If money no object, (Pittsburgh, Wilkinsburg: real estate, 2015, crime)

[szug-bot]

i would live in the Bigelow Heights sub-section of Greenfield. the views are amazing, its very convenient to Oakland and Downtown. you do not have to be entirely car dependent which helps your personal fitness level. it seems like a friendly place, almost suspiciously so!

plus, its proximity to oakland and downtown gives you these options for travel to work: walking, bicycling, personal vehicle, bus. this will give you peace of mind knowing you arent polluting as much as you would if you lived where you couldnt go anywhere (reasonably) without a car.

it is quieter than most of squirrel hill.

its very clean, and tidy, with pretty much well-kept properties.

[ElijahAstin]

Originally Posted by EveKendall

I am completely serious. It is strange to me. I am not a fan of the private schools in the area (although I confess I only know Ellis and Winchester Thurston). I think going to an 'elite' school is meaningless and I certainly don't think it guarantees better academic outcomes, unless you are comparing it with going to a very disadvantaged public school.

I don't know if it's "meaningless." Certainly, it's no guarantee of academic success (something about leading horses to water). But while I prefer public schools myself, I do recognize that elite privates usually have excellent resources. I do think there's a rapidly diminishing marginal return after a certain baseline point, but for a lot of people, private schools are just as much about social interaction/peer groups as they are academics.

[EveKendall]

Originally Posted by eschaton

Presumably if they can pay any price, they don't object to paying the Squirrel Hill price premium (which is in large part about the schools). After all, if no neighborhood is too expensive you never actually get a bad deal on a home.

Now that Shadyside is in the Allderdice feeder though, I just don't see what advantage Squirrel Hill has anymore. Shadyside has better business districts these days, and (in my subjective opinion) the top end houses there tend to be nicer. I realize some people would balk at how you get less home/yard for the money, but IMHO the more modest-sized yards are a selling point, and if money was no object, the first point is moot.

Shadyside is nice, but I like that Squirrel Hill has 1) a cinema; 2) a great library branch; and 3) a Giant Eagle in the business district.

[ElijahAstin]

Originally Posted by eschaton

Presumably if they can pay any price, they don't object to paying the Squirrel Hill price premium (which is in large part about the schools). After all, if no neighborhood is too expensive you never actually get a bad deal on a home.

Now that Shadyside is in the Allderdice feeder though, I just don't see what advantage Squirrel Hill has anymore. Shadyside has better business districts these days, and (in my subjective opinion) the top end houses there tend to be nicer. I realize some people would balk at how you get less home/yard for the money, but IMHO the more modest-sized yards are a selling point, and if money was no object, the first point is moot.

I personally like the homes on Squirrel Hill's "park roads" (Darlington, Bartlett, Beacon, etc.). As you get toward Schenley, you see a lot of big custom houses on bigger lots (I know you personally prefer a smaller footprint, but we're talking about my preferencs here ). There's a lot of gorgeous, mid-century modern architecture as well. This, for me, is the true sweet spot. You get a nice big house that would fit in Fox Chapel while still being a relatively short walk away from a charming Main Street area. I know the outer edges of Shadyside have some of that as well.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by EveKendall

Shadyside is nice, but I like that Squirrel Hill has 1) a cinema; 2) a great library branch; and 3) a Giant Eagle in the business district.

I understand. It's just for me, Squirrel Hill is too suburban of an environment. I wouldn't be 100% averse to living there, but it would mean compromising what I want in a neighborhood, and if I'm in a won the lottery phase of life, all compromises are off. I just don't want to have a house with a big lawn surrounded by leafy green trees. Unfortunately, Allegheny West/The Mexican War Streets aren't located in the Allderdice feeder, which would pretty much leave me with Shadyside by default.

[Bong477]

Originally Posted by eschaton

Presumably if they can pay any price, they don't object to paying the Squirrel Hill price premium (which is in large part about the schools). After all, if no neighborhood is too expensive you never actually get a bad deal on a home.

Now that Shadyside is in the Allderdice feeder though, I just don't see what advantage Squirrel Hill has anymore. Shadyside has better business districts these days, and (in my subjective opinion) the top end houses there tend to be nicer. I realize some people would balk at how you get less home/yard for the money, but IMHO the more modest-sized yards are a selling point, and if money was no object, the first point is moot.

1) Squirrel Hill North is a pretty easy to walk to Shadyside business districts as well. South would be more of a hike.
2) Squirrel Hill is practically defined by the two huge parks it sits between, Shadyside has no such parks. Playgrounds are in shorter supply too.
3) Squirrel Hill is historically far more family oriented than Shadyside

The difference between Squirrel Hill North, West Shadyside, and Point Breeze is pretty subtle/minimal and to try and bill one as significantly better than the other in some objective sense is nonsense.

[jay5835]

I'd live somewhere on or off Morewood or Ellsworth, in the 32. I'd send my children to Winchester, and I'd want them to be able to walk to and from school. As much as I love North of Forbes, I'm sick of hills. It's flat land for me, baby. You're still north of Forbes in Shadyside, anyway. There's a modern house on the Oakland end of Ellsworth I'd just love to live in, or I'd choose some older pile of bricks. Morewood and Amberson are both nice streets, with beautiful prewar houses.

Squirrel Hill has no restaurants I find interesting any longer, and I'd rather shop at WF, MD, or TJ than the Squirrel Hill GE.

I ate at Reyna's restaurant yesterday, at the corner of 21st and Penn, and in addition to having the best Mexican food I've ever eaten in Pgh, I was entertained by a Spanish class of 16 kids from Winchester. They were probably 12 or 13 years old, and were all talking in Spanish. Their teacher was walking from table to table, talking to them in Spanish, and the kids were all doing well speaking in Spanish. I was able to understand them, at least. Anytime someone slipped into English, the rest of the class would scream "Ingles! Ingles! Ingles!" It was such a lot of fun. If I had kids, I'd want them to do something like that to augment their classwork. Do they do things like that in public school?

[ex-burgher]

For those of you who look down on city schools - take a look at this school profile for Allderdice - notably the list of colleges seniors enrolled in on page 2. All but one Ivy League college plus MIT are represented. This is an older profile (2009-2010) as it's all I could find on the internet, but I'm sure today's numbers are similar.

http://www.pps.k12.pa.us/cms/lib/PA0...%20PROFILE.pdf

I forgot that Colfax is K-8 now - that would mean that I probably would send my kids to all public schools. When I was growing up, the middle school was Reizenstein and was not very good.

[I_Like_Spam]

Originally Posted by Bong477

1) Squirrel Hill North is a pretty easy to walk to Shadyside business districts as well. South would be more of a hike.
2) Squirrel Hill is practically defined by the two huge parks it sits between, Shadyside has no such parks. Playgrounds are in shorter supply too.
3) Squirrel Hill is historically far more family oriented than Shadyside.

Mellon Park in Shady is a pretty big green space- it isn't a Frick or Schenley, but it isn't too shabby.

[I_Like_Spam]

Originally Posted by westwoodmom

And you were part of dual earner couple with school age children, with parents working downtown and Oakland area, where in pittsburgh or suburbs would you live and why? Would you send kids to private or public school?

What's wrong with where you're presumably at, over in Westwood?

Its a quiet area, a nice pool and field over there, close to basic shopping, everyone pretty much minds their own business?

When Vern Law was playing for the Pirates, he lived with his family on Arnold Acres.

Canevin is a pretty decent school to send the young'uns to.

With school aged children, you presumably aren't big into the bar scene, but you're less than 10 minutes away from town.