Is Bloomfield an open community (Pittsburgh, Liberty: 2010, apartment, to rent)

[BlackBuddha]

I am an almost 34 year old IT professional that is an African American male. I do recall that Bloomfield is considered "little Italy." I've visited the area and I really love it and I don't mind making it my home for a long time. Is this community very open or will I have a hard time renting an apartment and/or house?

[raynist]

I think you should be fine. It is a pretty diverse area.

[Evergrey]

I have lived in Bloomfield for 1 1/2 years. We will welcome you with open arms. It is a fun, vibrant, diverse, centrally located neighborhood.

[zip95]

It's slightly unsafe, also.

[BlackBuddha]

Why thank you all. If I can survive Philly and the Big Apple I'm sure I can survive Bloomfield, Pittsburgh. Thank you very much.

[Evergrey]

Originally Posted by zip95

It's slightly unsafe, also.

[Humanoid]

Is this community very open or will I have a hard time renting an apartment and/or house?

I don't think this community is particularly open, but I'm sure you'll find a place to rent there. The good area of Bloomfield is mainly white, but Bloomfield is close to some black areas. To me the only neighborhood with a good mix of people was Oakland, outside of that the communities are pretty rigid.

Anyhow, as far as I know most the posters here are white so I doubt you'll get any insight in what its like in the Pittsburgh area as a black man. All I can say is that I've spent enough time in the black community in Pittsburgh to know that the people there don't have a particularly rosy view of the city as far as racism goes.

[londonbarcelona]

Originally Posted by Humanoid

I don't think this community is particularly open, but I'm sure you'll find a place to rent there. The good area of Bloomfield is mainly white, but Bloomfield is close to some black areas. To me the only neighborhood with a good mix of people was Oakland, outside of that the communities are pretty rigid.

Anyhow, as far as I know most the posters here are white so I doubt you'll get any insight in what its like in the Pittsburgh area as a black man. All I can say is that I've spent enough time in the black community in Pittsburgh to know that the people there don't have a particularly rosy view of the city as far as racism goes.

There are reasons why they call it Pennsyltucky.
As Humanoid expressed, I'd stick as close to Oakland as possible.
Good Luck.

[BrianTH]

I don't really have a basis for commenting on the attitudes of people in Bloomfield (although I have no reason to believe they are racially intolerant), but I can tell you there are in fact places around there where black and white people are living in the same areas. But to slightly complicate matters, I (and some others) would consider most of those areas to be in Friendship, even though according to the "official" neighborhood maps they are in Bloomfield. Anyway, the areas in question are between Penn and Liberty/Baum, starting around Mathilda and all the way through the "official" Friendship to East Liberty.

Just to give a little data, as of the 2000 Census, Friendship (the official part) was around 60% white, 30% black, and 10% other. My sense is that is more or less typical of most of the bigger region I described. For comparison, Bloomfield was 85% white and 8.5% black, and that includes the areas which I call Friendship. So, I suspect the parts of Bloomfield that I don't call Friendship would have had a significantly lower black percentage.

By the way, the Friendship area has been gentrifying recently, but the local development organizations are very interested in keeping the area racially diverse, and my sense is they are succeeding. Nonetheless, it will take the 2010 Census to know for sure.

[subdivisions]

Originally Posted by londonbarcelona

There are reasons why they call it Pennsyltucky.
As Humanoid expressed, I'd stick as close to Oakland as possible.
Good Luck.

I have never heard anyone call the Pittsburgh portion of Pennysylvania "Pennsyltucky". In fact, usually that term is specifically reserved for areas outside the major metropolitan areas.

Not being a black man myself, I will reserve judgment on whether a black person can be comfortable in any other neighborhood in the city besides Oakland.

However, I will say that from my own observations (perhaps not accurate, but certainly no less accurate than yours are likely to be) about levels of racism in places I have lived that Pittsburgh seems to me to be about average, neither exceptionally good or exceptionally bad. It certainly has nothing on North Carolina, where I once overheard my employer specifically state that she would never hire a black person (except she used much trashier language), and the races literally did not mix at all. But even in Arizona, people made jokes about drunk Indians, and in Colorado they acted like Hispanics were all illegal aliens here to steal their jobs and women. In Pittsburgh, people won't live in my neighborhood because they see black faces on the streets.

In other words, people are asshats everywhere. Pittsburgh hasn't impressed me as being particularly better or worse in that regard as anywhere else. Now, if you want to talk about the suburbs or rural portions of Western PA, that story might be different (Pennsyltucky, indeed). But the OP asked about Bloomfield, which is a city neighborhood, and not a particularly insular one either.