BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

Huh. I'd have said anywhere on the plateau. Or maybe lville.

I've been thinking a lot about this one, and it really depends for me on where I work, and where the grocery store is.

I'm in love with Millvale, but it's got no grocery store. The nearest is the one in Lawrenceville at Stanton I think. That's a hike unless you're over there anyway for work. There's not much along the river trail, maybe one or two in the North Side but that's a haul too.

E'Liberty has the most grocery stores, but more expensive housing. Anywhere touching Schenley or Frick would be convenient, but expensive too. Uptown, I thought one of the major problems for that neighborhood was lack of grocery stores, unless one went in when I wasn't looking. The strip, what little housing is there, seems really convenient - food, trails, bikeable streets, all right there.

If I go purely based on where I work, West Newton is the closest thing to ideal, and it's just so... far from everything else.

I spend an inordinate amount of time looking for housing in the perfect location. It seems to me the problem is finding a house to fit a life rather than building a life where I live.

Huh. I'd have said anywhere on the plateau.

+1

I read this and it makes no sense.

Millvale has a Shop in Save up Babcock Blvd.

If you want something affordable in the East End, check out my 'hood, Park Place.

http://www.parkplaceblog.com/about/

We are usually lumped in with Point Breeze on most maps, but we have much more affordable housing (for renters and buyers) and a grocery store. Walking distance to Regent Square. Plus, while Penn Avenue may not be the best cycling route, there are lots of ways to cut through Frick Park and get onto bike lanes.

I personally have a feeling that Wilkinsburg on the Pittsburgh side of the busway is an awesome gem waiting to be discovered.

I enjoy living in Oakland, centralized location so its 15 min from most of the city, lots of amenities, and tons of food places open on national holidays (go go gadget international businesses go).

They finally added a new grocery store in the former Upstage(after an absence of about 7 years), but i either bike over to shadyside or southside giant eagle's for real shopping.

Basically, if you don't have a car in uptown, you better be a cyclist or really enjoy waiting for a bus, because there isn't much there to do besides leave.

There really are not any bike lanes anywhere, it's hard to access the jail trail (maybe if you cut down the ramp under the birmingham bridge, ride along the 2nd ave speedway and cut through a dirt lot, then you can get to the trail), there isn't really a great connection to oakland.

I'm not really seeing any redeeming factors for a cyclist.

katy - I agree, W-burgh is next up the line for "rediscovery". It's got a few "main streets" which have a lot of charm - old fashioned window store fronts and the like. Over the past 10 years attention has moved steadily east and north.

In fact, on Braddock, there's that huge old white apartment/condo complex, across the side street from the old school, and when I was little I could think of no more awesome place to live (I decided I would teach math in the school, very convenient). I later learned the school was closed, and what those apartments go for, But I've always liked Park Place.

I like when people move to a place and fix up existing housing and join the community and help it improve. I don't like when people buy up properties to demo and build crappy new expensive places, inflate property values and eliminate affordable housing. I've seen both happen in the city.

I lived on the corner of Gist and the Blvd for a full year. The run-down place with the fire escape used precariously as the only entrance to the second and third floors.

I would not call it anything close to cyclist friendly. There's a towing company which routinely blocks the view of oncoming traffic when you need to leave Gist and get onto Forbes. The only grocery store is in the South Side. I'd load up my backpacking pack with around 50 lbs of groceries every few weeks and hope for the best across the birmingham bridge.

I understand that the city is under a lot of pressure to make uptown more marketable, but this magazine article is obviously forced. Polishing turds and all that.

Lville is great for the straight shot to the Strip/Downtown...not so much anywhere else because of the whole being at the bottom of all the hills thing. Not a problem for a climber like me, but there's an awful lot of fixies down here too.

Highland Park is nice, kinda off the beaten path but it's super easy to get to some of the more bumping central areas.

There was a story about Sheraden in one of the papers a few days ago. It and McKees Rocks both would be almost ideal, if it was possible to bike along West Carson, and we all know the refrain to that tune.

@ejwme: The school is open again (the Envivro Charter School). I lived there for a few years when it was an apartment building, and loved it. It is a great location.

@joe: Yes, I feel the same way...feels like someone is really pushing Uptown as "cool" and that was the best they could come up with.

Oh, I forgot. In the print version under "other bike-friendly 'hoods:" the author notes;

-Point Breeze

-Regent Square

-Bloomfield

-Highland Park

Sounds to me like the author didn't do a whole lot of research on this one. Uptown better than Lville? North Side? South Side? the ngbds listed above? Oh, but those neighborhoods were all identified as a "best for" neighborhood in another category, so they had to stretch for the "biking" category, and came up with Uptown, presumably based on proximity to downtown? Personally, I don't see Uptown as all that cycling friendly. After this piece, I was thinking that I somehow had it all wrong.

This neighborhood finder tool is interesting, I wish I knew what metrics they were using to assess cycling friendliness, though.

http://www.pittsburghcityliving.com/

I gotta go with Millvale. There is a Shop'n'Save but they are not a corporate store and all but rob you. Otherwise it is very close to everything and a bus ride away from many other grocery stores.

@ Steevo I read this and it makes no sense.

+1.

Sure the Jail Trail is nice, but you have to rice down the curvy, trafficky cliff of Brady St. to get there from any house in uptown. It'd be the equivalent of saying Uptown is the best for drivers because so many people drive on the parkway east.

I like Cburch's plateau. I've heard it's the largest flat space in Wesern PA, but can't vouch for that. I would doubt it, but...

"@katyfrey I personally have a feeling that Wilkinsburg on the Pittsburgh side of the busway is an awesome gem waiting to be discovered."

I agree with this 100%. I've only been here for 4 months and I absolutely love it. Being 2 blocks from Biddle and the more cozy streets makes me jealous but, it's close enough and I walk to Regent Square in 15 minutes. I have forgotten how much I love Lower Lawerenceville since moving here and no longer want to move there.

@Stu: What's the problem with biking along W Carson? I've only done it once (7:30 PM last Thursday...from the Rocks to Arlington) but I found it to be totally fine. Is it a different beast entirely during rush hour, or could it be one of those roads that everyone avoided in the past but is now a bit tamer?

+1 on Millvale. I biked to that Shop n Save and used the trail almost daily. I miss living there terribly sometimes.

" Is it a different beast entirely during rush hour,...?" Yes, Jekyll and Hyde.

My question, as ever: Would you let your 10-year-old kid bike along there solo? What do we have to do to get there?

Stu, I'll bite.

No, I would never let a 10-year-old kid - mine or anybody else's - ride on West Carson during rush hour.

Hell, I won't even ride it during rush hour. I'll ride it off hours, though.

What do we need to do to get there?

1) Road diet that creates a shoulder or space for a bike lane.

2) Major speed control and enforcement. Posted limit is 35. In my car, I frequently see people easily doing over 55 there.

3) Improved drainage so that the right lane (southbound) doesn't turn into a lake that hides monster potholes during rainstorms.

4) Repair and clear sidewalk on northbound side, for people who use it and don't want to break ankles. Add a sidewalk on the southbound side.

I'm in Shadyside and find it a very bikeable and walkable location. Lots of bikes on the roads, so cars generally look out for us since they expect us. Although there aren't many/any bike-only lanes in Shadyside proper, there are huge painted bike symbols on Ellsworth telling drivers to be careful. I'm able to bike to a couple big grocery stores, to work at CMU, and to Home Depot/Target/etc stores (in Liberty, I think, but nearby) along routes I feel safe on. It definitely wouldn't be safe to just get on a bike and explore, for a newbie, because the sections of Fifth and Penn are deadly. However, using Google Maps Bike, AND now recognizing some good bike routes by sight after going on group rides with experienced Pittsburghers, I feel safe on the road here.