Suburb of the week: South Park (Pittsburgh, Bethel Park: for sale, houses, neighborhoods)

[eschaton]

South Park is an outer-ring suburb located basically due south of the city of Pittsburgh, extending to the Washington County border. Within Allegheny County it borders Bethel Park, Baldwin, Pleasant Hills, and Jefferson Hills.

South Park originally incorporated in 1845 under the name Snowden Township from portions of St. Clair and Jefferson townships. In the 1930s, Allegheny County bought large tracts of farmland within Snowden Township and created a regional recreational area, which it named South Park. The success of the park led local residents to demand a "re-branding" of their community, which contained most of South Park, and had roughly 1/3rd of its land given over to the park. Thus in 1966 Snowden was renamed South Park.

Due to the park breaking apart the roughly triangular geographic area, along with a large industrial zone in the middle of the township and other undeveloped areas, people in the community often identify more strongly with the five primary neighborhoods - Broughton, South Park Heights, Snowden, Piney Fork, and Library. Overall South Park is classic Pittsburgh early-to-middle 20th century suburban (and still semi-rural in portions. Some sectors of Broughton, and in particular Library, however were built out prior to World War II. Indeed, Library still has a T stop and was originally built out as a streetcar suburb. There's even a tiny historically black neighborhood near Library, named (from what my wife says, who grew up there "The Patch." This area could be a real asset to South Park in general, but seems fairly run down - there's not even sidewalks along Brownsville Road, for example.

South Park these days is a smidge less desirable than nearby Bethel Park and Jefferson Hills - mostly because it's a bit more diverse in terms of socio-economic status and thus its schools lag a tiny bit. However, despite this new suburban subdivisions continue to be built out where land is available. This buildout isn't at the rapid rate of nearby Jefferson Hills, so it's not quite quick enough to cancel out falling household size totally, but it comes close, with the township likely to lose only about half a percent off its population this decade.

[guy2073]

From 1996 to around 2001 I built a lot of houses in South Park then the building boom just ended. There are building lots that have been for sale since 2000 in some subdivisions.

[Copanut]

Not a real "hot spot" of the Pgh suburbs. Nothing particularly stands out with the exception of South Park. And it pales in comparison to North Park situate in the Great White North.

[guy2073]

I think people's idea of living has changed, South Park is a nice quiet suburb but it does lack a lot of amenities. People would rather move closer to the city. South Park also has a high sewer tap fee and the property taxes were high ( I have not checked recently ) and any new buildings are required to have grade beam footers that add 10 to 15k on the cost of a house.

[svband76]

Plus the newer expressway (that nobody uses) coupled with fracking nearby...

[halocheffer]

West view