What happens to State College when Penn State students go home? A ‘Townie Takeover’
It was a tale of two State Colleges.
The first, last Friday, was crawling with Penn State students and families in town for graduation. The second, this Friday, was for the locals.
This weekend is the first of Penn State’s summer break, and around 500 State College area residents packed Champs Downtown on Friday for the second annual “Townie Takeover.” The event, organized by the borough-funded marketing campaign Rediscover State College, saw townspeople commune with local luminaries like Happy Valley Hannah and the mayor to kick off the three months when it’s easy to find a parking space downtown.
Public relations professional Brad Groznik and his Rediscover State College team handed out “Hello, my name is” stickers to attendees, with the expectation being they write their name and the year they moved to the area. Not necessarily State College.
Townies mingled over complimentary sliders and wings, many using a list of 25 icebreakers organizers handed out. Questions included, “The thing you’d miss most if you moved,” and “A tip or hack that makes life here better.”
“Football,” said DJ Victor Sanchez of the former. “The energy.”
“Laugh a lot,” said congressional candidate Ray Bilger of the latter. He nursed a beer while his young staff pecked at pub fare.
The summer can be bittersweet for some, with students mostly gone. Locals who might otherwise avoid the crowded downtown trek out to local businesses. On the flip side, business is down.
Phil Gaughan, a door staff manager at The Phyrst, estimated patronage drops about 60% during the summer. Two-thirds of the staff also goes home or graduates, and a band popular with students on Wednesdays, Piano Fight Club, decamps for the Jersey Shore.
“It’s less lively, sadly,” he said. But summer brings its own charm to the Irish-themed basement pub.
Table Wars, a chanting game with its own set of rules posted on the wall, fell by the wayside after the COVID-19 pandemic, Gaughan said. But the chant makes a “reemergence” during summer among the locals and Penn State alumni who might not stop in during the academic year.
“The students take over the town,” Gaughan said. “The locals take back the town.”
Restaurants especially feel the brunt, and establishments like The Phyrst and Allen Street Pizza cut hours. Other businesses, like The Nittany Quill, Appalachian Outdoors and The Makery, see a different type of clientele come through their doors during the summer: out-of-towners, children, parents.
“It certainly isn’t dead,” said Quill owner Joy Rodgers-Mernin. The past decade or so, she said, has seen a summertime boost due to the efforts of the Downtown State College Improvement District. Most recently, the organization debuted what it calls the East End Social, which closed a portion of Hiester Street to encourage pedestrian foot traffic starting Friday.
“It’s a great time to interact in a different way than when the students are here,” said Kendra Kielbasa, the district’s commercial and retail business advocate.
Back at the Townie Takeover, Brian Bastis noted he moved to State College last year because it’s a “small town. Love the community, kids keep me young.” While he’ll miss the students, he said he’s not apprehensive about the summer.
“They’ll be back in August,” he said.
