Relocating to Pittsburgh! (Lebanon, Upper St. Clair, Carnegie: homes, neighborhood, magnet school)

[PittsburghviaRome]

Wow - you guys are giving me a lot to consider and a lot of great information - thank you SO much!!

A few of you mentioned Squirrel Hill? What about the High School in this zone? My oldest son will be going into 6th grade so only a few short years from having to worry about HS's. Don't get me wrong, we would love to be in the city (we've been living in downtown Rome for 5 years and love city living) but schools are our #1.

Also - my husband's co-workers all live in North Hills area and told him to stay north due to traffic?? Now looking at a map, that doesn't necessarily make sense to me given his office location, but again - I know nothing of the area/traffic patterns.

We have friends that grew up in Pittsburgh and raved about Mt. Lebanon, but then we heard traffic from that area is horrible?

A 30-40 minute commute isn't so bad for my husband - we're used to Rome traffic and before Rome, we both commuted to NYC from NJ so we're used to it, but obviously if there are options that meet our needs and cut out the commute - then great!

Thanks again for all your feedback - it helps tremendously!

[jea6321]

Taylor allderdice is the high school for squirrel hill. Its the best ranked city school. https://discoverpps.org/allderdice

From the north, you can guarantee a no tunnel commute into the city. From the south/west and east, you Typically have at least one tunnel to go through and in all fairness, they do get pretty backed up.

[Knepper3]

Originally Posted by PittsburghviaRome

Wow - you guys are giving me a lot to consider and a lot of great information - thank you SO much!!

A few of you mentioned Squirrel Hill? What about the High School in this zone? My oldest son will be going into 6th grade so only a few short years from having to worry about HS's. Don't get me wrong, we would love to be in the city (we've been living in downtown Rome for 5 years and love city living) but schools are our #1.

Also - my husband's co-workers all live in North Hills area and told him to stay north due to traffic?? Now looking at a map, that doesn't necessarily make sense to me given his office location, but again - I know nothing of the area/traffic patterns.

We have friends that grew up in Pittsburgh and raved about Mt. Lebanon, but then we heard traffic from that area is horrible?

A 30-40 minute commute isn't so bad for my husband - we're used to Rome traffic and before Rome, we both commuted to NYC from NJ so we're used to it, but obviously if there are options that meet our needs and cut out the commute - then great!

Thanks again for all your feedback - it helps tremendously!

Squirrel Hill is a nice area, more urban feeling than North Hills area to me and more walkable depending on exactly where. In terms of schools, SH will be Pittsburgh City SD. You will likely have larger schools, ratings vary but Allderdice HS ranks well, there are also magnet schools you can apply for but no guarantees. (see below for SH School info link).


One thing I will say is people from one side of the river tend to think highly of their side which is why your husband's coworkers likely recommend that area. Schools are generally ranked well there though. Also consider what activities your kids enjoy, smaller schools may not offer as much as middle or larger. Are you from NJ originally? That is where I grew up, exit 63.



https://www.niche.com/k12/search/lar...pittsburgh-pa/

[Charley Barker]

Mt Lebanon or Upper St Clair are excellent districts. Mt Lebo is a bit more diverse and there is no district transportation. We have friends in Mt Lebo who really like the area and the schools. I live in the South Hills and the commute from there would average about 30 minutes. Squirrel Hill to the S Side can take that long or longer on a bad day, but I am guessing it would be closer to 20 mins average, the evening commute being worse due to certain bottlenecks. There's good bus service between the two nodes.

Another option is to take the light rail from Mt Lebanon to Station Sq and then either walk/bus/bike the rest of the way.

[Geeo]

Traffic in Pittsburgh can't compare to New York or Rome. There are a few annoying choke-points because of the topography and rivers. Your husband's co-workers were probably referring to the lack of a tunnel on the route into the city from the north hills, whereas the southwestern and eastern suburban commuters have a tunnel to contend with, which does cause backups.

I can vouch for Squirrel Hill, and my brother and his family lived in the North Allegheny School District and were happy. It all comes down to your gut feeling. You really can't go wrong with any of the suggestions made so far. Squirrel Hill has a big international population, is near the universities and medical complexes, great access to parks, museums, and libraries, and you can meet people from all over the world. There's lots of things to occupy and educate kids in the neighborhood.

[PittsburghviaRome]

Originally Posted by Knepper3

Squirrel Hill is a nice area, more urban feeling than North Hills area to me and more walkable depending on exactly where. In terms of schools, SH will be Pittsburgh City SD. You will likely have larger schools, ratings vary but Allderdice HS ranks well, there are also magnet schools you can apply for but no guarantees. (see below for SH School info link).


One thing I will say is people from one side of the river tend to think highly of their side which is why your husband's coworkers likely recommend that area. Schools are generally ranked well there though. Also consider what activities your kids enjoy, smaller schools may not offer as much as middle or larger. Are you from NJ originally? That is where I grew up, exit 63.



https://www.niche.com/k12/search/lar...pittsburgh-pa/

Yes! Exit 114 (Holmdel).

And it's funny you say that - we have heard that people are particular about their sides of the river and don't tend to move from one to the other! I guess there's something to be said about loyalty and pride

I'm not sure city schools are what we're looking for, but they're not totally off the table.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by PittsburghviaRome

A few of you mentioned Squirrel Hill? What about the High School in this zone? My oldest son will be going into 6th grade so only a few short years from having to worry about HS's. Don't get me wrong, we would love to be in the city (we've been living in downtown Rome for 5 years and love city living) but schools are our #1.

Colfax feeds to Allderdice for grades 9-12. I would say Allderdice is the best of the neighborhood high schools. It's not bad, but it draws from a mixture of wealthy and poor neighborhoods. You can see the differences if you look at the aggregate test scores. Frankly if you're white or Asian, it's a good school, but it doesn't serve 40% or so of students who are black very well on the whole. I've heard from parents there really is minimal interaction between the two student bodies though - kids get tracked quickly on "college prep" or otherwise and then barely see one another.

Lots of Colfax parents make the choice to send their kids in 9th grade to one of the city magnet schools for high school - either CAPA (creative/performing arts) downtown or the Science & Technology magnet in Oakland.

Originally Posted by PittsburghviaRome

Also - my husband's co-workers all live in North Hills area and told him to stay north due to traffic?? Now looking at a map, that doesn't necessarily make sense to me given his office location, but again - I know nothing of the area/traffic patterns.

We have friends that grew up in Pittsburgh and raved about Mt. Lebanon, but then we heard traffic from that area is horrible?

Basically the commute to the North Hills would be almost all highway driving, but - depending upon the time - that could be heavily congested. In contrast with Mt. Lebanon it would be all surface driving, so it's going to be around the same driving commute time no matter the day.

[PittsburghviaRome]

Originally Posted by Geeo

Traffic in Pittsburgh can't compare to New York or Rome. There are a few annoying choke-points because of the topography and rivers. Your husband's co-workers were probably referring to the lack of a tunnel on the route into the city from the north hills, whereas the southwestern and eastern suburban commuters have a tunnel to contend with, which does cause backups.

I can vouch for Squirrel Hill, and my brother and his family lived in the North Allegheny School District and were happy. It all comes down to your gut feeling. You really can't go wrong with any of the suggestions made so far. Squirrel Hill has a big international population, is near the universities and medical complexes, great access to parks, museums, and libraries, and you can meet people from all over the world. There's lots of things to occupy and educate kids in the neighborhood.

Thank you! That's really helpful - and you're so right....it does come down to a gut feeling, which is so hard because we've never been there! Most times as you drive through an area or look at houses/neighborhood - you can get a "feel" and I can't get the "feel" from across the ocean, unfortunately! I just want to choose the right area for our kids!

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by PittsburghviaRome

Thank you! That's really helpful - and you're so right....it does come down to a gut feeling, which is so hard because we've never been there! Most times as you drive through an area or look at houses/neighborhood - you can get a "feel" and I can't get the "feel" from across the ocean, unfortunately! I just want to choose the right area for our kids!

While it doesn't in any way substitute for the real thing, Google Street View is your friend here.

[SteelCityRising]

I just don't want to see someone else end up like RCLMA. He moved to the South Side and commutes to Beaver. He hates his commute, and now I think that's a large reason why he doesn't like living here.

The bottlenecks Pittsburgh has are incredibly frustrating for navigating around.

I mean from Squirrel Hill to the South Side Works you can actually just hop onto I-376 (Parkway East) inbound and stay right in the onramp lane to get off the Glenwood exit in a few minutes. There's then usually a choke point between Bates/Second/Hot Metal, but that choke point is usually 10 minutes at most. So even with heavy traffic it's usually a 20-minute commute between South Side Works and Squirrel Hill.

I just feel like traffic will be a bear getting to South Side Works from Mt. Lebanon, Upper St. Clair, or the Avonworth area.