Road Warrior Spills Beans

Craig Friebolin has a bone to pick with the Allentown Parking Authority. It was my pleasure to publicize his plans to crash one of their board meetings. His ears should pick up as he reads this post. Today Dan Hartzell, the Morning Call's Road Warrior, inadvertently tossed Craig a cookie, and it's my pleasure to point out the treat. Allentown doesn't mind being a little sloppy with testimony to City Council. In 2000 Council readily accepted that a majority of residents wanted a historic district, in spite of the fact that the majority was in the audience protesting. In 2005 Council accepted testimony from the Director of the Authority, then Linda Kauffman, that the majority of merchants supported a doubling of the meter fees and fines. I conducted my own survey, and discovered that in reality the merchants were never polled and were opposed. Although I presented City Council with names and addresses at the time, they chose to go with Kauffman's version.(new rates were to finance new parking deck at City Hall)

Today, in the Road Warrior Column, we learn that a majority of residents requested and approved the various residential permit zones imposed in the late 1980's. Although such testimony may have well been presented to and accepted by City Council, I know it isn't true. I managed numerous buildings in those zones at the time, and never was polled. If you live in such as zone, find it burdensome, ask your neighbors if they were polled.

WFMZ Stairs to NoWhere

STAIRS TO NOWHERE

Explanation from WFMZ

"We don't post all of our stories to the website, however it has
been brought to our attention that several people are requesting to see
this particular story. We have passed that information on to our web
producers and they will be adding it at some point today."


Received yesterday, Thursday, Oct. 15th. The story has not yet been added to their website.

Was Parkway Story Squashed?

When I saw the story on the 5 O'clock news, I realized I would need no tuxedo for the Emmy's, but they did cobble together a short piece and air it. A friend who stays up very late, emailed me that the segment did not appear on the 10 PM broadcast. I have confirmed, as The Banker wrote, that there is no reference at all on the web page, even on page two with stories about bread rising. Makes me wonder....

Just Got The Call

69 WFMZ TV is going to do a short blip on the Boat Landing excavation in Lehigh Parkway this evening.

TeNSion in BLoGOsphERE

Despite the best efforts of some well intended intermediaries, there still exists tension in the local blogosphere. Bernie O'Hare goes banana's when I write about events I didn't attend, and he did! So here's another one Bernie, don't slip on the peel. According to O'Hare, there was no article in today's Morning Call, Tony Phillips owned the room last night at the NAACP Debate. But don't count Pawlowski out with that constituency. Last time, and I was there in 05, Pawlowski made pandering an art form. He pointed out to the audience and said, "If i"m elected, there's a man who will work at City Hall, that women will work at City Hall." They both now do work at City Hall, and they remember. I suspect when local black people get inside the booth, they will not be able to resist voting for Tony. I recall black republicans last year saying that the historic opportunity to vote for Obama was irresistible. I would suspect the real value for Phillips last night was to energize him for the remaining two weeks of the campaign.

Andrew Kleiner and I have been having issues. Now I realize he's been studying environmental science now for five weeks, but I still thing I know a thing or two about the park. According to Andrew and the Wildlands Conservancy, without the riparian buffers being installed, our streams are doomed. Now I know the creek isn't measurably wider than it was 70 years ago. I know this because they haven't lengthened the bridge at Robin Hood, yet it still spans the creek. I think the old timers knew more about conservation than their given credit for. Replace the willow tree's which have died out from old age, hurricanes and disease, and you will stabilize the banks and yet still provide both visual and actual access to the water. The Conservancy and other advocates for the riparian buffer remain mute about the paving over of large sections of Cedar Park and the digging of wells by the County at the streams' headwaters in Lower Macungie. Until they're willing to speak out against the real threats to the park and stream, they compromise themselves.