What are your thoughts on Millvale? (Pittsburgh, Etna: transplants, neighborhood, buy)

[grep]

Originally Posted by eschaton

Some of the industrial properties may be in a flood zone, but none of the surviving houses are.

Eschaton, you are usually spot on, but some houses are actually in a "0.2% Annual Chance Flood Hazard" according to Fema: Hatfield between 44th and 47th (including all those new fancy houses) and Willow between 43rd and 40th, plus a couple smaller spots here and there. Most residences are safe from flooding, though. And as other posters have noted, most of the industrial areas near the river are flood prone.

Millvale is quite another story. A large portion of the downtown is "1% Annual Chance Flood Hazard": The Grant/E Ohio/ Meade/ Sheridan square, almost the whole area between Grant and Girty's Run, and then a wide swath surrounding North Ave continuing past Elizabeth St.

Checkout the Fema Flood Map for a detailed look.

[ErnieCF]

My fiancé and I are looking there and it seems to be good value for the $ if you can get on the right street

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by grep

Eschaton, you are usually spot on, but some houses are actually in a "0.2% Annual Chance Flood Hazard" according to Fema: Hatfield between 44th and 47th (including all those new fancy houses) and Willow between 43rd and 40th, plus a couple smaller spots here and there. Most residences are safe from flooding, though. And as other posters have noted, most of the industrial areas near the river are flood prone.

Millvale is quite another story. A large portion of the downtown is "1% Annual Chance Flood Hazard": The Grant/E Ohio/ Meade/ Sheridan square, almost the whole area between Grant and Girty's Run, and then a wide swath surrounding North Ave continuing past Elizabeth St.

Checkout the Fema Flood Map for a detailed look.

Oops. I was basing it on the City flood maps, which (looking back) only show areas with 1% flood risk.

Interestingly, my old house was right at the boundary. The backyard was listed as a flood risk, but the house itself was not. Appropriately, my back yard used to flood during rainstorms, but I never got water intrusion, even into the basement.

[MathmanMathman]

Well, Sebak gave Millvale the full treatment.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNwEIyqZSmI

It impressed me so much that when I someday visit Pittsburgh I plan to see Millvale.

[ErnieCF]

Originally Posted by grep

Eschaton, you are usually spot on, but some houses are actually in a "0.2% Annual Chance Flood Hazard" according to Fema: Hatfield between 44th and 47th (including all those new fancy houses) and Willow between 43rd and 40th, plus a couple smaller spots here and there. Most residences are safe from flooding, though. And as other posters have noted, most of the industrial areas near the river are flood prone.

Millvale is quite another story. A large portion of the downtown is "1% Annual Chance Flood Hazard": The Grant/E Ohio/ Meade/ Sheridan square, almost the whole area between Grant and Girty's Run, and then a wide swath surrounding North Ave continuing past Elizabeth St.

Checkout the Fema Flood Map for a detailed look.

The house we are looking at it outside of the flood zone, so thats always a plus!

[FutureMrsM]

I lived in Millvale in high school. It's part of Shaler Area School District, so it's kinda the ghetto as compared to Glenshaw and the like. I didn't think it was too bad. I did see it as pretty run down, but then I was transplanted here from Texas, from a suburb north of Dallas where nothing was older than maybe 10 years. So in comparison it really looked like a dump. However, I did see a lot of character in it. Like some have mentioned - the specialty shops, beautiful old churches, and Mr. Smalls. Although Mr. Smalls has changed drastically since I lived there (2004-2005).

[Bballnut74]

I lived in Millvale for several years, and I still have extended family and friends who live there.

The good:
* Above average - albeit not the best - schools (Shaler)
* 15 minutes or less to downtown, Oakland, McKnight, pretty much anywhere you would want or need to be within the city
* very affordable
* an exemplary commitment to keeping those windy and hilly streets clear of ice and snow during the winter

The bad:
* many problem neighbors. Many of whom are unemployed, live practically on top of you, and who have a tendency to abuse drugs, party all night, park multiple vehicles in various stages of driveability and registration in every available parking spot on the street.
* very dilapidated and structurally obsolete housing stock.
* nepotism at all levels of the community. It wants to be a community that appeals to new ideas, but only if those ideas come from the same ring of people.

The neighbors truly are the worst. Mr Smalls brings a bunch of harmless but rowdy suburban teens into the town every Friday night and good luck taking that issue up with council. That issue is unsquashable. When the working poor loses their homes in Millvale, one of 2 landlords snatch them up for pennies on the dollar and fill them with other poor people. Sometimes they tuen out to be decent. Many times that isn't the case, so definitely avoid attached homes.

My advice is to pick a nice hilly townie that isn't attached to another house and may have a place to park on the property. There are a few like that to be had.

[tyovan4]

Millvale is a bit of a strange town in my eyes - the location is very good, it is walkable, there is a sense of community.. but there's something about the population that just seems very unusual - it's a strange mixture of a large percentage of hipsters with a large percentage of white trash.

[erieguy]

^^^^Definitely strange. It's been many years since I was in Millvale and I've never had any desire to go back. I rarely get down that way but next time I do I'll have to check it out.

[mountainlove]

We're a 50-50 town here in Millvale. 50% of residents own their homes, and 50% are renters. So there is an anchor group of us who have lived here for awhile, and then there are a large number of people who come and go. Much of the coming and going is being driven by what's happening in Lawrenceville.

At first, many of the people who were no longer able to afford Lawrenceville moved over the 40th Street Bridge to Millvale. Their demographics were a lot like the Lawrenceville of the 90's, and as a point of clarity there are a number of Millvale residents that I would regularly see doing their street business in Lawrenceville in the 90's and early 2000's.

In the last few years, the prices in Lawrenceville (and the East End in general) have skyrocketed to the point where creative people (the oft-maligned hipsters) were also no longer able to afford Lawrenceville. At the same time, lots of people in general are looking at skyrocketing prices in our region and are looking to lock down an affordable home for themselves so we have some people moving over here to Millvale.

We don't really feel like our neighbor mix is strange, but it is all about where you feel comfortable. Personally, I'd rather have the friendliness and humanity of our neighbors who I can talk to as issues arise, rather than the coldness, passive aggressiveness, and wealth-driven culture of some of the more well to do locales. But that's just me.

tyovan4 - your location says Etna, PA so please explain more of what you are seeing to say that Millvale is strange to you? I am just curious because I see the two communities as being very similar actually. Either way...It's all about getting in where ya fit in!

Probably the two upcoming spring grand openings that I'm looking forward to most are:
(1) Tupelo Honey Teas...tea and yummy food! Opening this spring! Tupelo Honey Teas brewing a move to Millvale - NEXTpittsburgh

(2) Tazza D'Oro...coffee and yummy food! Opening a Millvale location this spring!
Tazza D'Oro