By Holly Riddle
For those born and raised in Happy Valley — or at least for those who’ve lived in the region for the past few decades — it can be easy to settle into one’s little corner of the county and stay there, rarely venturing out to visit other neighborhoods and, when you do, you might be tempted to grump a bit regarding the time it takes to get from one side of the county to the other.
However, Happy Valley transplants have a different perspective. For those who’ve moved from urban hubs like Philadelphia or Washington, D.C., traveling around Happy Valley is a breeze, and an enjoyable one at that.
Some area transplants will even list the ease of driving as one of their favorite things about Happy Valley, as was the case with Nigel Deighton, the director of research instrumentation at Penn State’s Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences. He told us in a prior interview, “It’s a laid-back place. It has just enough culture. It has some excellent brew pubs…and, apart from college football game days, the quality of driving is really quite good… I would also give a huge shoutout to the drivers of the CATA buses. They are excellent.”
In some cases, Happy Valley natives will move away from State College, only to return at a later date and realize just what they’d been missing, elsewhere. This was Centre County Commissioner Amber Concepcion’s experience, growing up in State College before moving to Washington, D.C., and then returning to the area later. The long commutes in the D.C. area were just one of the factors that inspired Concepcion and her husband to move back to Happy Valley, as they desired a more family-friendly place to call home.
“You’re able to spend more time working or more time with your kids, more time getting involved with the community, because you’re not losing the two hours a day that we spent commuting…”
“You’re not spending so much time commuting [in Happy Valley],” she said. “You’re able to spend more time working or more time with your kids, more time getting involved with the community, because you’re not losing the two hours a day that we spent commuting [in Washington, D.C.]…It really adds up over time. If it’s two hours a day, it’s 10 hours a week. That’s time that you weren’t getting in a run or taking your kids to something.”
This inarguable fact of life in Happy Valley is a boon not just for locals, but for local businesses as well, who can use the area’s ease of commuting to attract talent from elsewhere. Kate Alward, director of human resources and training for Ben Franklin Technology Partners, mentioned this perk when discussing attracting talent to the region, but also recounted her own experience, living in Washington, D.C., before moving to State College. Now, she enjoys both a short commute, but also still easy access to “the big city.”
She said, “Now, if I want to go to a big city for a weekend, it’s only a four-hour drive. I can get to D.C. I can get to New York. I can be in Baltimore. I can go to multiple different big cities from my little State College location in four to five hours max — have a great weekend, come home, and I don’t have to contend with an hour and a half drive [every day for work]. When I was living in D.C., I lived seven miles from where I worked. My commute was an hour and a half each way — three hours on the road, every day. That’s insanity.”
How do you take advantage of the ease of transit in Happy Valley? Let us know below!
Holly Riddle is a freelance lifestyle and business journalist. She can be reached at holly.ridd@gmail.com.
