I included most of Oakmont except the more suburban parts of the Borough east of 10th St and North of Hulton Rd (except the older streets between the river and 5th St). Oakmont incorporated as a town in 1889. The settlement took its name from a landmark tree. Oakmont is most known for the Oakmont Country Club as the course hosted multiple US opens and has been consistently ranked in the top five courses of the world.
From an urbanist perspective Oakmont is a convenient historic rivertown suburb located only 20 minutes driving to Downtown Pittsburgh. The Borough hosts a decent main street along Allegheny River road, which has a railroad running through the center. The area between the river and Allegheny River Road was historically more industrial but this has changed with the ongoing redevelopment of a major brownfield side into the new urbanist inspired River’s Edge project. East of the main street are the bulk of Oakmont’s housing stock with a mix of modest and larger historic homes from the first half other 20th century.
I consider Oakmont a viable urban place but there are several areas that need improvement including better ADA curbs, better public transit access, some assemblance of bike infrastructure, more 1-bed apartments, better parks, and redeveloping surface parking lots that remain along the main street.
Click here to view my Oakmont, PA album on Flickr
URBAN STRENGTHS:
* Edgewater is a well designed new urbanized community along the river. The residential community ties in nicely to the historic neighborhood north of here.
* Decent access to Dwtn via car but not great bus service.
* Good public schools in Oakmont and walkable too. Just 2 of them. Another is in Verona, which is part of the same school district. Also a Catholic Grad school here.
* Good range of prices. Some 1-bed condos that sell in the 100Ks & 200Ks, 2-beds sell anywhere from 150K-300K, 3 & 4 beds sell btwn 150K- ~ 800K, but newer 3 & 4 bed housing in Edgewater after sell btwn 1-2M.
* Overall a very safe community to reside.
* Good cultural amenities including lots of restaurants & bars, a historic movie theater, a local museum, and a couple live music venues.
* Also good retail amenities including an organic food market, a couple drug stores, plenty of boutiques, gift stores, and unique locally owned businesses, a hardware store, several gyms, plenty of dessert joints including the famous Oakmont Bakery, a book store, a dwtn public library and post office, a couple medical offices, and lots of churches.
* Solid tree canopy.
* Some excellent larger historic single family homes mixed-in with more modest ones. Biz district mostly historic but more modest styling.
* A handful of decent in-fill in the biz district. Also a new urbanist development along the Allegheny River that is of a high quality.
* Generally good urban form on Allegheny River Blvd but plenty of surface parking gaps and a handful of autocentric uses.
URBAN WEAKNESSES:
* Get pretty industrial and ugly along Plum St. Oakmont’s southern border.
* limited ADA curbs and sidewalks except in the new urbanist Edgewater development.
* Some transit access but not great.
* Bike infrastructure is almost non-existent other than a short trail along the railroad for half a mile.
* Racial diversity is very limited as Oakmont is 93% White.
* Definitively an aging population but a decent number of households with kids.
* Only a decent number of 2-beds which lease btwn 1K-1.7. Limited 1 & 3 beds.
* Park amenities are decent but not great. Riverside park is the best amenity including a large playground and lots of ballfields. Also a couple f natural parks and smaller pocket parks.
* Some more industrial auto centric uses.
Evaluating our Urban Communities [with a focus on America] 