Centre County economy

[RomaniGypsy]

I teach a variety of instruments... but actually I think I may be able to work my business so that it doesn't matter where I live. Only thing is, I'd have to have access to high speed Internet. Do they have that around there, even in the rural areas?

[2nd trick op]

Like everywhere else. Happy Valley has changed drastically during the past decade, and I haven't visited as much recently, but I can offer some observations.

The Penn State I knew in the late Sixties and all through the Seventies was an island of youth, money and intellect in a sea of provincialsm. In those days, the student body was still 60-70% male, and a lot of us were the sons and daughters of farmers, miners and factory workers.

And once you discover that sort of life, the prospects of either returning to the area where you grew up or dealing with the insecurities of a more urbanized socierty, on a small starting paycheck with no connections and no clear signals, can be intimidating.

So after an abortive attempt in suburban Philly that didn't work out, I settled back into Happy Valley for a while. I had plenty of company, and my brother, who was an undergrad at Cornell at that time, tolld me the same pattern existed in Ithaca (and most likely Lincoln, Ames and some other rural, but university-centered communities you can name).

Wages stayed low for mst of us, of course, but there were a number of local businesses starting out where there were some prospects for advancement. And once in a while, these would be bought out, or link up with a larger firm attracted by the quallity talent at low cost. The absorbtion of Central Counties Bank by Mellon was one example I particularly remember.

Over time, the issue pretty much resolved itself. The changing of the student body towards a more even balance between the sexes, and the acceptance of alternative lifestyles undoubtedly made it easier to find the people you belonged with, and I suspect that the quality of the graduates PSU was turning out was one of the reasons Pittsburgh became recognized as the "poster city" for the restucturing of the economy during the Eighties ... a lot of my friends ended up there.

There is some talk of university communities developing into retirement meccas, but I really don't see that happening. Many other maller tows with some "magnet" such as a college or major hospital are at least as far along as State College was back in 1975. So I suspect that for most of us, a trip back there is just an occasional reminder of the times when were wre all young, crazy, and al lot less secure.

[ki0eh]

Originally Posted by RomaniGypsy

Only thing is, I'd have to have access to high speed Internet. Do they have that around there, even in the rural areas?

Increasingly, but still sometimes spotty. One does need to know what the cable TV and the telephone company is in the particular area - PA has very fractionated local governments, so the cable franchise in one township (sub-zip code area) may be a different entity than in another part of the same zip code; and the telephone companies are willy-nilly too and possibly not outfits you might have heard of even in other areas of PA.

What that means is that you not only have to check Verizon, but also CenturyLink, Windstream, Frontier, etc.; and not only Comcast, but also Blue Ridge Communications, Nittany Media, Service Electric, etc.