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There's an old real estate adage besides "location, location, location." It's "Look to areas where the artists and gay people are moving into because it's cheap, and follow them." Lawrenceville and Garfield are perfect examples. South Side set this example in the 1980s and look at it now.
it's funny, i moved here from nyc 9 years ago, took one look at east liberty & garfield, and said "this area will be all galleries and coffee shops in a couple of years." it turns out pittsburgh gentrification doesn't move nearly as fast as nyc gentrification, but i certainly picked the area!
That is indeed funny, at least to me--I never lived in NYC myself but I have lots of friend from college who live there, and I used to visit frequently in the 1990s (less frequently now, but I stay in touch and go every once in a while). Anyway, I am actually constantly thinking about NYC when I imagining the future of these neighborhoods, because anyone with NYC experience in that era knows just how fast this stuff can happen (I could swear that one month I was visiting my friends on St. Mark's Place and was told not to step foot in Alphabet City, and the next month none of my friends could actually afford to live in Alphabet City). And while it is undoubtedly true the pace of such developments in Pittsburgh are (and likely will remain) much slower, the patterns are in fact easily recognizable if you know what to look for.
There's an old real estate adage besides "location, location, location." It's "Look to areas where the artists and gay people are moving into because it's cheap, and follow them." Lawrenceville and Garfield are perfect examples. South Side set this example in the 1980s and look at it now.
absolutely. gay people, artists, and countercultural people are the footsoldiers of gentrification! my neighborhood is chock full o' gay people, which gives me hope.
that's actually what fetterman is trying to force in braddock. he wants to attract artists and countercultural people to get that effect going. i'm not sure if it really works that way, but it's worth a shot!
Riff-raff? Garbage? A lot of us live on the North Side and have never experienced any sort of problems. It's funny how the people most critical of any area (or entire city) never mention where they live. The types who, for whatever reason they're driving through the "ghetto", always roll up their windows at the first sight of "riff-raff". The same people who are so full of fear they'd give up civil liberties to be "safe from terrorists"*. I can't imagine living my life that way.
*before any panties are drawn into a bunch, I'm not talking about anyone specifically, just the general mindset inferred from the OP.
Not everybody who lives on the North Side is garbage. In fact, the vast majority I surmise are decent people. I apologize if I inferred any differently. But, there are gangs and people causing serious problems there. It is not always a safe place. I figured that out after hearing "pop pop pop" and watching a police helicopter hover over the area as I was eating my lunch on Federal Street.
Deutschtown (sp?) is on the upswing. There are some beautiful renovated homes there and a nice business district. I actually like it a bit better than the war streets. Cross the highway and you have a different kettle of fish, though. Spring Garden and East Allegheny have a lot of potential, though, with some great 1800s housing stock.
Hazfora - as cool as it would be to tell your nephew that you live in South Park, you don't want to live there (not that it isn't a fine place for some people). But for you, it's way too car-centric and suburban for how you've said you want to live. Highland Park would be a good choice, in my opinion - there is good public transportation, it's walkable, has a great park, and is definitely in your price range (not to mention the best coffee shop in town; Enrico's Tazza d'Oro).
Other good options to consider would be Squirrel Hill and Regent Square.
Hazfora - as cool as it would be to tell your nephew that you live in South Park, you don't want to live there (not that it isn't a fine place for some people). But for you, it's way too car-centric and suburban for how you've said you want to live. Highland Park would be a good choice, in my opinion - there is good public transportation, it's walkable, has a great park, and is definitely in your price range (not to mention the best coffee shop in town; Enrico's Tazza d'Oro).
Other good options to consider would be Squirrel Hill and Regent Square.
Thank you, thank you. I actually was looking at this great 2 BR near Highland Park (North Highland Ave.) in a grand old building that has been renovated -- my perfect place -- and at a very right price. I looked at the website again five days later and it was rented. Sigh. Was that a good area and would that neighborhood fit my requirements? Are there parts of the Highland Park neighborhood that I need to avoid? Also is there a website link to a neighborhood map of Pittsburgh--that would be very helpful. I'm not ready to move until March at the earliest this year. Please tell me there are more places like that when I finally get up and move.
Please also tell me that I could live there safely as a single woman. If I survived in NYC and Washington DC (both with high crime rates -- which is ridiculous unless you walk around the notorious parts of town after dark alone), I can take Pittsburgh, wouldn't you think so? I just want some encouragement, as I've been reading a lot of conflicting negative feedback from this forum on some neighborhoods that were thought to have improved or are improving. So there are days when I'm so excited at the prospect of moving to Pitts and then I read negative comments on some neighborhoods I'm considering and out goes the courage. By the way, what is your personal opinion about your own neighborhood?
Are some parts of Pitts like Montmartre in Paris -- streets with steep concrete steps for sidewalks? (or like San Francisco also) Then it's a town really worth preserving and respecting. You should be proud of your town and be part of the change you want to happen.
Highland Park is a nice neighborhood overall. It gets a little transitional right near its border with East Liberty, although I personally don't think even that is a bad area.
Generally, the good news is that apartments in renovated older buildings/houses are quite common in the various good East End neighborhoods, although it is also true nicer, well-priced places tend to go very fast these days, particularly if they are listed online (some small landlords just put out For Rent signs, so the ideal apartment search involves driving around and writing down numbers, but unfortunately that is not easy to do from afar).
Generally Pittsburgh is a relatively low crime city, and most of its crime is concentrated in easily-avoided areas. I honestly don't think there are many, if any, better large cities for single women looking for safe city living. However, I think the generally low crime expectations can create among locals an overly alarmist rhetoric regarding how bad certain transitional areas might be--honestly people in NYC or DC would laugh at some of that rhetoric if they saw the relevant neighborhood crime statistics. Still, we have some cheap neighborhoods with even lower crime rates, so it is possible to really minimize that issue if it is a big one for you.
And yes, we have a lot of hillside neighborhoods with steps. In fact we've easily got the most city steps in the United States, and there are some neighborhoods which couldn't get by without them.
I love my own neighborhood, Regent Square. We lived in an apartment here when we first became a couple, then bought a house here after getting married, then bought a bigger house after having a child, and we have been doing that in part because we think the neighborhood is great. It is compact, diverse, and neighborly, very pleasant to walk around, has great access to Frick Park plus some smaller parks, has a cool little commercial area, has excellent public transit options . . . we really love it. By the way, by diverse in part I mean it includes people at all stages of life, including older singles, so you might check it out a bit. Note Regent Square is an informal neighborhood that contains parts of four municipalities (Pittsburgh, Swissvale, Edgewood, and Wilkinsburg).
You can click on each neighborhood to get a larger PDF map. Note that these are the "official" neighborhoods, and informally people use different names and sometimes different borders (sometimes for longstanding customary reasons, and sometimes for self-interested reasons, such as landlords being generous with the borders of the more popular neighborhoods).
Hazfora - as cool as it would be to tell your nephew that you live in South Park, you don't want to live there (not that it isn't a fine place for some people). But for you, it's way too car-centric and suburban for how you've said you want to live. Highland Park would be a good choice, in my opinion - there is good public transportation, it's walkable, has a great park, and is definitely in your price range (not to mention the best coffee shop in town; Enrico's Tazza d'Oro).
Other good options to consider would be Squirrel Hill and Regent Square.
That is if you don't include communities such as Beechview, Dormont, and Mt. Lebanon that have access to the "T" light rail service. Personally, I'd love to live somewhere with a train running through it like that. Well, maybe not RIGHT next to said train, LOL.
Thank you, thank you. I actually was looking at this great 2 BR near Highland Park (North Highland Ave.) in a grand old building that has been renovated -- my perfect place -- and at a very right price. I looked at the website again five days later and it was rented. Sigh. Was that a good area and would that neighborhood fit my requirements? Are there parts of the Highland Park neighborhood that I need to avoid? Also is there a website link to a neighborhood map of Pittsburgh--that would be very helpful. I'm not ready to move until March at the earliest this year. Please tell me there are more places like that when I finally get up and move.
Please also tell me that I could live there safely as a single woman. If I survived in NYC and Washington DC (both with high crime rates -- which is ridiculous unless you walk around the notorious parts of town after dark alone), I can take Pittsburgh, wouldn't you think so? I just want some encouragement, as I've been reading a lot of conflicting negative feedback from this forum on some neighborhoods that were thought to have improved or are improving. So there are days when I'm so excited at the prospect of moving to Pitts and then I read negative comments on some neighborhoods I'm considering and out goes the courage. By the way, what is your personal opinion about your own neighborhood?
If you're used to NYC and Washington DC, you should have no hesitation about living in Highland Park. I am in the neighborhood at all hours of the day and night, and I have never once felt threatened. In fact, I am renovating a house in East Liberty, near the Highland Park border, and have never felt threatened there either, and I am a single female as well. Friends of mine living in Shadyside (much more upscale and $$) have had their car broken into multiple times - that has never happened to me. Use common sense, which clearly you have if you've lived in urban areas before.
I love the area - the beautiful grand houses, the walkability, the proximity to the park, the great new stores and restaurants in East Liberty, the (soon-to-be) renovated Carnegie library branch. You're very close to Shadyside, Lawrenceville, Aspinwall, for other shopping needs.
I would take BrianTH's suggestion of looking at Regent Square as well, though, and think you would be happy there also. In my opinion, it's a little further removed from the rest of the city, but it has a nice little business district, and is close to the parkway.
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