Submitted by DesperateWorker1045 t3_114ciuk in pittsburgh
ADVICE PLEASE
hi friends.
My partner and I (both 26) are looking to move to Pittsburgh. I grew up in friendship, so am pretty unfamiliar with north side in general. We found a beautiful space across Allegheny commons park and have already applied. However, I’ve been hearing things now about safety in the area, which has been concerning me. (For reference, our possibly future space is right scross the farmers market). We’ve been living in another major city so are used to general crime, but don’t want to feel unsafe (ex: have a dog and want to feel safe to take it out to pee at night in the park). My partner has also been assaulted as a young woman, so feeling safe is pretty important in regards to being catcalled etc.
Another thing we’re possibly concerned about are noise levels from the Allegheny Hospital ER. I’m pretty sensitive to loud noises and am worried about helicopters/ambulance sirens.
If anyone living in that area has any insight or advice, it would be greatly appreciated! No mean comments please.
Proberts160 t1_j8wn8wg wrote
DM me if you want. I’ve lived in the building you’re looking to move into for 5 years and I’m leaving this July for good reason.
I’ll save you from having to DM me lol.
The North Side is great overall. I moved here for the convenience. It’s nice being able to walk or bike places when the weather is nice. The farmers market is amazing in the summer. First Fridays are a good time. I love banjo night and I dearly miss Park House, but have fallen in love with ACB.
When I first moved here in 2017 I knew what I was getting into, I thought. It was kind of sketch, but if you have common sense you’ll be fine. For the first 3/4 years of me living here that assessment was generally correct. There were nuisance issues, all of my packages would get stolen, so I had to either mail them to my office, or an Amazon locker. People loitering outside of my building, sometimes being threatening but usually just annoying. People screaming and fighting at the bus stop outside my windows at all hours of the night. Rampant drug use in the park and on Cedar between East Ohio and the GE. All in all the kinds of things I thought I should expect as regular occurrences. I was generally unbothered and the benefits absolutely outweighed the negatives.
Things started to change in 2020. I just kind of noticed a mood shift which was definitely due to the pandemic, so not necessarily surprising, but jarring none the less. That was the summer the fireworks never ended. Just non stop every night for months there were people lighting fireworks. Then came the roving gang of dirt bikes and quads. I also felt like I got harassed more by strangers after 2020 - and peoples attitudes became more mean and slightly violent. In December of 2021 there was a shooting directly in front of my bedroom windows on Cedar Ave, broad daylight, was working from home. Shit was terrifying. Fortunately nobody was hurt - but it rattled me a bit.
Fast forward to spring of 2022. I had been away for the weekend visiting my parents out of town, and I drove back Sunday afternoon, probably around 3/4pm - nice sunny spring day. Parked my truck on Cedar and was walking to my passenger side door to unload my vehicle and then bang bang bang - what looks like a 12 year old is in the middle of Cedar about a block and half away with a hand gun the size of his forearm just shooting wildly into the GE parking lot. It was at this point that I started to seriously reconsider living here. I can deal with the crack heads and other shit - but I don’t want to hear, see, or worst case become a victim of a shooting.
Summer of 2022 was violent here. Many shootings within ear shot - many don’t make the news due to a lack of victims. But then the Sunoco shooting happened and that sealed the deal for me. I’ve been looking into where I’m going to move to since then. I had just resigned my lease before the shooting happened - so I’m stuck here for several more months.
Last weekend on Sunday morning around 11:30am I walked out to my vehicle to head to the gym. I get in - get situated and start my vehicle when I notice movement in my rear view, there’s three guys, two hanging back and one charging up to my driver door - I quickly locked the door like 2 seconds before this dudes hand hits my handle. He feels it’s locked and then runs away with his crackhead buddies. These dudes were going to jump me, a 6ft pretty big dude - at 11:30am on a Sunday. Sigh.
It’s really sad - because I do love this neighborhood. But after 5 years going on 6 of living here - I’ve been able to fully make the assessment that it’s just not worth the benefits. Of course, this is just my opinion. But I’m being honest when I say that if anyone I loved or deeply cared about lived where I do, I would worry about them. The chances of becoming a victim in this specific little section of the North Side are high enough to worry about it.
Hope this helps a little.