Hows the Island Heights area of Mckees Rocks/Stowe? (Pittsburgh: condo, low crime) - Pennsylvania (PA) - City-Data Forum

Redjack · 01-30-2011, 08:04 AM

Looking at some property in this area, but i don't really know much about it. Whats the area like ? low crime? walking friendly?

butch81385 · 01-31-2011, 02:09 PM

I grew up a couple of streets away from Island Heights and used to walk to friends that lived there and still occasionally run through there if I run from my parents' house. It's a relatively quiet suburban neighborhood with 50 year old houses (1960s suburban planning). As far as walking, you can walk around the neighborhood and walk to the local (small) park, but don't expect to walk to any type of store or other amenity. Definitely need a car or a very very high reliance on bus there.

Also, as for as investing in property, it falls within the Sto-Rox School District, which is definitely not known for being the best (also known locally as Slow-Rox, but that's from their one time heated rivals Montour).

From Wikipedia: "In 2010, Sto-Rox School District ranked 484th out of 498 Pennsylvania school districts for student academic achievement. The ranking was based on four years of student academic performance on the PSSAs for: math, reading, writing and 2 years of science.[2]"

Keep that in mind if you plan to raise kids, or just for resale value in general. There are Private schools nearby (St. Malachy in Kennedy, etc). But they don't always come cheap...

Redjack · 02-01-2011, 02:21 AM

Thanks for the insight, i'd heard Sto-Rox was a bad school district, but damn didn't realize they were that bad! It could be argued though that they are excelling in overall crappiness i suppose. Kids aren't really on the horizon for us and we're hoping to be in a stable neighborhood for a long while.

Sounds like a nice neighborhood, we've driven through a number of times but its hard to get a feel for the place with all the snow hampering foot traffic. We really like the mix of architectural styles, looks like it was a bring your own builder neighborhood. My wife and I both grew up in the same cookie cutter Ryan Home (just flip the floorplan west to east) so having something a little bit more personalized is something we're looking forward to.

Rob320 · 08-08-2011, 07:46 AM

Did you decide to purchase property in the area? I see your post is from February, just wondered what you decided to do.

We bought our very first home (a 100-year old Old-Style house on Woodward) and moved here from Michigan last July. So far it's pretty much what we expected, but things are turning around here - albeit slowly. As for the schools, my partner and I don't have kids either, but all I can say about that is....if everyone has the same "you're horrible" attitude, then nothing's ever going to change. Personally, I'm trying to find different ways to be involved & hopefully motivate these kids to do better. We started with the Neighborhood Block Watch Association. Anyway....schools can change. And often do with the right leadership and influence.

I hope you were able to find a great home!

RedjackRyan · 04-14-2012, 07:08 AM

Hey Rob,

Sorry for the lateness of the reply, forgot my original login details and finally got round to creating another account.

We did buy into the area, been here a year now and love the neighborhood. The neighbors are friendly and it is a quiet little tucked away bit of paradise. The house we bought wasn't without a few warts, but the potential was too big to ignore. Its nice having a yard again as well, having moved from a condo its a big change having all the space inside and out.

The thing that ended up attracting us to the neighborhood was the stability, seemed to be a lot of long time residents, not a lot of turnover in properties. We really wanted that feeling of community and we got it.

Rob320 · 04-15-2012, 08:46 PM

Hey there! It's great to hear back from you, no matter how long it's been. Wow, so you did move to the area. Good to know you're at least happy with your home and the area. I guess I'm not familiar with where exactly Island Heights is. Are you actually in Kennedy Twp? We're in McKees Rocks, on Woodward, up on a hill that overlooks a lot of the area. That in itself is nice, however we're not thrilled with how busy our supposedly 15mph residential street is. We have other issues as well, but, for the sake of not raining on your parade (lol) we'll keep it limited to that for now. I can't honestly say I would ever call it "Paradise" in any form of the word....but it's not horrendous - not yet anyway.

It would be interesting (and nice) to know some other people in the area. We have only met a few of our rather interesting neighbors so far. And yes, I'm being polite. Most of them are nice enough, but certainly not the type of people we'd readily interact with other than to say hello and speak to in the street. I guess we're just from a different upbringing as far as values and respect goes. I don't know. I'm trying not to judge! This July will be 2 years we've lived in this house, and aside from the very few people we've befriended at our jobs, we still don't know a lot of people here. For the most part we keep to ourselves, working on the house, the yard, etc. - but we do miss having a few close friends that we are able to hang out with, laugh, BBQ, go do things with, etc. I miss camping with friends, biking, going to games, that kind of stuff. We love exploring Pittsburgh, the museums, different neighborhoods, etc. It's such a great old city!

RedjackRyan · 04-17-2012, 06:49 AM

I'm not surprised you don't know exactly where Island Heights is, it really is tucked away kind of by itself. Its somewhat off Mccoy road heading down towards 51 and the lower rocks.

We'll have to compare problems and warts sometime, always a bit of fun with older homes! LOL all i can say is I shouldn't have a plumber on my speed dial. But it is all good at the end of the day.

Maybe we can get together at some point, we do like to entertain rather frequently and i'm always ready for any excuse to barbecue! Not sure it will be soon though, we've just started a yard project and its going to take a few months at the least. after that, game on! Sorry to hear you have 'interesting' neighbors, we just left a few behind at our old place so i understand! Not bad people, just .. interesting! lol

Rob320 · 05-01-2012, 04:23 PM

Hey Ryan!

Sounds like a plan. BTW, I love yard projects - so if you want insight or help let me know - I'd be happy to. It's an excuse to have a beer and get to know people. Our yard was a HOT MESS when we bought this house. Of course, after 30+ years of neglect it was no surprise. We unearthed so many things it's just insane....tires, garden figures/statues, over 500 bricks, pipes, planters....you name it, we found it. WTF? I guess before regular garbage pick-up services were established people must have just buried things they didn't want. I was hoping for a box of cash...but so far no luck on that one. We saved what we could re-purpose, though. I now have a concrete donkey in my flower garden, whom I've affectionately named Fernando.

I think I know where you're talking about. We looked at a house on McKinney Street...is that up in your area? Some other streets are Frazier, Harlem, Edison, Parkway, Shaw & Highland. Is that the area? If so, we've been through there MANY times walking. We're on Woodward near Friendship.

In case you're on Facebook (it's the best way for us to keep in touch with our families in Michigan and Ohio), my FB page is www.facebook.com/robpgh412 (http://www.facebook.com/robpgh412 - broken link). Hit me up with a friend request and we can get to know each other that way as well. I'm on there more than here.

Hope to hear from you guys soon!

RedjackRyan · 05-19-2012, 04:11 AM

Just hit you up on Facebook.

We're down by the Wren, Ewing, and such area. across from the first alliance church as you head down Mccoy towards the bottoms. I know where woodward and friendship are, not that far away really.

Haven't excavated any treasures of years gone by yet, hopefully won't but have had some plumbing issues related to old trees that were on the property. damn tree roots.. Those are now gone, and we'll plant some smaller more well behaved trees away from the sewer lines at some point.

Concrete Donkey eh? lol that makes a statement. If we ever get down to it, we're going to do what i call pirate chic a mix of styles really, blending asian and pacific influences into the yard. Even found some palms that will do fairly well in our climate, haven't decided on those as a definite yet,but they are cool.

Heike34 · 09-14-2012, 08:33 AM

hey guys! my husband and i live on william circle...actually the first house on the left coming into the neighborhood....with all the kid stuff in the yard!!! we moved in here a few years ago...love the neighborhood..hate that it's sto rox. But apparantly that will be changing soon. Well school districts atleast.