For those who left PGH looking for greener pastures... (Pittsburgh: student loans, attorney)

[ElijahAstin]

Originally Posted by Aqua Teen Carl

Well I don't think "great place to raise a family" really applies here since we have sh*t middle school and high schools. Believe me, I went to them. Perhaps "great place to raise a family if you have money to live in the suburbs or can afford to send your kids to private school" is more appropriate. Also no, Pittsburgh is not totally boring if you dig really really deep to find things that interest you.

I'm really thinking more along the lines of places like smaller towns and far out suburbs that constantly get that title. For example, Hopewell is a "great place to raise a family" but zzzzzzz.

Colfax/Minadeo and Allderdice are sh*t? And I never had any trouble finding fun and interesting things to do in/around Pittsburgh.

[sealie]

Cranberry is supposed to be a great place to raise a family, not Pittsburgh.

What ATC is saying largely holds. Safe neighborhood, great schools, lots of little league and youth soccer leagues, houses on big lots. Very little of this excites singles.

[ElijahAstin]

Originally Posted by sealie

Cranberry is supposed to be a great place to raise a family, not Pittsburgh.

What ATC is saying largely holds. Safe neighborhood, great schools, lots of little league and youth soccer leagues, houses on big lots. Very little of this excites singles.

But that's far from the only type of place "great for raising a family."

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by Aqua Teen Carl

Well I don't think "great place to raise a family" really applies here since we have sh*t middle school and high schools. Believe me, I went to them. Perhaps "great place to raise a family if you have money to live in the suburbs or can afford to send your kids to private school" is more appropriate. Also no, Pittsburgh is not totally boring if you dig really really deep to find things that interest you.

I'm really thinking more along the lines of places like smaller towns and far out suburbs that constantly get that title. For example, Hopewell is a "great place to raise a family" but zzzzzzz.

If you're paying next to nothing for a house in a perfectly safe yet underlooked neighborhood in the city (i.e. Troy Hill) that also happens to be in a below-average public school feeder pattern (hence contributing to the depressed price), then you can most certainly afford to send your children to private schools if you're middle-class.

Not every middle-class family wants a $300,000 4-BR/2.5 BA 3,000 square foot new construction vinyl box on a cul-de-sac in Cranberry. For the family that wants to simplify their lives and buy a $60,000 3-BR/1.5 BA 1,300 square foot older home in a place like Troy Hill the city really CAN be a great place to raise a family. Not every child needs their own room and/or own ensuite bathroom. Not every child needs a media room or game room. Our family of four grew up in a 1,400-square-foot home with one bathroom, and other than almost peeing my pants when I had to go #1 while my dad was in the bathroom doing #2 with the sports section of the newspaper it was a very comfortable existence. If you're saving $1,000/month on a mortgage payment, then you can definitely apply that towards an education fund to send your children to private schools.

[Aqua Teen Carl]

Originally Posted by HeavenWood

Colfax/Minadeo and Allderdice are sh*t? And I never had any trouble finding fun and interesting things to do in/around Pittsburgh.

I don't know much about middle schools these days (I went to Knoxville... yeah) but it's not like you can fit the entire city in Allderdice or something. Besides, if that is your top high school that's not something to be proud of really.

[ElijahAstin]

Originally Posted by Aqua Teen Carl

I don't know much about middle schools these days (I went to Knoxville... yeah) but it's not like you can fit the entire city in Allderdice or something. Besides, if that is your top high school that's not something to be proud of really.

Obviously not everyone can go to Colfax/Minadeo --> Allderdice, making homes in the catchment come at somewhat of a cost premium, but unlike a lot of other cities, that premium is something a conventionally upper middle class family can afford while still living comfortably.

And Allderdice is "dragged down" in part because it's a neighborhood high school in addition to being a magnet, but the magnet program itself is quite excellent. I'd have no qualms sending a child there.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by HeavenWood

Colfax/Minadeo and Allderdice are sh*t?

I was wondering the same thing. I work with numerous colleagues who hailed from that feeder pattern, and you need not spend $969,000 on a grandiose "North of Forbes" home to send your children to school there. Squirrel Hill posters like Stijl Council can correct me if I'm mistaken, but don't Lincoln Place, New Homestead, Hays, Greenfield, and Hazelwood also all feed into these patterns? While Hazelwood is a little rough around the edges it's likely to be improving in the coming years now that the massive ALMONO redevelopment project has been approved. You can find a livable home at a reasonable price point in any of those other neighborhoods I mentioned, and you can occasionally even find a deal right in South Squirrel Hill (below Forward Avenue).

You can also follow the path of Lobick and others who are steadfast on helping to improve their neighborhood public schools organically by sending their children there and keeping up with their education. That's what my partner and I plan to do if and when we adopt in the future. Why should we be "chased" out of prime neighborhoods like the Mexican War Streets or Polish Hill just because a disproportionate number of disadvantaged minority children are dragging down our neighborhood public schools' test scores and rankings while the "sheeple" all follow rank-and-file and enroll their kids in private schools? I'm hoping eschaton will do the same and decide to stay in Lawrenceville in the coming years as his child(ren) reach school age instead of hopping over to Fox Chapel.

Charter/magnet schools are also an option, correct?

[Aqua Teen Carl]

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

If you're paying next to nothing for a house in a perfectly safe yet underlooked neighborhood in the city (i.e. Troy Hill) that also happens to be in a below-average public school feeder pattern (hence contributing to the depressed price), then you can most certainly afford to send your children to private schools if you're middle-class.

Not every middle-class family wants a $300,000 4-BR/2.5 BA 3,000 square foot new construction vinyl box on a cul-de-sac in Cranberry. For the family that wants to simplify their lives and buy a $60,000 3-BR/1.5 BA 1,300 square foot older home in a place like Troy Hill the city really CAN be a great place to raise a family. Not every child needs their own room and/or own ensuite bathroom. Not every child needs a media room or game room. Our family of four grew up in a 1,400-square-foot home with one bathroom, and other than almost peeing my pants when I had to go #1 while my dad was in the bathroom doing #2 with the sports section of the newspaper it was a very comfortable existence. If you're saving $1,000/month on a mortgage payment, then you can definitely apply that towards an education fund to send your children to private schools.

Don't really want to get into a class discussion with you Speedy, but I don't know anyone who is middle class (actual middle class that is) that can afford to send their kids to private school. It's very very expensive, especially if you have more than one child. Unfortunately people have to worry about that sort of thing since our country's public schooling is so poor compared to other first world nations.

[SteelCityRising]

This topic just really riles me up because it seems like nationwide (just not in Pittsburgh) the basic mantra is:

"Move to the suburbs when you have kids..."

"The city is no place to raise a family..."

"Public schools in the city are universally worse than public schools in the suburbs because..."


People on here know I harbor animus towards newer suburban areas that suck as many upstanding middle-class families out of struggling cities as they can, and one major factor in helping to reverse that trend is to mitigate the fears parents have about their children turning out okay living in the city.

[sealie]

I've been idly wondering for a while now if Allderdice is that great or if it's just the best school in a city of lackluster schools. But at the same time I would not fret about best-of-the-best schools if the children are safe and encouraged to perform to the best of their ability. Some kids fall through the cracks and it messes up the test numbers, but that's not necessarily something I would worry about. It's the schools with violence and a culture of underachievement and underpreparation for college that concern me.