Why does Beaver County suck? (Pittsburgh, Penn Hills: section 8, homes, school district)

[greg42]

New Sewickley taxes are one of the lowest in Beaver County, within a couple mils of lowest. Taxes for Rochester (used as example above) are over 30% higher. Economy is around 30% higher too. Picked the wrong one. So maybe the right thing to have said in my prior post is that the taxes are not higher in Cranberry even given the better services since Iced Coffee thinks Cranberry taxes are 30% higher than New Sewickley as well. But if that theory held, my statement of Cranberry being lower might still technically be correct for Rochester which was thrown out as the example. It's difficult to compare the different counties using different formulas; you really need a sample property from each I guess and its actual tax bills.

If you live in the right place and don't work in Cranberry there's not necessarily any compelling reason to traverse that way. If you live in New Sewickley or Economy, though, you are likely to head that way for shopping because it's closer. Except the old timers, they head the other way more often I think because when they moved here there wasn't that much in Cranberry while there's still Beaver Valley Mall over past Monaca. Except for a few peak times, getting over to Cranberry isn't really that bad. Traffic lights, yes, but not backups of heavy traffic except at a few times. (Sometimes I sail right through many of the lights.) It would be nasty as a work commute at typical work times, though, yes, but clearly many do this which is why it's nasty.

The best part of living over here is not having to go through Cranberry to get to the city.

[heartchya]

I live in Beaver County in Economy. Although literally 2 minutes from my house is Franklin Park which is Allegheny Country. I love it here. It isn't ghetto at all. On weekends when going out with friends I can be downtown in about 25 minutes. I can get to Cranberry in about 10 minutes to do any shopping. There are plenty of nice playgrounds for my 3 year old and family activities. If only it weren't Ambridge School District. I am not concerned with Economy Elementary though so I still have quite a while to figure out to do after that.

[greg42]

There's always the mayor's wacky idea to move Economy into Freedom Area, maybe it'll happen by then. I don't think it has much chance of happening but I suppose you never know. The mayor and council really have no control over it. It'll have to start with petition, so if someone comes around with petitions it might be worth finding out. Of course, somehow I figure we'll be having to take some of this larger tax bill with us even if we leave them behind. Plus, how is Ambridge Area going to pay off the building spree without us? Probably state would meddle and say we can't leave, or push a full merger.

[ditchdigger]

25 years ago, I liked Cranberry. Today, I HATE it. Beaver County is just sucky enough for me, thank you very much.

[miranda_62]

Originally Posted by Love2Golf09

Ok, that's certainly my opinion and is open to debate. But, why do you think so many people left the county in the last decade? Why do you think the unemployment rate and poverty level there is so high? Why do you think the school rankings are low? Of course, I'm comparing Beaver to the other counties in the Pittsburgh area. What do you think is going on there? It certainly isn't as the level of Washington, Butler, or Westmoreland.

Washington isn't so hot. There is growth in some parts of the county- Canonsburg, Peters Township, but the Mid Mon Valley isn't so different from Beaver towns and cities. Same issues of loss of industry, vacant houses, high unemployment. Jeannette and Monessen, and for that matter, Arnold, Lower Burrell and New Ken, all in Westmoreland, are just like the Mon Valley towns. It's just a slow recovery from the days of industry all over southwestern PA- I don't see how Beaver Falls is drastically different from Clairton (Allegheny) or Jeannette, or Donora.

In terms of overall wealth, the poorest counties in the region are Fayette and Greene. Indiana and Somerset are on the bottom of the list as well. Beaver is #24. So I'm not sure why you think the problems are unique to Beaver, or worse there.

List of Pennsylvania counties by per capita income - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[SammyKhalifa]

Originally Posted by miranda_62

List of Pennsylvania counties by per capita income - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Haha, to be fair, most of the people who live in Forest County are hermits.



(j/k, j/k, I actually liked my visit there.)

[conniec4]

ok, really worried after reading some of these threads: we just bought a house in brighton township, beaver county, however we have not closed on it yet; geez, should we get out of the deal? i thought i did my homework, we have two 8 year olds and unless i am mistaken, beaver school district ranked 39 state wide, the others are as follows:

aliquippa=493
ambridge=272
big beaver=336
freedom=122
new brighton=392
western beaver=202

i thought that was a pretty good ranking; but now we also found out the cracker plant is going in....we are not originally from the pitts area, so any comments, helpful ones that is, would be appreciated!!

[ditchdigger]

I wouldn't worry about it. I'm only a few miles further away, and more generally downwind, and I'm not worried about it...

And welcome to Beaver County.

[greg42]

Originally Posted by conniec4

ok, really worried after reading some of these threads: we just bought a house in brighton township, beaver county, however we have not closed on it yet; geez, should we get out of the deal? i thought i did my homework, we have two 8 year olds and unless i am mistaken, beaver school district ranked 39 state wide, the others are as follows:

....

i thought that was a pretty good ranking; but now we also found out the cracker plant is going in....we are not originally from the pitts area, so any comments, helpful ones that is, would be appreciated!!

Beaver Area is a good school district. I wouldn't worry too much about the cracker plant yet, plus a brand new plant will have to meet modern standards right away, unlike old plants. Presumably you don't have a great need to get down to the city (Pittsburgh) most of the time? Because that is a ways from the city. If you're buying in a rural area you may have to consider the possibility of gas wells, but if it's typical suburban housing lots that shouldn't be an issue.

[greg42]

You know, what this thread really is about is that Beaver County unlike the other counties surrounding Allegheny doesn't have that single growth suburb to point to. Westmoreland I guess has Murrysville and vicinity (I haven't been out that way in ages). Washington has Peters. Butler has Cranberry. And Beaver has...no equivalent to those. There are places where new housing is being built and some places where a little bit of new commercial was built, but they aren't together really.