NYC family considering relocating (townhouses, schools, live in)

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by Moby Hick

I'm not sure I buy that. Squirrel Hill has no industry, but it also has a great deal more land that is too steep to build on and two huge parks. Frick and Schenley cover 4.1 square kilometers. That's 40% of Squirrel Hill where nobody lives except that one guy threatening people with a hatchet.

Dude, I just posted a map. You can see lots of blocks of Lawrenceville have over 20,000 people per square mile. The only clusters this is true of in Squirrel Hill South are the apartment blocks around Hobart and the ones further south tucked behind Forward.

Originally Posted by Moby Hick

I'm willing to grant the Lawrenceville is more urban than the part of Pittsburgh that don't exist because nobody built them here. But really "tree-lined boulevards" and the like are part of very old urban ideas that have nothing at all to do with Walter Gropius or suburban office parks.

All I'm saying is there's a spectrum when it comes to urbanity. The suburban form didn't spring up out of nothing in 1950. The antecedents were bubbling along for many decades, and everything we consider to now be associated with the suburbs was pretty much established by around 1920 when streetcar development began winding down.

Originally Posted by Moby Hick

Unless you use "urban" as a synonym for "unpleasant", I don't think you have to go nuts on putting the house right up against the sidewalk. If the building are set back a few feet from the street, you can have greenery and much more quiet inside the house.

To each there own. Personally, I find a lot of cities like that absolutely beautiful. And I'd love to live on a street like this, if Pittsburgh had them.

Still, I don't have an issue with small setbacks. Five feet is okay, ten even if it's put together with a porch. At 15 feet (unless the yard is sloped) it starts feeling like a lot of wasted space to me.

[Moby Hick]

Originally Posted by eschaton

Dude, I just posted a map. You can see lots of blocks of Lawrenceville have over 20,000 people per square mile. The only clusters this is true of in Squirrel Hill South are the apartment blocks around Hobart and the ones further south tucked behind Forward.

Those clusters in Squirrel Hill are about the same size as the clusters in Lawrenceville.

And maps are just a way to present statistics. As with statistics, you can get different results is you go about it in different ways. Like this map, from the same people, but using different cut points, shows Squirrel Hill with far larger clusters of until dense housing.

How many people can Pittsburgh hold? • UCSUR

[Goinback2011]

Where are there $800K homes in Pittsburgh?

Edit: I went onto realtor.com and found this very cool place -- http://www.realtor.com/realestateand...8-70730?row=32

Looks like it needs lots of renovations though and the traffic near the home would be very bad.

There are a few others in the city, but most are in Fox Chapel, USC or other suburbs.

[sskink]

Originally Posted by rayona

Preferably under $800,000 for 4 bed/2 bath.

For that money, in Pittsburgh, you can probably buy two adjacent lots in Central Lawrencville, raze whatever exists, build new to spec, send your kids to private school and have enough leftover for a personal rickshaw with driver.

[gladhands]

Originally Posted by Goinback2011

Where are there $800K homes in Pittsburgh?

Edit: I went onto realtor.com and found this very cool place -- http://www.realtor.com/realestateand...8-70730?row=32

Looks like it needs lots of renovations though and the traffic near the home would be very bad.

There are a few others in the city, but most are in Fox Chapel, USC or other suburbs.

There are currently 21 homes for sale in the East End with asking price north of 800k

Real Estate & Homes For Sale - 21 Homes | Zillow

and many more which aren't on the market.

[UKyank]

Originally Posted by eschaton

To each there own. Personally, I find a lot of cities like that absolutely beautiful. And I'd love to live on a street like this, if Pittsburgh had them.

Still, I don't have an issue with small setbacks. Five feet is okay, ten even if it's put together with a porch. At 15 feet (unless the yard is sloped) it starts feeling like a lot of wasted space to me.

I'm not a fan of setbacks in cities- seems like just wasted space to me; Id much rather have no setback on a lot & have some room in the rear for a yard that's actually usable for something then a front that needs maintenance, might collect trash from inconsiderate passers-by & generally serves no real purpose unless I guess you happened to live on a particularly busy road & had bad noise insulation.

[rayona]

Sorry to have opened up a can of worms. But thank you for all of the ideas--it's good to pick the brains of locals.

eschaton, I get what you are saying about set-backs feeling distinctly non-city. I happen to agree and currently live in a neighborhood with no yards, front or back, but I'm not necessarily looking for that. Our home seems most closely analogous to the Strip District. We've already bookmarked the houses you pointed out but we're kinda flummoxed by the schools stuff. Here it was a no-brainer to send our kids to the school down the street.

Speaking of schools; is there a map that shows all of the neighborhood school boundaries? Zillow is giving me conflicting information. And is there anywhere that shows data for magnet programs separately from their neighborhood schools if they are co-located? For example, I like the idea of a French magnet but the raw data for Fulton looks pretty dire.

Originally Posted by okaydorothy

Where will your jobs be? I ask because there is a T line in the south hills, and good schools. Mt. Lebo is a great area, however there are not any school busses, and it is on the T line.
I am in South Fayette schools and commuted to Pittsburgh for 2 years ; not a hellish commute (we came from Long Island), but now I have a 6 mile commute.

My husband would be working very close to the Heinz History Center and I stay home. If we move, it is in great part to spend more time together as a family so we don't really want to trade time sitting in an office for time sitting in a car.

[UKyank]

& btw, we do have some streets that look like the Philly link, but the brick houses are covered with ugly-*ss siding that someone thought looked better for whatever reason back in the day & remains on way too many homes.

[ferraris]

I'd be extremely cautious OP. Someone with a budget so high for the region is a prime target for getting ripped off. I bet the sort of place you're imagining you'll get for $800K is more like $350K here.

[Moby Hick]

Originally Posted by UKyank

& btw, we do have some streets that look like the Philly link, but the brick houses are covered with ugly-*ss siding that someone thought looked better for whatever reason back in the day & remains on way too many homes.

I agree about the siding, but the Philly link is to a street that is too narrow for cars. If you can't get cars down the street, that's a completely different thing as far as setbacks and my willingness to be right up against the thoroughfare.