CHALLENGE: find out what it's like to find information about Pittsburgh (Lebanon: apartments, rent)

[Hopes]

Pick a city that you've never seen, just driven through, or even traveled there regularly for business.

Go the city-data forum for that city and start reading threads.

Put yourself into the mindset that you are hoping to learn the best place to buy a house or rent an apartment.

I just did this with Columbus, OH. I've been there plenty of times on business. I think it's a pretty city. I've heard great things about it.

When I read the forum, I'm completely lost. I've figured out that Dublin is probably like Pittsburgh's Fox Chapel. My conclusion is based on the claim the schools are great, you'll be keeping up with the Jone's, and you'll need to golf if you want to have any conversations with your neighbors. Apparently, golf is small talk in Dublin, like talking about the weather.

Even though I know I wouldn't want to live in Dublin, I can't help but realize that I have no idea what Dublin looks like, nor do I have any idea where it's located. Dublin is supposed to be 'pretty' because of zoning laws. Gee, that's nice to know but it doesn't really tell me anything.

Where's the shopping? How far is it from downtown? What's the commute like? Cna children ride bicycles in the streets? Is there a community pool? What other recreation facilities are available? Where are the schools? How big are the schools? Are the schools really so wonderful that I would want to live among Jone's who only talk about golf?

I'm not planning to Dublin, Columbus or anywhere. I just thought it would be interesting to see what it's like to come to the Pittsburgh forum in hopes of finding information.

I empathize with anyone who is trying to relocate Pittsburgh.

I will try to provide as much detail about an area as possible from this point forward.

Go pretend you're moving to another city! Give it a try!

[morefromcali]

Hi Hopes,

Thanks so much for posting that! It IS hard But you've been very helpful with my questions, and I think I'm as prepared as I can be for the big move. I feel confident that Mt. Lebanon is a good choice for our family. So if we are really going to leave all that is familiar behind and move across the country, I think we've chosen a place we can be happy -- at least if we aren't happy it won't be because we didn't really really try

Thanks again!

[kettlepot]

Of course it's important for the poster asking, to ask questions that are specific enough to elicit the detail they want.

Those annoying, I'm moving to ____, where should I live threads are next to useless. -- No wait, they ARE useless!

I'll go ahead in give myself a pat on the back for my
Is Pittsburgh for me? thread.

At least I asked some pretty specific questions. Though with more experience on the board I think I'd have gotten even more specific about nieghborhood attitudes and vibes.

What might be useful to people is giving them specific examples of something, a traffic bottleneck, interaction with a typical neighbor, description of the typical house so they can get a good feel for an area and it's socio/economic outlook.

And another thing we have to be cognizant of, is what we might consider bad in another part of the country might be quite tolerable. Perhaps open-ended qualifiers should at least be accompanied by some evidence, even if it's anecdotal.

[tmorrisn]

It was very difficult for us to narrow down neighborhoods, but if you're relocating, I think people do much more research than just reading city data. So please don't feel like you need to be more helpful. This forum is very active (and thus very helpful).

I posted on this forum and two other pittsburgh forums. I met one girl who lives a block away from our new house. I emailed with a current grad student (in a similar situation as me). I contacted former classmates from college living in the area to get their views. I also spent hours on the Port Authority website determining bus routes and commute times from every potential house and looking at crime statistics site for all of these areas.
We looked at 30 houses (all in one day) in six neighborhoods when we visited. I downloaded the free version of Google Earth which ended up being more fun than helpful - but still helpful in exploring our new neighborhood.

All in all - I think we made the best choice for our budget and our needs.
BTW - Potential relocators really need to review their commuting options. Parking at CMU is extremely expensive and not as accessible (by bus) from outlying areas as you might think. We had to reconsider living in Highland Park b/c of the 45 minute bus ride to CMU. The same for anywhere in the south (including Mt Washington).

[subdivisions]

Originally Posted by tmorrisn

It was very difficult for us to narrow down neighborhoods, but if you're relocating, I think people do much more research than just reading city data. So please don't feel like you need to be more helpful. This forum is very active (and thus very helpful).

I posted on this forum and two other pittsburgh forums. I met one girl who lives a block away from our new house. I emailed with a current grad student (in a similar situation as me). I contacted former classmates from college living in the area to get their views. I also spent hours on the Port Authority website determining bus routes and commute times from every potential house and looking at crime statistics site for all of these areas.
We looked at 30 houses (all in one day) in six neighborhoods when we visited. I downloaded the free version of Google Earth which ended up being more fun than helpful - but still helpful in exploring our new neighborhood.

All in all - I think we made the best choice for our budget and our needs.
BTW - Potential relocators really need to review their commuting options. Parking at CMU is extremely expensive and not as accessible (by bus) from outlying areas as you might think. We had to reconsider living in Highland Park b/c of the 45 minute bus ride to CMU. The same for anywhere in the south (including Mt Washington).

Just out of curiosity, where did you eventually end up living? And do you like it? (I'm asking because I know there are some new grad students on this board right now trying to pick a neighborhood and they might really benefit from hearing about your experience).

We just picked Squirrel Hill on a whim, after looking at some student reviews of various neighborhoods and crime statistics. My husband came out a month before the move date and found a random apartment. The apartment turned out to be terrible (bad landlord), but I ended up loving the neighborhood. I didn't know about City-Data Forum then. That might be just as well, because if I had read some of the posts here before I moved, I probably would have been (unnecessarily) terrified of moving to Pittsburgh. The last thing I needed at that time in my life was more anxiety about moving all the way across the country, or to have negative beliefs before I even got here. But as it turned out, Pittsburgh was the right city for me after all. I'm glad nobody tried to scare me off before I came here. As someone said in another thread recently, "Different strokes for different folks".

If I had to do it all over again, I'd probably spend more time looking at different apartments and talking to the landlords before picking one. Or I guess I should say I would have had my husband work harder at finding an apartment. That was the only big mistake we made when we moved here.

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by subdivisions

I didn't know about City-Data Forum then. That might be just as well, because if I had read some of the posts here before I moved, I probably would have been (unnecessarily) terrified of moving to Pittsburgh. The last thing I needed at that time in my life was more anxiety about moving all the way across the country, or to have negative beliefs before I even got here. But as it turned out, Pittsburgh was the right city for me after all. I'm glad nobody tried to scare me off before I came here.

I sense that happening when people are asking about the safety in Pittsburgh. I don't think the responders feel Pittsburgh is unsafe. I think they're just trying to be responsible in answering the question. Safe is a relative term. What one considers safe might not be to other people. For instance, I'd hate to tell a woman an area is safe and then have her move here and get rapped or something. I feel a moral and ethical responsibility to say "yea it's safe, but here are the violent crime statistics" so nobody can blame me if something happens to them. Plus, how do we know someone has common sense and street smarts. The person inquiring could be a crime waiting to happen.

If you live in the part of Squirrel Hill that statistically has 5 rapes per year, would you have been scared away from that part of Squirrel Hill if you had known that ahead of time?

[tmorrisn]

We ended up buying a house in Edgewood - which received mixed reviews on this board and a negative review by a grad student. Because of the high praise it received by a friend from college (who lives in the neighborhood) and the person living a block from us, we decided to consider the area. We move in a few weeks, so after living there for a while, I'll hopefully be able to provide more insight.

Squirrel Hill and Shadyside were recommended by most students/professors - but having a decent backyard was too important to us and homes with land were too expensive in Squirrel Hill. There were only a handful of houses in our price range anyway. Shadyside prices were higher than in Baltimore! Again, not worth it. We did LOVE Squirrel Hill and Regent Square. If we do decide to settle in the area following my grad program, we would probably try to buy there.