Moving to Pittsburgh - job in South Side Flats - Questions (Duquesne: fit in, apartments)

[BritBadger]

I have accepted a job in Pittsburgh and it is located in the South Side Flats area. It is with a large firm and I will be doing software development work.



I am moving from Madison Wisconsin - I just graduated with a computer science degree. I love Madison and all it has to offer. But am very excited about Pittsburgh as my family is originally from the area and I am a huge fan of all the sports team (I have lived in Europe most of my life before moving to Madison for school).



I do not drive (yet) so I am keen to live in walking, biking or public transport distance to my job in the South Side Flats. Questions:

[LIST=1][*]Anyone have any input on living and working in the South Side Flats part of town?[*]It looks like there are plenty of apartments in the area - can anyone confirm? [*]What is the restaurant, bar, nightlife scene like in the area?[*]Are there good places to run and (I am assuming) there are plenty of gyms in the area?[*]What's the vibe? And how is the crime in this area?[*]How good is the public transport system in Pittsburgh?[*]How hard is to do grocery shopping in the area?[/LIST]I would really appreciate any input or advice. Really excited to get back to my "roots"!




Thanks!

[BritBadger]

Re-posting my list of questions as the formatting was poor...

1 Anyone have any input on living and working in the South Side Flats part of town?
2 It looks like there are plenty of apartments in the area - can anyone confirm?
3 What is the restaurant, bar, nightlife scene like in the area?
4 Are there good places to run and (I am assuming) there are plenty of gyms in the area?
5 What's the vibe? And how is the crime in this area?
6 How good is the public transport system in Pittsburgh?
7 How hard is to do grocery shopping in the area?


Thanks!

[RetireinPA]

i dont live or work there, but I am there every warm nice day as it is the (almost) only free boat ramp in the emsworth pool for the rivers.


Gimme the address of work as in street and the numbered cross and I will fill in distances to each point.


It is at present gentrifying and set up that you can do everything in walking distance.


There are plenty of BUILDINGS for apartments, but you need to do a local search for what is available, mebbe some are avail on rent.com but most of the area is privately owned buildings broke into many units and not sure how if any one mgmt company controls many of them - you will need boots on the ground to verify this. Everyone I know who does live there, state it is quite salty, some of the flats in the flats are easily over the quarter mil mark to buy - which is popular.


There are bars and food all up and down carson street (pa 837) which is the 'main drag' and separates the water side from the hilly side and how do you say it...'clientele' differs. more riff than raff depending on side of the street. any friday and saturday after 5pm when warm, that place clogs up. a lot of people trudge across the 'hot metal bridge' (its not hot) to party.


For running or biking, there is a trail system next to the river and NS tracks that runs from pretty much the point to rankin bridge (lookitup) A lot of people use it to get to the 'waterfront' which is a number of miles up river on the left bank descending of the mon (lookitup) Its in use HEAVY during daylight hours and pittsburgh popo have a HEAVY presence in or near the boat ramp which is pretty much under the birmingham. After hours after dark...wellllllllll...I would not - use common sense.


Vibe? Its your age people. They like to drink smoke and fool around (they are nookie bound) so if you are into the bar/club scene you will fit in. there are small band nights. A good friend of mine was gonna open her winery along there but the plague put a sock in that - dunno if its on the table. money will be spent. The are letter friendly and no one knots up the panties if they get a whiff of left handed cigarettes.



Crime...hmmm....I was there a lot during the 'summer of hate' as boating was about the ONLY legal thing you could do off property without mask. the sound side/flats got a rep...there were high profile shootings, high profile fights, a prolific homeless encampment, robberies, property crime such that the city said ENUFF and changed the rulz.


Kinda curfews now, enforced parking, direction restrictions (they had implemented OUTBOUND ONLY on carson street from like 10th st bridge to 18th as this is where MOST of the problems cropped up). As always, the cretins were not residents and some of these residents have a serious financial position in this area and want it better. The things I saw and reported on..whooo boy. It literally becomes a different place after nightfall...which is a moving target in non-freezing weather. I try to have 'Chris' pulled out and tied down and on my way by dusk. Just the drive from 18th to hot metal at 29th could be...um...interesting.


How good is public trans? You will get differing opinions, but mine, having lived elsewhere where public trans is virtually the ONLY option (san fran, NY, DC etc) pittsburgh comparatively does not have public transpo. Thats not true literally - its a comparo, but there are frequent buses on the major routes, I dont think (but could be wrong) the light rail system runs on either the NS or CSX plant...I kinda wanna say it does not go much farther upstream than just after station square. You might want to drive one day...not hard to obtain in PA, but buy a beater cuz it will get crunged, parking will be hard and it might get stolen once or twice ;-)



Groceries? There is a giant eagle right there...2 streets off carson between 18th and 21st? ish. It is what it is and you will get varying opinions on that, but if you are ok with taking a bus outwards, we have other options a half hour away in any direction (in pitt, miles = 3 minutes at night, 4 at rush. 5 during a holiday, snow event or stiller game)


Myself being in federal gubmint employ, I only have to come INTO the area when I need to visit the FBI (its actually not that far off) or THRU the area when I go to the fed building 'dahntahn'. I dont like doing EITHER BTW.


The south side is not the worst neighborhood in the area, it just got the most attention 20/21. The rearrangement of the streets and restrictions actually seemed to have worked, the riff raff just does not get many opportunities for 'crimes of opportunity' You WILL lock doors, windows, many of the high value homes bar them. There is a LOT of vagrancy in the city limits during warmth and they do 'shop' homes. Thats endemic anymore, but it is a SSF reality.



If you have the DNA for city living, you will like it. Aint the same place I grew up with (what is?) and I temper my comments by being an old codger who spends every minute on the water I can and spent too much time living in the woods.



Oh and ya, you are gonna have to give up being a cheesehead and follow the 'stillers'. some things are religion here and this is one of them. bienbenidos.

[BritBadger]

Many thanks for the answers. The good news is my Dad and his Dad are from Western PA so I was raised properly and love the Steelers, Penguins and Pirates! Thanks!!

[svband76]

I'd choose the Southside Slopes or Mount Oliver over the flats any day. Both are still walking distance. Flats area has what you need but is very noisy. Good luck.

[BritBadger]

Many thanks for this input!!

[guy2073]

Originally Posted by svband76

I'd choose the Southside Slopes or Mount Oliver over the flats any day. Both are still walking distance. Flats area has what you need but is very noisy. Good luck.

If you go past the Birmingham Bridge the chaos calms done. I really like the area around the hot metal bridge.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by svband76

I'd choose the Southside Slopes or Mount Oliver over the flats any day. Both are still walking distance. Flats area has what you need but is very noisy. Good luck.

If someone is without a car, living in a hillside neighborhood is an awful idea. You're reliant upon the public stairwells to get down then, many of which are terribly maintained and, even when not, will be coated in ice during the winter. Not to mention he'd have to lug bags much further away after shopping for groceries at the dirty bird and/or Aldi.

Yeah, the South Side Flats can be a pretty rowdy neighborhood with a lot of craziness due to the bar/club scene. But there are reasonable ways to mitigate this, such as living in one of the larger apartment buildings (which will insulate you more from street-level noise and the like versus renting a rowhouse or something similar). Also in general, the further east you can live in the neighborhood the better (the western side of the neighborhood has a lot more Duquesne students renting there, which means it's younger/frattier feeling, while the areas closer to South Side works are a bit older/more professional.

[BritBadger]

Really appreciate all the input - THANKS!!