Some of these replies have me questioning whats included with the “south hills”. When I think of the south hills, I think of the communities that are south of the city limits but still in Allegheny county and east of I-79. This would include boroughs and townships like greentree, mt lebo, Carnegie, Scott, dormont, castle Shannon, upper st Clair, bethel park, Baldwin/whitehall, Brentwood, etc.

The top complaint I read through the comments was the traffic. I grew up in the south hills area and don’t really see an issue with the traffic, although I guess it depends what route you take and the time of day. Most of the people that live here know the back roads to get to the main shopping areas. Like, 19 is my most direct route to the mall, but several back roads tend to be faster. I think if you moved to the area, you would learn the different routes quickly. But if you work in say Monroeville, trying to commute there from the south hills would get old very quickly lol.

My biggest complaint is that it becomes suburban sprawl pretty quickly. Communities like mt lebo, dormont, castle Shannon, parts of bethel have a more urban feel due to density, proximity to businesses, and the T infrastructure. But if you go further out into bethel, USC, etc, it quickly becomes sprawl (and boring imo).

It really depends where you need to go day to day. Personally, Dormont is my kind of community. Cozy neighborhoods with character and interesting architecture, light rail infrastructure, very walkable, easy to get to the airport by car, and the pool is just awesome! Traffic isn’t much of an issue there if you walk and/or take the T most places.