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Dismal-Bumblebee4932 OP t1_j6xc0od wrote

I also believe southside year by year is becoming less welcoming to foodies because of the danger of the region

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uglybushes t1_j6xcfno wrote

That 2am danger really affecting the 8pm dinner crowd?

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pburgh2517 t1_j6xcsho wrote

Well the problem is a lot of folks don't even realize that its perfectly fine earlier in the evening, they simply hear South Side and the clenching commences.

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mira_lee2 t1_j6xoig8 wrote

I walked through South side and downtown during the day yesterday for various errands. I was surprised with how safe it looked and felt, because I heard and read so many bad things over the past few months. What I did notice was there are less people out and about than I remembered from a few years ago.

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Galp_Nation t1_j6y42t5 wrote

I lived in the Strip all of last year and just moved to South Side flats this past week. I've been car free and walking and biking around the golden triangle regularly and consistently for over a year now and haven't felt unsafe one time. If I went by the local news and Facebook comments, I would think I was living in a dangerous warzone of criminal activity. 99.9% of the time, it's quiet other than the car traffic. I was literally walking through downtown with my dog last year when I was stopped by college students doing a survey. They asked what I thought it was like living in/around downtown. I was like "It's quiet". They were like, "Really? That's a surprising answer. Do you wanna elaborate?". I said, "Look around. It's Saturday afternoon, the weather is nice, and we're the only people on Penn Avenue in downtown right now. Is this not quiet to you?" They seemed so surprised I didn't say it was loud and dangerous or something.

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MisanthropicFriend t1_j6z48km wrote

Hooray for foot traffic! I have explored from shore to shore in this town, and I agree with you. Downtown is quiet most the day, even during the weekends.

I haven’t understood all the negative things I hear people have with exploring the city. I’ve had people tell me; don’t go to the south side, best to stay off the north shore, oh you’ll get killed downtown, you’ll get hit with a bullet on the west end, don’t get murdered in insert area here followed by absolute disgust and disbelief when I tell them that I have walked and explored a majority of this cities neighborhoods.

I was only threatened once in uptown, and tbh I was completely lost and probably looked shady.

I hear the same types of disgust when I mention that I use public transportation too. I don’t understand this mentality, what is wrong with public transportation? For a small city, it is decent and usually really clean.

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Galp_Nation t1_j6zsgn5 wrote

I've lived in the metro area my whole life, but I moved to Pittsburgh proper in early 2017. I've lived in Lower Lawrenceville, Allegheny Center/North Side, East Carnegie, the Strip District, and South Side. I've been warned about every one of those neighborhoods at some point by people claiming they were dangerous, yet I've never had any real issues at all.

Someone recently just said, "I'm surprised you didn't get shot" when I mentioned that I had owned a house in East Carnegie and sold it a year ago. I owned there for 3 years and didn't experience any violence whatsoever. If you would have told me it had a reputation for being dangerous, I wouldn't have had any idea what you were talking about. Lot of dickhead contractors, plumbers, and real estate agents trying to take advantage of me but no regular people shooting at me or anything. Point being, people need to lay off the local news channels.

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gestapolita t1_j7a0ob8 wrote

I live in the West End and it is incredibly quiet and boring over here lol. Guarantee none of those worried people ever even lived in the city at all.

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MisanthropicFriend t1_j7aiav6 wrote

Brighton heights, beechview, and where I worked in Lawrenceville is where I heard this nonsense. I say Bosh Flimshaw to them.

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TallManTallerCity t1_j6zz21h wrote

There's teenage gang idiots doing shit late night and people act like it's a warzone

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hubb412 t1_j71eosi wrote

I stopped going to the south side when they made parking illegal between 9pm and 2am on Carson street. What a fucking decision to eliminate hundreds of parking spots in an area with very little parking.

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cjc323 t1_j6xw6se wrote

south side day and night are two different thungs, however on a friday or saturday by 9 pm i'd be looking to leave.

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Dismal-Bumblebee4932 OP t1_j6xd6pj wrote

Not everyone sees it like that I understand your point. How ever when people here more shooting happening in ss than other parts of the city they just try and avoid it overall. I’ve lived in ss for 4 years and loved it but understand peoples hesitation to visit for anything

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Wide-Concert-7820 t1_j6xlfbb wrote

Its not just to hear about the shootings. The lack of policing and complaints paint a picture that is difficult to give context to. Hmm. Lets eat out. Lawrenceville and hipsters or South Side and bullets? To many driving from 20 min or more away, they have no context it is fine at 8 PM. Lawrenceville it is.

I use Lawrenceville to give a very good foodie area in comparison. This amounts to a character assassination for South Side. One that will follow it for quite a while. Not to the 10% of regulars there. To the 90% who came there for what it used to offer.

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Itsjustataco t1_j6xqf93 wrote

Yeah, some of the Southside problems have been as early as 11pm. So, 2 hours for dinner at 8 really isn't far from the time when issues have occured.

This one was 9pm

https://www.wpxi.com/news/local/least-2-people-shot-pittsburghs-southside-one-critical-condition/ST6NAXU3SVFKDJUJCM7AK3QJGM/

You are right, most shootings are late night. Per below, only 30% of shootings are outside of 11pm-5am. Meaning, 20 of 63 shots fired in the first half of 2022 are in the times when it's "safe". I'd be interested to see shootings from evening to late night, I bet it makes up most of that 30%( how many shootings do you hear of at 9am).

http://www.duqsm.com/despite-crime-students-flock-to-south-side/

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uglybushes t1_j6xrsgz wrote

So it’s safe to go there and eat, sound good, see you fat heads

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grachi t1_j6y78pe wrote

mmmmmm not just 2am danger, sadly... Even back around 2009 I almost got mugged by two dudes down one of the side streets when I was walking alone back to my car around 8:30 after a friends birthday dinner. Luckily some random people on their porch saw what was happening, I guess the muggers didn't see them as the porch sitters were sitting completely in the dark smoking cigarettes, and one of the porch sitters shouted out to them that they had a gun. The guys ran, and it might have saved me from losing my wallet or even worse, getting stabbed or shot that night.

Similar story without a lucky intervention, a few years later my cousin was jumped by 3 guys after him and his girlfriend were leaving a restaurant around 10:00 pm. He woke up in the hospital, no recollection what happened, and the guys stole his wallet and phone. His girlfriend was screaming at the top of her lungs for help and tried to mace one of them, so they ran after knocking my cousin out and taking his stuff. Luckily they didn't do anything to her as well.

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uglybushes t1_j6yfguz wrote

That’s it, south side is closed.

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grachi t1_j6yut23 wrote

Yea I mean , i spent many nights there for years and never saw or heard stuff happening so I know it’s statistically rare but it’s also not unheard of for bad things to happen there before midnight

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war321321 t1_j6xfj7q wrote

The southside during normal business hours is completely safe…

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cthulhu_on_my_lawn t1_j6yqslx wrote

That's fortunate for all the people going out to dinner during business hours I guess.

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UnaffiliatedOpinion t1_j74nego wrote

Dinner is normal business hours for a restaurant, and it’s still perfectly safe on the south side. Where you run into issues are places that are catering to the bar crowd after midnight. “Foodies” aren’t active at 2am.

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Sheepfu t1_j6xxaog wrote

Unfortunately, this isn't really relevant when looking at historic consumer practices...and it usually down turns super fast when the major crime issues are shooting related.

People are a little more tolerant of smash and grab stuff, but outright gun fights will reflect on traffic regardless of when they're generally concentrated.

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Ryan1006 t1_j6xdl81 wrote

I think the cost of eating out is the biggest problem now. Every restaurant has had prices increases and it makes it tough to eat out as regularly as people did before the pandemic. I don’t think being leery of eating out is that big of an issue, it might still be a little but not a lot. People are packing stadiums and arenas for concerts and sporting events, etc. All the people I know are over the fear of eating out that they had during 2020 and most of 2021. Yes there are still people that won’t and I don’t discount their concerns especially if it’s for underlying health reasons. I just don’t think that’s a main cause anymore, it’s the prices. For example if a meal was $9.99 in 2020 pre-COVID, it’s probably $3 to $4 MORE now. Add that up if you are eating out as a family of four and it’s like paying for another meal.

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hopsinabag t1_j6ynrzd wrote

This is my take on it too. Just trying to buy groceries is costing me easily 20% more than it was precovid, and generally speaking incomes haven't adjusted. Going out to eat just isn't financially an option as often as it was for a lot of people.

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Ryan1006 t1_j6yw026 wrote

We rarely go out as a family anymore. Most of the time if my wife and I want go out, we make something for the kids at home to save money. Or we drive though somewhere on our way home for them (fast food has gone up also though). And incomes definitely haven’t adjusted, my percentage raise every year is always the same.

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analmartyr t1_j6z20by wrote

Legit cost is what does it for us, we are a family of 5 and can’t get out of eat n park for less than 65 or 70 with tip now and they don’t serve alcohol. Dinner out once a week is now dinner out once a month.

Even fast food eating off the deals menus are 35 to 40.

I’m all for paying more if the money goes to the service workers and I understand the increases, but my household income hasn’t gone up enough to continue to eat out as we did even a year ago.

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Ryan1006 t1_j6z6ofg wrote

Yep. Chains like Olive Garden that is glorified fast food has become fine dining with the prices they charge. I don’t know what the answer is for this to get better. This pandemic really fucked things up bad.

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69FunnyNumberGuy420 t1_j704z8v wrote

The casual dining out culture that we grew up in has only really existed since the late 1970s. Prior to then, people went out to dinner for special occasions, mostly.
 
A lot of restaurant capacity was overbuilt in the 1990s and later to paper over a fading real economy. All that stuff couldn't stay in business forever.

 
It's probably for the best, going out three nights a week to shovel 2,800 calories into your face ain't good for you.

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analmartyr t1_j71khn1 wrote

Oh I agree, I went full remote at start of the pandemic, it sure makes it a hell of a lot easier to plan and prep meals as well as keep a clean house when removing commute time.

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KentuckYSnow t1_j76wliz wrote

The pandemic response really fucked things up.

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Ryan1006 t1_j76zh3w wrote

Sure did. I have confidence that it won’t be handled like that ever again. I don’t think either side has the stomach for it again. I know most of the American public doesn’t. And I’ll admit I was wrong because at the time I thought it was the right thing to do.

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newcitynewme724 t1_j6xd19z wrote

How does that explain a company like Kura coming in soon? Are they ignorant of the issue or do they know it's most likely an issue due for a solution?

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cdelaney1982 t1_j6xifie wrote

Could just be it's the best space available within that owners budget or they could be getting incentives for setting up shop there

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