Is Plum the next domino in the east burbs downfall? (Pittsburgh: middle-class, section 8)

[Copanut]

This place is nuts, and a little fruity.

[BrianTH]

Some people shouldn't be encouraged to come out of their shells.

[LIRefugee]

I hear that Plum is just peachy.

[Copanut]

I dated a girl from Plum, she had kisses sweeter than wine.

[Corvidae22]

Peach!

I dunno, I just wanted to play.

[BrianTH]

I think this joke has become overripe.

[ditchdigger]

These fruit puns are the pits.

[sparrowmint]

Probably, since all this stuff strikes me as at least partially a self-fulfilling prophecy. Start talking about how something's going to decline, scare good people away from moving in, scare existing good people into selling, and what's left?

[Caladium]

^ True. As they say... a bad thought is a bad apple. And as Donny Osmond says, one bad apple can spoil the whole bunch, girl.

[eschaton]

I think this thread is coming at things the wrong way.

Penn Hills didn't just go downhill because it was adjacent to Wilkinsburg and Homewood. If all that was required was being adjacent, Shadyside would have folded due to being next to East Liberty ages ago. Although there was a bit of roughness in the northern portions of Shadyside, that all got dealt with for obvious reasons.

The fact is, mid-century suburbs are just undesirable. They don't have the quaint features, or nice architecture, of the early streetcar suburbs, and they don't have the large home sizes of our local McMansion exurbs. They're in decline across the country.

I don't know a lot about Plum, but my understanding is it's wealthier than Monroeville, but not as wealthy as Murraysville. So I doubt it's going to go downhill much. If I were to guess, I'd say more downhill trajectory is likely in Verona, Monroeville, North Versailles, and Woodland Hills in general (minus Edgewood/Swissvale).

In addition, there's no reason to assume that the East will remain the only area. West Mifflin has been on a downward course for quite awhile. Although lily-white, I've thought for awhile that the Baldwin/Brentwood/Castle Shannon area is ripe to turn into serious decline as well, for similar reasons - particularly now that there's gangbangers and junkies (white and black) all the way through to Carrick and Overbrook. No one whose not a local wants to move to those municipalities really. If the West End gets really bad I could see people fleeing to Greentree and the Ingram/Crafton area. And I think it's a given that Northside gentrification will push much of the poor black community ultimately out of the city - probably the Bellvue/Avalon area.