Official neighborhood borders in Pittsburgh (Allentown, Washington: neighborhoods, live, zip code)

[I_Like_Spam]

Neighborhood Map List Map

Do the people who drew up these official neighborhood boundaries even live here?

It irritates me to think that the City Government officially has Central Catholic and WQED in Squirrel Hill, Palermo's Shoe Service and the Slovene church of 57th St. in Stanton Heights and Wal-mart and St. Margarets in Lincoln Lemington.

If they were going to do it right, why did the city government bother?

[escilade18]

broken link ? This should be an interesting thread though

[ElijahAstin]

I would imagine that there are a million different conceptions regarding exact neighborhood boundaries. In the end, they have to draw the lines somewhere.

[BrianTH]

Note they assemble official neighborhoods out of Census tracts, which is part of why their borders are not along the locally-accepted lines.

[I_Like_Spam]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

Note they assemble official neighborhoods out of Census tracts, which is part of why their borders are not along the locally-accepted lines.

If the federal government, for whatever reason, had drawn up the lines, that would be a bit more acceptable and understandable as Census Tracts are the methodology they have available and the feds aren't local people.

But this is the city government that drew up the lines, and I think that they should know that I-279 North does not go through Northview Heights and Kelly's Bar isn't in Shadyside.

[LIRefugee]

Is it really important enough to cause this degree of consternation? The places I am familiar with that you mention so vehemently as being in the wrong neighborhood are either right on the border or are very close to the edge. Again, they have to draw the lines somewhere. Is it really a grotesque dishonor for WQED to officially be in Squirrel Hill instead of Oakland or Shadyside or wherever? What neighborhood would you put Wal-Mart in, exactly? Is it really worth defending the honor of Wal-mart by denying that it is in the Lincoln-Lemington-Belmar neighborhood?

Streets make for better borders than plots anyhow.

[SteelCityRising]

It really comes down to some streets being the delineating factor between neighborhoods. For example, I WOULD consider anything south of Fifth Avenue in that area east of Neville to be Squirrel Hill and anything north of Fifth and east of Neville to be Shadyside, even though that part of Shadyside has an Oakland (15213) zip code over to Morewood Avenue (and also extending onto Bayard Road). As far as anything DIRECTLY ALONG that stretch of Fifth Avenue is concerned it's blurred.

I personally don't agree with the neighborhood boundaries for Polish Hill. I've always considered the small sub-neighborhood (i.e. Stockholm Street) on the other side of the 28th Street Bridge and West Penn Park, overlooking the Strip District, to be Polish Hill, but the city classifies those properties as being IN the Strip District. The Polish Hill Civic Association included this sub-neighborhood within Polish Hill for purposes of our long-range planning process. I also don't know why they consider Ridgway Street to be Polish Hill while Ajax Street is the Hill District. Why not just make the border Bigelow Boulevard?

[I_Like_Spam]

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

I personally don't agree with the neighborhood boundaries for Polish Hill. I've always considered the small sub-neighborhood (i.e. Stockholm Street) on the other side of the 28th Street Bridge and West Penn Park, overlooking the Strip District, to be Polish Hill, but the city classifies those properties as being IN the Strip District. The Polish Hill Civic Association included this sub-neighborhood within Polish Hill for purposes of our long-range planning process. I also don't know why they consider Ridgway Street to be Polish Hill while Ajax Street is the Hill District. Why not just make the border Bigelow Boulevard?

Ajax St. is definitely part of Polish Hill, as well as Ridgeway.

Polish Hill was laid out and settled before Bigelow Blvd was built.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by I_Like_Spam

Ajax St. is definitely part of Polish Hill, as well as Ridgeway.

Polish Hill was laid out and settled before Bigelow Blvd was built.

Thanks. Good to know. I'd still love to know, though, why the city doesn't include the streets "behind" the 28th Street Bridge as part of Polish Hill, too.

[SammyKhalifa]

Now it DOES strike me as odd that Grandview Park isn't in Mt. Washington, but Allentown.