choosing a suburb... (Pittsburgh, Fox Chapel, Highland Park: chapel, house, neighborhood)

[pubgrrrl]

My partner and I will be relocating to Pittsburgh in the next few months and are having a hard time deciding on the perfect place (preferably suburb) to live. I know there are several similar posts on this forum, so I apologize if this seems like a duplicate post, but I can’t find another with our exact search criteria. Here is what we want:
1. Within a half hour commute from UPitt.
2. A liberal/young enough community that no one will really care that lesbians are moving in.
3. The ability to buy a house with a substantial yard (I know this is a bit arbitrary, we just want more than the small lots that are typical to the city) for under 300K.
4. Some sort of down town area with restaurants and shops. Nothing extensive, but enough that we wouldn’t have to travel far to go out for dinner or out for a drink.

I love the look and feel of Squirrel Hill, we just want more a bit more space and less people/cars/noise.

[Hopes]

Anything suburban that's close enough won't have a 'downtown area.' The best you can do is chose a suburb that has shopping nearby---most do though. Your price range is definitely doable in almost any suburb. I recommend sticking to the northern suburbs for a convenient commute into Oakland.

As for who would no care about Lesbians moving in, I'm sure you can find prejudice anywhere. But overall, Pittsburghers do not care much about what other people do. We're not the bible belt. There's no one township that is more conservative than the next. Bible thumping Christians---or even devote Catholics---are not the norm here. They are sprinkled throughout every neighborhood though. I've noticed that very few of my son's friends even go to church.

I recommend Fox Chapel or Hampton. The commute is just across the Highland Park bridge. You'll get into Oakland in under 30 minutes and in some areas under 20 minutes. Shaler is just as close but it's not as upscale so you might run into more of a blue collar mentality towards your lifestyle than you would in Fox Chapel or Hampton.