Young post-doc family relocating to Pittsburgh (Wilkinsburg, Swissvale: real estate, to rent, crime)

[jay5835]

Originally Posted by aughraseye

Not to get sidetracked, but I'd love to hear your recommendations for decent restaurants. *Please* tell me there's better Thai food than the Silk Elephant!!

I am neither arbiter nor aficionado when it comes to Thai food, but I like both the Bangkok Balcony and Sun Penang (more Malaysian than Thai, but some Thai) better than Silk Elephant. The one time I ate at Silk Elephant -- at least four years ago -- the dining room smelled so strongly of air freshener, or perhaps some patron's extraordinary amount of perfume, it was hard to tell if the food was any good. My dining partner said he hated the food, though.

[smallfox]

I would NOT recommend Sun Penang for Thai. I ordered green curry there and whatever it was that finally emerged from the kitchen had been dyed green with green food coloring.

[steindle]

There are like a million better Thai restaurants. Off the top of my head, Thai Cuisine and Thai Gourmet (both in Bloomfield), Thai Me Up (South Side) and Nicky's Thai Kitchen (Northside and Downtown).

Also, if you like Vietnamese at all, be sure to try Tram's and Pho Minh on Penn Ave -- both are great, though the spring rolls at Tram's remain one of my absolute favorite foods of all time. There are also at least two, and possibly up to four, Vietnamese restaurants in the Strip District. I've heard good things about each of them.

[jay5835]

Originally Posted by smallfox

I would NOT recommend Sun Penang for Thai. I ordered green curry there and whatever it was that finally emerged from the kitchen had been dyed green with green food coloring.

Originally Posted by steindle

There are like a million better Thai restaurants. Off the top of my head, Thai Cuisine and Thai Gourmet (both in Bloomfield), Thai Me Up (South Side) and Nicky's Thai Kitchen (Northside and Downtown).

Also, if you like Vietnamese at all, be sure to try Tram's and Pho Minh on Penn Ave -- both are great, though the spring rolls at Tram's remain one of my absolute favorite foods of all time. There are also at least two, and possibly up to four, Vietnamese restaurants in the Strip District. I've heard good things about each of them.

Oh, I thought she was asking about Thai restaurants in Squirrel Hill.

[gg]

Originally Posted by aughraseye

I know, for example, that Fox Chapel and Mount Lebanon have fantastic schools, but I'm concerned that the students will be from non-diverse, older, more privileged families (which is great, just not really our scene).

I can only speak for Fox Chapel. It is far from a non diverse, but if you define being diverse having people from the ghetto in the district then I guess you would be correct. To me diverse means people from different backgrounds and different parts of the world. The common goal in the district is to have a good education. It isn't all super rich. O'Hara, Blawnox and Sharpsburg are in the district, which are cheeper than the Borough. In Fox Chapel you are going to have kids from all over the world, which is certainly better than a bunch of gang members running around. That is my idea of diversity anyway, not just Americans. I would suggest focusing on the Fox Chapel district if you want a really easy commute in a really good school. Aspinwall is a pretty cool old town with all kinds of people living there. Never understood why people feel the ghetto folks make a school diverse. To me, it just brings a school down, but to each their own. I am happy to show some stats to back up my thoughts if you like, but is it really needed? Lots of people are very pro-city here. No way would I deal with city schools when you have a district like FC so close.

[aughraseye]

Thanks, everyone, for your food suggestions!

h_curtis, thanks for weighing in. Greatschools.org has Fairview Elementary at 90% White, 6% Asian, 1% Black, OHara at 85% White, 11% Asian, 1% Black, and Hartwood at 81% White, 13% Asian, and 2% Black.

The school my kids currently attend is 53% White, 23% Asian, 19% Black, and 4% Hispanic (and no gang members!). I'm hoping to find something similar in Pittsburgh. Still,the schools in the Fox Chapel area are undeniably high-quality. I will definitely check the neighborhood out.

BTW, the current plan is to rent until we find a house. Hopefully that will work out with the lease and everything.

[I_Like_Spam]

Originally Posted by aughraseye

The school my kids currently attend is 53% White, 23% Asian, 19% Black, and 4% Hispanic (and no gang members!). I'm hoping to find something similar in Pittsburgh. Still,the schools in the Fox Chapel area are undeniably high-quality. I will definitely check the neighborhood out.

BTW, the current plan is to rent until we find a house. Hopefully that will work out with the lease and everything.

Hispanic and Asian are very small minorities in this area, I doubt if you'll find any schools anywhere in the area with those percentages or anything close.

[tabinekotaro]

Originally Posted by aughraseye

Not to get sidetracked, but I'd love to hear your recommendations for decent restaurants. *Please* tell me there's better Thai food than the Silk Elephant!!

Welcome, from another Pittsburgh newcomer and fellow Yalie (MMus, class of '00)! I haven't made a study of Thai restaurants yet, but Pusadee's Garden in Lawrenceville is another good one.

[Tirade]

Originally Posted by steindle

Also, if you like Vietnamese at all, be sure to try Tram's and Pho Minh on Penn Ave -- both are great, though the spring rolls at Tram's remain one of my absolute favorite foods of all time. There are also at least two, and possibly up to four, Vietnamese restaurants in the Strip District. I've heard good things about each of them.

Tram's was temporarily shut down by the health department a few years ago for not properly refrigerating their seafood. The county decided to take action after multiple cases of food poisoning were reported to them.

[Joe Magarac]

Smiling Banana Leaf in Highland Park is either the best Thai restaurant in Pittsburgh or is tied for that honor. It's great.

So is Colfax. It's probably the only public elementary school in the city to which lawyers, doctors, and Indian chiefs will gladly and without (much) reservation send their kids. We know some parents (in all three categories) who send their kids there, and they are content.

The neighboring PPS grade schools (Minadeo and Greenfield) are good, although not as great as Colfax. A lot of parents in your demographic will also try Dillworth (a magnet grade school) and Frick Environmental Charter School. The test scores at those schools don't suggest that they offer any significant advantages over Minadeo and Greenfield, but people love them anyway - Dillworth for the stability (low faculty and staff turnover, active parents' group) and FECS for the SWPL factor (they send the kids outside more than most schools and feed them some organic food, which for some people makes it seem almost like a Waldorf school, only without the gnomes and the ban on black crayons).

It is worth noting that very few parts of Pittsburgh have a "rainbow coalition" of ethnic groups, all of whom get their kids to bed on time and push them to do well in school, as the Yale part of New Haven apparently has. The city schools really only keep track of blacks and whites, and there's a reason for that - there are not enough Asians or Hispanics to matter in most city schools. So as noted earlier, you're unlikely to find the same sort of ethnic mix here as your kids have now.

In most city schools, Colfax included, the black kids who are there, are there by default, and they suffer from a number of social pathologies that plague what h_curtis would call "people from the ghetto." Because Dillworth and FECS require parental effort for the kids to be admitted, the black kids there tend to do better, although there is still a significant test score gap.