The Franklin Park Windfall

Allentown (Partnership) is receiving $4mil from the Bezos Foundation, and will pony up another $mil toward making over Franklin Park. Everyone is happy about it, except this blogger. My issue is the imbalance between the excesses and the neglect. 

Neglect is city wide, from the crumbling steps in Lehigh Parkway to the meager pool schedules. Excesses are city wide, from the Destination Playground to the new dual skateboard bowls. Politics, political correctness and delusion are not in short supply. Less than a decade ago, contractual corruption resulted in a short shelf life for some projects. The current crumbling Rose Garden Ponds were in better shape before they were rebuilt than now, only a decade later.

Perhaps the Bezos Foundation will allow the Park Department to keep some funds in escrow for future maintenance of whatever is built. At any rate, the city should not be dependent on grants for maintaining existing facilities, as was the case with Bogert's Bridge. The Park Department should concentrate on maintenance rather than always looking to build another shiny object.