Downtown Allentown, aka J.B. Reilly's NIZ, is a dead zone. While Bethlehem and Easton have a day and night life, Allentown remains devoid of life. The only reason I care, and you should, is that it isn't Reilly's money, but ours. Reilly's privately owned buildings are financed with diverted state taxes, our taxes, which must otherwise be made up, by who again, but us.
I have been writing about this since day one. The list of the complicit silent has grown to now include the blue blood Allentown Art Museum board. They have agreed to move the art museum to Reilly's proposed cultural corner at 10th and Linden. Meanwhile in reality, Reilly is reduced to staging local boxing matches in his new Archer Theater. The Museum move leaves the Baum School and the art park artless.
Meanwhile, those same blue bloods dine at night in Bethlehem and Easton. Those two cities prospered from organic growth, not some contrived real estate scheme. There is some new moronic plan where ambassadors will confront anybody more prosperous than a street person who parks downtown, and ask how they can help? How reassuringly pathetic can we get?
Boxers first. Pro wrestlers next. Gininnin up attendence.
ReplyDeleteWasn't the PPL Arena designed for that on non-hockey nights?
Bet there ain't no hip-hop at the acher
Any paying attention understands, the Little Apple is rotten to the core.
ReplyDeleteWhat is going to replace the Museum facility at its historic location?
ReplyDeleteThe Museum has a "Land Acknowledgement" statement buried on their web site. To prove that it's not just standard limousine liberal virtue-signaling, they should donate their land back to the Lenape/Delaware people.
Deletehttps://www.allentownartmuseum.org/land-acknowledgment/
Reillyville is a farce but beyond that- the art museum becoming part of it would be terrible. As a museum supporter I understand the problems of an older building but the move offers little to the museum. Visitors will not walk from a parking building on the next block to visit the museum. To my understanding new site offers similar square footage to what it has now, less storage space, and even less parking. This seems like a no-brainer to me.
ReplyDeleteAs a native Allentonian and a supporter of the AAM since Richard Greg was Director I am astonished at the decision to move the facility.
DeleteNot much shocks me about the once and former Queen City these days, this move shocks me.
mj adams
anon@10:06: Shame especially to the Baum School for their silence. As for the being an older building, that's a pretense, it's a lot newer than the Louvre and all the famous museums.
ReplyDeleteThe current Allentown establishment takes care of its own and Riley is in the cat bird seat.
DeleteHe is the undisputed king of the roost. Big, really, really, big, money calls the shots.
This is absolutely crazy. The fact that there is no public pushback is astonishing.
ReplyDeleteWhere do I start?
ReplyDeleteThe city is suffering from poor decisions, and poor policy. It is falling further behind the suburbs that surround it, losing both higher income residents (and potential residents) as well as potential visitors who now have plenty of additional choices to dine, shop and visit.
While the suburbs prioritize long-term stability through strong neighborhoods, the city allows its housing stock to be carved up into smaller units while simultaneously building large apartment buildings. This results in overcrowded neighborhoods filled with a more transient population with no real ties to the city beyond next month's rental payment. This also overcrowds our schools with a constantly changing student population, while simultaneously reducing the quality of life in the city's neighborhoods.
While the suburbs prioritize efficient, no-nonsense policing, the city caters to those breaking the law and turns a blind eye to many of the supposedly "less-important" complaints that ultimately makes the city less livable.
While the suburbs keep their roads drivable and infrastructure in good shape, Allentown's roads are now a crumbling mess of potholes and speed bumps. Traffic lights in the city are inoperable for months (see Union Boulevard at the Iron Pigs stadium or 6th and Walnut Streets), which is the municipal equivalent of not being able to change a lightbulb!
Actual trash collection in the city is still timely, but there is more litter on the streets and sidewalks than ever. Those who actually mow their lawns and take good care of their yards now wait as their yard waste ferments for two weeks before pickup. And of course they're paying more for this new "deal".
It really all comes down to city government actually caring about the basics and having standards that they enforce. And that's the heart of the problem in Allentown.
It's not about a new government program to create more housing. It's not about more "community centers" for the poor. It's not about 90% of what occupies every city council agenda. And it certainly isn't about hiring "ambassadors" to tell people how great downtown is.
It's about doing a hundred small things right and making the city more livable. It's about aspiring to something bigger and better than what the city currently is, and holding those who don’t and who break the basic rules of living in a city accountable.
It's not rocket science; it's basic municipal governance. I'm surprised that the mayor hasn't heard this in one of his high-priced (for the taxpayers) junkets. Maybe he has, but he either doesn't care, or just has other priorities.
The Allentown School District is the big canary in the coal mine.
DeletePS - I almost got hit (in my car) by another unlicensed dirt bike on Friday night. He was running a red light. Luckily I stopped in time.
Delete1:20 - You are correct, yet City Hall policies seem to be geared towards making things worse for the school district.
DeleteI am constantly astounded by the silence of Allentown School Board members on city policy. It seems to be one big incestuous party running both entities, where no elected official is willing to (or allowed to) criticize the obvious failings of the other entity.
This could simply be political self-preservation as one entity calling out the other will only result in the failures of both entities being in the spotlight.
Still, it almost makes me think that whoever is actually running the show and backing the politicians of both entities is actually buying their silence, not their service.
Well the ASD is proposing a 2.9% tax increase, so there’s that.
DeleteI’m guessing that Mayor Matt does really care about his adopted city, he is just in way over his head and has no idea how to address the accelerating decline. “Showing up” and entertaining people is not a substitute for effective executive management.
DeleteNo one wants to stand up to Riley. Few have the courage of MOLOVINSKY.
ReplyDeleteKitty Merle-Smith must be spinning in her grave.
ReplyDeleteJanet Kiem is VP of the Baum School Board. Larry Miley is on the board.
ReplyDeleteBob Lovett is a member emeritus. These people are all solid, well connected to say the least, long time members of the old guard Allentown establishment. They deserve to be mentioned by name.
Shame on them.
The VP of The Baum School of Art is the Trexler Trusts Janet Gross.
Delete4:13 - Please explain Janet Gross' connection to the Trexler Trust. I don't know that there is one.
DeleteI believe there is a Janet ROTH that is the Trexler Trust CEO or Executive Director, but I don't know that Janet Gross serves there.
I do believe that Malcolm Gross served as a Trexler Trustee, but I'm not sure if that's still the case. I believe Janet is his wife.
Seriously, what does Downtown Allentown during the daytime offer this senior citizen (with plenty of disposable income) that I can’t find much easier, and with much less hassle just outside the city limits?
ReplyDeleteWhere’s the Trexler Trust?
ReplyDeleteanon@2:11: One could make the case that the Trust is part and parcel of Allentown's direction. Members were Pawlowski's kitchen cabinet, meeting with him at the Hamilton Family on Saturday mornings. Likewise, they now support the Reilly vision, also supported by the LVHN board. Any scrutiny is left to small town pizza bloggers like myself.
ReplyDeleteI’m glad no one’s trashing Mayor Matt here because it’s pretty clear that he has nothing to say about any decisions of consequence.
ReplyDeleteanon@5:17: Truth be told, which it seldom is anymore, the city has changed politically because of the demographic changes. DEI is very important to the new population, and there is crossover and interaction between the school district and city hall who share similar values.
ReplyDeleteFellow local dinosaurs might appreciate a new project of mine. I'm shopping for a publisher for a collection of vintage posts (non- political) from this blog's archives. Hopefully an announcement will be forthcoming.
I believe Bob Lovett is in his mid nineties, many of those who knew him and respected him have already passed. I doubt the new director of the Art museum even know his name. No one should criticize a man like Bob who has quietly done so much for the city, the Arts, and the school district. One can only try, he has and as far as I know he still does.
ReplyDeleteGod bless Bob Lovett, arguably the greatest mayoral candidate Allentown has ever had.
DeleteCan you even begin the imagine the difference if Lovett had managed to beat the complete and total fool Roy Afflerbach? Where Afflerbach was inexperienced and clueless laughing stock, Bob Lovett commended respect and with his personality, intelligence and business acumen might have stopped the City's decline at a critical juncture.
DeleteI agree 100%
DeleteThe City will continue to decline as long as we keep electing anyone with a D after their name- regardless of qualifications.
DeleteCould you imagine if Nat Hyman were elected instead of this incompetent fool we have now?
Delete