Young post-doc family relocating to Pittsburgh (Fox Chapel, Jacksonville: renting, buy, school districts)

[eschaton]

Here's a quick map of the areas I was talking about before. Highlighted in blue are the areas I think you'd want to consider living. I didn't include, but also in the good feeder, the following.

1. All of Oakland southeast of Forbes goes to Greenfield K-8. That said, the region is largely overrun with undergrads (with all it entails) except for the far south of it, where there are more families, but they're almost all low income.

2. Hazelwood all has a good feeder for high school, with the northern half of it going to Minadeo. The southern half goes to Mifflin, along with Hays, New Homestead, and Lincoln Place across the river. The area is a mixed-race semi-ghetto, and in pretty bad shape physically. I did include a few streets on the slope which are technically in Hazelwood as the city defines it, but for all intents in Greenfield. They go to Minadeo, but are otherwise identical to Greenfield proper.

3. Chunks of Homewood, and weird enclaves of Lincoln-Lemingon-Belmar and East Hills, go to both Colfax and Minadeo. These are some of the worst ghettos in the eastern part of the city (if not the entire city), and should be avoided. Thankfully, you'll never have a reason to go there anyway.

[gg]

Originally Posted by HeavenWood

Ladies and gentlemen, h_curtis!

Keep in mind, I am a numbers guy. All you need to do is look up statistics to educate yourself a bit. Also, I really get tired of people using the term "diverse" and that meaning a mix of color. Take a trip to Europe amongst all those so-called white people and then you will lean what diverse really means. The different cultures are pretty amazing and really great. Nice to hear several languages spoken and people from different parts of the WORLD. I think that is more diverse than the different classes of people in the US. People for the most part in the US want the same crap they see on TV, to waste about as much as they can and be excessive to show off. Driving huge SUV's living in debt and so-on. Where is the diversity in that? Visit FC school and learn a more worldly diversity, not just some have and have not crap.

[Moby Hick]

Originally Posted by h_curtis

Also, I really get tired of people using the term "diverse" and that meaning a mix of color.

People say they are looking for diversity, but they don't really mean a mix of color. They mean that they want to avoid white people who are fixated on race to the extent that organize their life around avoiding black people and their socio-political views on how to rationalize said avoidance.

[Lobick]

Originally Posted by Moby Hick

People say they are looking for diversity, but they don't really mean a mix of color. They mean that they want to avoid white people who are fixated on race to the extent that organize their life around avoiding black people and their socio-political views on how to rationalize said avoidance.

That is awesome.

Coupled with the fact that Curtis is now somehow a "numbers guy" despite spewing aneqdote after aneqdote as evidence on here for years. The best part is, I'm sure he believe that he really is a numbers guy.

[gg]

Originally Posted by Moby Hick

People say they are looking for diversity, but they don't really mean a mix of color. They mean that they want to avoid white people who are fixated on race to the extent that organize their life around avoiding black people and their socio-political views on how to rationalize said avoidance.

That doesn't define Pittsburgh. Where I live, color isn't really important. It is more about education and a common goal to better oneself. I don't see that feel in Homewood and Larimer however, but there are not doubt a few people trying to get out. Good luck in city schools. We are an international family and wouldn't be able to suffer through that mess. Some day it may be okay, but that is when they bring back neighborhood districts. For example, Shadyside would be a district and Squirrel Hill. That would mean like minds would rule districts instead of bs.

[Joe Magarac]

Originally Posted by eschaton

Here's a quick map of the areas I was talking about before. Highlighted in blue are the areas I think you'd want to consider living.

Note to the OP: this map is accurate as of today. The feeder patterns were different a few years ago (there was an outcry a year or so ago when they moved the Minadeo/Greenfield border by a few blocks) and might be different next year or the year after. The Pittsburgh Public Schools are facing a severe budget crisis as well as an enrollment crisis, and these crises are forcing the PPS to close schools, reconsider whether to continue all or some of the existing magnet programs, etc. These changes will almost certainly affect feeder patterns, so my advice would be to live as close as possible to a particular school if you have your heart set on that particular school as "your" school for the next few years. Colfax, Minadeo, and Greenfield will likely all stay open, but their feeder patterns may change.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by Lobick

I don't think you're harming your kids by living in the suburbs but, as a child of the suburbs myself, I'm hard pressed to identify the positives. Might you identify a few?

Co-signed. I grew up in a cul-de-sac-laden sprawling mess outside of Scranton and still can't see what sorts of "benefits" that provided to me growing up as opposed to living in a diverse walkable urban area.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by Joe Magarac

Note to the OP: this map is accurate as of today. The feeder patterns were different a few years ago (there was an outcry a year or so ago when they moved the Minadeo/Greenfield border by a few blocks) and might be different next year or the year after. The Pittsburgh Public Schools are facing a severe budget crisis as well as an enrollment crisis, and these crises are forcing the PPS to close schools, reconsider whether to continue all or some of the existing magnet programs, etc. These changes will almost certainly affect feeder patterns, so my advice would be to live as close as possible to a particular school if you have your heart set on that particular school as "your" school for the next few years. Colfax, Minadeo, and Greenfield will likely all stay open, but their feeder patterns may change.

We've been through this before. As you note, it's very unlikely any of these schools will close, because they are well regarded. Given the student population continues to fall, the "feeder zone" for all of them will likely increase in size in general.

The worst-case scenario would be if some bad schools closed and they sent all the students to Lower East End schools. For example, deciding to reroute all of Homewood into the Allderdice feeder zone. Note that this would not make the schools themselves crappy, but would make them majority black, result in test scores dropping, and the perception the "schools are failing" - leading to the vicious cycle of white parents pulling out their kids, which in turn makes test scores worse, and so on.

However, the only real direction this would be come an issue is if there was expansion into Homewood or Larimer. The rest of the possible expansion areas - more of Oakland, Bloomfield, Friendship, or even East Liberty - would probably help those neighborhoods gentrify further.

[gg]

Originally Posted by Lobick

That is awesome.

Coupled with the fact that Curtis is now somehow a "numbers guy" despite spewing aneqdote after aneqdote as evidence on here for years. The best part is, I'm sure he believe that he really is a numbers guy.

Keep trying to promote your neighborhood there Lobick. Good luck to you.

SchoolDigger Ranks Pittsburgh Perry High School 621st of 676 Pennsylvania public high schools. (See school ranking list.)

[SteelCityRising]

I'm glad Lobick is promoting his neighborhood, and I hope his neighborhood continues to improve while proving naysayers (such as yourself) wrong. Polish Hill didn't become "trendy" until I started blowing smoke up its derriere a few years ago all over the Internet. Perhaps it was just a coincidence, but never underestimate the power of this forum's reach and how many people "lurk" here while not posting. This is why I also advocate for Hip Priest and ferrarisnowday to continue promoting Brighton Heights and for juliegt and trlstreet to likewise publicize Crafton more online. All four of them have things they don't like about their respective neighborhoods (i.e lack of various businesses), but opening those issues up for dialogue is the best way to start working towards their resolution.