Could you name a few nice neighborhoods around this address? (Aspinwall: homes, school district)

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

I'm surprised nobody mentioned Polish Hill yet.

The OP said she didn't want anything too run down, and Polish Hill is pretty run down. There is also no elementary school in the neighborhood, and I not sure where it feeds into.

I personally really like Polish Hill, and in fact we even briefly considered buying there (it is tough to find stuff). But I don't think it sounds like a good match for the OP.

[Sideblinded]

I found the school finder by address. I would call the district and triple check. I am not sure if they have next year figured out.

Pittsburgh Public Schools | Find a School

[greg42]

I actually didn't think of Polish Hill, but I was in a hurry right before leaving the house this morning. Apparently there was no rush necessary. And honestly I guess I kinda spaced the "run down" part. I focused on the "ghetto" that I saw there. The places I mentioned, plus Polish Hill, would be considered run down at least by some. But then again, sometimes run down is what people use to judge whether or not a place is safe, and those places are all safe.

Of course this is of little use without a budget as a guide. I don't know why, but I was inclined to mention places that might have some reasonable costs and were within 10-15 minutes. The less run down places go up in cost and also up in distance generally.

[algia]

Ok, Thank you very much for all the replies so far....

We have evaluated what's MORE important to us and frankly the "suburbs" isn't it, we hate it here and don't want to be in this scenario again...I am a "city" person...who hates living on pastures with a passion, so the more urban the better, looking at row homes or town homes (not sure what's the difference, if anyone wants to explain I would appreciate it) 2,3 4, floors/basement...that's it. I don't know what price range to give for that as I haven't searched the area yet because I didn't know what neighborhoods are around that place, now I have an idea and will look ....

How far is Bethel Park from that address? (someone mentioned it earlier) can you walk from there to that address? (I could mapquest but traffic is not considered)


Mind you, this would be our starting point.....we may move somewhere else once we have a chance to "see" things in person.

Are "Parochial schools" considered private? or? really NOT familiar.....


I saw photos of "Friendship" and read that ppl are buying and restoring? is that true?

"Safe" meaning I won't hear gun shots at night or go out at night to get my mail and get shot at or molested or robbed!? have things stolen from my car? stuff like that? can we walk at night?

[algia]

I should mention "safe" also where the house won't fall apart, water liking, gas exploding, I read about a few explosions this winter in Pittsburgh.......being so old, I just read that History post 1800's etc....

[Hopes]

The OP needs to decide if he wants to live in the city or suburbs.

If the OP wants suburbs, the closest he can get to that address is Shaler.

He doesn't have to live in Millvale, athough it is safe. He can move into the Mt. Royal area and be within 15 minutes away.

Ross Township is another alternative that would be a quick commute, but Shaler is definitely the closest suburb.

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by algia

I should mention "safe" also where the house won't fall apart, water liking, gas exploding, I read about a few explosions this winter in Pittsburgh.......being so old, I just read that History post 1800's etc....

LMAO! I gotta laugh. It's just funny to me when people assume some random incidents in the news will happen to them.

I've lived in this region most of my long life and I have NEVER seen a gas explosion.

News Flash: Gas explosions can happen in any city of any age.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Sideblinded

I found the school finder by address. I would call the district and triple check. I am not sure if they have next year figured out.

Yeah, the 2011 directory isn't online yet. But it looks like it was Woolslair for K-5 last year (a school which I don't think I have heard anyone talking about, although that doesn't really mean anything).

[greg42]

Row house vs townhouse: basically, row houses are the older houses put up directly adjoining each other within an urban area. Townhouse usually refers to something newer put up in the suburbs. Effectively the same in terms of layout, though. You're talking about a lot only as wide as the house, maybe some yard in front and/or behind, and that's it. The city row houses usually don't have a front yard, though. Many of them come right up to the sidewalk.

Price range I would think you had some idea, though. For example it makes a big difference if you can pay $1200 or so rent on a 2 bedroom vs only $800. You would have a much wider choice of areas.

Millvale, BTW, although it is a suburb and not part of the city (though right next to it), is a little town with businesses, sidewalks, etc. Ditto Aspinwall which someone mentioned. I didn't bring that up because it's farther, although 15 min might still just about make it.

Bethel park is far south and very much suburban.

Parochial schools refers to religious-afiliated private schools, most commonly Catholic around here but there are some others. In other words, it's a subset of private schools. The Catholic schools are significantly less costly than the big name private schools.

Most school questions I'll defer to others. I can speak only in generalizations. All I know is typically if you're really looking for better schools you look more to the suburbs, so you have a bit of a conflict there with your desire to have an urban environment. Which isn't to say so can't get a decent education from the city schools. And isn't to say you couldn't find a suitable medium place that's not in the city but has some city-like elements to it and is close by.

Oh and safe in all those things, sure. In general. Plenty of anecdotes for having things taken out of cars even in the fancier neighborhoods. Gas explosions, well, that can happen anywhere too. And so can being struck by lightning.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by algia

We have evaluated what's MORE important to us and frankly the "suburbs" isn't it, we hate it here and don't want to be in this scenario again...I am a "city" person...who hates living on pastures with a passion, so the more urban the better, looking at row homes or town homes (not sure what's the difference, if anyone wants to explain I would appreciate it) 2,3 4, floors/basement...that's it. I don't know what price range to give for that as I haven't searched the area yet because I didn't know what neighborhoods are around that place, now I have an idea and will look ....

So that's helpful. I'll stick by my recommendations of Shadyside and Friendship, but you can get back to us once you have evaluated your budget (those aren't the cheapest areas).

As far as row houses versus townhouses, for the most part I think those are just two different names for the same thing, namely a horizontal series of residential units sharing only sidewalls (so not including multi-level apartment buildings). However, for whatever reason I think some people associate the term "row houses" more with older, urban areas, and prefer "townhouses" for newer, suburban areas.

How far is Bethel Park from that address? (someone mentioned it earlier) can you walk from there to that address? (I could mapquest but traffic is not considered)

Bethel Park has to be 10-15 miles from there. I wouldn't consider it walkable.

Are "Parochial schools" considered private? or? really NOT familiar.....

Parochial schools used to be a term for schools run by a Catholic parish, but now people often mean any school that engages in religious instruction. They now have to be private, because the federal courts have held that public schools can't engage in religious instruction under the First Amendment.

I saw photos of "Friendship" and read that ppl are buying and restoring? is that true?

Absolutely. Friendship was never a bad neighborhood, but for a while a lot of the big houses had been converted into apartments, many occupied by students, and they got a bit beat up sometimes. In recent years Friendship has been getting more popular again, and people have been restoring a lot of places, including sometimes converting houses back from apartments.

We actually looked into that possibility (among others) circa 2008, but even then the prices had gotten to the point where they were no longer absolute bargains. That's not great news if you were looking to buy a giant historic home for cheap, but it is good news if you are looking for a neighborhood on the upswing. Incidentally, there are not a lot of rowhouses in Friendship, but there are more in nearby Bloomfield, and I also wonder if there might be some multilevel condo units in Friendship.

"Safe" meaning I won't hear gun shots at night or go out at night to get my mail and get shot at or molested or robbed!? have things stolen from my car? stuff like that? can we walk at night?

So there are definitely neighborhoods near that address which I would consider safe to walk around at night, but we are also talking about a large city which has some higher crime areas scattered around. Accordingly, almost all of the central part of the city is within potential hearing distance of a gunshot, there is always some small possibility of stuff being stolen from a car which is parked on the street, and so on. But there is a vast gulf between that general urban stuff and actually living in a true urban warzone--the question you have to ask yourself is exactly how much of this stuff are you willing to tolerate, assuming we are talking about stuff that is rare enough not to pose a serious statistical threat of physical harm

For example, I personally think it would be rational that when you are contemplating walkable neighborhoods close to work, you might require that your chances of being the victim of physical harm due to crime remain substantially lower than your chances of being the victim of physical harm due to a car accident if you lived in a more autocentric area with a much longer commute. But if you are still going to live in fear despite the statistics, then maybe you need to make a different choice. It is really a matter of knowing yourself and what you will be comfortable with (although I suspect a lot of people who dread living in urban areas would likely get used to it once they realized how normal it can feel).