Suburb of the Week: Edgewood (Pittsburgh, Wilkinsburg: section 8, apartment, houses)

[eschaton]

Edgewood, a first-ring suburb immediately to Pittsburgh's east, was first incorporated in 1888. The borough experienced very strong population growth from its founding through to the beginning of the Great Depression, with almost no growth (other than a bit during the 1940s) following that. This can clearly be seen in its built structure, which is for the most part streetcar suburban, with only a few pockets of more classically suburban development. For the most part, development was focused around employment at the Union Switch and Signal plant, which began operation in 1880 and operated continuously for 106 years. Edgewood was purpose built for managers at the plant, while Swissvale was built out for the workers.

Edgewood has had significant population decline since its all time height in 1950 - down roughly 42%. However, this is mostly due to falling household size. Edgewood never suffered from white flight like some of the other municipalities which ultimately ended up comprising the Woodland Hills School District. Instead, in Edgewood the forced merger resulted in the slow transition of Edgewood from being an upper-middle class family area, to being a middle class area which still has a large share of families (who almost all use private schools) but also a lot of childless professionals. It has become a particularly popular area for professors associated with Pitt or the other local universities to live.

Edgewood is highly chopped up due to geography, with 376 splitting the borough from north to south, and the Busway/rail lines splitting up the neighborhood from east to west.

The northwestern quadrant of the neighborhood is predominately comprised of portions of Regent Square - a neighborhood which also spills into Swissvale, Wilkinsburg, and Pittsburgh. Edgewood probably has the smallest portion of the residential portion of Regent Square, but holds one side of the business district. One interesting thing to note is since Edgewood is a "dry" borough which doesn't allow liquor sales, all of the restaurants on the Edgewood side are BYOB, while all of the bars (and the beer distributor) are located on the Swissvale side of the street. The most prominent local attractions on the Edgewood side of the business district are probably Regent Square Theater and Square Cafe. Technically speaking streets not on the "Regent Square grid" like Greendale, Race, and Ivy, aren't in Regent Square, but they tend to be sold as being in Regent Square by realtors. Aside from the slightly longer walk to the business district there's not a tremendously big difference.

The southwestern quadrant of Edgewood is now the site of Edgewood Townw Center, built on the former site of the Union Switch and Signal plant. It's a very typical suburban shopping center. The clientele is a bit downscale, because it serves as the shopping center not just for Edgewood, but for Swissvale and the upper Mon Valley as a whole. There was a prominent public shootout here a few years ago, but for the most par the complex is safe.

Southeastern Edgewood is only around ten blocks or so, and not too different from nearby parts of Swissvale. The housing tends to be from the 20s through the 40s, and isn't quite as grand as some other parts of the borough. It's a solid area, but not trendy.

Northeastern Edgewood is pretty large geographically, and very diverse. There is a small business district along Edgewood Avenue which includes a few things of interest, like a little coffee shop and a Thai restaurant, but is mostly either vacant or occupied by things like random offices or auto shops. The borough made a big oops years ago when the East Busway was being constructed. Originally there was to be a stop in Edgewood right where the old train station was, and NIMBYs blocked it, fearing that "people from Wilkinsburg" would come into (or even move into) the neighborhood if it had good transit access. The area further back from the business district, streets like Maple Avenue and Locust Street, has a lot of the big old houses from when this portion of Edgewood was mostly estates. A lot of the estates were later chopped up, so the streets are a heterogeneous mix. I like the tree-lined pastoral aspect of this area though. There's also a little pocket neighborhood close to a bad part of Wilkinsburg (E. Hutchinson and the surrounding streets) which is a bit sketchy, albeit beautiful.

Edgewood is one of the few portions of the Eastern suburbs (along with parts of Wilkinsburg and Swissvale) which have been gentrifying rather than slowly decreasing in desirability, in large part due to the amazing housing stock and pretty good walkability. That said, Woodland Hills property tax rates (which are now among the highest in the county) are holding the area back. If Edgewood could find some way to exit Woodland Hills and join PPS - which is also demographically diverse, but has a much better tax structure - the financial situation of homeowners in the borough would be considerably advantaged.

[sealie]

Rumors that Edgewood is a "dry" municipality are all wet | On The Rocks | Pittsburgh | Pittsburgh City Paper

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by sealie

Rumors that Edgewood is a "dry" municipality are all wet | On The Rocks | Pittsburgh | Pittsburgh City Paper

I stand corrected. IIRC, even the Post Gazette screwed this up last year.

[sealie]

Originally Posted by eschaton

I stand corrected. IIRC, even the Post Gazette screwed this up last year.

Even Sebak, apparently. Heck, maybe the City Paper is wrong.

[gg]

Great writeup. It really was an amazing place before that horrific school merger, but the area survived somewhat. Still not nearly as desirable of course. Imagine if the Edgewood neighborhood school would have survived what those homes would be worth today and that tax revenue the county would be making with those assessments. Oh well progress I guess. lol Edgewood is in a great location. I almost purchased a very unique home there, but the taxes would have been unbearable.

[robrobrob]

With Edgewood, you really have to consider a comparable house costs in Edgewod compared with the cost of a similar house in Squirrel Hill. Houses are much cheaper but you pay higher taxes.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by robrobrob

With Edgewood, you really have to consider a comparable house costs in Edgewod compared with the cost of a similar house in Squirrel Hill. Houses are much cheaper but you pay higher taxes.

I worked out the numbers a few years back, and given the median household income in Edgewood, if they could somehow leave Woodland Hills and join PPS, the average household would save thousands per year even in spite of the higher wage tax. Not to mention having access to city magnets and the Pittsburgh Promise. That said, I'm not sure if Edgewood could do this legally.

[robrobrob]

Originally Posted by eschaton

I worked out the numbers a few years back, and given the median household income in Edgewood, if they could somehow leave Woodland Hills and join PPS, the average household would save thousands per year even in spite of the higher wage tax. Not to mention having access to city magnets and the Pittsburgh Promise. That said, I'm not sure if Edgewood could do this legally.

No way this would ever happen. None of the nicer municipalities ever wanted to be part of Woodland Hills.

There used to be a poster here who bought a very very nice house in Wilkinsburg. He did so because he would come out ahead even factoring private school tuition over buying a very very nice home in the city. Guessing he paid half what a comparable house would have cost in city.

[Joe Magarac]

Great write-up. My wife and I had our first apartment in Edgewood when we were in grad school, and we liked the area a lot. Our biggest gripe was having to sit at the corner of Braddock and Forbes (or on the Parkway) whenever we wanted to go to Oakland or visit anything that wasn't in Regent Square. For that reason, we moved to the City when we were ready to buy.

I think that Edgewood could leave Woodland Hills and join the Pittsburgh Public Schools, but only by agreeing to be annexed by the City of Pittsburgh. The PA constitution (Article IX, Section 8) allows two municipalities to merge (or for one to annex another) if the majority of both places vote in favor. If Edgewood were to merge with Pittsburgh, then the portion of the Woodland Hills School District formerly known as Edgewood would become part of the Pittsburgh Public Schools, per 24 P.S. Sec. 2-226.

I assume that Pittsburgh would be glad to merge with Edgewood, but I think Edgewood would have to make the first move.

For most of its history, the people of Edgewood would have been opposed to merging with the city, for the same reasons people in most municipalities would be opposed to it now: they want to be able to run their own little village, and they don't like the idea of being dissolved into a large city with a reputation for bad snowplowing and worse government.

But it's possible that if they were given the chance to vote on it, a majority of Edgewood would favor a merger, given: a) the natural affinity that people in the Edgewood part of Regent Square have with the City; b) the East End's gentrification; c) the sense that there is less of an old boys network under Peduto; and d) the chance to leave Woodland Hills and join PPS.

[robrobrob]

Originally Posted by eschaton

I worked out the numbers a few years back, and given the median household income in Edgewood, if they could somehow leave Woodland Hills and join PPS, the average household would save thousands per year even in spite of the higher wage tax. Not to mention having access to city magnets and the Pittsburgh Promise. That said, I'm not sure if Edgewood could do this legally.

No way this would ever happen. None of the nicer municipalities ever wanted to be part of Woodland Hills.

There used to be a poster here who bought a very very nice house in Wilkinsburg. He did so because he would come out ahead even factoring private school tuition over buying a very very nice home in the city. Guessing he paid half what a comparable house would have cost in city.