Mon Fayette Expressway Project Map UGH!!! (Pittsburgh, Washington: casino, to live, cost of)

[pman]

Originally Posted by Copanut

Turtle Creek IS a suburb, and at one time a thriving one. Home to the "Airbrake", tons of jobs and a decent school district. But like Wilmerding, East Pgh, and Pitcairn, those days are gone, and they ain't coming back.

ambler, pa was once the "asbestos capital of the world", fell into decline, and has made a comeback.stranger things have happened.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by pman

ambler, pa was once the "asbestos capital of the world", fell into decline, and has made a comeback.stranger things have happened.

Ambler has a commuter rail station right? Plus the Philly area has the pluses of historically positive population growth, along with proportionately less desirable areas within the city proper, which forced some people who might otherwise want to live in walkable city neighborhoods to consider a "classic town" in the suburbs.

[wanderlust76]

The southern beltway is where it's at and is the road that makes sense. I've been following it's development for some time due to knowing a lot of people that work at the airport plus it's definitely a road I will use. It's going to connect the airport and booming airport area to large business hubs like Southpointe and growing areas in Washington County. It will help make traffic on 376W not quite as big of a nightmare. It's a road that will influence business decisions and living decisions both there is no doubt about it.

[pman]

Originally Posted by eschaton

Ambler has a commuter rail station right? Plus the Philly area has the pluses of historically positive population growth, along with proportionately less desirable areas within the city proper, which forced some people who might otherwise want to live in walkable city neighborhoods to consider a "classic town" in the suburbs.

the Philly area was a lot like the rest of PA for a long time with positive population growth in the townships and declines or stagnation in the boroughs. more recently, almost all boroughs have turned positive in terms of population growth (in other words they are starting to share in the growth) as has the city.you are correct, bad schools have forced some people who might otherwise want to live in walkable city neighborhoods into the suburbs but that's not entirely different than the era when the suburbs first started (though in the case of ambler it was a company town). nonetheless, even then they were offering more space, safer neighborhoods, a taste of the country etc..things that often appealed to families. then there's job distribution, lots of people work in conshohocken or KoP, maybe they like being near the city but not in it, these inner ring suburbs provide a walkable area they desire with easy access to the city. say I work in cranberry, maybe I live in beaver.
anyway, in my experience a lot of people actually like them when they're nice. this trend has spread into lancaster county where boroughs also grew as fast as the township (percentage wise) and you can see it in places like elizabethtown and mt joy (both trains towns but also places like lititz and manheim (not train towns but leave relatively close to the lancaster station on the north side of town). this is in contrast with PA at large which saw declines in boroughs. of course, the boroghs we are talking about are suburban, not central pa mountain boroughs. anyway, here's a list of "classic towns" and whether they have rail
wayne-rail, very fancy
narberth-rail, actually was built by the railroad for its workers
ambler-rail
west chester-no rail
phoenixville-no rail
chestnut hill-rail
doylestown-rail

the list isn't exhaustive but informative. they do not all have rail though rail plays an important part in allowing density and bringing life into the downtowns (pville in particularly would benefit since it is not as surrounded by jobs as west chester), rail is not necessary or a revival. (it's also worth noting that rail in places like ambler is a lot more reliable than it was a generation ago and consequently more people use it even though downtown employment has been stagnant at best). what all of these towns except wayne have in common is that no major road, by major I mean highway, cuts through the heart of town, jenkintown is nice but it's business district lags nearby glenside and ambler. why? 611 cuts thruog the heart of downtown with high spee traffic. wayne is the major exception with 30 cutting thruogh town but what they did was add parking (slows traffic down) and concentrate on developing the perdendicular road (wayne ave) which is now the hear of town. ambler is adjacent to 309/bethlehem pike but the main st is butler which is no longer the main road. pville is near 422 but no major higher speed road cuts through it. west chester's downtowni intact,the main road in from the east ends abruptly dumping you onto a slow speed local downtown street. chestnut hill has germantown ave, a major thoroughfare but one which has a reliever (lincoln drive) nearby. it's also close to the turnpike and germantown is paved with belgian block (bad for speeding). doylestown-near but not on 202 and 611.
narberth-not on any major road, centered on station.near 30 but not on.town- near but not on 283

further out there are examples of towns that are reviving that are on major roads. chambersburg...but the road was never widened through town and it retains the traffic circle downtown. same with gettysburg.

latrobe and greensburg-near 30 but the high speed portion does not cut through town.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by wanderlust76

The southern beltway is where it's at and is the road that makes sense. I've been following it's development for some time due to knowing a lot of people that work at the airport plus it's definitely a road I will use. It's going to connect the airport and booming airport area to large business hubs like Southpointe and growing areas in Washington County. It will help make traffic on 376W not quite as big of a nightmare. It's a road that will influence business decisions and living decisions both there is no doubt about it.

I see you live in the Northern Panhandle of WV. Do you believe the Southern Beltway will make Weirton more marketable as a potential place for people to live cheaply while now being able to commute to more employment options here (i.e. Southpointe)? When I worked at Presby in Oakland I only knew of one regular client of ours who lived in Weirton, WV (and another two who lived in Steubenville and Youngstown, respectively). I wonder if Weirton can successfully reinvigorate itself by trying to market itself as an affordable bedroom community of Pittsburgh?

[sskink]

But Joe Montana has a bridge!

If the 70 terminus was further east, I would've used it a lot when I was commuting weekly to NoVA, but it was faster to just use 51 to 70.

Anyway, one thought as to how to get more traffic - build a Cabela's somewhere near the Mon towns.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by sskink

Anyway, one thought as to how to get more traffic - build a Cabela's somewhere near the Mon towns.

There's already one in Wheeling. That's way too close. I'm going to say >50% of the business at that Cabela's location comes from Southwestern PA. If almost all of those people instead head to one in the Mon Valley, then that location in Wheeling will be taking a beating. I think this is also why IKEA has been so hesitant to open a location in either Columbus or Cleveland (or even Akron or Canton to split the difference a bit). I've heard that a large chunk of the Pittsburgh IKEA's business happens to hail from Ohio already.

On the other hand what about a Bass Pro Shop? Do we have any of those nearby?

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

On the other hand what about a Bass Pro Shop? Do we have any of those nearby?

The nearest locations are currently in Cincinnati, Toledo, the Finger Lakes, Harrisburg, and Richmond. Pittsburgh would actually be an excellent location between all these other stores, so perhaps you're onto something, sskink?

[SammyKhalifa]

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

I see you live in the Northern Panhandle of WV. Do you believe the Southern Beltway will make Weirton more marketable as a potential place for people to live cheaply while now being able to commute to more employment options here (i.e. Southpointe)? When I worked at Presby in Oakland I only knew of one regular client of ours who lived in Weirton, WV (and another two who lived in Steubenville and Youngstown, respectively). I wonder if Weirton can successfully reinvigorate itself by trying to market itself as an affordable bedroom community of Pittsburgh?

It already makes life easier for people going from there to the Airport/points North.

[UKyank]

Bass Pro Shops is expanding again but maybe not in Washington County - Pittsburgh Business Times