 No one really knows much about Lance, and that's clearly the way he prefers it. Rough around the edges, but good at keeping to himself, most of the residents assume he has been part of a biker gang - or might still be in one!

Third Floor

• Apartment A09: Scott Powers
• Apartment A10: Myrtle Connor: Manager.
• Apartment A11: Vincent Carlson
• Apartment A12: Benjamin Pardo
• Apartment B09: The Scott Sisters: Reneesha, Imani
• Apartment B10: (unoccupied)
• Apartment B11: The Shelton Family: Perry, Vanessa, Winnifred "Winnie" Suttle (mother-in-law)
• Apartment B12: The Wilsons

	Vincent Carlson Technical Engineer • Apt A11 An employee out in the Silicon Forest for Electro Scientific Industries, Vincent considers himself a forward thinking man of science. He will happily go on and on about the kinds of wondrous advances the inevitable shrinking of computers will do for society.
	Reneesha & Imani Scott Grocers • Apt B09 Sisters Reneesha and Imani run the corner grocery in the row of shops on the ground floor of the Maple Shade complex. Reneesha is very social and frequently gone, while Imani tends to be more of a homebody, although she is being courted by a handsome man who frequently visits.
	Scott Powers Veteran • Apt A09 A divorcee who returned from Vietnam with lung damage necessitating his occasional use of oxygen, Scott's life is fairly simple: drinking down at the pub, visits to the VA, long hours alone spent reading military fiction.
	Winnifred "Winnie" Suttle The Gardener • Apt B11 Most of the neighbors know Winnie: she can often be found in the courtyard on nice days, enjoying a book or watching people. She maintains a couple of large pots of flowers down in the courtyard, and is happy to chat with anyone interested in a conversation. Her daughter Vanessa and Vanessa's husband Perry are in their 30s; Perry works as a tax consultant, and Vanessa works part-time at Montgomery Wards.
	Benjamin Pardo Salesman • Apt A12 A local salesman for some industrial parts company, Benjamin is a single, handsome man regarded as very polite and chivalrous by everyone who knows him. He is always happy to give a hand with small maintenance issues, particularly for the older ladies of the building.

Fourth Floor

• Apartment A13: Jason Rubelau
• Apartment A14: The Rutherfords: Evelyn (mother), Isaiah (son)
• Apartment A15: Mariah Jones & Leslie Fisher
• Apartment A16: The Garzas
• Apartment B13: (unoccupied)
• Apartment B14: The King Family: x
• Apartment B15: Jamie Sinclair
• Apartment B16: Carol Weaver

	Jamie Sinclair Slumming Rich Girl • Apt B15 Having grown up in the "good" parts of town, Jamie moved to the Brooklyn neighborhood to get away from her parents, ostensibly moving out to attend college (aiming for a Home Economics degree). Though her parents continue to cut her checks, she has since dropped out, falling in with multiple bad elements, and a tendency to using speed. She is also notoriously racist.
	Evelyn Rutherford Single Mother • Apt A14 A single mother, Evelyn has raised her son Isaiah for many years. She works odd jobs here and there, picking up a shift at the grocery on the street level sometimes, other times doing mending or house cleaning to make ends meet. She is cheery and good at ignoring the ugliness life has to offer; she'll happily tell anyone who'll listen that she used to do a little singing and dancing when she was younger, and would like to maybe get back into it at some point.
	Isaiah Rutherford Student • Apt A14 A quiet young man, Isaiah graduated high school last year and has already enrolled himself in university, shooting for a journalism degree. He works in a school work-study program to help make ends meet at home, and is very protective of his mother.
	Lori King Veteran's Wife and Beauty Shop Owner Lori married Captain Walter King when he was stationed in Vietnam. Everyone knows that the Kings - Lori, daughter Rose, and a whole pile of Lori's female relatives, have come over to the U.S. following the disappearance of Captain King. Lori is very contentious of her dignity, and insists that her daughter is too much of an American sometimes. She owns the beauty salon on the
	Mary Pham Grandmother "Grandma King" (as the neighbors often call her) largely runs the household, staying at home to see to meals and many household chores, which she frequently recruits her grand-daughter into helping with. She is an old fashioned Vietnamese matriarch, and a devout Buddhist.
	Holly Pham Auntie and Nail Specialist Lori's sister Holly has a talent for good and fast work on manicures and pedicures. She is also an excellent cook, and quite devout, frequently going with her mother Mary to the Nam Quang Temple.
	Tammy Pham Auntie and Hair Specialist Always on the cutting edge of hair fashion, Tammy manages most of the hair-dos and styling at the salon, although she frequently recruits her sisters' help. She is stylish and trendy, often going out on dates. She considers her mother and older sister Holly to be hopelessly provincial. She is quite the dancer.
	Lisa Pham Auntie and Cosmetics Specialist An amazing painter, Lisa tends to the occasional cosmetics make-overs or preparation for weddings or proms. By and large, though, she simply assists her sisters quietly. Though much of her style is traditional Vietnamese, she has recently become fascinated with some of the art she's discovered in the museum.

Fifth Floor

• Apartment A17: (unoccupied)
• Apartment A18: Merideth Prichett
• Apartment A19: The Nurses: Heidi Milligan, Vickie Higgins
• Apartment B17: The Olson Family: Harry and Nancy.
• Apartment B18: Lucas Beloi
• Apartment B19: Matthew Wright

	Merideth Prichett Busybody • Apt A18 An older Christian spinster who makes it her business to know everything she can about everyone. She usually formulates Very Disapproving Opinions in short order, and doesn't hesitate to let people know about them. She's not a gossip - she is simply making sure everyone around her is as well-informed as she is.
	Vickie Higgins Nurse • Apt A19 A hard-working young nurse, Vickie wants nothing more than to get out of her apartment. Though rooming with Heidi seemed ideal at first, her roommate as turned out to be a bona fide modern party girl, and Vickie has quickly grown to despise her (as anyone who has heard their loud arguments can attest). She has also had yelling fits with other tenants, particularly Lucas in B18, whom she claims "stole" the apartment she was supposed to get. She also dislikes dogs, considering them unsanitary, although management ignores her insistence that they should be banned from the building.
	Nancy Olson Waitress • Apt A17 Harry's wife, Nancy works occasionally at a local diner part time. She has some kind of ties to important or rich people, but married Harry as an act of rebellion.