Thoughts on the next Pittsburgh neighborhood to gentrify? (Manor, Oakland: hardwood floors, house)

[wave1]

Call it what you want, but Shadyside did go through a period of slight degradation of a significant portion of the physical condition & asthetics of it's housing stock for a period from the late 50's early 60's until the late 70's or later mostly in north and east Shadyside.. This may have been entirely due to the increase in student housing versus owner occupied housing after WWII (growth of off campus housing for PITT and CMU students and grad students etc.) and less to do with the actual socio-economic position of it's residents. The students and hippies/bohemians/artists replacing relatively well-off long time residents created this.

The neighborhood has always been wealthy and upper middle class regardless.

In the 80's and since the neighborhood quickly changed course mostly due to the trend in restoring and renovating urban housing which really started early in Shadyside. Young professionals replacing hippies who themselves replaced long term homeowners is a trend that occurred in many currently gentrified areas like the West Village in Manhattan, Haight Ashbury in SF and West Hollywood etc. etc.

So in a sense East, Central and North Shadyside became gentrified depending on your own definition of the word. Unlike Sq. Hill which seems to have not changed a whole lot (relatively) over the past half century and has always been primarily an upper middle class stable owner occupied neighborhood (though there are many slight changes they are subtle, the general character has remained the same).

[mountainlove]

Don't know about being the next place to gentrify as however people define it....but it is a good time for those of us living in Millvale. Last week, the second microbrewery in the last 2 years moved in and is renovating one of the vacant commercial buildings (the old Moletz Electric warehouse) in our downtown area, and just on Friday the Wentz Hotel on Evergreen was sold to a guy who is going to develop it. This past year we have planted over 400 trees around town, have doubled the size and membership of the community gardens, a beautiful artistic metal gate from Red Star Ironworks is about to be installed along Grant Avenue, the first public library is set to open this summer, and the community programs continue to grow each year. We are a town on the move.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by mountainlove

Don't know about being the next place to gentrify as however people define it....but it is a good time for those of us living in Millvale. Last week, the second microbrewery in the last 2 years moved in and is renovating one of the vacant commercial buildings (the old Moletz Electric warehouse) in our downtown area, and just on Friday the Wentz Hotel on Evergreen was sold to a guy who is going to develop it. This past year we have planted over 400 trees around town, have doubled the size and membership of the community gardens, a beautiful artistic metal gate from Red Star Ironworks is about to be installed along Grant Avenue, the first public library is set to open this summer, and the community programs continue to grow each year. We are a town on the move.

Ugh! I really want to get over my "...but it's not IN the city" stigma about Millvale because otherwise I'd really love to buy my first home there! I'd feel like a poseur saying I was a "Pittsburgher" if I lived in Millvale in the same fashion that many parts of my oft-maligned NoVA were filled with poseurs saying they were "from DC". I regularly drive to Millvale to run on the river trail and always enjoy visiting the town. Millvale is closer to Downtown Pittsburgh than many ritzy parts of the East End. I would just feel guilty moving across the city line and cheating the city out of my tax revenue in the process.

Can Pittsburgh just annex Millvale? Please? Pretty please?!

[jay5835]

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

Ugh! I really want to get over my "...but it's not IN the city" stigma about Millvale because otherwise I'd really love to buy my first home there! I'd feel like a poseur saying I was a "Pittsburgher" if I lived in Millvale in the same fashion that many parts of my oft-maligned NoVA were filled with poseurs saying they were "from DC". I regularly drive to Millvale to run on the river trail and always enjoy visiting the town. Millvale is closer to Downtown Pittsburgh than many ritzy parts of the East End. I would just feel guilty moving across the city line and cheating the city out of my tax revenue in the process.

Can Pittsburgh just annex Millvale? Please? Pretty please?!

Nobody's going to think less of you if you move to Millvale. It's obviously closer to Pgh than Reston is to DC.

But don't you dare move into the flood area. Don't you dare. Don't do it. Don't.

[I_Like_Spam]

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

I regularly drive to Millvale to run on the river trail and always enjoy visiting the town. Millvale is closer to Downtown Pittsburgh than many ritzy parts of the East End. I would just feel guilty moving across the city line and cheating the city out of my tax revenue in the process.

Can Pittsburgh just annex Millvale? Please? Pretty please?!

You wouldn't be "cheating" anyone if you moved to Millvale, Shaler Area taxes are higher than Pittsburgh's.


Pennsylvania law requires the majority of both municipalities' voters, Millvale and Pittsburgh, to approve a merger. The folks in these small boroughs like the idea of controlling their own police and public works instead of having to call downtown Pittsburgh and trying to get someone out there. I don't think its likely to occur anytime soon.

[selltheburgh]

Originally Posted by I_Like_Spam

You wouldn't be "cheating" anyone if you moved to Millvale, Shaler Area taxes are higher than Pittsburgh's.

Property taxes might be higher rates than the city, but wage taxes are lower.

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by jay5835

But don't you dare move into the flood area. Don't you dare. Don't do it. Don't.

Totally agree. If you find a house in Millvale, check with us here. The slightest elevation makes all the difference.

[Goodjules]

Um, Tristreet and I recently bought homes in Crafton. Look out property values, gentrification is underway...duh!

[Clint.]

Originally Posted by juliegt

Um, Tristreet and I recently bought homes in Crafton. Look out property values, gentrification is underway...duh!

I don't know much about Crafton, and sthe sarcastic face you posted is duly noted (),but it looks like 3.5% of families and 6.9% of the population live below the poverty line. These Pittsburgh neighborhoods have from 30% to upward of 50% of all residents living below the poverty line; it's a lot easier for developers and gentrifier types to squeeze out people who are that poor and living in housing that is correspondingly neglected compared to the average Crafton residence that is probably already in pretty good condition.

My guess is that new development and renovations we see in these traditionally poorer neighborhoods is a consequence of changes in some attitudes toward urban living combined with opportunism (low crime, low property values, proximity to lucrative jobs, etc.). For there to be widespread appreciation or 'gentrification' in more than a handful of smallish areas in the region we'd need to see the creation of tens of thousands of new high paying jobs to give people a reason to move here or the means to make substantial property investments.

[I_Like_Spam]

Originally Posted by Clint.

For there to be widespread appreciation or 'gentrification' in more than a handful of smallish areas in the region we'd need to see the creation of tens of thousands of new high paying jobs to give people a reason to move here or the means to make substantial property investments.

That might be not too far down the pike.

Yesterday, Rob Pratte was talking with Rep. Murphy on KDKA and they were really excited about the development of the region's gasfields, and investments like the cracker plant and Chevron's new office park in Moon.

The speculation of those guys was that more jobs would be created from gas than were lost when the steel industry declined 30 years ago.