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Location: Plum Borough, east suburb of Pittsburgh, PA
144 posts, read 224,527 times
Reputation: 130
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Originally Posted by pghguy13
... trouble followed their kids up from Wilkinsburg. Such a shame.
Seems like people were trying to stay out of trouble, and turn a new leaf over, but their past haunted them? I read this book called Code of the Street by Elijah Anderson, and he recalls two people who tried to turn their lives around, one of whom previously served a lot of time.
As for people supposedly escaping Wilkinsburg and other troubled places into Penn Hills, I hypothesize the area, especially the high school, has had its reputation damaged so much, that even the troublemakers don't even want anything to do with it anymore, and would rather leave! After all, people were only illegally going to the high school when it had a good reputation - my cousin tells me that football attracted a lot of people to the high school.
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Go further east toward Plum and that's what we called the "Nice" part of Penn Hills...
From what I observed, living near the Penn Hills border in Plum Borough until January, I agree with you. The area doesn't have a new-car shine to it, and Community Market has a slight grit to it, but this section of Penn Hills is safe enough from what I can tell. A lot of former Penn Hills and Oakmont residents live in my old plan, and I've never heard them mention being intimidated by Penn Hills being next door. Of course, if they were, they'd move deeper into Plum!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chihlidog
Former Penn Hills resident here chiming in.
It's absolutely going to decline further. There are many reasons for this, but my family still owns property there and I personally see the values declining, the maintenance of the property declining and the neighborhood culture declining. I have a very good friend whose son attends Penn Hills High School and the thug culture there is only worsening. It's terribly unfortunate, but these are pretty much indisputable for anyone who knows the borough like I do and sees it today.
I absolutely loath watching property values decline - essentially it is trapping a lot of people in Penn Hills who would rather not be there for one reason or another. They might want to move somewhere else, but they can't afford to move if they have to sell at a huge loss. Which is why I want to see the municipality fight back with brass knuckles...
Part of the reason it's worsening is that some people, for a variety of reasons, are moving out. People are also passing away. There aren't enough people moving into Penn Hills to replace the tax base, and I don't blame families for passing on Penn Hills, if they plan to use public schools. I think being in the 376 and Allegheny River Boulevard corridors hurts the area's connectivity - everyone wants to be around 279 it seems. From my admittedly limited knowledge, Penn Hills needs to focus on trying to maintain and expand what commercial base it has, as this isn't extremely affected by school quality or lack thereof. Also, Penn Hills should acquire all the property it can, and either knock it down, or rent it to non-trashy tenants.
Penn Hills, from what I can tell, is not really suited to absorb any more low-lifes, and I hope that those low-lifes would at least have the sense to relocate to another city neighborhood, because it seems to me (and I could be totally wrong) that Pittsburgh better has the infrastructure to handle them. Besides, Penn Hills apparently isn't what it was in the 1980s or 1990s, so why would even a thug want to be there? It's not like they are upgrading their quality of life by being there.
As others have said, I can't see Penn Hills making a rebound any time soon. I think it's going to get worse before it gets better. It's been going down for decades and I believe still has decades ahead of it before anyone could even consider saying it's posed to rebound. Sadly, my mother, who's in her 60's and was raised in neighboring Turtle Creek, tells me what an affluent area it once was. She also remembers when Braddock was a bustling shopping mecca..wish I could've seen it in better days.
This topic really makes me wonder if anyone could say that ANY area in the East Hills (Allegheny co.) could be considered "up and coming" or even rebounding? Unfortunately, all I see is decline for the eastern suburbs. As someone who's hoping to buy a home soon, I'm just becoming more and more disappointed by the lack of safe and AFFORDABLE options all around the metro Pittsburgh area.
Location: Plum Borough, east suburb of Pittsburgh, PA
144 posts, read 224,527 times
Reputation: 130
Quote:
Originally Posted by Imagen
As others have said, I can't see Penn Hills making a rebound any time soon. I think it's going to get worse before it gets better.
Penn Hills was probably hugely imbalanced towards residential which may have been a big cause for it getting into the mess it is in. In my opinion, it needs to shift more commercial to stop the bleed out and turn around. That said, how much worse are you talking? I don't think it needs to hit Braddock lows - 90% population loss, which would put Penn Hills below 7,000 residents and effectively make it a rural area, or Homewood lows - I don't think the area is attracting too many people, good or bad, anymore.
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It's been going down for decades and I believe still has decades ahead of it before anyone could even consider saying it's posed to rebound. Sadly, my mother, who's in her 60's and was raised in neighboring Turtle Creek, tells me what an affluent area it once was. She also remembers when Braddock was a bustling shopping mecca..wish I could've seen it in better days.
Me too. Most of my experience was with the northeastern section of Penn Hills. 185 Jade Drive is where some of my family lived, and I'm still nostalgic about it. How long are you talking before it hits rock bottom? 2030, 2050? As I said before, 376 sucks, so something might need that to happen before the middle section of Penn Hills goes on many people's short lists. However, the troubled section of southwest Penn Hills, near Larimer, Lincoln, and Homewood, is a different story. The best way to access that is actually Allegheny River Boulevard / Washington Boulevard by way of Exit 6 on Route 28. Larimer and Lincoln could get hot in the next coming years, riding on East Liberty's hot streak. That success could in turn spread to southwest Penn Hills, sort of how Lawrenceville is helping Polish Hill get more popular as a "bedroom community."
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This topic really makes me wonder if anyone could say that ANY area in the East Hills (Allegheny co.) could be considered "up and coming" or even rebounding? Unfortunately, all I see is decline for the eastern suburbs. As someone who's hoping to buy a home soon, I'm just becoming more and more disappointed by the lack of safe and AFFORDABLE options all around the metro Pittsburgh area.
My friend and I discussed this, and he considers the East suburbs the most depressed in the region. You have to differentiate depressed and dangerous though. You won't get car jacked in the worst parts of Penn Hills, much less better areas, such as Monroeville and Plum. You're right that the East suburbs probably won't be hitting "up and coming" status within the next five years. Mine and my friends hypothesis is that 376 is a turn-off to a lot of people, particularly those who regularly commute into the city. If that road gets upgraded and/or the T gets extended far east, then the East Hills prospects will be improved.
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This topic really makes me wonder if anyone could say that ANY area in the East Hills (Allegheny co.) could be considered "up and coming" or even rebounding? Unfortunately, all I see is decline for the eastern suburbs. As someone who's hoping to buy a home soon, I'm just becoming more and more disappointed by the lack of safe and AFFORDABLE options all around the metro Pittsburgh area.
Despite the recent Edgewood Town Center shooting, there has been a real feeling that Swissvale hit bottom/was on the way back. Edgewood has obviously changed a lot since the Woodland Hills merger, but found new life with the SWPL demographic. One could say the same thing about Wilkinsburg's section of Regent Square.
Despite the recent Edgewood Town Center shooting, there has been a real feeling that Swissvale hit bottom/was on the way back. Edgewood has obviously changed a lot since the Woodland Hills merger, but found new life with the SWPL demographic. One could say the same thing about Wilkinsburg's section of Regent Square.
I don't know if 376 will ever improve. Its main problem is the horribly substandard interchanges around the Squirrel Hill Tunnel. Plus the terrain that 376 East snakes through does not help. Traffic will probably continue to get worse as more people (especially those who work in Pittsburgh) move to the western Westmoreland County suburbs and still drive 376. People flock to the areas around 279 because of an easier commute, HOV, no tunnel, etc. Though 279 does see rush hour backups, it doesn't seem like they are worse than 376 (East and West). Of course, as more and more people move to the 279 corridor and commute to Pittsburgh, the volume will increase and more congestion will happen.
IMO, the only way to "improve" 376 is to extend the East Busway to Monroeville and run good service on it. Even if something like that were to happen, there is still that negative perception around places like Braddock and Penn Hills that would have to improve before people would move back there.
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