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.
Maintenance is a winter’s activity, ah ,but winter is consumed with snow removal.and the quite spectacular Lights in the Parkway.
ReplyDeleteThere are only so many days in a year.
5:59 - Maintenance is a WINTER activity?
ReplyDeleteThat attitude might be the attitude Inside city government - and would explain a lot about the state of the city - but I can assure you it is NOT.
Generally, you are not going to be doing things like painting, pouring concrete, filling potholes, resurfacing roads, or tearing a structure apart and reassembling it (like the Covered Bridge) in the winter.
While you can have emergency situations where it is necessary to do so, there is additional cost of doing these activities in the winter.
Winter is when the rolling stock is repaired, repainted and refreshed.Heavy equipment is gone over, small engines tuned up and worn parts reordered or restocked, oil changed and lubed. Hand tools sharpened, handles inspected and cleaned, Inventory is checked, parts stocked and the shops put in order.
DeleteYes, maintenance that can be done when the weather is too foul for pouring concrete, laying blacktop, road work, construction projects, roof repair and panting out doors….
The 3rd rate Lights is an insult to the magnificent entrance to the main stem and the Little Lehigh Parkway.
DeleteIts initial construction caused considerable damage including the destruction of wetlands and the the complete ruin of seasonal and year round natural springs. The soil compaction caused damage that requires its own post.
Thousands of uncounted man hours go into year round maintenance, seasonal construction and take down.
Nothing remotely resembling a full cost accounting has never been done .
Full disclosure - I spent more hours in the glow of those Xmas lights (there’s no Baby Jesus involved ) than any living human being.
Are there a few redeeming qualities?
Yes, of course.
mj adams
Although I appreciate readers and comments relevant to the post, I'm not hosting additional comments about what maintenance is and when it should be best done.
ReplyDeleteComments on this blog are moderated, meaning I have no interest in printing all of them. As you know, there are other blogs which are. not moderated, or as difficult about commenting.
You get a good, interesting, thread going and you get pissy.
ReplyDeleteWTF!
anon@10:18: Interesting to whom?....the two people chatting about what constitutes winter maintenance? Beyond being a boring topic, I'm not running a chatroom.
ReplyDeleteI cannot imagine how $4 million can be spent on that piece of asphalt. At one time there were basketball hoops, that were later removed as they attracted criminal behaviour that neighbours wanted to end. There was also a neighbourhood garden, that ended in neglect when the person who took care of it moved away.
ReplyDelete