More Praise for Downtown Living (Pittsburgh, York: loft, condo, crime)

[nuwaver88]

Pop City - Why We Moved to Downtown Pittsburgh

Obviously, one has to have money to buy a loft or any condo Downtown. However, when compared to cities like NYC or Chicago, it is a great bargain. Pittsburgh is no New York or Chicago. We know that. Still, one can get a taste of big city living and a high quality of life by living in Downtown Pittsburgh. I always loved Downtown as a kid. It is great to see this resurgence. Ironically, this is being done without the Fifth-Forbes corridor, which used to be the heart of Downtown, seeeing a resurgence. There are plans for that corridor and when that happens, our Downtown will be more of a jewel than it already is.

[aveojohn]

They need to build a small fenced in(to keep the bums out) the down town area for the kids to play in.

[BrianTH]

I've long thought Downtown residences could be a great attraction for young people being recruited from other cities to work at Downtown firms, and this story is along the same lines.

[Awesomo.2000]

That is a very good article. Thanks for posting it. I probably wouldn't have read it if you didn't post it.

Every time I come home from another city, I go take photos of Pittsburgh because you see it in a different perspective. When I came home from Cincinnati, I went and took photos of downtown Pittsburgh. It is very unique and different, but it still needs work. I love how it has a big city feel, but at a much smaller level. Like she described walking to Point Park, the museums, Baseball games, etc. A lot of cities the downtown is so immense that you couldn't possibly walk to all these locations, but ours still has the big eastern style feel downtown.

[pman]

That is a good article. I liked this part in particular

Burlington and Asheville were too small. Madison was too cold. Chicago and DC were too expensive. Crime stats knocked out Philly and Baltimore. To quote Goldilocks, one city seemed just right: Pittsburgh

It'll be interesting to see how things work out. will it be easier for Pittsbrgh to revive its downtown than for Philly to cut its crimerate. the part that bodes well is that Pittsburgh looks good on paper, which means that people will consider it and come to visit. You've got a shot. Philly, OTOH, looks bad on paper which means people are usually pleasantly surprised but most never bother to find out. (crime stats aside, it's also a lot more expensive). Despite being somewhat desolate, it's not creepy like cleveland.

[Awesomo.2000]

^isn't philly pretty cheap for the east coast?

[scrapp]

Originally Posted by pman

That is a good article. I liked this part in particular

It'll be interesting to see how things work out. will it be easier for Pittsbrgh to revive its downtown than for Philly to cut its crimerate.

I think it will get more interesting for the Booth family when Mason is older than 2 (i.e. school aged) and/or they have more children. It is fairly easy to keep a 1-2 year old in a two bedroom loft, but when he is 8 and wants to ride his bike and be outside all the time without his mother hovering over him all the time... well, there are some advantage to living in the "The more traditionally family-friendly neighborhoods of Squirrel Hill, Regent Square, Shadyside" Ms. Booth so casually rejected in the article.

Also, a minor point: she should be concerned about preschool waiting lists now, regardless of where she lives in Pittsburgh. I wonder if they are planning on using the public schools when Mason is older?

[ExPit]

Originally Posted by nuwaver88

Pop City - Why We Moved to Downtown Pittsburgh

Obviously, one has to have money to buy a loft or any condo Downtown. However, when compared to cities like NYC or Chicago, it is a great bargain. Pittsburgh is no New York or Chicago. We know that. Still, one can get a taste of big city living and a high quality of life by living in Downtown Pittsburgh. I always loved Downtown as a kid. It is great to see this resurgence. Ironically, this is being done without the Fifth-Forbes corridor, which used to be the heart of Downtown, seeeing a resurgence. There are plans for that corridor and when that happens, our Downtown will be more of a jewel than it already is.

I always loved downtown, tahn, when I was a kid too. Ace Amusement on Liberty Avenue, Point Park, Market Square, just walking the streets. I sold papers on the corner of Forbes and Smithfield before I was a teen. When I was in college I parked cars in Market Square, ate fish sandwiches at The Oyster House or Bubbles, ate keilbasa at Raywell's on Forbes, hot dogs at Weiner World, (still the best), town was jumping then. There were I don't know how many great clubs in the Square or just out of the Square. When my car wouldn't start at 1am I'd walk out into the Square and there would be plenty of parked taxis waiting to take me home.

Fast forward ten or fifteen years, I decided to come back and take a shot at living in my home town. So I got an apt (leased from the owner), in Gateway Towers, and to my great disappointment found out a little too late that town closed up at night. Only a few clubs open after dark, a few restaurants around 6th street, but the majority of the city was shut down. Very depressing. The only nightlife I could find was either sleazy or high end, (high end=boring). I lasted about six months and made my escape. No life at night, no amenities anytime of day for the downtown residents, how much has this changed?

[nuwaver88]

Originally Posted by ExPit

I always loved downtown, tahn, when I was a kid too. Ace Amusement on Liberty Avenue, Point Park, Market Square, just walking the streets. I sold papers on the corner of Forbes and Smithfield before I was a teen. When I was in college I parked cars in Market Square, ate fish sandwiches at The Oyster House or Bubbles, ate keilbasa at Raywell's on Forbes, hot dogs at Weiner World, (still the best), town was jumping then. There were I don't know how many great clubs in the Square or just out of the Square. When my car wouldn't start at 1am I'd walk out into the Square and there would be plenty of parked taxis waiting to take me home.

Fast forward ten or fifteen years, I decided to come back and take a shot at living in my home town. So I got an apt (leased from the owner), in Gateway Towers, and to my great disappointment found out a little too late that town closed up at night. Only a few clubs open after dark, a few restaurants around 6th street, but the majority of the city was shut down. Very depressing. The only nightlife I could find was either sleazy or high end, (high end=boring). I lasted about six months and made my escape. No life at night, no amenities anytime of day for the downtown residents, how much has this changed?

Unfortunately, Downtown after hours is still predominantly high end. There is less sleaze, as the Cultural District has been acquiring a lot of the sleaze bars on Liberty. There are handful of gay or gay friendly bars on Liberty. The bars Downtown tend to be mostly restaurtant lounges or martinis or tapas. They also tend to go after the Happy Hour crowd. Downtown seems to cater to the professional crowd. It's like, "Come in drop thirty bucs after work for cocktails and appetizers and get the heck out by 8pm." We need more entrepeneurs to open some South Side type places with beer, sports, wings, hottie bartenders, open till 2am. Fifth Forbes, especially Forbes near the Market Square area would be good locations for these type of establishments. The city needs to help promote an atmosphere for this. The tricky part is keeping prices high enough to keep out the people who may be doing things that they are not supposed to be doing; also known as riff raff.

[ExPit]

Is there a supermarket there yet? I know there are more and more people living in town, where in the hell do they shop? 'Course, I didn't have a car when I was there, so I had few options. But downtown was really not set up for residents then. I guess long ago it was, then came the move out to the suburbs and that changed and never changed back. But even in the 70's and 80's town jumped at night. I guess it's nowhere near as safe now as it was then, but you gotta wonder if that's because it was given up for dead. I guess that's what's going on now, we're trying to reclaim it. My only question is, say with regards to the family in the article, how convenient, or just how livable is downtown now? I have a hunch that it's yet to turn the bend. I honestly wouldn't mind ending up there, but not if I gotta cross a river to grocery shop.