Is the geography of Pittsburgh's murders changing? (Wilkinsburg, Wilson: credit check, house)

[PghYinzer]

Of all of those Northside neighborhoods I would have always considered the safest has the most shootings. Brighton Heights is a large area so I get that there are very different areas of the one neighborhood, but still. To the average resident of this area, Brighton Heights isn't the Northside, so when people casually state that the Northside is bad they are in their minds usually thinking about the flatter more urban area.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by PghYinzer

Of all of those Northside neighborhoods I would have always considered the safest has the most shootings. Brighton Heights is a large area so I get that there are very different areas of the one neighborhood, but still. To the average resident of this area, Brighton Heights isn't the Northside, so when people casually state that the Northside is bad they are in their minds usually thinking about the flatter more urban area.

I just don't get that though. I mean, even if you include non-fatal shootings, the flatter more urban part of the Northside is demonstrably much safer than the outer, hillier neighborhoods are today.

[eschaton]

According to police reports, the 54-year old man who checked himself into Allegheny Hospital with a gunshot to the chest was from Sheraden. Still no word on where he was shot.

[Merge]

Originally Posted by erieguy

With each and more shootings, the area becomes less desirable. Few want to deal with that nonsense, especially when one knows the next one is coming soon enough.

The problem is that those commenting on the area have little or no personal experience with the areas they are mentioning. The most negative posters (regarding the Northside) don't even seem to know what areas it entails.

[bradjl2009]

Originally Posted by Merge

The problem is that those commenting on the area have little or no personal experience with the areas they are mentioning. The most negative posters (regarding the Northside) don't even seem to know what areas it entails.

If there are these negative perceptions, you are going to attract very few if any newcomers to an area.

[Merge]

Originally Posted by bradjl2009

If there are these negative perceptions, you are going to attract very few if any newcomers to an area.

And yet the flat areas of the Northside continue to gentrify and develop, regardless of the "negative perceptions" of those who don't know the difference between Manchester, Allegheny West and, say, Marshall-Shadeland or Perry South/Hilltop.

[Lobick]

Originally Posted by Merge

The problem is that those commenting on the area have little or no personal experience with the areas they are mentioning. The most negative posters (regarding the Northside) don't even seem to know what areas it entails.

Just my 2 cents, as a War Streets resident...

There does seem to be a slight uptick of gunshots/ shootings this Summer in the area but I don't think it's necessarily a sign of any degree of neighborhood degradation.

Most notably, I think you'll find most of the Fineview shootings taking place on either Belleau Drive, Sandusky Court or their immediate environs. That is the Allegheny Dwellings housing project, which is isolated from the greater neighborhood and isn't long for this world:

Residents will soon begin to move from Allegheny Dwellings | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

My guess is that you will continue to see upper Federal Street improve as the the redevelopment of Allegheny Dwellings move forward.

I do think that the greater neighborhood was shaken a bit by the shooting by the basketball courts in the Commons, mostly because it seemed to fly in the face of the perceptions of progress being made in the neighborhood with regard to gun violence. That an argument among teens on a basketball court can result in a shooting in a crowded park, early in the evening says more to me about the prevalence of firearms and the ease with which they're obtained than it does about any devolution of neighborhood safety. Some will no doubt accuse me of being pollyanish, but in the absence of any additional violence in the Commons, I choose to view that incident as an unfortunate outlier. In fact, I was on that very spot last night, two weeks after the shooting with my two boys (5 & 3), walking our dog and buying Italian Ices. Many others were out and it was a lovely evening.

[corpgypsy]

Originally Posted by eschaton

Running total now:

North Side: 11
Brighton Heights: 3
Fineview: 2
Observatory Hill: 2
Perry Hilltop: 2
Marshall Shadeland: 1
Central North Side: 1 (died in hospital, location unknown)

West End: 5
Elliott: 2
Chartiers City: 2
Sheraden: 1

South Pittsburgh: 4
Beltzhoover: 2
Allentown: 1
Mount Washington: 1

East End: 5
Homewood North: 3
Bloomfield: 1
South Oakland: 1

City Total: 25

Suburbs:
Wilkinsburg: 7
Penn Hills: 4
Homestead: 2
Etna: 2
North Braddock: 2
Bellevue: 1
Brentwood: 1
Clairton: 1
East Pittsburgh: 1
Hampton: 1
Jefferson Hills: 1
McKeesport: 1
McKees Rocks: 1
Oakmont: 1
Rankin: 1
West Mifflin: 1

Suburb Total: 28

Do you have numbers for shootings that did not generate a formal death certificate?

[Rust Belt Kid]

Originally Posted by PghYinzer

Of all of those Northside neighborhoods I would have always considered the safest has the most shootings. Brighton Heights is a large area so I get that there are very different areas of the one neighborhood, but still. To the average resident of this area, Brighton Heights isn't the Northside, so when people casually state that the Northside is bad they are in their minds usually thinking about the flatter more urban area.

Those stats are skewed by those two guys found dead on 65, which is Brighton Heights in name but not really part of the neighborhood.

I live in BH and I feel safer walking around at night here more than nearly anywhere else in the North Side. The trouble spots are fairly limited to a couple blocks around Antrim/Fleming or around California/Mexico St and even then it's been relatively quiet around there lately. BH is the north side's largest neighborhood, so it isn't unusual to have pockets of sketchy blocks. If the perception was as bad as people suggest then young families wouldn't be continuously moving in (they are, I have met many) and people wouldn't be investing in their properties (which is also occurring frequently if you drove around the area).

What does drive me crazy is this instance that the North Side is this monolithic entity any time something goes bad. You always read "Shooting in North Side" if something happens in Marshall-Shadeland but you never read "2 dead in East End" if something happens in Homewood.

[corpgypsy]

^^^^^ Potato, potahto, tomato, tomahto!