Is Lawrenceville actually good?

Describing Pittsburgh to an outsider, the neighborhood of Lawrenceville is necessarily a crown jewel in the pantheon of Pittsburgh neighborhoods. We all know nobody really lives downtown; having good neighborhoods surrounding the impersonal skyscrapers we spend much of our primes  in is crucial to positive city self esteem / not being Cleveland. So is the neighborhood that every up-and-coming Pittsburgh neighborhood wants to be the "next" edition of actually good?

Lawrenceville is Bad

Your rent is too high. Your apartment is 60 years old, has a bizarre layout, cramped, probably has mice, and your landlord is a brand of hippie. The first floor businesses of your neighborhoods main drag are a combination of chain businesses and silly hipster bait. One of the numerous date-night style "paint a pretraced canvas and drink wine" establishments has affixed an "artists crossing" faux traffic sign underneath a real traffic sign just outside your building. 

Your peer age group in the area is kinda full of themselves. All the real starving artist creative types that make a neighborhood cool probably reside across the Allegheny in filthy Millvale, the one true "next Lawrenceville". There are people in your life who actively roll their eyes at you when you announce that you are moving to Lawrenceville. Successful people graduated to Shadyside when they decided they were far enough along professionally to leave the South Side. Shop 'n' Save sucks.

Lawrenceville is actually good

Cool bowling alley. Cool movie theater. Punk teenagers skateboarding in the Wendy's parking lot. Wendy's. Busy Beaver. Forget all of the trendy cool breakfast joints in the strip; Barb's will make you ham and eggs and do it with crusty yinzer waitresses yelling at each other as they refill your coffee. It's shockingly easy to park on the street here for free if you're not as dumb as me; and people really do think you live in a cool neighborhood. People with ambition chose this neighborhood. The 40th street bridge is pretty good. Crazy mocha, Espresso a mano, Round corner cantina, the antique stores, Spak bros, i mean there are a lot of worthwhile businesses along the main drag. The hipster barber shop on 38th is actually pretty reasonably priced. When the weather's warm there is a "naked" bike ride of ~300 hipsters in their underwear riding bikes down Butler Street. George Washington was here once.

Verdict

No verdict, the jury is still out on Lawrenceville on account of the fact that I saw another mouse tonight. Franktuary is probably overrated