The 20 Minute Good Life-Where in Pittsburgh? (Washington, California: appointed, homes, refrigerators)

[chloride1]

Originally Posted by greg42

Downtown is walkable from Mt Washington if you use the Mon Incline. Works pretty well. The Smithfield St bridge is not that long. I did that sometimes to go to work when I lived up there, although it was difficult in the cold (I lived there through the winter) not to just get in the car and drive since we never changed anything about my parking place at work.

I use the Mon Incline all the time to walk to Downtown from Mt Washington and back.

[onwardandupward]

Originally Posted by Hopes

Oakmont (next to Verona) might have more amenities within walking distance, but entertainment is limited and there's not a decent size park in the area.

Actually, Oakmont has Riverside Park, which is right on the river. The park has tennis courts, a playground, baseball/soccer/football fields, a track and picnic areas. It's not anywhere near the size of the city parks, but it's still quite nice. Oakmont also has a retro movie theatre, and it is a walkable town with sidewalks - kids walk to school and are not bused. The closest grocery store is about 2 miles away in Verona, so it would involve a 5 minute drive. Oakmont has more of a small town feel than the equally walkable city neighborhoods.

[chloride1]

Originally Posted by Impala26

Nor would I, actually I think riding the inclines is MORE fun than getting around any other way around town!

Yes! You walk to the incline; wait at most a couple of minutes which you can spend enjoying the view out the bay windows at the bottom or looking at the historical pictures on the wall - I still enjoy both, after living here 8 years. The trip itself is a few minutes. I enjoy walking over the Smithfield bridge - lovely bridge, and lovely view and, as what was said before, the walk over the bridge is not very long.

Deviating from walkability per se, depending on where you live on Mt Washington, you have the 41E bus to supplement your transit.

I only drive on the weekends and evenings.

[Katiana]

Good grief, you guys! I like the Mon incline, too, though it has become more of a tourist attraction than public transportation lately. However, I was just pointing out, if you include some type of public transit, it's not "walkability" per se that you're looking at. You have to carry money with you, you can go farther than you get get walking for 20 min, etc. If someone wants to get to work in 20 min and not use a car, it's fine with me, no matter how they do it.

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by onwardandupward

Actually, Oakmont has Riverside Park, which is right on the river. The park has tennis courts, a playground, baseball/soccer/football fields, a track and picnic areas. It's not anywhere near the size of the city parks, but it's still quite nice.

Originally Posted by chloride1

Oakmont has a beautiful riverside park! A wonderful asset of that community.

It's not like a county or city park. The OP's wife wants big open spaces for hiking and running with her dogs.

A little park near the river in Oakmont is not anywhere near the open spaces she currently enjoys in Oregon.

Originally Posted by onwardandupward

Oakmont also has a retro movie theatre, and it is a walkable town with sidewalks - kids walk to school and are not bused. The closest grocery store is about 2 miles away in Verona, so it would involve a 5 minute drive. Oakmont has more of a small town feel than the equally walkable city neighborhoods.

Having to use a car to go to the grocery store doesn't meet the OP's criteria, but it's nice to know that Oakmont has a retro movie theater.

Oakmont is a great walkable town with some fantastic restaurants and boutique shopping though.

[greg42]

It's more like a moving sidewalk up the hill, albeit with seats. Funny, I wasn't expecting all the sentiment about the incline either. It's totally valid to point out that it's a significant change from walking alone. Yeah, it costs money, too, that's a factor to figure in. Each person's gonna drop about 4 bucks on a round-trip, I think (can't remember what the fare is actually, might be more). Although, if you're already doing other transit for other destinations regularly, I believe a weekly/monthly pass is still accepted on the Mon Incline. (Actually, turns out passes and tickets are good on both inclines. Tickets and the standard one-way incline fare are $2. On the Mon Incline you can get a 50 cent transfer to T or bus to get elsewhere, or to make a roundtrip within 3 hours.)

I think I still have part of the last roll of tokens I bought before I moved away from there. Never finished 'em before they became invalid for fare. Back when I actually rode it using them, I think the tokens made each ride under $1.

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by Fiddlehead

I will also add that a title like "the 20 minute Good Life" sounds incredibly cheesy to me. How spend you live 20 minutes "living the good life" is highly personal, and might have nothing to do with walkability....

However, it does hit on a livability element that is important for some people, probably many people if they think about it. Obviously, with the concentration of jobs in cities, concentric rings of decreasing price, urban blight,etc. many folks do have to spend their "20 minutes" in the car with Rush Limbaugh, instead of....well see previous paragraph...

For me, walkability is an added benefit for occassional use. If a grocery store is a 20 minute walk, that's 40 minutes commuting to/from the grocery store. Hop in the car and it's a 5 minute drive. My grocery store is two minutes away by car, but would take 20 minutes to walk via steep hills. I'd NEVER walk to the grocery store simply due to the time factor. Add to it that there is no way to carry a week's worth of groceries home, and walking to a grocery store shouldn't even be an important criteria for anyone unless they want to buy groceries daily or are single and only buying food for one person. My good life criteria is the least amount of time spent commuting anywhere---especially for errands. Few Pittsburghers spend 20 minutes driving in the car to the grocery store or dry cleaners with or without Rush Limbaugh.

[greg42]

I dunno, I think a 20-minute walk with two of us would be just fine in many cases for groceries or other errands. Two of us would be able to carry back a fair bit (we most often do these errands together anyway), and we'd get in 40 minutes of walking without just walking to nowhere. It wouldn't be much fun if it were too cold or too hot, or raining might actually be the worst. But I don't think it would be a bad use of time considering the exercise.

[Katiana]

Originally Posted by greg42

I dunno, I think a 20-minute walk with two of us would be just fine in many cases for groceries or other errands. Two of us would be able to carry back a fair bit (we most often do these errands together anyway), and we'd get in 40 minutes of walking without just walking to nowhere. It wouldn't be much fun if it were too cold or too hot, or raining might actually be the worst. But I don't think it would be a bad use of time considering the exercise.

Which is the difference between a couple and a family. Once you have kids, you have to take them along for years to come (or hire a babysitter), drag them down the street with you, supervise them in the store, then turn around and do it all over again in reverse. Sounds like fun, not!

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by greg42

I dunno, I think a 20-minute walk with two of us would be just fine in many cases for groceries or other errands. Two of us would be able to carry back a fair bit (we most often do these errands together anyway), and we'd get in 40 minutes of walking without just walking to nowhere. It wouldn't be much fun if it were too cold or too hot, or raining might actually be the worst. But I don't think it would be a bad use of time considering the exercise.

I don't know many couples who grocery shop together---especially the more years married.

There are simply too many things to get done. One can be doing laundry or changing car breaks while the other shops.

Plus, I'd rather use the 40 minutes for excercise riding horses or playing tennis.

Originally Posted by Katiana

Which is the difference between a couple and a family. Once you have kids, you have to take them along for years to come (or hire a babysitter), drag them down the street with you, supervise them in the store, then turn around and do it all over again in reverse. Sounds like fun, not!

So true! It's impossible to carry groceries when a four year old gets too tired to walk. When one gets sick (as they often do), it's not like you can simply not go grocery shopping that week. Add to it the fact that you're buying way too many groceries for two adults to carry once you add the needs of children to the mix--additional food, diapers, etc.