iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Councilman Matt Herndon @mattherndon.org · 19/05/2026

Today it's primary day in Pennsylvania and I encourage everyone to get out and vote. In my area the D ballot was essentially uncontested, but voting in an election like this gives your voice more weight in future elections because campaigns talk to recent voters first. Happy voting!

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Councilman Matt Herndon @mattherndon.org · 04/05/2026

With so many bad things happening in the world today it's important to find peace and joy where we can. My joy today came from taking my first bike ride to pick up free municipal compost, made from the organic waste my neighbors and I throw away. What other city/town is this even possible in?

A black fat tire ebike stands in front of a large pile of deep brown compost. Connected to the back of it is a cargo trailer filled with compost and a shovel. A silver tarp obscures most of the cargo trailer and holds the compost inside of it.

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Councilman Matt Herndon @mattherndon.org · 14/02/2026

Great to see Ray Bilger kick off his race for Congress with support from so many local pols. We need men of integrity like Ray in Congress to defend our Constitutional rights and create a more affordable country for us all. I've donated to his campaign using: secure.actblue.com/donate/raybi...

Colleen Kennedy, Paul Takac, Ray Bilger, Scott Conklin, and Jason Moser standing in front of an American flag.

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Councilman Matt Herndon @mattherndon.org · 10/12/2025

For example, from 2013 to 2025 the total assessed value of property in State College rose from ~500M to ~600M. That $100M of new assessed value seems like a lot, but really its only a 20% increase. At the same time inflation has raised the CPI over 40% in the last 12 years. 40% is well above 20%.

Bureau of labor statistics CPI calculator showing $500 in 2013 has the same buying power as $705.23 in 2025.

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Councilman Matt Herndon @mattherndon.org · 10/12/2025

In the meeting council member Kassab expressed uncertainty as to why we had to raise taxes again now after so much has already been built here. Many in the community have this same question. The simple answer is that inflation has outpaced new building here.

Total Inflation per decade in the USA over time since 1913. From www.inflationdata.com.

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Councilman Matt Herndon @mattherndon.org · 10/12/2025

It's important to understand that State Law severely restricts the ways we can college revenue. We can't get sales tax, hotel tax, alcohol tax, etc. without a change. Instead we fund our services mostly through real estate tax, local services tax (aka LST), earned income tax (EIT), and transfer tax.

Bar chart showing 2024 Borough Tax Revenue by source. The total is just over 20M with Real Estate Tax over 10M, Earned income is next then real estate transfer tax and LST.

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Councilman Matt Herndon @mattherndon.org · 10/11/2025

Our inflation adjusted spending is relatively flat even with new buildings. The main issue is that inflation has grown faster than we’ve added assed value and thus we’ve had to increase our tax rate to keep up. The ARPA funds helped us limit these increases for a few years, but that time is over.

General Fund Expenditures (constant dollars) bar chart presented to council. In The totals from 2017 through 2021 are all higher than 2024. The other years are slightly lower, but all are quite close.

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Councilman Matt Herndon @mattherndon.org · 10/11/2025

For example the top 4 property tax payers in the borough in 2024 were all student high-rises, in 2026 the 2 new oLiv buildings will make it top 6. Their tax payments do not get reduced by the homestead tax exemption like those of homeowners and thus provide a significant portion or our tax revenue.

Top 10 real estate tax payers (2024). The top 4 are The Standard ($367k), The Maxxen ($328k), The Rise ($306k), and The Metropolitan ($266k), all new high rises. Foxdale Village is #5 at $218k. The total across the top 10 was $2.1M.

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Councilman Matt Herndon @mattherndon.org · 10/11/2025

The challenge is that inflation affects government costs similarly to how it affects everyone else. Municipalities buy less food and more asphalt than regular consumers, and so inflation for our true costs is better tracked by the Municipal Cost Index (MCI).

Table showing MCI for 2021 along with other measures like CPI. In January 2021 the MCI year over year change ws just 2.16%, this increased and from July 2021 through December 2021 the MCI year over year change was over 10%.

Table showing MCI for 2022 along with other measures like CPI. The MCI year over year change started at 11.16% in January, rose to 12.45% in May, then dropped to 6.69% in December.

Table showing MCI for 2025 along with other measures like CPI. In January 2025 the MCI year over year change was just 2.28%. It dropped as low as 1.74% in April and then rose back to 2.66% in August.

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Councilman Matt Herndon @mattherndon.org · 04/11/2025

She also mentions how hard it is to understand the SCASD budget, and implies that things are being hidden. Simply googling SCASD Playground took me to the Playground Master Plan. There's a lot of into on that page because it's comprehensive. The first link estimates each playground cost at ~$300k.

Playground cost estimate $315,703 for Spring Creek, $306,174 for Corl Street, and $351,436 for Radio Park.

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Councilman Matt Herndon @mattherndon.org · 04/11/2025

Today's election day. I wish there were more offices up for a vote, but the ones that are really matter. Retaining judges is key to ensuring our votes are actually counted in future elections. We also need good members on school board, their opponents literally spoke against playgrounds and solar!

Vote yes to retain Justices Donohue, Dougherty, Wecht, Dubow, and Wojcik. Vote to elect Neuman and Tsai.

School board vote list. For SCASD vote Barlow, Anderson, Huff, Desmaris and Black.

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Councilman Matt Herndon @mattherndon.org · 18/10/2025

As an elected member of the State College Borough Council I have sworn to support the Constitution of the United States. Today I was happy to join my fellow citizens at our local No Kings protest to call on our Federal government to honor their oaths as well and uphold our Constitution. #NoKings

The American flag is in the left foreground. A huge crowd of protestors with signs assembled behind it. The PA and US flags fly high on poles in a clear blue sky above them.

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Councilman Matt Herndon @mattherndon.org · 15/10/2025

Here's the intersection with Westerly right now. Atherton is already going from 4 lanes down to 1 as it crosses. I frequently see people speeding in the left lane surprised that it becomes left turn only the dangerously merging back right at a high rate of speed. Just 3 lanes would be far safer.

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Councilman Matt Herndon @mattherndon.org · 14/10/2025

Last week Council met 3 times to discuss our new #zoning. With our 9/15 and 9/24 meetings that adds to over 14 hours discussing this. New zoning has many changes that can improve our town and I'm working on a summary of them, but if you'd like to chat about it in person my office hours are tomorrow.

Colorful boxes saying:
10/15/2025 12-1 pm
243 S Allen St Room 112

Council Member Herndon
Office Hours

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Councilman Matt Herndon @mattherndon.org · 26/09/2025

Very helpful! I've been watching your other videos this morning and was proud to see State College featured in "How Cars Took Over American Streets" One of my zoning update goals is to make The Corner Room's covered sidewalk (shown here) legal again in State College to make walking even nicer here.

Screenshot showing The Corner Room in State College. Closed caption text at the bottom says "with a bit more density maybe you call it downtown or Main Street or the historic district here's"

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Councilman Matt Herndon @mattherndon.org · 08/09/2025

If you want a more affordable, sustainable and inclusive State College please come to one of Council's meetings over the next few weeks to comment and have your voice heard. We are in the home stretch of this nearly 8 year process and continued public support is crucial to getting it done right.

A screenshot of a portion of the zoning timeline with September 8th Council receives PC recommendations circled. The next step is to finalize Council's direction by Oct 20, hopefully leading to passage on March 24 2026.

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Councilman Matt Herndon @mattherndon.org · 11/08/2025

Tonight's council agenda includes discussing the Pugh Street garage replacement. Some are still pushing to tear this garage down ASAP and build a replacement. Back in June Council was informed that with proper maintenance this garage can last 10 more years with a far lower $/year than a new build.

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Councilman Matt Herndon @mattherndon.org · 25/07/2025

Great to see that Whitehall Regional Park is finally open. It sure took a while, but the results are very impressive!

Mascolo pollinator Garden with grass and blooming flowers.

Sidewalk running alongside a ball field with lighting and fencing.

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Councilman Matt Herndon @mattherndon.org · 23/07/2025

We should not wait till we're replacing a major borough owned building to add solar though. At 1:05:20 Councilman Hayes made the good suggestion for adding solar canopies over the flat borough owned parking lot on Sparks Street. Given rising energy prices and our warming planet this is crucial.

Screenshot from 1:05:23 in to the 7/21/25 meeting where councilman Hayes asks if staff has considered putting solar canopies over the Sparks parking lot.

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Councilman Matt Herndon @mattherndon.org · 18/06/2025

The final slide shows where that developed land comes from with agricultural land dropping steadily since 1980. To protect our farms we should be allow more housing in areas that are already developed. The borough has a once in a lifetime opportunity to do this with our zoning rewrite, I hope we do.

Slide showing detailed land use by type in Centre County. A bar chart in the bottom left shows Agriculture, Forest, and Total Developed land here from 1980 to 2020. Agriculture land drops consistently over time, while developed rises consistently. Forest also grows a little which is interesting considering we have developed some forested lands into housing. I'm curious to learn more about those data points.

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Councilman Matt Herndon @mattherndon.org · 18/06/2025

The next slide shows how residential development has been outpacing non-residential development here for decades. In 1980 more land here was developed for non-residential than residential. Residential development has been taking land faster since then though and now we use more land for residential.

Slide showing areas in centre county that are developed for residential and non-residential purposes. A series of pie charts at the bottom shows that in 1980 6% of the land in Centre County was developed for non-residential and 5% for residential. By 2024 residential had more than doubled to 12% of our land, while non-residential had increased more slowly to hit 11% of our land. Undeveloped land dropped from 89% in 1980 to 77% in 2024.

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Councilman Matt Herndon @mattherndon.org · 18/06/2025

For land use I shared 3 slides that had been prepared by COG staff and presented to LUCI (the land use and community infrastructure committee I sit on at COG). The first of these showed how the developed land in Centre County has nearly doubled since 1980, while population hasn't even gone up 50%.

Existing Land Use slide from LUCI. An image showing development in Centre County over time. At the bottom center there are 2 pie charts. The first shows 12% of the land in Centre County developed in 1980, the second shows 23% developed in 2024, nearly double 1980.

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Councilman Matt Herndon @mattherndon.org · 13/06/2025

Digging into the details of the draft it proposes that we require a Courtyard Cottage lot be at least 0.35 acres (15,246 sqft) in residential zones R3 and up. The houses on it must be between 750 and 2,200 sqft (Screenshots are of pages D-5, D-17, 18, and 19). content.civicplus.com/api/assets/p...

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Councilman Matt Herndon @mattherndon.org · 13/06/2025

The first highlight from the new zoning I wanted to post was the new Cottage Courtyard use. This would allow 4 or more single family homes to be built around a shared communal space on a single lot. This seems like a great way to add housing, especially near our many wonderful, but underused, parks.

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Councilman Matt Herndon @mattherndon.org · 03/06/2025

This year's CIP (Capital Improvement Plan) was also transmitted to us at last night's meeting. I requested a report of just CIP changes from year to year, but that wasn't immediately available. I have started going through the CIP to compile this myself. Here's how the parking garage has changed.

Screenshot of parking garage item from 2024 CIP showing an estimate of $51.5M

Screenshot of parking garage item from 2025 CIP showing an estimate of $54.5M

Screenshot of parking garage item from 2026 CIP showing an estimate of $500k

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Councilman Matt Herndon @mattherndon.org · 07/05/2025

I've already got ideas to speed up the new zoning timeline and avoid losing 3 more months. I'll be communicating these to staff and pushing them to focus on completing the zoning rewrite so we can take this important step towards a more sustainable, affordable, bikeable and inclusive State College.

2025-2026 Zoning Revision Timeline presented in the meeting. This one ends March 24 2026, 3 months after the original timeline that was presented to council a few months ago ended.

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Councilman Matt Herndon @mattherndon.org · 06/04/2025

It was amazing to see hundreds of people come together today in State College to protest the destruction of our Constitution, our jobs, our savings, and our futures. It's going to take so much work to fix the damage Trump/ Musk have done in just a few short months, but we've got to give it our all.

A crowd of people with protest signs and colorful rain gear.

A crowd of people with protest signs and colorful rain gear, to the right a speaker in an orange safety vest stands under a green tarp hung from above.

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Councilman Matt Herndon @mattherndon.org · 03/04/2025

It's important to note that the the consensus memo that was sent only requested that we lower land requirements to 6,000 sqft for a single family home and 10,000 for a duplex so it will not deliver the affordability I discussed above. This can be changed by council though and I will work hard do so.

Screenshot from consensus letter that has 6,000 per lot circle in yellow for one-family homes, and 10,000 per lot for two-family uses (aka duplexes).

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Councilman Matt Herndon @mattherndon.org · 03/04/2025

To really push affordability we shouldn't just allow a single home to be built on this land, but 2, 3, or 4 in a single building. A quadplex has 4 units in 1 building. If we could build it on $50k of land that's just $12.5k of land cost per unit. It also has fewer exterior walls lowering HVAC costs!

2 images, first labeled "Detached homes have a lot of walls!" It shows heat leaving a home through conduction and radiation, the area of walls increases this transfer. The second is labeled "Sharing walls decreases losses" It shows a simplex where 6 units share walls. Each shared wall is only leaking energy to a neighboring unit which is likely also being heated. This reduces energy loss. Interior walls can also be built with less insulation and no exterior siding because of this, reducing build costs.

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Councilman Matt Herndon @mattherndon.org · 03/04/2025

Many years ago I lived in a home in Ithaca NY that my wife and I bought for just $168,000. A big reason it was so affordable was because it was built on just 1,742 sqft of land. Such small yard isn't for everyone, but we loved the low maintenance, and I know others do too. It shouldn't be illegal.

Pink craftsman house with a covered front porch a gravel driveway and about 3 feet of front yard.

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Councilman Matt Herndon @mattherndon.org · 03/04/2025

We have built less than 1 new detached home per year in the Borough over the last decade because we have very few vacant lots large enough to meet our zoning's requirements. The ones we do have sell for high prices. This 0.3 acre (13,068 sqft) vacant lot here sold for $205,000 in 2023!

Screenshot from Zillow showing a 0.30 Acre lot in Zoning R2 selling for $205,000 in 2023.

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Councilman Matt Herndon @mattherndon.org · 03/04/2025

It's important to understand how our zoning keeps housing unaffordable in the Borough. It requires large swaths of open land to build a new home. In R-2, the light yellow area in this map, we currently require 10,000 sqft of land to build a single home, 20,000 for a duplex, denser homes are banned.

State College Borough Zoning Map. Residence 2 (aka R-2) is the largest area in light yellow)

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Councilman Matt Herndon @mattherndon.org · 03/04/2025

With all the insanity going on at the federal level, it's easy to miss the amazing stuff happening locally. At our last Borough Council meeting my continued requests for a calendar detailing when our zoning rewrite process will finish were finally answered and the path to affordability is now clear.

Schedule for zoning rewrite completion. Draft will be delivered to planning commission May 7. They'll discuss for a few months then it will come to council August 4th. We'll discuss it, then have a public hearing Dec 1, and hopefully a final vote by Dec 15.

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Councilman Matt Herndon @mattherndon.org · 11/03/2025

As NLC ends @whitehouse.senate.gov's presentation sticks with me. He calmly and clearly explained how climate change is destroying home values across our country. Disasters cause insurance rates to rise, then policies stop being renewed, then mortgages stop being available, then home values crater.

Map of US showing insurance non-renewal increases across the country. The highest rates are in Florida and California, but every state is effected.

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Councilman Matt Herndon @mattherndon.org · 08/03/2025

The only path I see to change this is a mass movement of Americans forcing them to do their jobs. This is key to saving not just the economy of State College, and the US, but also the representative democracy that has guided America for centuries. I hope you'll help. We're all in this together.

Matt Herndon in a happy valley hat and sunglasses standing in front of a sea of protestors on the national mall.

A crowd of protestors in front of the Lincoln memorial and a sign saying "Science makes America great"

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Councilman Matt Herndon @mattherndon.org · 08/03/2025

Some speakers talked about how support for science used to be bipartisan because everyone could see the economic and quality of life impacts it delivered. The Constitution literally charges Congress to "promote the Progress of Science" but the current administration is doing the opposite.

Article I Section 8 Clause 8 of the US Constitution. Highlights on "Enumerated Powers" and "To promote the Progress of Science"

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Councilman Matt Herndon @mattherndon.org · 20/02/2025

Staff at Congressman Thompson's office yesterday were surprised by the number of protestors outside. ~50 people at 3 pm on a Wednesday when it's ~24 F outside? Definitely something to take note of. We need far more to get the Rs in Congress to actually defend the Constitution though. #InThisTogether

Protestors against Musl/Trump's unconstitutional actions holding signs on a strip of grass by a road.

Protestors against Musl/Trump's unconstitutional actions holding signs on a strip of sidewalk in front of the building housing Congressman Glenn Thompson's office.

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Councilman Matt Herndon @mattherndon.org · 14/02/2025

Dismissing corruption charges in return for political favors is even more blatant corruption. It's nice to see that even some right wing lawyers won't comply with it. I'm not the mayor of NYC, just a council member of a small borough in PA, but if this stands I wonder how long till it's tried on me?

Resignation letter from Hagan Scotten refusing to dismiss charges against Eric Adams.

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Councilman Matt Herndon @mattherndon.org · 11/02/2025

At last night's council meeting I noted that it had been 319 days since we gave our final inputs to the zoning consultants and that we were still waiting on a draft to review. I also noted that we were still waiting on a public calendar of when to expect the draft back, but I was wrong about this.

Item 10 of the Planning Commission 2025 work plan. It says "Zoning Ordinance Comprehensive Update. Review and recommend the new zoning ordinance and map to Borough Council. Consultant team is completing the draft by second quarter 2025 with
anticipated introduction of draft to PC in May 2025. Ordinance
recommendation from PC to Council scheduled for August 2025 in order to meet Council's objective of ordinance adoption by the end of 2025." With a Comment noting "This project is the highest priority and other priorities will be minimized in order to focus time
and resources on this project."

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Councilman Matt Herndon @mattherndon.org · 23/01/2025

Trump ran on fixing the economy. Freezing the NIH, where every $1 spent generates $2.46 in economic activity, will instead hurt us economically. State College has ~$80M in NIH grants. These create local jobs while also advancing critical research into things like diabetes, cancer, Crohn's etc.

Table showing over $88M in NIH grants going to the PA15 congressional district.

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Councilman Matt Herndon @mattherndon.org · 15/01/2025

Appreciated Dr. Richard Alley's talk at Foxdale tonight. He underscored the grim reality of climate change. There's a good chance things go worse than IPCC estimates and a small chance they go way worse. Limiting CO2 and methane emissions is the key to improving our odds and every ton saved matters.

Dr Richard Alley and me both wearing blue plaid shirts.

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Councilman Matt Herndon @mattherndon.org · 06/01/2025

Appreciated well shoveled sidewalks like this on my walk to council today. At only ~4 square miles one advantage of State College Borough is that an able-bodied adult living here can walk almost everywhere. We need to finish our zoning update so more people can do this.

A well cleared sidewalk with snow on both sides.

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Councilman Matt Herndon @mattherndon.org · 17/12/2024

I rode to council in these tonight. Waterproof, insulated, and vegan while still looking good. Had them over a year now and they have barely any wear.

Chestnut Brown Chelsea Boots on a white background. Text from Will's vegan store above and below them.

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Councilman Matt Herndon @mattherndon.org · 17/12/2024

Tonight was our last council meeting of the year. It was a bit rainy out, but I still biked. I don't just advocate for biking, walking and transit use, I live it. I haven't driven a car to a single council meeting yet. This isn't to brag, so much as to show what's possible. #Bike #Walk #Bus

Me in a light blue rain coat standing in front of a bike rack with multiple bikes.

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Councilman Matt Herndon @mattherndon.org · 13/12/2024

Let's compare that to a map of presidential election results in PA. It's odd how the right criticizes the left for supposed plans to defund the police, but here in Pennsylvania the 1,000+ localities that have actually defunded their local police forces mostly vote Republican.

Map of 2024 election results in PA. Most of the land area is red with blue up the east coast, in the centre, to the West by Pittsburgh and in the NW corner.

A transparent version of the police map overlaid on top of the voting map. Most of the areas that spend $0 funding local police voted red in 2024.

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Councilman Matt Herndon @mattherndon.org · 13/12/2024

Comment on our budget process reveals some people who want to have gov services, but don't want to pay for them. Think of how many "Back the Blue" flags fly in the grey areas of this map. Those areas give $0 to fund local police and rely on State Police instead, which they pay no additional fee for.

2016 Police Coverage of Pennsylvania Municipalities map. Most of it is grey, meaning $0 in local police funding. The areas in blue that fund police are largely on the east and west sides of the state near Philly and Pittsburgh.

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Councilman Matt Herndon @mattherndon.org · 05/12/2024

At LUCI we got to see the results of the COG comprehensive plan survey. I was impressed by how unanimous the response was for safer streets, smaller yards, and more density. I'll keep working to make all those things realities here.

Sliders that represent the responses to 6 questions about how people want our community to be. There are mixed but Streets designed for all modes of transit, increase density in existing residential areas, and small yard in walkable neighborhood we're all maxed out over their competing choices.

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Councilman Matt Herndon @mattherndon.org · 05/12/2024

With the snow today I decided to take CATA to my LUCI meeting instead of bike. Planning the route was a simple as clicking the transit icon in Google maps and the buses were on time and plenty warm. There are some areas CATA needs to improve on, but at its core it's a wonderful service.

Picture of me sitting inside a CATA bus with a blue jacket and hat and bus windows behind me.

Picture of the outside of the CATA bus with snow on the ground between the sidewalk and the bus.

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Councilman Matt Herndon @mattherndon.org · 02/12/2024

This morning I got to confirm my theory that sitting in Beaver Stadium on Saturday was colder than riding a bike in the same weather. I was toasty warm riding back from College Township wearing the same layers as Saturday. The 1 exception is ski goggles which I probably should have worn to the game.

Selfie of Matt wearing an orange ski helmet+ski goggles, black fleece face cover and light blue coat. A silver eBike with blue tires and black bar mitts is behind him. Stones, and vegetation from Foxdale's pollinator garden are in the background.

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