Ben Berkman

Geo 20U
Final Paper
Eighteen Years in State College: The Ramifications of Three Local Geographical Changes
Many Penn State students call University Park, and the surrounding State College
community, their home. However, for me, State College truly is my permanent place of
residence. During the school year I live in the dorms, and over breaks, vacations, and for the
past eighteen years of my life, I live three miles down the road, in my house. As such, Ive
gotten to know State College pretty well: I can tell you the best route to get from anywhere
in town to anywhere else, I know where you should have dinner, and where you shouldnt.
But more importantly, I notice changes within my town, especially geographical changes.
The purpose of this discussion is twofold: I would like to bring forth three primary
geographical changes I have observed in my time as a State College resident, and then I will
discuss the consequences of these seemingly minor transformations. To generalize, I have
recognized that while these changes do help the economy of State College expand and
strengthen were called the Happy Valley for a reason they have made State College a
more congested, less quaint small city to live in compared to what it once was. Allow us to
trace these events.

Event One: Population Swells During Football Weekends
To nearly all dear Penn State fans, football Saturdays on a warm fall afternoon in
State College is a beloved, almost sacred, event. To residents, however, it can most aptly be
described as a major annoyance. Thats because State College only has a base population of
40,000. That means when school isnt in session, when the students are gone, 40,000 people
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occupy the entire borough and surrounding townships. This seems like a large number, but
State College is expansive, and supports this population with ease. During the academic
year, another 40,000 residents primarily students flood into the borough (Rozen). Still,
State College is a college town. Its designed to hold the 80,000 that it does for nine months
of the year.
But then come football Saturdays. Approximately, an additional 60,000 fans from
across the country storm into State College to watch three hours of football. Its something
Ill never understand, but it consistently happens every home football weekend of the year,
no matter the weather, the quality of the team, or the opponent. So, what starts as a
comfortable town with 40,000 residents is, essentially overnight, turned into the third largest
city in Pennsylvania (Mancuso).
The traffic and congestion on the streets, especially downtown or on the few
highway entrances to town, is the first noticeable change. When I was eight, I used to take
basketball lessons at Rec Hall on Friday afternoons. They were always canceled on game
weekends, however: the three-mile drive would take too long, over an hour in most cases.
Weekend nights were often an ideal time for my friends and I to hang out downtown. Not on
football weekends: the plethora of cars resulted in too few parking lots, and the risk of
drunken, out of town drivers was enough for our parents to tell us to stay home for the
evening.
Thus, football weekends were often a burden. At the same time, however, my
hometown reaped great economic benefits (Hermitt). I worked at the local Ramada
throughout high school. Admittedly, the Ramadas a dump. But on game weekends, hotel
guests were forced to reserve for both Friday and Saturday, for $500 each night. I didnt
work one game weekend in which the hotel wasnt completely sold out. And personally, I
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made huge profits on such weekends. I would work at the hotel in the morning, collecting
big tips from wealthy alums, and sell programs during the games. If I didnt make $500 in
those fifteen hours of work, it was a surprise.
And then of course theres the downtown economy, most centrally linked to game-
goers. By six oclock on a Friday before a big game, lines are out the door to most popular
restaurants. By eleven, the bars are packed, the students are out, and downtown State
College turns into a popular, lively, and at times an even dangerous strip of real estate. As an
NPR This American Life expos from two years ago showed, alcohol plays a massive role
as an inhibitor in State Colleges economy: it forces people to spend more, eat more, and
drink more. As a result, crime increases, and for many elder residents, football weekends
arent about fun; theyre about staying safe (Glass).

Event Two: How to build and pay for a new high school: enrollment 2,400
I graduated from the State College Area High School. Its an impressive school
academically, often in the top tier of public high schools with large enrollments in the state.
I had some inspiring teachers, met interesting classmates, and graduated with many, many
fond memories. I enjoyed my high school. The two buildings that housed our high school,
however, were miserable. Built in 1962, a large portion of the school hasnt been renovated
since its initial construction. Theres no air conditioning, so in the warm months of May and
June sitting through a late afternoon class becomes a struggle to stay awake. In the winter,
while students dangerously trek through an icy parking lot with no walkways and cross a
busy road with no traffic lights to get from one building to the other, excessive, and
wasteful, amounts of heat are pumped into the North and South buildings, nearly suffocating
many students. When it rains, heavy leaking often occurs, effectively cordoning off
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necessary hallways or classrooms. My Learning Enrichment room, located in the basement,
completely flooded my freshman year after two days of rain. Further, the building shouldnt
even be open in the first place: neither building meets many of the obligatory requirements
necessitated by the borough (Horne).
Clearly, a new high school is essential. But in a busy college town with few
unoccupied, centrally located, land opportunities, the task is one easier said than done. A
Centre Daily Times graphic (at right) aptly described the nine options present to build a new
school, or renovate the old one (Morgan). Upon evaluating
these nine options, a few things jumped out at me. First,
this is a clear example of the interplay between geography
(specifically planning), economics, engineering, and
political power. Each mode of evaluating this predicament
has different issues to weigh, and problems to consider. I
think the fact that this is such a complex, multi-field
project, is one of the primary reasons no formal plan has
been produced in the near decade local officials have
worked on this venture.
Throughout high school, I served on my schools
student government. In the latter part of my senior year,
we hosted multiple professionals to come to our community and speak about this issue. The
first speaker was an economist. He suggested the most economically feasible solution,
especially in the long run, was to simply tear down the high school and build a new one. The
next week, however, an urban planner from Pittsburgh who specialized in large-scale
renovations came to share his thoughts. He said the exact opposite: while packing up and
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constructing a school is nice in theory, in reality theres no central location to build a new
one. And finally, local school board officials have only slowed down this process with
inefficient, bureaucratic decision-making.
This is a long-term process. And while Im no professional, I find myself in a
majority when I say that its past time for something to be done. From years of observations,
the most popular option amongst the students is renovate one building at a time. Still, thats
not really possible: where would students study while renovations occurred? Theres no
right answer, and any solution will bring opposition. More than anything, I find the State
College Area High School renovation controversy an intriguing example of the interactions
between multiple disciplines.

Event Three: From Town to City: The Evolution of State College








1962
1990
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Above are four maps of State College from three different decades: in chronological
order 1962, 1990, 1999, and 2005. I was pretty impressed, and surprised, that the
Pennsylvania Department of Transportation stores such detailed maps of Centre County
throughout the decades (Historic County Maps). Despite the frustratingly long load times
for the large image files to download, these maps are an interesting, and revealing, look into
my towns past.
In no particular order, I came across multiple specifically enlightening observations
upon analyzing these four maps. The first is something I actually touched upon in my
1999
2005
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discussion of my mental map of State College that I created for a discussion earlier this
semester. While explaining my process of drawing the map, I said College Avenue (route
545) and Atherton (route 322) essentially form a cross, or the base of State College. Once
youve placed those two major roads, everything else falls in place. Thus, while looking at
the 1962 map, we see that those are really the only two roads that existed then. They form
this base in 2013, because they were the first two roads built in State College. As common
sense would suggest, the basis for a city is one road traveling North and South (Atherton),
and one road traveling East and West (College). Seeing the true basis for my observation in
the mental map activity was quite exciting.
Clearly, State College has expanded from 1962. But which areas of the map have
specifically grown? And which are primarily the same as they were fifty years ago? If one
jumps from the 1962 map to the 1990 map, it appears that Park Forest rapidly developed in
this time period. This is somewhat surprising to me: I had always thought of the Park Forest
area as an older part of my hometown. However, in 1962, the Park Forest plot of land is
completely outside of the town. By 1990, it was an integral part of State College.
Furthermore, it seems that the downtown area, despite numerous renovations, has retained
much of its makeup since 1962. Located near the intersection of College and Atherton
(probably the oldest, significant intersection in town), this isnt much of a shock. Finally,
while the 322 Business Route (Atherton) is one of the oldest roads, the Express Route,
which circumvents the city, seems to be a new phenomenon. In fact, construction began in
the 1970s and was formally completed in 2007 ("Pennsylvania Highways: US 322).
Likely, it was built to support the increasingly busy hub that is State College.
The final remark for this discussion lies in the recent westward expansion of State
College as a result of the construction of Blue Course Drive. In 1999, Blue Course Drive did
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not exist, and there was really little development to the west of Atherton. However, by 2005,
the local bypass was completely in use, and, as the map suggests developments popped up to
the West of downtown. Personally, I feel that Blue Course is the new Atherton, which it runs
essentially parallel to. Developments are being built off of it, as well as doctors offices,
stores, and parks. In twenty years, I think it may very well be as congested as Atherton, and
an equally important road in State College.

Conclusion
In all, these may seem like three independent observations about my town. In part,
they are. One purpose of this paper was to learn more about the geographical nature, history,
and controversies surrounding my hometown. And with great confidence, I can say that, if
nothing else, I have acquired a great deal of information about State College, most of which
I find interesting. However, I also see some general trends throughout these three
discussions. First, and quite simply, State College has grown since 1962. This may be
obvious, but its a testament to the power of a college-town economy and the determination
of a city shrouded by a massive controversy. While the economies of surrounding towns in
the woods of Central Pennsylvania have faltered, State Colleges has grown. And as a result,
so has the town. In different ways, and through different methods, these three dialogues
highlight that fact.
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Works Referenced
Glass, Ira. "#1 Party School." This American Life. NPR. 18 Dec. 2009. Radio.
Hermitt, Joe. "Despite Slumping Ticket Sales, State College's Economy Holds Steady on
Game Weekends." The Patriot-News. Penn Live, 18 Sept. 2013. Web. 12 Dec. 2013.
"Historic County Maps." Historic County Maps. Penn DOT, n.d. Web. 13 Dec. 2013.
Horne, Kevin. "Community Discusses High School Renovations." StateCollege.com.
CityPortals, 26 Apr. 2013. Web.
Mancuso, Tony. "A Town and University Growing with Penn State Football." Penn State
Athletics. Penn State, 02 Nov. 2011. Web. 12 Dec. 2013.
Morgan, Matt. "State College School Board Outlines Plan to Determine High School Project
Options." Centre Daily Times. N.p., 8 July 2013. Web. 13 Dec. 2013.
"Pennsylvania Highways: US 322." Pennsylvania Highways: US 322. PA Highways, n.d.
Web. 13 Dec. 2013.
Rozen, Leah. "WEEKEND EXCURSION; Penn State Without All the Penn Staters."The
New York Times. The New York Times, 18 May 2001. Web. 12 Dec. 2013.