Moving to Pittsburgh

When it was a steel town (or "still tahn" as the locals would say) the men came home from the mills so damn soot-covered and gross that they'd change clothes and go to the bathroom downstairs so they didn't track the grit into the house upstairs.

 

Shhhh. Don’t blow my cover trolling Pittsburgh when I actually found the Pittsburgh potty insanely interesting and smart.

 

You could argue Pittsburghers were the first to start utilizing basements as additional living space. A lot of those "Pittsburgh Pottys" just got enclosed and turned into full bathrooms that accompanied a game room/family room post WWII.

 

Can’t help much, other than to say it’s an underrated city. I find Steeler fans a bit much, but I also admire their dedication.

You’ll probably become quite acquainted with Sheetz. Everything in the store ends in a Z. They lean hard into the branding.

 

If your wife is willing to commute…

Beaver, PA.

You will not find a better mix of schools, affordability, small town feel.

 

Those would be fantastic for the wife's commute, but they are technically inside the city and I think they bring a suburban feel despite being inside the city limits. I love both, but I'm biased. Squirrel Hill is home. My wife was living in Shady Side when I met her. I've spent much of my life going to both and would love to live there again.

That said, you would have to do some research into the schools. They weren't the best when I was growing up. In fact, that is why my family moved to Upper St. Clair, which is near Mt. Lebanon.

The problem with many of the other recommendations is that the commute East to Pitt can be annoying. Of the ones I've heard so far, McCandless/Wexford is probably the best option. I'll give it some more thought.

 

I hate to admit it, but I miss Sheetz.

 

Pittsburgh's biggest major flaw is that it might have the worst public transportation system, so plan on driving to your job or anything else. Even the T, the city's impression of a subway, only goes from the South Hills, to downdown and the north shore.

 

As do I. We don't have a clone around here. Finding food after last call is a chore, unless it's one of a handful of 24-hour McD's.

 

Pittsburgh is a fantastic city. My mom grew up in Squirrel Hill and my grandparents lived in Oakland on N. Craig Street, not far from Pitt, when I was a kid. My cousins lived in Mt. Lebanon, which was a pretty nice suburb with good schools, though they moved back into the city (Shadyside near CMU) when my cousins were in HS. I hadn't spent much time there over the last 25 years or so since my grandparents passed away, but I've been back a few times now, as my son is a freshman at Pitt, and I look forward to every visit. Really cool neighborhoods, architecture and cityscapes.

If I was moving there and either my wife or I were working at Pitt, I'd definitely check out Squirrel Hill. Technically in the city but very residential -- lots of single family homes of various sizes as well as duplexes and other multifamilies. Very accessible to Pitt -- it borders Oakland. The main drag, Murray Avenue, has a lot of great shops/restaurants. And the HS that most of the kids there go to, Allderdice, has generally been very good over the years (not sure if that's changing). Probably very expensive, however, for Pittsburgh. But still a lot cheaper than comparable areas in other cities. Brookline, Mass., if you've ever spent time in Boston, is a pretty good comparison.

 

You did a better job selling my old neighborhood than I did. My mother, her mother, and many of my aunts and uncles went to Allderdice. My great aunt was a classmate of Myron Cope's there. (That would be the former local sports broadcaster and local radio analyst for Steelers games who created the Terrible Towel.) Allderdice is the best of the city schools and U.S. News and World report still has it among the top 20 schools in the Pittsburgh area, for what it's worth.

 

My mom, my uncle and all their first cousins (and their first cousins' kids) went to Allderdice. My mom was the youngest in her generation, so all her first cousins were a lot older. The one she's closest with, who's still alive, may have been in your great aunt's class. They're about the same age (I imagine Cope would be in his early/mid 90s if he was alive)