Living in Point Breeze with kids? (Pittsburgh, Highland Park: cul-de-sac, renting, houses)

[renee12]

Hello,

We are moving to Pittsburgh and are interested in living in the city. We are currently renting in Summerset at Frick in Squirrel Hill, but would like to live in closer to town, in Squirrel Hill or in Point Breeze. We found a house we like in Point Breeze. Squirrel Hill seems pretty lively, but Point Breeze has a quieter feel to it. This is fine with me, but I am wondering how many kids there will be for my kids to play with. Can anybody give me an idea of how kid friendly Point Breeze is? Our kids are 9 and 11 years.

Thanks!

[ainulinale]

I don't live anywhere near Point Breeze, but I can tell you that it's more of an older wealth area; and Homewood next door is one of the worst neighborhoods in the city. Point Breeze is a beautiful neighborhood though and was the childhood home of Pulitzer Prize winner Annie Dillard.

[Scientist Mom]

If you are in the southern part of Point Breeze, it should be very good. That is considered a good neighborhood for kids. North of Penn Ave is more questionable. I would not live there with kids.

We rented for 8 months in Point Breeze, right across from the Frick Park Bowling Greens. There seemed to be a lot of kids around and it also seemed very safe. We would let our then 4 year old play in the yard alone while we were making dinner. Lots of pedestrians there after work.

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by renee12

We are moving to Pittsburgh and are interested in living in the city. We are currently renting in Summerset at Frick in Squirrel Hill, but would like to live in closer to town, in Squirrel Hill or in Point Breeze. We found a house we like in Point Breeze. Squirrel Hill seems pretty lively, but Point Breeze has a quieter feel to it. This is fine with me, but I am wondering how many kids there will be for my kids to play with. Can anybody give me an idea of how kid friendly Point Breeze is? Our kids are 9 and 11 years.

For the most part, Point Breeze is a neighborhood where the children go on 'play dates' at classmates' houses. It's safe for them to go play in the park with friends, or walk to a nearby store, pizza place, or shopping area. It's just not an area where they go outside and run into random kids to play. Squirrel Hill is fairly similar in this regard. There will be streets where children play with neighborhood children in a more suburban way, but those streets are the exception, not the rule in Point Breeze & Squirrel Hill.

[TechieTransplant]

Originally Posted by Scientist Mom

North of Penn Ave is more questionable. I would not live there with kids.

Actually "East" or probably more specific, "Northeast" of Penn Avenue is called "North Point Breeze" until you come to the border with Homewood which I believe is Hamilton Avenue. You will see the destinction between Point Breeze and North Point Breeze on this map..........the line that separates the two is Penn Avenue, which runs Northwest to Southeast

Pittsburgh Map

[Geeo]

Point Breeze is loaded with families. And Frick Park is adjacent to the neighborhood, which makes it really nice.

[robrobrob]

I used to live in South Point Breeze and it is a pretty nice city neighborhood. Some streets are better than others. One thing I would add is that Reynolds Street is pretty busy with both cars and people. If I were ever to move back to the city Point Breeze would be at the top of my list. One drawback is that it isn't convenient to downtown.

[steindle]

I think that Point Breeze is a great place to raise kids. I had numerous friends from high school who were born and raised there, and they almost uniformly ended up going to good schools and having interesting careers...if anecdotal evidence means anything to you!

[BrianTH]

Point Breeze is definitely one of the most family-friendly neighborhoods among the upper-scale neighborhoods in the East End. If you are interested in statistics, per the last Census about 22.2% of the population in Point Breeze was under 18, as opposed to 17.5% for the City as a whole. Some other nearby neighborhoods: Shadyside 8.0%, Squirrel Hill North 9.8%, Squirrel Hill South 16.9%, Greenfield 17.0%, Regent Square (Pittsburgh part only) 18.8%, Swisshelm Park 18.8%, Highland Park 21.6%. Note these numbers are from 2000, and I am personally guessing they will be up a bit in the 2010 Census.

Edit: by the way, I should note I wouldn't view these percentages as perfect measures of family-friendliness. For example, Shadyside and Squirrel Hill get a lot of college/grad students: Squirrel Hill North was 43.3% college/grad students, Shadyside 39.2%, and Squirrel Hill South 16.8%, compared to 8.5% for Point Breeze (or Highland Park at 8.3%, or 5.6% for Regent Square). I wouldn't go so far as to say you should simply look at percentages of children in the non-student population, but I do think you should keep that in mind as an explanation of why places with otherwise a lot of natural appeal to families may end up not having quite as high a percentage of children as you might have expected.

[renee12]

Thank you for all the info. and stats! Your replies are pretty much in line with what I was thinking. We currently live in a suburb with kids in every house. I realize we won't get that in the city but as long as there are some kids. I understand the playdate thing. We lived in Brooklyn for a year and it was all playdates at the park or someone's house. The sense I get from Point Breeze is that it will be somewhere in between, not entirely free roaming but not so restricted as Brooklyn. The house we are looking at is on a cul-de-sac south of Reynolds street. It seems very safe and quiet. However, I did not see any kids on the streets when I was looking and was a little concerned, but I'm guessing they are there just not out and about as much as here. As far as the convenience to downtown, that's not a problem. My husband will be working in an office in Bakery Square.