So I’ve had an inkling this was coming. But it seems to be official at this point. My job looks like it will be relocating me to the Pittsburgh area soon. Probably early May.
So that said, Pittsburgh people, I need a little insight. I don’t know the area at all, the job will be in Coraopolis, so fill me in. Any cool bits of local interest? Do you have Aldi there, and what’s the place to go to for good prices spices? Any areas that I should avoid for housing (I have a 4 year old and a 1 year old), any places I should look to live? What’s a good affordable neighborhood to rent a house at?
Also any of you guys in the area, and would be up for grabbing a beer at some point? I’m probably going to be moving out in advance of the family, get settled into the job and allow wife to finish up things before moving the family, so it’s likely from May until July I’ll be out on my own. So any Qt3 meetups would be welcomed :D
It’s not certain, but I should know for sure this week.
I don’t live there, but I’ve visited often. Lots of cool restaurants, yes they have Aldis, there’s an Ikea, and a metric crapton of bridges. Nice zoo/aquarium as well.
We’ll be in the same time zone @CraigM! I’m spending some months in Brantford, Ontario this fall, so we’ll practically be neighbours, only a… five hour drive…
LOL - I always assumed it was a per capita thing, but the only thing I do know is someone went bridge-happy with that place like it was going out of style.
Hey, this is something I’m actually qualified to talk about! I grew up north of Pittsburgh, and my wife and I live about three miles north of Coraopolis nowadays.
Avoid Coraopolis (Cory to the locals) proper for housing. It’s kind of a dump. As far as location goes, you probably want to be north or west of the city proper. Route 51 and 65 along the Ohio River are both major arteries into the city for commuters, so if those are your ways into the office, you want to be going against the flow. I-79 is usually only busy around the I-376 (the Parkway West), so if you’re on the right side of that interchange you should have a pretty easy drive. You definitely don’t want to be south of the city. Everywhere in Pittsburgh and the nearby suburbs to the north, east, and west is about half an hour from everything else in those regions. The South Hills are an hour from everywhere except the South Hills. It’s a mysterious place. We do not speak of it, nor do we go there.
I don’t have much firsthand experience with the rental market, and especially not the housing rental market. I do know that, in the northern suburbs, there’s not a lot of rental space available; it’s definitely more of a ‘buy’ kind of city. (Real estate prices are extremely reasonable.) Apartments are expensive, and when we were looking a few years ago, I don’t know if we even saw a single house worth considering. You have a pretty wide choice of neighborhood available to you. My wife and I are in classic two-car garage suburbia territory a little ways to the northeast of Coraopolis. Sewickley, across the Ohio and a little downstream, is a super-cute walkable small town, but it’s also ridiculously expensive. On that side of the river, most of the communities from Edgeworth to Ben Avon and into Bellevue are nice, and they get a little more urban-feeling.
I’d certainly be down to grab a beer sometime. I also have a ton of recommendations for things to see and things to do, but it’s the end of the work day and I have a few stops to make on the way home, so I’ll have to come back to those later. Shoot me a PM if you want more focused neighborhood recommendations.
I have a friend who just moved to the Pittsburgh area. He was specifically looking for something close to his new job, so I don’t know if he did all that much research before he and his family moved.
I haven’t spent a lot of time in Pittsburgh but I did do some work for a while in western PA and I recall running into some weird culinary habits at the restaurants, like getting a salad with French fries on top, or ordering a pizza and having to ask that they not crack an egg on top.
