Moving to Pitt for Grad School--better sense of the neighborhoods. (Highland Park: houses, to live)

[jay5835]

Originally Posted by ferrarisnowday

Bloomfield is just as safe and close to Pitt as both Squirrel Hill and Shadyside. It borders Oakland and is still just a single short bus ride away.

Unless a lot of bus routes have changed in the last two years (and there have been many changes, generally speaking), there are many more buses running between either Squirrel Hill or Shadyside and Oakland than Bloomfield and Oakland. Bloomfield should have cheaper apartments, however.

[hnsq]

Originally Posted by ferrarisnowday

Bloomfield is just as safe and close to Pitt as both Squirrel Hill and Shadyside. It borders Oakland and is still just a single short bus ride away.

That is very true, but it is a real pain to get from bloomfield to Pitt if you don't drive. You either have to walk 30 minutes, walk to center ave to take a bus, or wait for the 54c, which does not come very often.

I actually live in Bloomfield now, and while it is a great neighborhood, there are really no good direct bus lines to Pitt's main campus.

[Lobick]

Originally Posted by hnsq

That is very true, but it is a real pain to get from bloomfield to Pitt if you don't drive. You either have to walk 30 minutes, walk to center ave to take a bus, or wait for the 54c, which does not come very often.

I actually live in Bloomfield now, and while it is a great neighborhood, there are really no good direct bus lines to Pitt's main campus.

Except the 54 (C&D) that you mentioned. It runs every 20 mins or so, which I think is fair to characterize as often. As I previously mentioned, the 54C was my ride to grad school everyday and I had very few problems with it.

Just want to make sure that the OP doesn't rule out Bloomfield for that reason without specifics.

[hnsq]

Originally Posted by Lobick

Except the 54 (C&D) that you mentioned. It runs every 20 mins or so, which I think is fair to characterize as often. As I previously mentioned, the 54C was my ride to grad school everyday and I had very few problems with it.

Just want to make sure that the OP doesn't rule out Bloomfield for that reason without specifics.

It runs every 20 minutes during normal business commuting times. If you have to be in early or stay late (as a grad student needs to), it runs much more infrequently. Also, it is rarely on time. There are times you actually wait 40 minutes for a bus, which is very unreasonable.

Again - I live in Bloomfield and would walk to Pitt before actually risking being late because of waiting for the 54c. Why choose to live somewhere with only one bus when you could live near 5th or center ave and have a half dozen busses to choose from?

[ferraris]

Originally Posted by hnsq

Stay in Shadyside or north Squirrel Hill (near Forbes ave). As a student, that is simply the most practical to actually get to oakland without driving. Your student ID will get you on any city bus for free, so stay near major bus lines (5th ave, center ave in Shadyside, Forbes ave in Squirrel Hill). There are parts of north oakland that are very safe, but until you know the city and can feel that out for yourself, I wouldn't recommend you risk it.

Essentially stay:

South of Center Ave
West of Shady Ave
East of N. Craig St
North of Forward Ave

And you will be safe. You will see Shadyside and Squirrel Hill apartments in that area, but you won't get much safer than that and still be within a bus ride to Pitt.

Originally Posted by Lobick

Except the 54 (C&D) that you mentioned. It runs every 20 mins or so, which I think is fair to characterize as often. As I previously mentioned, the 54C was my ride to grad school everyday and I had very few problems with it.

Just want to make sure that the OP doesn't rule out Bloomfield for that reason without specifics.

There is also the 93, which runs every 15 minutes via the Bloomfield Bridge. Overall, Public transportation options are very good in Bloomfield. It's a single bus ride away from Downtown, Oakland, Southside, Northside, Strip District, Lawrenceville, East Liberty, Squirrel HIll, Shadyside, and even the Waterfront. I don't know that any neighborhood other than downtown can offer that many top destinations without having to transfer.

[hnsq]

Originally Posted by ferrarisnowday

There is also the 93, which runs every 15 minutes via the Bloomfield Bridge. Overall, Public transportation options are very good in Bloomfield. It's a single bus ride away from Downtown, Oakland, Southside, Northside, Strip District, Lawrenceville, East Liberty, Squirrel HIll, Shadyside, and even the Waterfront. I don't know that any neighborhood other than downtown can offer that many top destinations without having to transfer.

As someone who lives in Bloomfield and has tried get to Oakland on three days per week for over a year now, I would strongly advise against it, unless you like walking 30 minutes each way. Regardless of what the online bus schedule says, public transit from Bloomfield to Oakland is miserable. Bloomfield to the strip or downtown is great, but to Oakland it is actually faster to walk than to take a bus.

[Lobick]

Originally Posted by hnsq

It runs every 20 minutes during normal business commuting times. If you have to be in early or stay late (as a grad student needs to), it runs much more infrequently. Also, it is rarely on time. There are times you actually wait 40 minutes for a bus, which is very unreasonable.

Again - I live in Bloomfield and would walk to Pitt before actually risking being late because of waiting for the 54c. Why choose to live somewhere with only one bus when you could live near 5th or center ave and have a half dozen busses to choose from?

This is a relatively trivial point but at most, it's a half hour wait after 8pm:

http://www.portauthority.org/PAAC/apps/pdfs/54.pdf

If you know the times that the bus comes, like a regular commuter would and should, it's not a big deal at all and in my opinion far from "unreasonable".

If transit was the sole consideration, it probably would make more sense to live along 5th, but that wasn't the OP's inquiry. My concern is that your transit critique would lead them to eliminate Bloomfield from consideration due to unworkable public transit situation, which I don't feel exists.

As an aside, in 3 years of using the 54C I never had a bus pass me by due to being full but saw that happen on the 60s & 70s sometimes and heard accounts of students being late to morning classes because the buses were too full with commuters from points east to stop. Take it FWIW.

[Lobick]

Originally Posted by ferrarisnowday

There is also the 93, which runs every 15 minutes via the Bloomfield Bridge. Overall, Public transportation options are very good in Bloomfield. It's a single bus ride away from Downtown, Oakland, Southside, Northside, Strip District, Lawrenceville, East Liberty, Squirrel HIll, Shadyside, and even the Waterfront. I don't know that any neighborhood other than downtown can offer that many top destinations without having to transfer.

I was unfamiliar with the 93 but that looks like a great and needed route. Opens up Lawrenceville for the OP even more.

[Lobick]

Originally Posted by hnsq

As someone who lives in Bloomfield and has tried get to Oakland on three days per week for over a year now, I would strongly advise against it, unless you like walking 30 minutes each way. Regardless of what the online bus schedule says, public transit from Bloomfield to Oakland is miserable. Bloomfield to the strip or downtown is great, but to Oakland it is actually faster to walk than to take a bus.

If it's such a hassle, why do you continue to live there?

[jay5835]

Originally Posted by Lobick

I was unfamiliar with the 93 but that looks like a great and needed route. Opens up Lawrenceville for the OP even more.

As long as it doesn't get canceled, like the last Lawrenceville-Oakland bus route, which didn't last a year, IIRC.