BLOG: Is State College a Happy Valley for Everyone?

Last week, you may have read about the plight of the 200 residents of the North Atherton Mellott Mobile Home Park that will be looking for a new place to live as the owner of the property seeks to change the zoning of the park from residential to commercial. The owner explained that the park just isnt profitable anymore and plans to change the zoning from Residential to Commercial so he can develop the property for restaurant and business tenants.



I feel for these people. In fact, in a small way I understand how they might feel. Before we moved to State College, my wife and I had a lovely little stone cottage in the woods outside of Bethlehem, PA.  Then we found out a shopping mall was being developed across the street from my house. Imagine walking your dog at the end of the day and looking across the street at a 2,500 car parking lot to a certain 24-hour big box retail store, home improvement center, and 25 other businesses.



Being new to the area, I also sympathize with the difficulty and expense of finding a quality, family-friendly rental property in the area. Rentals for the Mellott trailer lots are set around $265; to find something comparable, the residents may easily be looking at spending $700.



As always, money makes things even more complicated. For my family, there were just a few unpleasant surprises that went along with moving to State College and most of them hit us in the wallet. A big shock for my family, with three young kids, was the price of childcare in State College.



Moving from Northampton County PA (population 267, 066 according to the last U.S. Census) to Centre County (population 135,758) we expected the costs of living to decrease, at least proportionately with the decrease average in incomes. Across the board this turned out to not be the case, but no single family budget line item was impacted as clearly as Childcare, which is roughly 100% more expensive here than it was in an area within drivable distance to both NYC and Phila job markets.



According to the 2000 census, the median household income in State College is $21,186. Almost half of the boroughs population lives under the poverty line (this figure is skewed somewhat by our large population of studying poor students.) Now consider that up to 2/3 of children under age six in the U.S. are in some form of daycare a proposition that in State College might cost up to $950.00/month for full-time care. In other words, if you are a single mother working a full-time job to support one baby under one year old in State College, you might on average take home $15,204 after taxes. If you arent lucky enough to have a relative to watch your baby, you might spend about $11,400/year on daycare more than 2/3 of your income.



I havent found a reliable single source for average daycare costs, but according to some discussion on online boards Ive found where parents all over the country are sharing the costs of their daycare services, it seems to range from $70/week in more rural areas to around $250/week in cities like Chicago or Philadelphia. So how exactly does the Borough of State College, estimated population 38,720 by 2007, comes to price its daycare in the same range as Philadelphia? Is it lack of public funding? Difficulty in getting grants? Simple supply and demand in our unusually young culture (median age 22 years)? Or is it that the famously high quality and expensive childcare provided by PSU has skewed the entire market to the high end of the scale, with childcare centers catering to parents that can afford the costs of premium services? (My childs daycare center facility is literally nicer than the school I went to through 8th grade.)



We all want whats best for our children and its true that education in general in our country is gravely under funded but I wonder if by focusing on serving the high end of the market whether in childcare or housing we arent potentially leaving some people behind in Happy Valley.



As a footnote, this isnt the first time all of the residents of Mellott Mobile Home Park have been through something like this. One resident went through something similar three years ago when another park down the road was similarly rezoned that park now hosts a certain chicken franchise and a delicious-but-overpriced coffeehouse. (Their delicious and even more overpriced seasonal peppermint mochas are quite choice.) State College is a jewel of a town, but its a jewel you pay for.



P.S. Thanks to everyone for their feedback on my Where Can I Find a Good Pizza blog entry. I can honestly say I will most likely try everywhere everyone suggested until appropriately made pizza is identified and conscientiously devoured.

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