relocating to pitts burgh (Pittsburgh, Beaver Falls: work, home, company)

[jinxd_13]

Originally Posted by Stagger Lee

urban sprawl is the way to go! Be one with the masses and sprawl out to the further suburbs. Tear them woods down, and let Allegheny county decline! Drive in traffic, build more roads, and develop some Mcmansions! Don't live somewhere unique, and don't respect the last of the environment we have.

Rock on!!! You let em know how uncool it is to drive thirty miles to work when gas costs a million dollars a gallon. I wish you could make them aware how cool they have it with amazing old houses in charming, tightknit neighborhoods that are more affordable and have WAY more character than the tract homes crunched in all close together out in the middle of nowhere. Sheep, I swear.

[londonbarcelona]

Originally Posted by jinxd_13

Rock on!!! You let em know how uncool it is to drive thirty miles to work when gas costs a million dollars a gallon. I wish you could make them aware how cool they have it with amazing old houses in charming, tightknit neighborhoods that are more affordable and have WAY more character than the tract homes crunched in all close together out in the middle of nowhere. Sheep, I swear.

Oh you guys.............

[jinxd_13]

For real! I think we should reclaim our cities! Demand better schools! I mean, all I hear baout is how taxy (good word) it is to live in Allegheny and even worse in the city with the 3% wage tax. Where does that money go? Shouldn;t the school be the best in the frekin state? I know this si an age old arguement but it is because it is a valid one

[Stagger Lee]

haha, jinxed I was being sarcastic

I am thinking of trying to start up a firm that takes all the old houses in Pittsburgh and revamps them into green houses that are LEED designed, and selling them back on the market. I am thinking they would be less cost then an average urban sprawl cookie cutter Mcmansion, and much more green and environmentally safe. I got a LEED certification, and in 4 years will be a PE. I wonder how hard it would be to find clients for designing and converting these houses for.

[Stagger Lee]

Originally Posted by londonbarcelona

Gee whiz. That's an awfully broad statement. Since Allegheny includes some of the suburbs, you can't mean that even those schools are bad? That would include Upper St. Clair and Mt. Lebanon, and they are very high quality schools. I agree with part of your statement though, as I would be very careful chosing a school within the city limits.

and not only that, it isn't like crime is bad every where in Allegheny county. There is just as much crime in sections of Westmorland like New Ken and Terentum. Hell, I would take most sections in Allegheny over some of those areas. THere are beautiful safe areas in Allegheny. A lot of suburbinites just bash the city area for crime from what they hear from Action 4 news, but never actually live there or know what it is really like.

[jinxd_13]

[quote=Stagger Lee;1635251]haha, jinxed I was being sarcastic

QUOTE]

I know and I was cheering your sarcasm on!!

[gswpa]

There are nice quaint neighborhoods in the "burbs". Look at all the great little towns in the outlying counties. I happen to live in a neighborhood that has 100 year old homes. Most people outside Allegheny county live in nice older homes, not McMansions. And speaking of schools, today the Catholic high school announced that it is leaving Allegheny county and building a new school. I agree with JINXD_13, blame the politicians. For example, look at the parking and drink taxes.

[sbrobbie]

Hi, I just moved from Parker CO, but lived in Littleton CO also.. Butler County is nice, I live in Allegneny CO myself for two months now. We live 20 minutes from Butler, you may not like how far out it is considering where you are moving from. Pittsburgh over all is pretty good, and you may like Moon Township because it has alot around it. (shops, etc) Make sure you understand you pay a tax when you purchase your home, so keep that in mind when you are looking and ask, ask, ask your realtor about how much your taxes are, that can put you out of a home or you ask the seller to pay your closing costs. Your realtor will try to say no, but put it in as part of your bid anyway. I love the older homes within the trees, they are lovely, however if you have kids, you must, must check out the schools, or go private. Swissvale has some good parts as well as Friendship park, etc but you will have your kids in private schools. Wexford, Bradfordwoods is really nice, that is where I moved, and the schools are award winning, it is very private where I live also. Hope that helps and good luck!

[kpoeppel]

Originally Posted by Stagger Lee

urban sprawl is the way to go! Be one with the masses and sprawl out to the further suburbs. Tear them woods down, and let Allegheny county decline! Drive in traffic, build more roads, and develop some Mcmansions! Don't live somewhere unique, and don't respect the last of the environment we have.

So what is the motivation for doing this? Could it be that poeple are fed up with paying high taxes and having little to show for it? People move to the suburbs to escape bad government. Now that there is a push for a city-county merger, people will leave Allegheny County in even larger numbers. A region which believes that all wealth belongs to "the community" will soon lose it's productive people.

Don't worry. There is plenty of undeveloped land in the world.

[Tallysmom]

Originally Posted by kpoeppel

So what is the motivation for doing this? Could it be that poeple are fed up with paying high taxes and having little to show for it? People move to the suburbs to escape bad government. Now that there is a push for a city-county merger, people will leave Allegheny County in even larger numbers. A region which believes that all wealth belongs to "the community" will soon lose it's productive people.

Don't worry. There is plenty of undeveloped land in the world.

Since I started really thinking of where do I want to retire to, how do I want to live and other questions like that, I've been really looking at these questions hard.

And there is great deal of clamoring and chatter about walkable urban areas, and urban infill, and moving back to the cities.

There's nothing wrong with that -- it's an extremely laudable idea... but in my opinion (IN MY OPINION!!!) we're about 100 years out for it to be really practical.

From WWII, and the easily built Levittowns, suburbia called to us. Maybe because so many of us came from the farms and rural areas, having that patch of ground to call our own really meant something to us. I don't know -- I'm not old enough.

But in the 60's, urban flight decimated our cities. So basic services left. Grocery stores, banks, dress shops, shoe stores, dry cleaners... Where I live in Oakland, CA -- these little store fronts are now 99 cent stores, liquor stores, and nondenominational missionary churches trying to save the drunks and druggies. And now -- no one wants to open a bank next to that. So even your urban areas aren't walkable.

I took the walkscore test and I got a 51 -- but if the listings were up to date it would be MUCH higher. A lot of the stuff they talked about -- not open anymore. And frankly, where I live would be considered a war zone to a lot of people out there.

So as it stands we have to clean up our city neighborhoods, and convince smaller groceries, smaller banks to come back and take a chance... and that STILL isn't a guarantee that your neighborhood will become walkable.... because of pricing -- if I can buy an apple at my local greengrocer for 50 cents, and a small steak for 10 dollars and cereal for 4.98... but I can drive to the local grocery store and pay far less AND hit the drug store and pick up a card for Sam at the Hallmark -- oh -- and I need some good shampoo at the hairdressers -- it's worth the gas.

We've grown up this way, and we are still geared towards this kind of shopping experience.

European cities have lived as urban walkable landscapes for CENTURIES.... and if we do manage to go toward this -- it isn't going to happen overnight. And I'd venture there are some American cities that have managed to do it -- New York, for one, and parts of San Francisco and even a couple of parts of Oakland... but not where I live!

But back to the point I was trying to make -- this shouldn't be a fight between the people that want to live in the cities and the people that want to live in suburbia. Where you choose to live is justifiable to you alone -- where ever it is. I, for one, get tired of the city people slamming the suburbia people. I grew up in a rather rural suburbia, and I now live in a somewhat gritty urban area -- complete with nearby drive by shootings, gangbangers, junkies and streetwalkers.

I can't WAIT to get back to surburbia!