A question about Pittsburgh neighborhoods

Postby **Tomas** » Fri Aug 28, 2015 12:06 pm

A friend is thinking about working for WVU in Morgantown, but due to family reasons, he would like to live in the greater Pittsburgh area(naturally, close to I-79, and south of Pittsburgh) . When I lived in the city, I really did not care about anything that happened outside Squirrel Hill-Shadyside-Oakland , so I really don't know how to answer the following:

- other than Upper Saint Clair, are there any "affluent" (top schools, etc.) neighborhoods on the southern side of Pittsburgh (I noticed that USC is still quite far from Morgantown)?
- how do people in Western PA think of Washington, PA? Affluent enough? Good for family life?

Any opinion would be very appreciated!

Postby **dodint** » Fri Aug 28, 2015 12:10 pm

My Dad lives in Beallsville, which is a quiet little country place near Washington. I would not call it affluent though. It's safe and nice enough, but i doubt the schools are setting any records for sending folks to Harvard.

Postby **Avyran** » Fri Aug 28, 2015 12:11 pm

Lived in WashPA for a long time (recently moved away). Has progressively gotten worse. Trinity Area (the school system surrounding the town) used to be a good educational system; it has rapidly declined & become smaller in the past 10-20 years. However, there are a lot of nice neighborhoods to be living in near the town - South Strabane, North Strabane, etc. Washington's school system is just bad.

Canonsburg is a pretty good school system. Not USC, but pretty good. It's gotten a decent amount of fracking $$. Lots of good neighborhoods for this as well (Cecil, for instance).

Postby **Miami Vice** » Fri Aug 28, 2015 12:12 pm

My cousin starts at Mylan down there on Monday, and unless you're ready to commute over an hour you're going to want to live in the Morgantown area.

Canonsburg is further south and has a lot of McMansions (Wiz Khalifa bought one there, I think a few athletes did too). Thats the Canon-Mac school district, but I don't know anything about how good it is considered. Peters Twp is further south than Bethel/USC/Mt Lebo, but its still well over an hour away.

My cousin looked into places like Waynesburg and Washington, and thought even though he'd like to be a bit closer to Pittsburgh, he'd much rather be 10 minutes away from work.

Postby **RonnieFranchise** » Fri Aug 28, 2015 12:35 pm

My cousin starts at Mylan down there on Monday, and unless you're ready to commute over an hour you're going to want to live in the Morgantown area.

Canonsburg is further south and has a lot of McMansions (Wiz Khalifa bought one there, I think a few athletes did too). Thats the Canon-Mac school district, but I don't know anything about how good it is considered. Peters Twp is further south than Bethel/USC/Mt Lebo, but its still well over an hour away.

My cousin looked into places like Waynesburg and Washington, and thought even though he'd like to be a bit closer to Pittsburgh, he'd much rather be 10 minutes away from work.

yeah, I think Peters twp is the closest higher-end area... it's at least 60 miles to Morgantown.

Postby **Freddy Rumsen** » Fri Aug 28, 2015 12:38 pm

The Morgantown and University school districts are pretty good and it is a pretty easy drive from Morgantown to Pittsburgh.

Cheat Lake has a pretty high end suburban feel.

Postby **Dickie Dunn** » Fri Aug 28, 2015 12:53 pm

Any positive statement about Morgantown is a false statement.

Postby **Freddy Rumsen** » Fri Aug 28, 2015 12:58 pm

Any positive statement about Morgantown is a false statement.

I lived for about 10 years total (two separate times) in Clarksburg and do not disagree with the spirit of this statement. It is also why I mentioned Cheat Lake and not Morgantown.

Postby **Dickie Dunn** » Fri Aug 28, 2015 1:09 pm

Any positive statement about Morgantown is a false statement.

I lived for about 10 years total (two separate times) in Clarksburg and do not disagree with the spirit of this statement. It is also why I mentioned Cheat Lake and not Morgantown.

I hate Cheat Lake too. About three years ago, driving back to Pittsburgh from Washington D.C. I took the Cheat Lake exit on 68 to get on 43 and while on the exit ramp I hit a stupid raccoon that was apparently the size of a large toddler. Tore off my front bumper and went through my radiator, firewall, and dislodged my AC compressor.

West Virginia is stupid.

Postby **blackjack68** » Fri Aug 28, 2015 1:11 pm

So, is your driving apparently.

You didn't see a raccoon the size of a toddler?

Postby **Dickie Dunn** » Fri Aug 28, 2015 1:22 pm

It was dark and it darted into the road right in front of me.

Regardless, it probably had a UWV bumper sticker and deserved to run over.

Postby **columbia** » Fri Aug 28, 2015 1:25 pm

I kind of like Morgantown.

Postby **willeyeam** » Fri Aug 28, 2015 1:26 pm

at least it wasn't a duck sized human

Postby **blackjack68** » Fri Aug 28, 2015 1:26 pm

What if it was a dog?

Postby **Troy Loney** » Fri Aug 28, 2015 1:31 pm

I think peters is ok, definitely well below USC I believe. I assume this an education gig? Maybe he can reach out to some profs at w and j and see what they say about Washington. There's probably a great private school down there where the people with money send their kids.

Postby **slappybrown** » Fri Aug 28, 2015 1:34 pm

It was dark and it darted into the road right in front of me.

Regardless, it probably had a UWV bumper sticker and deserved to run over.

+1 for UWV drop in a CFB-unrelated thread

Postby **Spangler** » Fri Aug 28, 2015 1:51 pm

I know a bunch of people from Washington, PA and I visit there frequently. It's not a good neighborhood the further you get into the main city. Apparently some residences I know hear gunshots frequently. Just looking at the type of people walking around Washington is enough to tell you want kind of place it is. 84 is about 10 minutes away, and that neighborhood is more private since it's in the middle of a rural area. Sucks in the winter though. 84 falls under multiple school districts including Canon-Mcmillan.

Cecil Township isn't too bad a place. Some nice, traditional neighborhoods there and falls under Canon-Mcmilan.

Postby **DigitalGypsy66** » Fri Aug 28, 2015 1:52 pm

I lived in O'Hara Township, which is in the Fox Chapel School District. Back then (late 80s, sigh...) it was regarded as one of the best school districts in the state. I'm sure that hasn't changed much. It is decidedly not south of Pittsburgh though.

Postby **dodint** » Fri Aug 28, 2015 2:03 pm

When I look for federal jobs back east, close to Pittsburgh, there are a good many in northern WV. I wonder if it would be a nice place to live with a steady federal paycheck and no kids. The scenery is nice enough but I don't know much about it.

Postby **Tico Rick** » Fri Aug 28, 2015 2:08 pm

Mt. Lebanon school district is just as good if not better than USC.

Postby **Troy Loney** » Fri Aug 28, 2015 2:14 pm

Mt. Lebanon school district is just as good if not better than USC.

I think USC being on 79 and a little further south is the weighing factor there.

Postby **slappybrown** » Fri Aug 28, 2015 2:16 pm

"Cheat Lake"

"Cecil Township"

"Beallsville"

Let's go to @Juice for a ruling on whether or not these are things.

Postby **tifosi77** » Fri Aug 28, 2015 2:17 pm

When I lived in the city, I really did not care about anything that happened outside Squirrel Hill-Shadyside-Oakland...

I think there was an old joke: How long does it take to drive from the South Side to the North Side? No one's really sure, because no one's ever done that.

Postby **Juice** » Fri Aug 28, 2015 2:19 pm

"Cheat Lake"

"Cecil Township"

"Beallsville"

Let's go to @Juice for a ruling on whether or not these are things.

I plugged the above into my mappybrown app and it confirmed that these are not even remotely things.

Postby **dodint** » Fri Aug 28, 2015 2:23 pm

My wife's family used to go to Cheat Lake for summer vacation every year when she was little. Never been there myself.