Is Pittsburgh for me? (Lebanon, Fox Chapel: appointed, lease, crime)

[dnvrsoul]

HI-I visited Pittsburgh this past weekend...(see my post thank you Pittsburgh). I really loved it-most people seem to be friendly-and the majority of the places I saw were nice....
How is the city? Day to day? Good, bad? I know about the roads
A little background....I'm originally from Denver and my other half is from Pittsburgh but hasn't lived there in 20 years-we are both college educated professionals...we currently live in St. Petersburg/Tampa FL (Detroit with Palm Trees). We were looking at Cranberry....

I know people will give it to me straight here....

Thanks!

[Aqua Teen Carl]

Pro's:

- Great cost of living
- Lots of jobs if you're in IT/Healthcare
- Mostly nice people
- Great restaurants
- Lots of things to do
- Rich history and architecture

Cons:

- Taxes are high
- Pay is low
- Weather can be pretty horrendous
- The roads....
- Corrupt politicians
- People are very set in their ways/close minded etc.

What are you looking to get out of the city? Also, you might want to watch out from some advice from the positivity squad here. They'll highlight all of the amazing things about this city but completely sugar coat all the bad things.

[dnvrsoul]

Originally Posted by Aqua Teen Carl

Pro's:

- Great cost of living
- Lots of jobs if you're in IT/Healthcare
- Mostly nice people
- Great restaurants
- Lots of things to do
- Rich history and architecture

Cons:

- Taxes are high
- Pay is low
- Weather can be pretty horrendous
- The roads....
- Corrupt politicians
- People are very set in their ways/close minded etc.

What are you looking to get out of the city? Also, you might want to watch out from some advice from the positivity squad here. They'll highlight all of the amazing things about this city but completely sugar coat all the bad things.

I'm looking to get out of Florida and get a decent job-I can't find a job in Florida right now-my other half is getting a CPA and has a good job-but terrible benefits-we want to live in a city where you don't have to be scared of violence, live in a good neighborhood and have a better quality of life.

[BrianTH]

I think to really answer your question, we'd need to know more about you and what sort of lifestyle you are looking for. That said:

Pittsburgh has relatively reasonable housing prices in a wide variety of neighborhoods--from Downtown highrises to a variety of historic walkable neighborhoods to new-built autocentric master-planned suburbs, and everything in between. The built environment in general skews toward older structures, but there is a full range present.

It has decent public transit for a city of its size and density, and driving commutes usually aren't too bad as long as you are reasonably strategic about where you live in relation to where you work.

The quality of the schools varies, but there are affordable homes in some very good districts, and some charter schools, and a variety of not-too-expensive private schools (Catholic schools tending to be the cheapest, but even the top private secular schools aren't as expensive as equivalent schools in some other cities).

Crime is relatively low overall for a city of Pittsburgh's size, and the crime we do have is relatively concentrated and thus it is very easy to pretty much stick to relatively low-crime areas.

It has a relative abundance of cultural amenities, in part as a legacy of its former boom years. This includes museums, performing arts, and of course sports (with all three major league sports teams now having relatively new venues).

Although it went through serious population loss issues following the steel bust of the early 1980s, the population situation has since stabilized. There is still a remnant of older people from Pittsburgh's blue-collar past, but the younger cohorts are on average some of the best-educated in the country, with relatively high per capita income to match.

Pittsburgh's economy is now pretty diverse, including: eds and meds; business, professional, and financial services; higher-end manufacturing; chemicals; energy; transportation; and so on. As the population issues are turning around, it looks like population-dependent fields such as retail and restaurants, construction, and so on are also starting to turn around. Pittsburgh more or less dodged the housing bubble, and overall its diverse economy has held up relatively well in the recession, although the unemployment rate has gone up a bit more than expected thanks to increases in the labor force (which implies jobseekers have been moving here during the recession).

The weather is overall fairly moderate for a four-seasons zone. Precipitation is relatively even through the year (with a little more in the warm months), and it is substantially sunnier in the warm months. You'll hear a lot about cloudiness in Pittsburgh, and it is true that we are on the low end for sunniness among major U.S. metros (in the same range as Seattle and Portland). For comparison, Pittsburgh averages 45% possible sunshine (percentage of daylight hours which are sunny), whereas Cleveland is 49% and Philly is 56%.

It is fairly easy to get from Pittsburgh to lots of other places--much of the East Coast and Midwest is within driving distance, and the airport is also quite nice, albeit underutilized: it was overbuilt for use as a USAir hub, and then they declared bankruptcy and pulled out of their lease. We've got far fewer direct flights than before as a result, but pricing is significantly better, and the airport id slowly adding back more direct flights from a variety of carriers. In the immediate surroundings there is quite a bit of outdoor recreation opportunities--hiking, camping, climbing, boating, rafting, and so on.

Last but not least, the dynamic local topography gives Pittsburgh a fairly unusual cityscape. There are lots of small neighborhoods tucked into the various plateaus, valleys, and hillsides, often with their own little commercial areas, which take on their own vibe. There is lots of green space scattered around, some in the form of parks, and some just because the land in question is too steep to develop, and a lot of it is pretty wild for an urban area. The rivers are naturally a defining feature, and they are used for boating and fishing (they are actually now holding bass tournaments here). Bridges and public steps are very abundant. Our roads are nowhere close to resembling a grid (although there are microgrids in various neighborhoods).

So that's Pittsburgh. If that sounds promising, maybe you can tell us more about what you might be looking for, and we can give some more specific information and suggestions.

[Aqua Teen Carl]

Originally Posted by dnvrsoul

I'm looking to get out of Florida and get a decent job-I can't find a job in Florida right now-my other half is getting a CPA and has a good job-but terrible benefits-we want to live in a city where you don't have to be scared of violence, live in a good neighborhood and have a better quality of life.

Pittsburgh has it's fair share of sketchy areas (as do any city), but as a whole it's pretty good. You'll see people recommend the same neighborhoods over and over:

Squirrel Hill
Shady Side
Mt. Lebanon
Point Breeze
Fox Chapel

While those are good (and mostly expensive) there's plenty of other ones to go around. Using the main City Data website for statistics is always a great choice for starters, then look at Zillow for housing prices, then just reply to this thread asking for specific info.

Just prepare yourself for our winter weather, I'm sure that coming from Florida it's quite the jump. We have some really bad ice storms every year.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by dnvrsoul

I'm looking to get out of Florida and get a decent job-I can't find a job in Florida right now-my other half is getting a CPA and has a good job-but terrible benefits-we want to live in a city where you don't have to be scared of violence, live in a good neighborhood and have a better quality of life.

Pittsburgh is potentially promising, then--it certainly isn't much like Florida, and we have lots of affordable, pleasant, low-crime neighborhoods.

But obviously the key is getting jobs. As I noted above, the Pittsburgh economy has held up relatively well, but it didn't dodge the recession entirely. Ideally, at least one of you would secure a job before moving here, and in any event you should be prepared for a lengthy search before getting something.

[dnvrsoul]

We wouldn't leave without one of us having a job-I'm sure my other half will be more marketable with accounting experience and sitting for the CPA-
I do not like Florida (saying it mildly) and I want a change-trust me I never in a million years thought I'd consider moving to Pittsburgh-but being there changed my mind-
I want to live somewhere that isn't so depressing..it's hard to understand if one has never lived in Florida-not much in terms of salary even though food and other living expenses are through the roof-employers tell you "we pay you in sunshine.."

[rhondee]

Originally Posted by dnvrsoul

I want to live somewhere that isn't so depressing..it's hard to understand if one has never lived in Florida-not much in terms of salary even though food and other living expenses are through the roof-employers tell you "we pay you in sunshine.."

To be honest-with no sugar coating- there are areas in and around the Burgh that are quite old, rundown or abandoned which can look depressing .Some people who come here and don't know or don't expect to see that and then they are disappointed by it.

This didn't necessarily happen by choice.The Burgh is an old city (252 yrs old) with a heavy industrial past. It's part of the fabric of the city. The collapse of the steel industry led to loss of tens of thousands of jobs leaving it's mark as evidenced by some decay,neglect and abandonment.You can't expect all shiny and new here.

But decay is obviously not everywhere or people would never be able to refer to Pittsburgh being such a beautiful city.

Having said that, I would like to balance that by saying there are plenty of old neighborhoods that are old but kept up nicely. And b/c some may look gritty doesn't necessarily mean they are crime ridden-which,to me, is much more important than beauty alone.

Also, many neighborhoods are undergoing revitalization and razing some of the abandoned buildings. I'm confident it's just a matter of time when the those decayed areas will be few and far between.

[Copanut]

Do not come here without a job lined up. Years ago, early 80's, I met two CPAs that drove from Minneapolis on a whim to live in Pgh. They got jobs the next day with Rockwell, remember that company? Not so easy these days to get a good high paying job that quickly. As Rhondee stated, this area is 252 years old, yeah, there will be a lot of OLD buildings. Amazes me how some people complain how old everything is .

Good Luck!

...but you will miss the sun.

[BrianTH]

There are problems here and also lots of good things happening, so I think it can be as depressing or uplifting as you want it to be.