That new set of apartment buildings going up in downtown State College on the old Ambassador Building lot across from the Lutheran church is looking more and more elaborate as they get past concrete-blocks-and-girders to fiddling around with facades and such. When it's done, Beaver Canyon is going to be steeper and more oppressively city-like than ever. The only gap left will be that preposterous ground-level for-pay parking lot in front of the Cinema 5, stuck right in the middle of downtown like a rotted-out socket in the middle of a bright white smile. Multi-story parking deck construction in five, four, three, two...

But seriously, the construction boom in the county has been pretty impressive. I'm kind of surprised that traffic hasn't been worse than it has been. If the owners of the Academy lot & their peers have their way, once the construction companies wrap up their projects in State College, there's still a good chunk of work in the outer county to absorb the surplus labor & workforce. Unless, that is, some sort of credit crunch brings everything to a screeching illiquid halt. We'll see. Given the number of properties for sale around Bellefonte, I'm still wondering who or what the developers expect to fill that new semi-high-rise *with*.