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Bloomfield Information
Bloomfield is a neighborhood in the East End of the city of Pittsburgh; it is
located three miles from the Golden Triangle, which is the city's center.
Bloomfield is referred to as Pittsburgh's Little Italy. Pittsburgh architectural
historian Franklin Toker has said that Bloomfield "is a feast, as rich to the
eyes as the homemade tortellini and cannoli in its shop windows are to the
stomach." It is a decidedly urban neighborhood, with narrow streets and alleys
packed with rowhouses. Liberty Avenue is the neighborhood's main business
thoroughfare.
Bloomfield appears to have been an independent borough prior to its annexation
by the City of Pittsburgh in 1868. The land here was claimed from the native
Delaware tribe by Casper Taub, one of the area's earliest European settlers.
Taub sold the land to his son-in-law John Conrad Winebiddle, whose descendants
then broke it into lots and sold it beginning around the time of the 1868
annexation.
In the decades following 1868, Bloomfield was settled by German Catholic
immigrants, who in 1886 built St. Joseph's Church. Beginning around 1900, these
were joined by Italians from five towns in the Abruzzi region, who formed
Immaculate Conception Parish in 1905 (that church was rebuilt in its present
form in 1961). Descendants from both groups, with the Italians outnumbering the
Germans, still give the neighborhood its character today.
This character can perhaps best be described as earthy, gritty, close-knit, and
proud; as local author Chris Potter puts it, "Bloomfield has always taken pride
in its modest working-class aspirations and a lack of...upper-class trappings."
The local rowhouses, constructed mostly of wooden frames covered long ago by
aluminum siding, have unpretentious exteriors that often conceal lovingly
maintained interiors.
The business district along Liberty Avenue puts most of life's necessities, and
several luxuries, within an easy walk of Bloomfield residents: besides the two
churches and West Penn Hospital, there are many bars and restaurants, one
supermarket and two Italian markets, plus tanning and hair salons, gifts and
card shops, several gyms, a barber shop, two cobblers, a sweeper repair shop,
and much more. Most of the restaurants serve Italian cuisine, although the
neighborhood does feature a noted Polish restaurant. Several Asian restaurants
and specialty stores have opened along Liberty Avenue in recent years, as the
national trend towards immigration reaches even the slow-growing Pittsburgh
area.
Bloomfield sits on a plateau above the Allegheny River, and is bordered by Penn
Avenue on the north, the East Busway on the south, 40th Street on the west, and
Gross Street on the east. This last boundary is somewhat disputed – most
residents believe that Bloomfield abuts the neighborhood of Friendship at Gross
Street, where the provincial frame rowhouses give way to stand-alone brick
Victorian homes that grow larger on each street heading east. The City of
Pittsburgh, however, claims that Bloomfield extends east as far as Graham
Street. The East Busway is set in a valley that separates Bloomfield from the
Hill District; the two neighborhoods are within sight of one another, but are
connected only by the Bloomfield Bridge, which spans this gap.
Some Things to Consider When Looking for a Place...
When searching for a new apartment make sure to take your time to think
through what are the most important things to you in an apartment and plan your
search based on those priorities. Here are some things to consider when planning
your move:
1. Consider the areas where you would like to live
* What is the crime rate?
* If you have children - what rating does the local school system have?
* Is there area convenient shopping, health and recreation services in the area?
2. Make a list of your housing priorities
* Do you have pets?
* Do you need parking?
* Do you need to be on the ground floor?
* What amenities are important to you - swimming pool, fitness room, in unit
laundry?
3. Evaluate the building
* What is the condition of the unit and building?
* Are the grounds maintained?
* Are windows, steps, and railings in good condition?
* View the property at night. Is it safe and well lit?
4. The security of the property
* Are there security service? When is the guard on duty?
* Does the building have controlled access?
* Does each unit have secure door and window locks?
5. Talk to the neighbors
* Ask other residents whether they are satisfied with the building.
6. Amenities
* Who is allowed to use the amenities?
* When are they open?
* Are the fees charged to use those facilities included in rent?
7. Ask about Utilities
* Does the owner or tenant pay the utility bills?
* Are any utilities included with monthly rent?
* Do units have separate thermostats to control heat and air conditioning?
8. Review the lease
* How much notice must you give before moving out?
* Can the rent be increased? If so, by how much and how often?
* Are pets allowed?
* What is the security deposit and cleaning costs upon move out?
* What is the responsibility of tenants for damage to property?
* Is there a penalty for breaking a lease?
9. Information too bring to a lease signing
* Credit Report
* Pay stubs/tax returns
* Reference
* Application
More Apartment Information
An apartment (or flat in Britain and most other Commonwealth countries) is a
self-contained housing unit that occupies only part of a building. Apartments
may be owned (by an owner-occupier) or rented (by tenants).
Some apartment-dwellers own their apartments, either as co-ops, in which the
residents own shares of a corporation that owns the building or development; or
in condominiums, whose residents own their apartments and share ownership of the
public spaces. Most apartments are in buildings designed for the purpose, but
large older houses are sometimes divided into apartments. The word apartment
connotes a residential unit or section in a building. Apartment building owners,
lessors, or managers often use the more general word units to refer to
apartments. Units can be used to refer to rental business suites as well as
residential apartments. When there is no tenant occupying an apartment, the
lessor is said to have a vacancy. For apartment lessors, each vacancy represents
a loss of income from rent-paying tenants for the time the apartment is vacant
(i.e., unoccupied). Lessors' objectives are often to minimize the vacancy rate
for their units. The owner of the apartment typically transfers possession to
the occupant by giving him/her the key to the apartment entrance door and any
other keys need to live there, such as a common key to the building or any other
common areas, and an individual unit mailbox key. When the occupant move out,
these keys should typically be returned to the owner.
Apartments can be classified into several types. Studio, efficiency, bed-sit, or
bachelor apartments tend to be the smallest apartments with the cheapest rents
in a given area. These kinds of apartment usually consist mainly of a large room
which is the living, dining, and bedroom combined. There are usually kitchen
facilities as part of this central room, but the bathroom is its own smaller
separate room. Moving up from the efficiencies are one-bedroom apartments where
one bedroom is a separate room from the rest of the apartment. Then there are
two-bedroom, three-bedroom, etc. apartments. Small apartments often have only
one entrance/exit. Large apartments often have two entrances/exits, perhaps a
door in the front and another in the back. Depending on the building design, the
entrance/exit doors may be directly to the outside or to a common area inside,
such as a hallway. Depending on location, apartments may be available for rent
furnished with furniture or unfurnished into which a tenant usually moves in
with his/her own furniture. Permanent carpeting is often included in an
apartment.
Laundry facilities are usually kept in a separate area accessible to all the
tenants in the building. Depending on when the building was built and the design
of the building, utilities such as water, heating, and electric may be common
for all the apartments in the building or separate for each apartment and billed
separately to each tenant (however, many areas in the US have ruled it illegal
to split a water bill among all the tenants, especially if a pool is on the
premises). Outlets for connection to telephones are typically included in
apartments. Telephone service is optional and is practically always billed
separately from the rent payments. Cable television and similar amenities are
extra also. Parking space, air conditioner, and extra storage space may or may
not be included with an apartment. Rental leases often limit the maximum number
of people who can reside in each apartment. On or around the ground floor of the
apartment building, a series of mailboxes are typically kept in a location
accessible to the public and, thus, to the letter-carrier too. Every unit
typically gets its own mailbox with individual keys to it. Some very large
apartment buildings with a full-time staff may take mail from the mailman and
provide mail-sorting service. Near the mailboxes or some other location
accessible by outsiders, there may be a buzzer (equivalent to a doorbell) for
each individual unit. In smaller apartment buildings such as two- or
three-flats, or even four-flats, garbage is often disposed of in trash
containers similar to those used at houses. In larger buildings, garbage is
often collected in a common trash bin or dumpster. For cleanliness or minimizing
noise, many lessors will place restrictions on tenants regarding keeping pets in
an apartment.
In some parts of the world, the word apartment is used generally to refer to a
new purpose-built self-contained residential unit in a building, whereas the
word flat means a converted self-contained unit in an older building. An
industrial, warehouse, or commercial space converted to an apartment is commonly
called a loft.
When part of a house is converted for the ostensible use of a landlord's family
member, the unit may be known as an in-law apartment or granny flat, though
these (sometimes illegally) created units are often occupied by ordinary renters
rather than family members. In Canada these suites are commonly located in the
basements of houses and are therefore normally called basement suites.
Staying in privately owned apartments rather than in a hotel is quickly becoming
popular with travelers.