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Old 02-04-2008, 04:43 PM
 
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Hi Irish8:

New Castle's North Hill --as someone else mentioned, this is the safest and most desirable area in town in terms of local elementary school--something very important for a home's re-sale value, whether or not you ever decide to have kids here. My husband is also in Information Technology and works as an I.T. Project Manager in downtown Pittsburgh, almost to the "Point"--where the 3 rivers come together.

By car, to get to the Point-area companies in eastern-most downtown Pitt. might be around 45 minutes or so. I must confess I don't know exactly, but as a fellow Software Developer myself, you may well find that you'd prefer not to go to downtown anyway. You need not pay for parking anywhere else in the townships surrounding. There are many Office Parks outside of the city, to the west in Moon Township near the Intl. Airport. (easy commute from New Castle), a LOT are in Butler County just over the Allegheny (Pittsburgh) County line to the north-west of Pitt., some to the north in the North Hills, etc. Many Business Parks are located in Butler County's town of Cranberry as the business taxes are considerably lower there than in Allegheny (Pitt.) County to the south.

Consequently, because of the plethora of jobs there in Cranberry, Butler County, comparable houses are a LOT more expensive than in New Castle--even though from New Castle, it's SUCH an easy commute. Why are Cranberry houses a lot more expensive? Cranberry is a newer-type, yuppier (young-urban professional), and less originally blue-collar area. New Castle in the 1950s was growing at a rate faster than New York City due to immigrants from as far away as Italy and Poland to work in its steel and tin mills, then the tin mill jobs either dried up or went elsewhere, leaving a too-large infrastructure for the now less-employed or not-employed blue collar workers. As a non-blue collar worker, however, I'm not sure why it would matter to you. My husband and I decided that this didn't really matter to us, anyway really.

In terms of real-estate pricing, what this means is that New Castle could use some cosmetic help in certain sections--especially other than the North Hill, there was one abandoned building downtown that was vacant since my husband was a kid in the 70s--but recently a company called InfoCision went in there and they're hiring local workers. But then neither will you find any former steel or tin town in Western PA to be the prettiest town in Pennsylvania. To some extent, you have to pick your poison, I guess. If you want to have a chance to have one of you stay home with your kids and put them first while still earning a great I.T. salary close to Pittsburgh, it's absolutely fantastic. That's what we've been doing the past few years and I wouldn't trade that experience for anything in the world. My children will only be that young once.

Something that you may find interesting is that there is an Information Technology Research Business Park going into Marshall Township just minutes south of Cranberry and that this is VERY commutable from New Castle, a similar 15-20 minute easy drive down no-stop highways. Even if you never worked there, you may find that investing in real estate in a place like New Castle, so cheap and so close to a place where such good-paying jobs are going, is a good deal.

However, it isn't necessary to live in Cranberry to work there, as from New Castle, Cranberry's bustling business area is an easy, 15 minute commute down a major no-stop highway. My husband would've taken a job there in a heartbeat, he just took the first job that was offered to him as at the time we were moving all the way from eastern PA--Philadelphia. Every time he went to interview in this area, he had to drive 12 hours round-trip--not something he wanted to do a lot.

To get downtown to near the Point, my husband parks at a Parking Lot here in New Castle, and takes a bus into Pitt. The advantage is that we've been living in a house for which, no exagerration, we would pay more than twice as much for in Cranberry or closer. Just yesterday, we were depressed to see an Open House in Cranberry where the houses were much smaller and nearly as close together. Of course, it was much newer, but a smallish cookie-cutter home whose model you've seen 20 times before starts to lose its appeal after awhile when you realize how much decorating it still needs because it hasn't been lived in long enough to acquire those nice little touches that you take for granted in a more lived-in home. Nor do these newer homes have much character that my husband and I prefer.

I wanted to stay home with my children before they were school age, and living in cheap New Castle has been a blessing that way because I don't have to work here. Now that my kids are both in school full-time, I'll be returning to work as a software developer soon. Yes, we're selling our house to get a little closer in to the city as my husband works on the east-side & and New Castle is on the outer fringe of what's acceptable to us (an hour & 10 min. by stop-&-go bus ), but as I said, he just happens to have taken a job on the eastern-most side of downtown Pitt., it is by no means the only area where one can find software jobs in Pitt.--they're all over the place---western downtown Pitt. near Carnegie Mellon University (one of the top Tech. & I.T. schools in the country, I think 2nd to M.I.T.? Correct me if I'm wrong---anyone--where does Carnegie Mellon U. fall?), and the University of Pittsburgh, to the west, north-west, and north there are I.T. jobs. All of these ARE what we would consider to be either a very easy commute from New Castle in the case of Moon Twp, West Allegheny, Cranberry, or North Allegheny and many sections of downtown Pittsburgh west of the Point would've been OK with us too. My husband just prefers to take the commuter bus in the winter so he can sleep on the way there , but he has driven hundreds of times to work in downtown Pittsburgh from New Castle.

If he worked at any of these areas, we would definately NOT be moving, as now we have to take a loan out in order to get closer in, and the houses we're looking at are much smaller, sometimes without much storage space at all, even into the $250,000 range.

Although I do have a home up for sale here in New Castle, it's important that you get a home that's right for YOU--so I'm being as honest as I can with you. I'll still try to give you some honest info. & advice about the whole general area and other area homes, as I know you're a foreigner and I'm a transplant to this area who lived her whole life elsewhere too, so I know what it feels like to feel a little "foreign". I also have started to start back up my software developer career and we could perhaps share what we find on that score. It's not like I know everything because I'm from Philly. What programming language do you use? How long have you been a software developer? Wouldn't you miss Ireland?

Yes, you do need to stay away from a $10,000 house even in New Castle--as someone else mentioned. Basically, this is going to be one loser of a house that you'd have a devil of time ever getting rid of due to bad location, probably the South Side. It would probably also be an eyesore.
I have found the North Side to be pretty safe--we use only standard precautions, my family and I, we lock and deadbolt our doors at night, but we've never owned a security system. You can do that for peace of mind, we just haven't, and I feel no particular pressing need to. My car I've accidently left unlocked several times at night and while I don't recommend it just because I wouldn't recommend it anywhere at all, I haven't had a problem with anything stolen.

Let me tell you just a little about housing prices here on north-side, just so as an Irishman, you can put into perspective why ours is a little more than some others here. It has to do with the school system being the best reputed for it's reading program in the entire area, not just in New Castle, it's a Johns Hopkins University-researched, national standards-based school-reading re-structuring program called Success for All (SFA), where students are given a standardized test every 9 weeks. Those that are reading above-average can move on to the next-level reading teacher who specializes in that level of reading-teaching. They're allowed to be in a reading class with students a grade ahead of them. Those that are determined to not be reading up to grade-level are assigned a special teacher and given tutoring until hopefully, they are at least reading up to grade level, or if there's a learning problem, up to their own best level. This is school re-structuring, not a different set of basal textbooks, where gifted students such as my 1st grader can be reading with other students that are in the 2nd grade--she is. Sounds like I'm bragging, right??? I know, I know....and I DO apologize for that, I really don't mean to, it's just that New Castle's school system is so maligned by word-of-mouth---it HAS in the past affected property values, and I feel that at least at the elementary-level, if it were ever fair, it is now definately completely NOT fair. Reading is fundamental to all other disciplines--science and math included, and S.F.A. has been shown to have studies that it positively impacts students into the middle school years.
Also, my husband graduated from New Castle High School in '86, went on to graduate from Penn State, a good college, with a degree in Electrical Engineering, later switched to I.T. after being a programmer, and is now an I.T. Project Manager at the Bank of New York Mellon downtown and a member of the National Project Managers of America organization. Is he smart? Yes, but so too did not New Castle's schools system NOT hold him back in whatever he wanted to do later on in life. His best friend became a county commisioner, etc. Another girl he graduated with has her Doctorate in Education. Don't ever let word of mouth be a replacement for your OWN research when buying a house. Having a licensed Realtor is not a replacement for doing your own research, either, a lesson I've had to learn the hard way.

Our house is priced is a little higher than some in N.C. due to it's size relative to the other homes due to 2 additions--it's bigger than it looks because it's much deeper than wide, and the fact that we own a double-lot as opposed to a single lot. Too, we have a full bathroom on the first floor which is very unusual among any New Castle homes at our price and below--in fact, it's unusual to find even a powder room on the first floor in New Castle at the lower price range, something that we found very problematic with 2 young children and ultimately why we decided we just HAD to go above our initial $65-$80,000 price-looking-range--almost none of the ones we saw had first floor bathrooms of any sort. Those that had had one later added on had other problems. Some in the upper price range here have a powder room while others may have a full bathroom--you'd have to look into that. We never looked at homes listed for more than $150,000 here in New Castle.

At first, coming from Philadelphia where our last home was $280,000 an hour and a half into the country from the city, my husband and I were awestruck to start looking at $60,000-$80,000 homes on the north side. We had a little equity built up, and thought it would be cool to go as cheap as possible. We thought we could find something acceptable in that price range, but then a certain familiar pattern began to set in. The standard borough lot was just a little too small for us when we realized that from several houses we looked at, basically, if you like seeing your neighbor's bedroom and having them potentially see yours, then the standard city lot is the way to go. That same lot-size is NEARLY all over the north-side, not quite, but nearly--but there is one place where the standard 1-lot gives way to double-lots and wider spaces between houses and that is only on the Upper North Hill past Edgewood Avenue--where we rented prior to moving north one block to the first street that has double-lots--that is Hazelcroft Avenue.

Having lived on Edgewood Ave., south only one block first while we were renting and waiting to own a home, I had felt a little uncomfortable having my bedroom be just slightly too close for comfort to the one next door. Our Master Bedroom on Edgewood had been very small, about 12 x 11 perhaps, with a wee little closet. You can get a house here much cheaper than the same house would be in Neshannock Township, but one must be careful as the houses here often date to a time before women worked outside the home, and coming from a newer area in eastern PA with big closets, I was initially shocked to find master bedroom closets literally 3 inches deep with no bar across, only 2 hooks. Now I just shrug, whatever, I guess post-Victorians didn't mind that, but since the both of you work outside the home or even if one of you didn't, you might find it a little annoying to run up to the attic to get your work clothes in the morning--at least we got very annoyed with a lack of space to put our clothes, as all of our former 2nd floor closets were like that prior to moving.

We also found that many of the lower-end priced homes needed all-new kitchens or bathrooms, the entire house needed re-carpeting or to have scuffed wood floors cleaned up, these were certainly do-able, but it was just everything combined that led us to find the last several streets in New Castle to be MOST acceptable to us as parents of small children. There are several nice homes lower down the North Hill, and you SHOULD look at these as people without children. We wanted our children and ourselves to have a little more space, however, so we wound up in a house that was originally listed for $150,000 3 years ago that then came down to a price that was acceptable to us.

In the last 3 years, we've changed the original home's roof (the non-addition). My husband tore up ugly green carpeting in the kitchen and white vinyl tiled it, square by square. He replaced more green carpet with neutral ceramic tile in 2 areas. We've replaced the 70's shag that was in both daughters bedrooms, re-painted one of them completely, and re-painted 2 of the walls of the other daughter's BR. The other 2 walls have beautiful, thick solid-oak--not cheap 70s, panelling, so we left that. Since the house was originally 2 apartments, one on the first floor, another on the second, there is a kitchen on the 2nd floor that had a very 50s look when we bought the house and ugly flooring. We re-floored that with laminate Pergo-type flooring and re-painted the cabinets a neutral color to turn it into our daughters' playroom. Their toys are hidden in the kitchen-turned-playroom's cabinets there. Since there's a sink there, if they want to do artwork or painting they can rinse the brushes without leaving the playroom.

We ripped up the blue carpeting in the Dining Room to reveal original , old-growth white oak floors (more expensive than red oak), which we had sanded and buffed professionally. The carpenter told us that the floors had been mitered in a labor-intensive way that isn't done oftentimes today because people find it too expensive.

My husband installed shelving along all 3 sides of our Master Bedroom's walk-in closet to turn what had been a former nursery area into a usable closet for us. All 3 bedrooms upstairs have solid-oak, built-in bookcases--don't know what I'd do without those as they're stuffed, and I will have to do without them in our next house, apparently, as I haven't seen many at all in a higher price range closer to the city, let alone 4 oak built-in bookcases in 3 bedrooms plus more in the Living Room.

Some people have made the comment that our house is "too big". The only thing I can say about that is that we have 2 furnaces because it used to be 2 different apartments, one below and one above. So, utility bills can be kept down a little by lowering the heat or central air on the floor where you aren't.

In spite of this, if we sell our house for our current list price of $134,900, we will STILL be losing several thousands. I hope I don't sound bitter. Really I'm not, we really enjoy doing all these home projects. I'm sure we'll be doing them all again in the next house.

So the market is down, whatever. It's no one's fault that the market took a dip. I'll still visit this board and try to help you out with locations even if you decide that New Castle isn't a possibility. At the very least, maybe we can discuss programming jobs.
Godspeed to you.
Sincerely, Sheryl R.

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Old 02-05-2008, 02:04 AM
 
Location: Cork, Ireland
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Hi Sheryl, thanks for your reply......wow! Actually, it's my wife who is studying Software Development, I study Criminology.......I don't have a clue about IT, I can turn the pc on and I can turn the pc off, and that's about it! My wife and I don't work yet, we are still at college. Don't graduate for another few years.

I have , neither of us has, ever been to the States.......we hear a lot about gun crime, drugs and violence. But we don't want to let that put us off from own our owning home and having a good life in the US. We would have a great life here (we do even now) but we'd be paying a mortgage till we were 70 (and that's just for your normal run of the mill average home), no thanks!
To be mortgage free would be just fine!

Commuting to Pittsburgh wouldn't be a problem, around Dublin some folks have to commute upto 2 hours to get to and from work! Cork (the second largest city in Ireland, where we live, commute times are not as bad but for example it takes my wife over an hour to get to college - by public transport) Public transport is very well developed here inn Ireland and very popular. I have the impression that in the US people tend to look down on other folks who use public transportation...not like that here. And with the enviornment the way it is more people should really ditch the car and take the bus or train.

Sheryl, New Castle seems like a goos spot for us...low home prices, a direct transport link to Pittsburgh in an hour or under, an international airport nearby, relatively low crime..........all in all, fine.

A city doesn't have to be so attractive for us, it's really the people who make a place what it is, and smaller towns and cities usually have a better feel about them then large cities.

As regards homes in New Castle, well, we have seen one we are keen on, it's on East Washington St and at a very good price, above what we wanted to spend but still within our range. What do you think of E Washington St? I guess it's east side? We know it's on a main road but that is not a huge concern for us. Is it an ok area, that is what we really want to know?!!!

The home that we have seen would cost a bomb here! We are amazed at the house prices in N.C.I am thinking of travelling to New Castle and sorting everything out from there but if it's in a bad neighbourhood then I guess we'd prefer to keep looking.

While we wouldn't be moving permanently to the States for a few years, we think that buying now would be a good thing to do. We would probably visit New Castle then 5 or 6 times a year (could stay for a month each summer) What has us a little concerned is whether that house on a main street (E Washinton St) would be safe to leave unoccupied for 2 months at a time? The realtor suggested we ask the police in N.C but we can't reach them, will try again later.

Any advice or info that you could give would be most appreciated! Thanks

Last edited by irish8; 02-05-2008 at 02:12 AM..
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Old 02-05-2008, 12:35 PM
 
15,631 posts, read 26,120,239 times
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Originally Posted by irish8 View Post
Hi Sheryl, thanks for your reply......wow! Actually, it's my wife who is studying Software Development, I study Criminology.......I don't have a clue about IT, I can turn the pc on and I can turn the pc off, and that's about it! My wife and I don't work yet, we are still at college. Don't graduate for another few years.

I have , neither of us has, ever been to the States.......we hear a lot about gun crime, drugs and violence. But we don't want to let that put us off from own our owning home and having a good life in the US. We would have a great life here (we do even now) but we'd be paying a mortgage till we were 70 (and that's just for your normal run of the mill average home), no thanks!
To be mortgage free would be just fine!

Commuting to Pittsburgh wouldn't be a problem, around Dublin some folks have to commute upto 2 hours to get to and from work! Cork (the second largest city in Ireland, where we live, commute times are not as bad but for example it takes my wife over an hour to get to college - by public transport) Public transport is very well developed here inn Ireland and very popular. I have the impression that in the US people tend to look down on other folks who use public transportation...not like that here. And with the enviornment the way it is more people should really ditch the car and take the bus or train.

Sheryl, New Castle seems like a goos spot for us...low home prices, a direct transport link to Pittsburgh in an hour or under, an international airport nearby, relatively low crime..........all in all, fine.

A city doesn't have to be so attractive for us, it's really the people who make a place what it is, and smaller towns and cities usually have a better feel about them then large cities.

As regards homes in New Castle, well, we have seen one we are keen on, it's on East Washington St and at a very good price, above what we wanted to spend but still within our range. What do you think of E Washington St? I guess it's east side? We know it's on a main road but that is not a huge concern for us. Is it an ok area, that is what we really want to know?!!!

The home that we have seen would cost a bomb here! We are amazed at the house prices in N.C.I am thinking of travelling to New Castle and sorting everything out from there but if it's in a bad neighbourhood then I guess we'd prefer to keep looking.

While we wouldn't be moving permanently to the States for a few years, we think that buying now would be a good thing to do. We would probably visit New Castle then 5 or 6 times a year (could stay for a month each summer) What has us a little concerned is whether that house on a main street (E Washinton St) would be safe to leave unoccupied for 2 months at a time? The realtor suggested we ask the police in N.C but we can't reach them, will try again later.

Any advice or info that you could give would be most appreciated! Thanks
We don't look down on people that use public transportation, we look down on public transportation. In most places public transportation is a joke. It's like we decided 60 years ago that we were a car nation and that's that, decision over and it's not to be revisited.

Even in areas where we have decent public transportation, like where I live in the Bay Area of California, it's much cheaper to drive. And more convenient. Most of the people I know that BART into work do so not because of the driving factor -- it's the parking. 20 dollars day and up.

I once had to take a bus to work, and it took me 20 minutes to drive and an hour by bus. And the ride 1.35, 2.75 for the day (return trip). With gas prices of the time, that ride in car was a dollar.
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Old 02-05-2008, 12:58 PM
 
Location: Cork, Ireland
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Originally Posted by Tallysmom View Post
We don't look down on people that use public transportation, we look down on public transportation. In most places public transportation is a joke. It's like we decided 60 years ago that we were a car nation and that's that, decision over and it's not to be revisited.

Even in areas where we have decent public transportation, like where I live in the Bay Area of California, it's much cheaper to drive. And more convenient. Most of the people I know that BART into work do so not because of the driving factor -- it's the parking. 20 dollars day and up.

I once had to take a bus to work, and it took me 20 minutes to drive and an hour by bus. And the ride 1.35, 2.75 for the day (return trip). With gas prices of the time, that ride in car was a dollar.
Here in Ireland public transportation is very good (could always be better of course).......and cheaper than driving, especially now with the high oil prices! Oil is running out, fast. We like the fact that there is a bus connection from N.C to Pittsburgh, very handy but we cannot understand why it finishes before 6pm, very strange?!!!
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Old 02-05-2008, 01:11 PM
 
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Irish8:

OK, now I understand a little better what you're looking for--a starter home that's affordable. East Washington St is a pretty long street so it would be helpful to have a house #. Since I live right in town here I can do a drive-by for you, take a picture with my cell phone for you that maybe includes what's next to the house on either side since some of the realtor pictures can be a little deceiving. I don't mind because I go down this road anyway, which brings me to my next point. Problem is, there's going to be a lot of street noise here as this is the main thoroughfare through town.
Can you go a little higher in price? I think it would be worth it. I know you want to just live in a house someday, not sell it, but if you ever got laid off unexpectedly it might be tough to sell. I also can't vouch for what type of neighbors you'd have--if they'd be your cup of tea or not. I'm not saying that New Castletonians(?) aren't friendly in general, they are friendlier to me than many Philadelphians I've lived around, but you asked about crime and such and I'm not as familiar with that area as I am with the North-Side. Your neighbors could be absolutely fine people that you love or not, so best maybe to call the police.

E. Washington could either be smack downtown anywhere from the very center of New Castle called "The Diamond" where the YMCA is to further out onto the east-side. My mother-in-law has lived in New Castle all her life, she said East-side is not the worst, South-side is, in terms of drugs I don't know about that area since I've only lived here for 2 years. You know, I guess your experience here has to do with who you're rubbing shoulders with from side to side, you know? What I'm experiencing in my everyday life has nothing to do with drugs or crime but I do read in the paper that sometimes a convenience store is robbed, etc.

New Castle, I've found, covers a pretty large area in terms of mailing address. Here on the north-side, I've never seen drugs, my neighbors around me are a mix of nurses, retired people, people who work in stores or downtown Pitt., etc. In other words, I can't say as much about what types you'd meet on east-side but I don't think it's the worst area according to what I've heard. I think I'm more wondering if you couldn't get off that street just due to road noise. But if you want to pay cash for a house and that's your primary objective, that's up to you of course. You could always sell when you're more established.

Can you give me the house #?
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Old 02-05-2008, 01:39 PM
 
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New Castle is so far out, that bus would be considered a commuter bus, just for folks who are commuting for work.

I choose to live in the city, actually very close to downtown, so that I can be completely reliant on the bus. Where I live, I can get bus service as late as 2:45 AM or as early as 3:30 AM, on certain routes.

Commuter bus service will never provide the same level as service as the close, city buses will provide.
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Old 02-05-2008, 01:43 PM
 
Location: Cork, Ireland
23 posts, read 82,606 times
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Originally Posted by suzeeq521 View Post
New Castle is so far out, that bus would be considered a commuter bus, just for folks who are commuting for work.

I choose to live in the city, actually very close to downtown, so that I can be completely reliant on the bus. Where I live, I can get bus service as late as 2:45 AM or as early as 3:30 AM, on certain routes.

Commuter bus service will never provide the same level as service as the close, city buses will provide.
Isn't downtown Pittsburgh dangerous? It looks like even the N.C city buses end before 6pm....that is SO strange??? Totally different to here!

I have seen photos of New Castle but for some strange reason there's never anyone walking around, there's never any people in the streets?

Last edited by irish8; 02-05-2008 at 02:04 PM..
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Old 02-05-2008, 01:53 PM
 
Location: Cork, Ireland
23 posts, read 82,606 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sheryl_Recc View Post
Irish8:

OK, now I understand a little better what you're looking for--a starter home that's affordable. East Washington St is a pretty long street so it would be helpful to have a house #. Since I live right in town here I can do a drive-by for you, take a picture with my cell phone for you that maybe includes what's next to the house on either side since some of the realtor pictures can be a little deceiving. I don't mind because I go down this road anyway, which brings me to my next point. Problem is, there's going to be a lot of street noise here as this is the main thoroughfare through town.
Can you go a little higher in price? I think it would be worth it. I know you want to just live in a house someday, not sell it, but if you ever got laid off unexpectedly it might be tough to sell. I also can't vouch for what type of neighbors you'd have--if they'd be your cup of tea or not. I'm not saying that New Castletonians(?) aren't friendly in general, they are friendlier to me than many Philadelphians I've lived around, but you asked about crime and such and I'm not as familiar with that area as I am with the North-Side. Your neighbors could be absolutely fine people that you love or not, so best maybe to call the police.

E. Washington could either be smack downtown anywhere from the very center of New Castle called "The Diamond" where the YMCA is to further out onto the east-side. My mother-in-law has lived in New Castle all her life, she said East-side is not the worst, South-side is, in terms of drugs I don't know about that area since I've only lived here for 2 years. You know, I guess your experience here has to do with who you're rubbing shoulders with from side to side, you know? What I'm experiencing in my everyday life has nothing to do with drugs or crime but I do read in the paper that sometimes a convenience store is robbed, etc.

New Castle, I've found, covers a pretty large area in terms of mailing address. Here on the north-side, I've never seen drugs, my neighbors around me are a mix of nurses, retired people, people who work in stores or downtown Pitt., etc. In other words, I can't say as much about what types you'd meet on east-side but I don't think it's the worst area according to what I've heard. I think I'm more wondering if you couldn't get off that street just due to road noise. But if you want to pay cash for a house and that's your primary objective, that's up to you of course. You could always sell when you're more established.

Can you give me the house #?
Thanks for your reply, I have sent you a private message including the house address. Southside seems to be more violent and "stuff" than the Eastside....I think???! Is there any such thing as neighbourhood watch in the States?
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Old 02-05-2008, 02:05 PM
 
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Oh - I mean I live near downtown Pittsburgh.

What I meant is that New Castle is so far out from downtown Pittsburgh, all transit is pretty much going to be seen as commuter transit to and from the city, not as a generally accepted way to get around. That goes for anything set further away from the city (not just New Castle). And it is going to provide much, much less service.

(I don't feel like downtown Pittsburgh if very dangerous at all.)
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Old 02-05-2008, 02:16 PM
 
Location: Cork, Ireland
23 posts, read 82,606 times
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Originally Posted by suzeeq521 View Post
Oh - I mean I live near downtown Pittsburgh.

What I meant is that New Castle is so far out from downtown Pittsburgh, all transit is pretty much going to be seen as commuter transit to and from the city, not as a generally accepted way to get around. That goes for anything set further away from the city (not just New Castle). And it is going to provide much, much less service.

(I don't feel like downtown Pittsburgh if very dangerous at all.)
Interesting. Here in Ireland there is a totally different approach...every village, suburb, town, city is serviced by buses.

Oh, anyway, Ireland and America are two very different places, that's for sure....just hope we'll adapt. An off topic question, jade walking (we don't use this term) terminology is SOOOOO DIFFERENT!....that means crossing the street before the light turns green, yes? Is that really illegal? I mean would the police really stop you for that? Everyone does it here.

The statistics say downtown Pittsburgh is dangerous. But they also say Aliquippa is at or below average for crime but people have said it's DANGEROUS! Seems the statistics can lie.

In PA do people say "ma'am" when speaking to a female? Or is that just Texas and the south?

The property we are looking at says the heat is "forced air"....what the hell is that? I have never heard of that. Here we have radiators powered, usually, by a gas box thing. So if it says forced air then there are no radiators? Then where does the heat come out from? (I don't wanna appear stupid, it's just that I don't know...it's a different system over here)

Last edited by irish8; 02-05-2008 at 03:45 PM..
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