Looking at moving to Pittsburgh (West Mifflin, West View: environment, real estate, for sale)

[Rock]

So here's where I'm at.

I'm a young aspiring engineer who was offered a job in central West Mifflin, PA. The job is pretty solid and I'm considering accepting it, but meanwhile am trying to figure out what neighborhoods would be good choices to live in.

So here is what I'm looking for:

Less than 30 minute commute if possible.

A neighborhood that is safeish: (Somewhere I can walk outside in the evenings without too much fear)

A neighborhood that is people friendly (ie. at least has sidewalks, maybe a park or two around, etc.)

Rent less than 800-1000 a month for a 1 or 2 bedroom apt, preferably a house of some sort.

A diverse neighborhood where I can make a difference. As in, not a suburb where everyone is upper middle class. Somewhere where everyone on my street is not just like me.

So that is essentially what I'm looking for. Also, as I get older it is likely I will want to move out into the country or a small surrounding town. I was looking on Google earth and it appeared that there are some farming communities southeast of the city which were around 20 miles from West Mifflin. Is this correct?

Thank you so much in advance!!

Rock

[Rock]

I did actually get to visit Pittsburgh about a month ago. I spoke with a plethora of people from different backgrounds (not just those at the firm I was interviewing at; I know better than all of that) from cab drivers to random visiting New Englanders to waitresses to hotel workers etc. What I found surprised me a bit. I found that though some of the locals are pessimistic about their town (though the cab driver was particularly hopeful about the future), the people were overwhelmingly friendly and nice. Now here in the southern midwest, we have a preconception that people from the northeast aren't all that friendly. That preconception got blown out of the water on my visit to Pittsburgh. So I can say vouch with a degree of certainty that the people there are nice.

Unfortunately, the only neighborhoods that I saw on my way to the motel and the interview, as well as to and from the airport, were the more run down parts of the city. I don't have an accurate view of the rest of the town. This is why I got on here, so that if I so choose to accept the job I have been offered, I will know where to start looking to live. Whether I go to Pittsburgh or not depends little on how great the town is; I mean anything has to beat decaying St. Louis or the soul sucking suburbs of Kansas City, and I even like both of those places. The where is not what makes an area as much as the who. I mean, I would be in a bad way without my friends here in this town of 15k that I live in now, so anywhere can be great or terrible, depending on what you make it.

The long and the short: What I see on here is not going to make too much difference on whether I come to Pittsburgh or not, I just would like to start looking at neighborhoods before I 'sell my soul' and commit to moving there.

Thanks in advance for all of your help!

[Evergrey]

Don't expect to get any help from chinenjim. He is a troll who has nothing better to do with his time than spoil forums like this with his blathering. Negative commentary is appreciated when it is constructive, but this user contributes little of substance other than expouding upon tired cliches and his own miserable existence.

Anyways, I am a city dweller... so I'm not very familiar with areas adjacent to W. Mifflin... but if you're interested in living "near the action"... the South Side neighborhood in Pittsburgh might be what you're looking for. You'll hear plenty of people warning about the lack of parking, loud party atmosphere, congestion on E. Carson St., etc.... but it sounds like you might have the right constitution to enjoy such a neighborhood. Now rents in the South Side have increased quite a bit in recent years... but I'm pretty confident you can find a decent place under 800. The residential component of the neighborhood is almost entirely 19th century rowhouses... so this is a very dense neighborhood structurally... tight, intimate streets... a place for walking, not driving. There have also been some new residential projects completed recently or undergoing development. The South Side is also one of the closest neighborhoods to West Mifflin... so the commute shouldn't be too bad.

The neighborhood is definately safe. I'm sure it's probably scary to someone accustomed to exurban isolation and sterility... but there is nothing to fear in the South Side. It has a very large and active business district that stays open late into the night... so there are many eyes on the streets. There are your occassional drunken frat boy scuffles outside of bars... but that happens anywhere there's a large concentration of bars. The neighborhood draws all sorts of people... it really has an incredible mix of high-end and low-end bars and clubs... ethnic restaurants and gyro joints... vintage clothing shops and record shops... independent grocers and a Giant Eagle (local mega-grocer chain)... banks, live music venues, etc etc etc.

As stated by my proven comments... the South Side definately is people friendly... thanks to its large, diverse business district and walkability. The neighborhood is a tight grid of narrow streets (with sidewalks, of course). The main corridor (E. Carson St.) travels at a crawl... which is good for the pedestrian. You can walk for groceries, clothing, entertainment, everything... it's the most complete neighborhood in the city along with Squirrel Hill. It's a great place to people watch too. The sidewalks are often packed with pedestrians... people of all types... young and old... the mundane and the eclectic. There is a riverfront park along the Monongahela with a walking/biking trail that heads towards downtown and connects to a network of riverfront trails. The South Side also has some small parklets with basketball courts. While not actually a park... walking up the South Side Slopes on the city's network of staircases makes an interesting hike.

The South Side is definately a diverse neighborhood where you can make a difference. It is very urban... and its population is a mix of old-timers from the days of steel... and young hipsters, yuppies, college students.. and people who just love living in an vibrant urban environment. There's plenty of opportunities for making a difference in a place like this.



Here are a couple links that might be helpful for you:

http://www.southsidepgh.com/live_and_work/index.php

http://www.betatesters.com/penn/sahside/

[Evergrey]

Here are some of my photos of South Side

Carson St.






walking across the rooftops


South Side Works... site of a former steel mill... now a mixed-use development offering upscale shopping, residential and office space




residential streets




Carson St.


Club Cafe is a wonderful music venue


a great coffeehouse that stays open late


chocolate shops, record stores, all-night diners



view of the South Side and the Slopes from Oakland



there are a few chain businesses... like Utrecht Art Supplies... but Carson St. remains almost exclusively the domain of the locally-owned business... which adds to its funky, unique character



view of downtown with South Side in foreground


South Side is always a party




Japanese steakhouse... haven't tried it yet...




a friend of mine has a lot of great South Side photos here (as well as other PGH neighborhoods):
http://urbanohio.com/PittSouthside.htm

[krlang223]

I am not very familiar with West Mifflin but there are several areas near there that you might like. The south side sounds wonderful for you as it does have what you are looking for. Japanese restaurant is good also, by the way. North of the city still has some farm lands. I know of a horse farm for sale west of the city which would be about a half hour commute for you but no town with walking very close by. You would have to drive about five minutes to Sewickley. Anything south would be a 45 minute commute for you, if not longer. Perhaps West View? It might be a good fit for you, but not much night life. You would have to travel into the city for that. Almost anywhere you move outside the city limits would mean traveling to the city for night life. But Pittsburgh has a wonderful diverse night life that we suburbanites all take advantage of. A good real estate agent would be the best person to direct you to areas best suited for you. But my vote for you is the South Side. lol

[ontheroad]

Evergrey, so many thanks for those wonderful photographs of the South Side--they are terrific.

I wish I had more photos from other areas of Pittsburgh to share so people could get a more rounded view of the City--such a wide variety of communities, architecture and landscape(s).

It would be a pity for someone offered a good job to think that Pittsburgh is not liveable because the truth be told many cities and towns have problems, but these are small in comparison to the benefits from living in a city with the attributes Pittsburgh possesses.

[Steve-o]

Originally Posted by chinenjim

By the way, why it the quote:

"but that happens anywhere" so common when defending Pittsburgh?

Um, because its the truth? All big city problems are pretty much the same in every major city. Pittsburgh is a decent city, no doubt. Go hang around Detroit or St. Louis or LA and youll see what I mean.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by chinenjim

By the way, why it the quote:

"but that happens anywhere" so common when defending Pittsburgh?

Because so many Pittsburgh detractors seem to think that some of its negative attributes are unique to Pittsburgh when they're actually commonplace in urban areas, especially the older ones. For instance, the urban decay pictoral you posted a couple weeks ago, trying to pass off like the whole city is like that. People with even a basic familiarity with urban areas already intuitively know that every major city has spots of blight and have already built that knowledge into their assumptions about Pittsburgh. None but the most naive needs to be told there is blight in Pittsburgh. They already know. So when people with no sense of perspective try to pass off like Pittsburgh is another Detroit/St. Louis/New Orleans, they need to be corrected.

[subdivisions]

Originally Posted by chinenjim

By the way, why it the quote:

"but that happens anywhere" so common when defending Pittsburgh?

As others have said, because it's true. I invite you to take a look at the following comments, from another webside devoted to discussing the pros and cons of various cities. You (and others) might find them enlightening. By the way, I didn't cherry pick - I just typed in a few big cities in different regions of the U.S. and chose a comment from each that complains about the same types of things people complain about in Pittsburgh.


Moderator cut: links removed

And so on and so forth. You probably get the point.

Now, if you take the time to look through all the comments about these cities on that site, you'll find a mix of positive and negative for each, just like you do about Pittsburgh. But what you will also find for each of these cities, but what you won't see in comments about Pittsburgh, is that they are too expensive for the average person to live in. For some of these cities (Chicago and NY especially), that point is made in almost every post, positive and negative.

So, what can we learn from this? Probably that all big cities have similar sorts of problems (crime, traffic, ill-behaved locals, etc.), that no matter where you live the weather probably sucks at least part of the year, and that there is a certain percentage of residents of every city who hate living there for one reason or another.And...if you have to put up with all of this negative big city stuff, at least in Pittsburgh you won't have to pay an arm and a leg to do it.

[PROJECT PAT]

although pittsburgh is not the safest city in the world, it is definetely not the most dangerous city either. we ranked in as about the 60th most dangerous city last year ahead of places like los angeles, new york city, chicago, and miami which aint that bad