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I may move to the Pittsburgh area this Fall from SoCal. At first I was thrilled with the notion since Pittsburgh seems to be one the greatest cities in America. Just follow all of the rankings and national press highlights over the past few years and most anyone would agree.
I am well trained in medicine, as is my spouse, so the job prospects are terrific for us. We also have five small children. Again, Pittsburgh is highly regarded for familes and health professionals.
We also are a black / asian couple. So it is important to us that our children (one iwht special needs) feel accepted and safe, not to mention free from low expectation.
And this is why I am finally posting. It seems that _every_ data point on blacks in the region is not just bad, but abysmal. How can this be. Data points for asian seems few and far between, with the exception of transient students.
Basically, I am asking for any first hand accounts on what life is really like for both black and asian people living there.
Like I said, PIttsburgh seemed almost perfect. But after reading articles and blog posts from about 2007-2011, I am now concerned that the asian community may have little to no cultural outlets, and that the it would be very hard on my family as we associate heavily with black american culture.
Please. This is not to start a mud slinging thread. I am really asking for data points to put my mind at ease that Pittsburgh is indeed good for all types of people.
You are right that the statistics on our black residents are shockingly bad. I don't really have a complete, well-documented explanation for that, but I don't think it is because of any special animus here (not that this is a post-racial paradise, but I don't think race relations are worse here than the U.S. norm). I suspect it more has to do with the lingering effects of the steel bust, which was devastating for working class employment and also greatly undermined lots of specific neighborhoods, which came on the heels of some typical, but nonetheless very counter-productive and ill-conceived, urban-fabric destroying projects, and I believe all that collectively may have had a strong negative impact on the economic track of way too many black people in the area. In turn we haven't done enough in terms of public policy to specifically remedy those problems, and meanwhile we haven't had much in-migration of successful black professionals and entrepreneurs from other cities, which I think could make a big difference, and I still hope will happen at some point.
Which sort of brings me back to the OP. On the one hand, I don't want to claim those statistics are lying. They are not. On the other hand, I really want people like the OP to strongly considering migrating here anyway, because I think that could be a big part of addressing those problems.
As for Asians, those ethnicities are actually growing in share, and I think you will find small but active Asian communities of many different types.
Finally, I might note I think this is a pretty good place for mixed-heritage people--not perfect, but I think we are sort of relatively used to dealing with that concept as a result of prior big immigration waves followed by generations of intermarrying.
Your children will be safe here. I guarantee it. Pittsburghers are known for being tollerant. I'm not just talking race. Even for homosexuals, political, religious beliefs, or whatever. Pittsburgh is a paint your house purple and few people will care type place.
Pittsburgh isn't a diverse city. There's self segregation among the lower class. Most integrated neighborhoods are upper class. The middle class areas are slowly becoming more diverse. This is due to a greater percentage of Asians tend to be highly educated, successful and affluent, and a greater percentage of Blacks tend to be struggling.
I agree that there are few cultural outlets for Asians here because the Asian population is very integrated into the general population. Most successful black families have also integrated into suburban culture.
I would chose housing location/school district according to your income bracket and level of education.
Are there any suggestions on locations / school districts?
It would be wonderful to find a diverse student population where access to honors, gifted, AP, STEM, extra-curricular, etc. is plentiful.
We do like the notion of living in the city proper since there seem to be a large number of city parks, libraries, community centers available.
The earliest we can visit is May, so all we do now is collect info from the www.
Occasionally we have found a sad phenomenon (not in Pittsburgh, but other places) where the schools do indeed have rich mix of people and good selection of programs, but the advanced programs have very low participation rates for minorities.
Does anyone have any insight to how the city schools are structured / performing ?
Our older sons love science and math and sports. They are in a gifted-type program now.
Given what we read online, the city itself sounds like a wonderful place to live so no real questions there.
(BTW, please excuse my typos. My husband is going to laugh when I show him tonight )
You have to go school by school in the City, but some of them are doing a pretty good job serving a diverse student population. However, I don't really know off hand about participation in advanced programs by non-white students. In any event, for lots of info on the City schools, you can start here:
Welcome To A+ Schools! (http://www.aplusschools.org/index_current.shtml - broken link)
A lot of the higher-rated suburban districts are not very ethnically or class diverse. But if I was going to look for a public district in the suburbs, I'd probably start with the Fox Chapel district, which includes a variety of municipalities and has at least a little class and ethnic diversity. It is also close to the City--in fact I think of Aspinwall, one of the Fox Chapel munis, as basically an honorary member of the East End (it is very similar in feel to neighborhoods like Highland Park and Squirrel Hill, and just across a bridge from Highland Park).
One general resource you might be interested in is this:
I particularly like looking at their "overachiever" ranking, which evaluates how well districts are doing in light of the number of disadvantaged students they are serving. Their methodology isn't very sophisticated but at least it can serve as a starting point. I might note both Fox Chapel and the City district do pretty well in that ranking.
The East End of the city might fit the bill for you. Particularly the neighborhoods that feed into Taylor Allderdice High School. Lots of people from far and wide who come to the city to work in the medical centers, universities and start-ups live in the area and it's a pretty diverse population. As Brian mentioned, the Fox Chapel suburban area may also meet your needs. The North Allegheny school district in the northern suburbs has a large Aisan population, but not much of an African American population.
Overall, I think that you'll find the city and suburbs a welcoming community, no matter what. It's only been within the last 10 - 15 years that we've begun to attract more diverse populations, so you would be helping increase those numbers. Welcome.
My recommendations for city neighborhoods would be Shadyside, Friendship or Point Breeze. By my estimations, Shadyside is about 5% black and 15% Asian; Friendship is about 15% black and 10% Asian, and Point Breeze is about 5% black and 5% Asian. All three neighborhoods are reasonably safe, and I doubt that anybody would look at either of you cross-eyed regardless of whether you're together or by yourselves. All three neighborhoods are located near East Liberty, which is gentrifying and becoming a commercial hub in Pittsburgh's East End, especially near Penn Circle. Shadyside has a small business district as well, centered on Walnut Street and Ellsworth Avenue. Friendship and Point Breeze are mostly residential. I know that Point Breeze feeds into Taylor Allderdice High School, but I'm not sure about Shadyside or Friendship.
My recommendations for suburbs would be Edgewood and Monroeville. Edgewood actually borders the city near Point Breeze, and is an early-20th-Century suburb, which means that it has a street grid and lots of nice older houses. According to the 2010 Census, it's 9% Black and 3% Asian, so neither of you will stick out too much. Braddock Avenue is sort of the central business district, although it straddles the border between Edgewood and Pittsburgh. (That area is also known as Regent Square.) One drawback is that Edgewood is part of the Woodland Hills School District, which is one of the worst in Allegheny County, if not Pennsylvania. Another is that it's adjacent to Wilkinsburg and Swissvale, which have higher crime rates.
Monroeville is a post-war suburb farther out, and it's probably Pittsburgh's most diverse suburb. According to the 2010 Census, it's 12% black and 6% Asian. It's the commercial hub in Pittsburgh's eastern suburbs, with most businesses around Monroeville Mall and along William Penn Highway (U.S. 22 Business), and a few more along Mosside Boulevard. There's a wide variety in the housing stock, with prices generally ranging from $100K to $300K. The Gateway School District is pretty good too.
Aside from Monroeville, other suburbs with a black middle class are Churchill, Forest Hills and Wilkins Township. They're all primarily residential, although Forest Hills has some businesses along Ardmore Boulevard (U.S. 30). Unfortunately, like Edgewood, they're all part of the Woodland Hills School District, although it should be noted that students from Churchill, Edgewood, Forest Hills and Wilkins Township probably aren't the ones making Woodland Hills such a poor school district. It's more than likely the students from Swissvale, Rankin, Braddock and East Pittsburgh, which are basically ghettos in or near the Monongahela River Valley.
Another word of advice: avoid Penn Hills. The Penn Hills School District is even worse than the Woodland Hills School District, and while there are some middle-class black residents, most are not. It's one of the rare places in Allegheny County with a shrinking Asian population, and it's virtually nonexistent now. If you're a doctor, then you can afford a nicer house than you'd find in Penn Hills anyway. Most of the housing stock in Penn Hills is Levittown-style from the 1950's and 1960's.
Pittsburgh certainly isn't Washington DC or Atlanta when it comes to an upwardly-mobile black population, but you gotta start somewhere, and there has been an increasing population of upwardly-mobile blacks in the last 10 years. Prior to 1990, the black middle class was virtually nonexistent in Pittsburgh, although that can be partially attributed to the economic collapse the region dealt with during the 1980's, which basically delayed by about 20 years the diversifying demographic trends found in other cities. But while there's not a very large black middle class in the area, it does exist, and it is growing, mostly in the eastern suburbs.
As for the Asian population, it's there too, just decentralized. The city of Pittsburgh is between 4% and 5% Asian, and there are three clusters in the suburbs, centered on Franklin Park to the north, Monroeville to the east, and Mt. Lebanon to the south. There are various Asian markets and restaurants in and around the city, although they, too, are scattered. There seems to be a good amount of stuff in the city's East End neighborhoods, though. And if you're into Asian film, the Pittsburgh Silk Screen Film Festival is held every May, and attendance has increased every year since it started in 2006.
I actually put together a pair of maps of Allegheny County using information from the 2010 Census. The first one illustrates the black population percentage of all municipalities in the county, and the second one illustrates the Asian population percentage:
Racism isn't as big of a problem as it used to be, but like anywhere else, there will be an episode of racial insensitivity from time to time, generally just remarks and provocation. However, there were two racially-motivated shooting rampages in Pittsburgh in 2000, one by Ronald Taylor, a black man who killed white people, and one by Richard Baumhammers, a white man who killed black, Asian and Jewish people. Both men have been sentenced to death. (Baumhammers was supposed to be executed in 2010, but a judge put a stay on his execution.) I think those two shooting rampages served as a wake-up call that race relations needed to improve. It's been 12 years now, and hopefully it'll never happen again.
Last edited by Craziaskowboi; 02-25-2012 at 08:42 PM..
I rode the wave from So Cal to Pittsburgh about 10 years ago now and never looked back (except during the coldest of winter nights around here!). You'll find the people here much more real and genuine, though you'll also find that issues of diversity still have a long way to go when compared to a place like So Cal. Lots of reasons why, but just being aware of that is something to keep in mind.
Taylor Allderdice is the highest quality Pittsburgh City high school and CAPA is a great one, too. Another option in the city schools is to enroll the kids in the International Baccalaureate program at Pittsburgh Obama Academy of International Studies (Pittsburgh Obama 6-12). I've taught the IB program for a few years and it is good, though I do not know of the general quality of Obama Academy as far as general schooling and students goes.
What kind of neighborhood are you looking for? City neighborhoods I'd recommend would be Highland Park, Shadyside, Squirrel Hill, or North Oakland.
Monroeville is an eastern suburb and the center of the Indian cultural spots in Pittsburgh (Hindu, Jain, and Sikh temples and amazing Indian restaurants like Udipi). Monroeville is also the home to Gateway School District which is a high achieving and diverse school.
Take your time. Don't rush it, and you'll find a great spot. Welcome.
Focus on the Asian population map instead of the black population map.
The Asian population map shows where the wealth is located and the better suburban school districts.
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