Anyone here from Pittsburgh?

[Lagmonster]

I have family moving there to work at Carnegie Mellon, from Canada, and know jack and shit about the town other than what Google tells them. I'm hoping we have a local who can offer some blanket warnings or suggestions. Thus far he hasn't been able to figure out where even to look for a good rental place.

[Raw Shark]

some blanket warnings or suggestions.

Caveat: I'm not from there, but I know a fair bit about it for a couple of reasons that Vain could tell you about. That said:

Do not under any circumstances find yourself downtown, on the north side, in Squirrel Hill, or in Shadyside without a firearm and ideally some back-up. Those neighborhoods are sketchy as fuck. The rest of the city is not paradise, but not hell either, as far as I know. The best convenience store chain is called Wawa (of all things) - They're generally clean, well-lit, reasonably-priced, and sometimes stocked with some random crap you might not expect. The local term for "you" in the plural sense is "yinz," and natives are informally referred to as "yinzers." There's a pretty decent punk and ska music scene; huge sideburns are common among fans, even ones with the rest of their heads shaved. The popular swill is Yuengling, so have one in your hand if you need to pass yourself off as an unpretentious blue-collar individual.

[Lagmonster]

That's a good start. He's been staring at available-online crime maps and is freaking the fuck out. If he wasn't being handed the opportunity of a lifetime, I doubt he'd go.

[General Zod]

Crime maps aren't a very good representation of how dangerous any given neighborhood really is, I've found. 95% of the time you'll be okay as long as you're situationally aware of what's going on.

[Terralthra]

I'm from Pittsburgh, but it's been decades since I lived there, and half a decade since I visited. Squirrel Hill probably still sucks. Somewhere in the Monroeville/Murrysville area is probably safer and nicer.