The 20 Minute Good Life-Where in Pittsburgh? (Washington, Bellevue: house, neighborhoods, buy)

[Fiddlehead]

Hey folks,

More grist for the mill. My wife plunked a magazine article in my lap this morning called "The 20 Minute Good Life." This article was making the points about walkable, bikable neighborhoods of towns, where people can park the car and get kids to school, dogs to parks, shopping, entertainment, and other services within 20 minutes. The term was invented by a new urbanist development firm in Portland, OR. However, the examples they present, Davis, CA, Missoula, MT are large college towns (50-60 thousand people, but many amenities), with telecommuters as the case studies. Obviously, if you telecommute, you can live anywhere. Much better if the folks actually worked in their town too.

So, my question. How would "old urbanist" Pittsburgh shake out with the 20 minute good life model? I would suspect Squirrel Hill/Oakland might work. True? Other good neighborhoods? North hills? Southside? Verona? Is it possible?

[Hopes]

The suburbs (Shaler, North Hills, etc.) aren't walkable to all amenities. You can buy a house within walking distance to a school or park, but you'll need a car for shopping and entertainment.

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.

Aspinwall has everything within walking distance except for parks.

All East End neighborhoods qualify for everything.

Trust me, the Southside isn't for you. It's the party neighborhood for all the college students and yinzers.

[jenniferprestia]

Personally - I'd plug every neighborhood into walkscore.com and see what comes up. I have found that very reliable.

[Hopes]

Jennifer,

Why can't you use your own first-hand knowledge of Pittsburgh?

The East End neighborhoods are very flat for the region with sidewalks everywhere and businesses, shopping, banks, entertainment, schools and parks all within walking distance.

[Copanut]

For my money, it's a 5 minute bike ride from my house to the Lake Tavern in North Park for 1.40 16 oz drafts!!!

[Hopes]

While walkscores is cool, it doesn't provide information on many neighborhoods in Pittsburgh.



Oakland doesn't come up on walkscores

Bloomfield doesn't come up on walkscores

Highland Park doesn't come up on walkscores



Squirrel Hill rates 95

Shadyside rates 83 (no idea why it's lower than Squirrel Hill which is hillier than Shadyside)

Point Breeze rates 77



But the above scores are irrelevant to the OP's question.

Squirrel Hill, Shadyside and Point Breeze are all within a 20 minute walk from one another.

All East End neighorhoods should rate 95 for the OP's purposes, including Oakland, Highland Park, and Bloomfield, since they're all within a 20 minute walk from one another.

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by Copanut

For my money, it's a 5 minute bike ride from my house to the Lake Tavern in North Park for 1.40 16 oz drafts!!!

That means that you can ride your bike to the movie theater too. Unfortunately, I think the OP's wife wants more walkability than the North Hills townships have to offer.

[Hopes]

I'm having fun with walkscores. It's funny.

Plug in Sharpsburg it gives Morningside locations, as if people walk on water across the river to go to the grocery store!

And Bellevue comes up with a rating of 89 with only the 7-11 for a grocery store! Yeah, right. It's walkable, but not by the OP's standards.

Mt. Washington scores 80 with many of the attractions being in downtown Pittsburgh! Not only does walkscores disregard rivers, but it disregards huge hillsides too!

That just goes to show that first hand knowledge counts!

[ctoocheck]

Bellevue does have a Kuhn's, it shows up on Walkscore when you click to expand the "grocery stores" part of the result. I'd bet, though, that Walkscore at least bases results on the geographic centerpoint of towns, which could kinda throw things off versus reality.

[Katiana]

I find walkscore very inaccurate. There is a park in my neighborhood that has been around at least 15 years that is not on their map. Just one example.