Swissvale/Wilkinsburg area? (Pittsburgh, Denver, Edgewood: crime, daycares, neighborhood)

[ontheroad]

Sounds terrific, and I can attest to the available, oft beautiful homes for sale on both sides of the Wilkinsburg track!

Originally Posted by grotonpatrick

I have lived in Wilkinsburg for three months after spending the last 10 years in rural Vermont. While there are areas which may appear daunting, I have had nothing but positive experiences in my neighborhood. For $15,000 I was able to purchase a beautiful and intact home with decent systems, 12 stained glass windows, seven bedrooms and seven fireplaces. I can walk to shops and services and am only about a mile away from the co-op, Frick Museum and Trader Joes.

I have children and while my wife and I heard only negative things about the schools were pleasantly surprised when she and my daughter visited the two affordable private schools in Wilkinsburg and the public elementary school.

You asked about Swissvale. I work with the local CDC in Swissvale and like many of the Boroughs surrounding Pittsburgh, there are great areas and pockets in need of major reinvestment. Luckily for both Wilkinsburg and Swissvale, there are many people working to improve the communities and make them safe and decent places to live. I would have no problem recommending either place, but like previous posters, acknowledge that you need to use common sense no matter where you live.

[tsuga]

I've lived in Wilkinsburg for almost 2 years now, in an area that's Regent Square by realtors' standards, but not by those of the Regent Square Civic Association. We were looking for a place that was relatively safe, ideally in or near the East End, close to green space, and, most of all, affordable. Our house is all of these. I feel perfectly safe on my block near the Kelly Elementary School. I like my neighbors, who are very friendly, progressive, and community-oriented. At $45,000, our house was very affordable. It's nothing fancy, and needs some updating, but there were no fundamental problems with the structure, electrical, plumbing, etc. I can easily walk to Frick Park or the Regent Square business district, and it's just a quick bike ride to Squirrel Hill or the East End Food Co-Op. And it's easy to take the bus to work in Oakland, or even ride my bike - it's less than 5 miles. The high taxes and under-performing school district are drawbacks, but that's offset to a large degree by the cheap houses and great location. There are areas of Wilkinsburg that are pretty run-down (though there has been increased interest in investing in some of the places), and with higher crime rates, but there are also areas like mine that are perfect for first-time homebuyers. Definitely take a look at Wilkinsburg!

[Snaily]

Its odd to hear people saying Wilkinsburg is nice, the last time I was in the area I was asked if I had any crack (I don't know maybe I look like a sell crack?) But, maybe the area is bigger than I'm thinking.

[WatchingEthosInFreefall]

Wilkinsburg is a very nice place with very reasonable housing to be found. Pittsburgh in general is an extremely racist place and Wilkinsburg's "reputation" is based on a violent period now long past. While there are still shootings from time to time, you needn't really worry because it is the drug people shooting each other because of the way the police gather information. Many of the descriptions of sections I have read here surprised me. It is amazing how different residents can perceive the same neighborhood. Happily for myself, I am benefitting from this racist fear because my rent is so cheap. I live on a street that is mostly black and everyone really takes good care of their yards and everyone smiles and greets one another all the time. I have accidentally left my wallet in my unlocked car more than once (I can be somewhat absent-minded when thinking about my work) only to find it undisturbed the next day. This surprised even me. People live up to our expectations of them. If you expect to see crime and scariness, that is what you will see.

[Drover]

Blah blah blah racist blah blah racism blah blah. Most of Wilkinsburg is a nasty place. And I don't care who calls me racist for saying it. If you don't mind the "occasional" shooting (like, say, about once a week), a couple or handful of murders every year, run-down houses, run-down neighborhoods, thugs, drug dealers, and a highly diminished quality of life, you'll be right at home in Wilkinsburg. But if having a higher quality of life is important to you, there are a hundred other places to live in the Pittsburgh area other than Wilkinsburg that are perfectly affordable.

[prototypepariah]

I would strongly suggest that when you take this advice into consideration look at the amount of posts these people have that are trumping wilkenburg to be awesome. Clearly there is an issue here with people coming on to defend these less than desirable area's as being good.

If you were to look at a map there is a set of train tracks that cut thru the middle of wilkinburgh(pennwood ave) i'd want to stay west of that east is really run down boarded up and not attractive at the very least.

Swissvale is very very hilly and I'd bet a hell of a place to get out of during winter even compared to the rest of the area. The houses on the northwest end are pretty nice. Most of them have yards and trees. I can't speak for the inhabitants but it's miles nicer than wilkenburgh's east end. I would try to look as far north and west as possible as braddock is a total dive as far as I can gather. Braddock hills had some nice blocks though.

Brooklyn is a big place there were some pretty dicey spots up near queens neither wilkinsburg or swissvale compare swissvale not even remotely. They have buses i'm sure that would take you to oakland. There are also affordable options in other parts of town. polish hill, lawerenceville, bloomfield, edgewood maybe.. hell if your urbanized you could even consider the hill district(certainly no worse than wilkinburg)

Best advice is come look around the area's for yourself.

[Terrynat]

My family moved to Pittsburgh in 1969, and while I've lived in San Francisco, Richmond Virginia, and Atlanta we've lived in Wilkinsburg most of our lives. We moved to Wilkinsburg long before I was even old enough to go to kindergarten. I am 41 years old now.

I will say that there are areas you want to avoid in Wilkinsburg, but I recently moved to Swissvale and I actually miss Wilkinsburg (we, me and my husband) lived on Hampton Ave which is one block away from where Edgewood begins.

Yes, one day someone stopped me on the street and asked me if I knew where to get some drugs from in Wilkinsburg too (incidentally I am black and the man who asked me this was white). White people from better communities come into Wilkinsburg looking for drugs all the time. And I guess b/c I am black I am supposed to know where to get drugs from. Go figure. This is why this forum about how "horrible" Wilkinsburg is bothers me.

Wilkinsburg gets a bad name, yet people from outside the community will seek drugs in my neighborhood and these same people go back to there squeeky clean image neighborhoods to live in peace.

Nope, Wilkinsburg isn't all bad. The parts near Edgewood and the Churhill area are very nice and in fact I was surprised to see how many gainfully employed white people live in Wilkinsburg too and actually own property. My black neighbors in Wilkinsburg were much more friendly than my white neighbors near Edgewood. Wilkinsburg does get a bad name because bad things do happen there, but bad things happen in Shady Side too but it gets swept under the rug. What about the problems Shady Side had with rapes? No one talks about that, but if the rapes were happening in Wilkinsburg we'd be here in the forum reading about how awful a place it is.

So, Drover, how long did you actually live in Wilkinsburg to deem it a "nasty" place?????

[TRO Z]

Terrynat--

This isn't a black or white thing...This is about an area (Wilkinsburg)..

Your obviously defending it, thats your opinion...My take on the area is this, The urban redevelopment authority is so desperate for developers to come into Homewood and Wilkinsburg that they are trying to take up entire blocks..Take a quick drive down franklin st and Rebecca ave...It's sad..Not to mention the section of Penn Ave that runs through wilkinsburg...Maybe 60% boarded up or closed down...

Anyone doing repairs over there, are small time investors who can buy homes for under 10k and fix them just enough to pass section 8..

Wilkinsburg and Homewood are the 2 most depressed areas in this city..By Far..Wilkinsburg School District has the second lowest scores in the STATE..By the 2006 stats I have..

Every area has both it's good and bad people...But Wilkinsburg and Homewood need to get a grip on their own community before any real investment dollars will ever flow into those neighborhoods....

Since my crystal ball is in the shop this week, I will have to take a guess about wilkinsburg or homewood revamping their own communities sometime soon...I would guess LONGTIME...VERY LONGTIME...

[princesspolamalu]

Originally Posted by Drover

Blah blah blah racist blah blah racism blah blah. Most of Wilkinsburg is a nasty place. And I don't care who calls me racist for saying it. If you don't mind the "occasional" shooting (like, say, about once a week), a couple or handful of murders every year, run-down houses, run-down neighborhoods, thugs, drug dealers, and a highly diminished quality of life, you'll be right at home in Wilkinsburg. But if having a higher quality of life is important to you, there are a hundred other places to live in the Pittsburgh area other than Wilkinsburg that are perfectly affordable.

This is very very inaccurate. I lived in the area for quite some time and this is just not true. Its always the people that dont live there that have so much negative to say. There are not weekly shootings in Wilkinsburg, there are not thugs and drug dealers hanging on street corners. We have more issues with fires in Wilkinsburg for some reason than anything else. Most of the folks are friendly people. I lived on the border right where Wilkinsburg turned into Edgewood for over three years and never had a single problem. Wilkinsburg would not be my first choice to live but it is not the worst by far. I would live in Wilkinsburg any day before Homewood or the Hill. The Wilkinsburg and Edgewood police do a great job of patroling the area and keeping it as safe as possible.
These are very racist views again from people that dont live in the area and hear an occasional news piece.

[WatchingEthosInFreefall]

Wow that really made me laugh, being accused of having an agenda for defending Wilkinsburg, like I am some propagandist for a developer or something! Get off of it you classist, racist, rich wannabes. Please. DON'T come here. Who needs more hypocritical middle-class "values." What we need here is more creative diversity and new ideas, not you status-hungry social climbers looking to flip houses and raise everybody else's rent.