The number of new apartments being built in the ward is pretty amazing. While most of the development is greatly benefitting from the NIZ, the building wedged between Immaculate Conception Cemetery and narrow Railroad St. is conventional financing. My snipey headline derives from the location and its current appearance, without the final facade finish. On a Facebook post last fall, some people were upset about its imposition on the cemetery, but that judgement is beyond my pay-grade.
The Neuweiler apartment project is enormous. All totaled, there will be hundreds of new apartments in that area. While our politicians talk about affordable housing and the need for more units, I have some doubts about the effect on the city. The Hamilton NIZ failed to gentrify that district. Will the new tenants have more effect in the Ward?
In a word?
ReplyDeleteNo.
No one with a school age child will be moving in.
ReplyDeleteAllentown has all the problems and down sides of a big city without the energy or amenities. Yes, the park system is extensive, the farmers market, 19th street Theater, Art Museum, are all wonderful, but they won’t sustain a population of young adults looking for a vibrant urban scene.
ReplyDeleteAllentown is by any rational measure a midsized American city in decline.
Both Bethlehem and Easton are more appealing and in the W.End families are moving to LMT or simply doing their shopping and business in that booming area.
Just like the Hamilton NIZ renters, they will be afraid to go out at night.
ReplyDeleteThere are very few places to go at night. Poor dining options and very little nightlife.
DeleteThe NIZ is a subsidized failure, to articulate the obvious.
ReplyDeleteAffordable housing are a nice buzz-words for politicians, but with the school district as overcrowded as it is, if there are more kids put in those units, it will be like throwing an anchor on ASD's already half sunk ship.
ReplyDeleteI think the chances for gentrification are a little better down on the waterfront. It feels like the new buildings are (mostly) being built into the neighborhood. Downtown was demolished and essentially walled off from anything that feels like an actual neighborhood. If the ward does gentrify it won’t be overnight.
ReplyDelete