Recommended places downtown or near, or whatever (Pittsburgh, Oakland: apartment, houses)

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by skrizzle

Kind of a downer about downtown, we are really into being in the city.... KC downtown is very walkable and lots of things to do and different districts. Hopefully in a few years it will change in Pittsburgh.

I want to clarify something for you. Oakland is part of the city. The same applies to Shadyside, Squirrel Hill and many other neighborhoods mentioned by others here. Since Pittsburgh is very hilly, our 'city' is topographically separated. What we consider 'downtown' is probably different from what you consider downtown where you live. Since you say that your downtown has different districts, I think Oakland would be another district in your city. Pittsburghers merely call 'downtown' the immediate few blocks that are within the triangle formed by the three rivers where the larger skyscrapers are located. The rest of our city neighborhoods, or 'districts' as you would call them, aren't considered part of downtown by Pittsburghers. Our immediate 'downtown' is way too small to be separated into districts like you describe. This will be easier for your to understand once you come to Pittsburgh and see it for yourself.

[skrizzle]

Originally Posted by Hopes

I want to clarify something for you. Oakland is part of the city. The same applies to Shadyside, Squirrel Hill and many other neighborhoods mentioned by others here. Since Pittsburgh is very hilly, our 'city' is topographically separated. What we consider 'downtown' is probably different from what you consider downtown where you live. Since you say that your downtown has different districts, I think Oakland would be another district in your city. Pittsburghers merely call 'downtown' the immediate few blocks that are within the triangle formed by the three rivers where the larger skyscrapers are located. The rest of our city neighborhoods, or 'districts' as you would call them, aren't considered part of downtown by Pittsburghers. Our immediate 'downtown' is way too small to be separated into districts like you describe. This will be easier for your to understand once you come to Pittsburgh and see it for yourself.

Ah ok cool....

yeah our Downtown is broken into several districts...

http://www.downtownkc.org/ftp/webmap.jpg (broken link)

There are actually some smaller ones within:

Now I don't consider Union Hill part of downtown, but it's definitely in the city. Is that similar to Squirrel Hill, etc??

Yeah me and my gf need to take a trip up there and check it out.

[skrizzle]

OH cool I found something on wikipedia to help me figure out some of the locatiosn of what you are guys talking about =)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ghborhoods.svg

[groar]

there you go!

everything between the rivers besides downtown is known collectively as the east end.

north of the river is the north side.

south of the river from mt. washington & beechview eastward is the south side/south side slopes/south hills

west of that (basically west of downtown on the south side of the river) is the west end.

if you want to take a bus to oakland without transferring, sticking with the east end is a good idea.

[Hopes]

When Pittsburghers refer to 'downtown, they are generally referring to what's called the central business district on the map below.

The University is located in North Oakland, which is part of the city.

You just can't walk from 'downtown' to Oakland for many reasons---hills, highways, distance, danger between the two areas, etc.

When you consider the entire city of Pittsburgh (in the map), Pittsburgh isn't dead, just 'downtown' in the evenings and weekends when there's not an event.

Pittsburgh's 'downtown' isn't any more dead that NYC's Wall Street District on the weekends.

I think that explanation will put it into perspective for you. I was in NYC a few weeks ago. Wall Street is DEAD on the weekends. Pittsburgh's downtown is the same way.

[greg42]

Terrace Village? That's a new one to me, had no idea it had that specific name. ;-) For that matter, I've only ever heard north and south Oakland, never west that I can remember. And do we carve Uptown out of the Bluff, or do we replace Bluff entirely with Uptown? (Probably the latter.) Uptown seems to be the name most used these days, but then I don't know what people who live there call it, just what I read.

[pman]

OTOH downtown seems to be growing and is incredibly walkable

[BrianTH]

Just to give people a sense of scale, according to Wikipedia "Downtown Kansas City", which I gather is everything on that map above, is about 3 square miles, and the section inside the freeway circle is about 1 square mile. What we call Downtown in Pittsburgh (the CBD on the map above) is only about 0.64 square miles. Even the "Greater Downtown" defined by the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership, which includes the North Shore, South Shore, Uptown (aka Bluff), Crawford-Roberts, and the nearer parts of the Strip, is only about 2 square miles.

On the other hand, Squirrel Hill alone (including the North and South parts) is almost 4 square miles, and obviously the greater East End is much bigger than that.

So the upshot is that Pittsburgh really doesn't have anything that maps neatly onto KC's Downtown. That said, I think if you tossed in the nearer parts of the South Side and the North Side into the Greater Downtown Pittsburgh as defined above, you'd probably be getting pretty close. And that does add up to an interesting mix at that point.

On the other hand, I don't know if KC has anything like the East End (it might--I just really don't know). Again, though, the East End can be great if you are going to Pitt.

[Hopes]

Brian, Their River Market is probably our Strip District. I'll bet something on KC's downtown map includes a district similar to Oakland. For instance, KC has a Hospital Hill.

Our city 'districts' are merely separated by hillsides, not everything is in one place.

I'm sure KC's financial district is dead on the weekends, just like NYC's financial district. That's how I view Pittsburgh's central business district being dead on the weekends.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Hopes

Brian, Their River Market is probably our Strip District. I'll bet something on KC's downtown map includes a district similar to Oakland. For instance, KC has a Hospital Hill.

Again I really don't know KC well enough to speculate too much. But I would note that Oakland (all parts) totals something like 1.5 square miles. So you could indeed probably cobble together something roughly the same size, and maybe roughly the same composition (subject to my lack of knowledge of KC), of Downtown KC by stringing together Oakland, Uptown, Downtown, and the Strip.

Our city 'districts' are merely separated by hillsides, not everything is in one place.

This is a bit of an aside, but while I agree with this general sentiment, I think the topographical divisions can have an affect on composition as well: individual neighborhoods can develop something of their own character and personality, maybe a little more independence in terms of things like local commercial districts, and so on. So I'm not quite sure that it is exactly correct that Pittsburgh's neighborhoods are just like the districts in a place like KC but with a little more separation, although I do think that is a useful first approximation for the sake of explaining what we are talking about when we describe Pittsburgh.

I'm sure KC's financial district is dead on the weekends, just like NYC's financial district. That's how I view Pittsburgh's central business district being dead on the weekends.

Again I think that is basically correct, and we have also used the example of Chicago's Loop, and so on. That said, people started living in NYC's financial district a while back, and that is happening in Downtown Pittsburgh as well, so that common pattern may be changing at least a little.