Allentown On My Mind

I'm a baby boomer. I was born in December of 1946. As soon as my mother climbed out of the hospital bed, another woman climbed in. I grew up in the neighborhood now called Little Lehigh Manor, wedged between Lehigh Street and the top of the ravine above Lehigh Parkway. That's me on our lawn at the intersection of Catalina and Liberator Avenues, named after airplanes made by Vultee Corporation for the War. We had our own elementary school, are own grocery store, and the park to play in. On Saturdays my older brother would take me on the trolley, and later the bus, over the 8TH Street Bridge to Hamilton Street. There were far too many stores to see everything. After a matinee of cartoons or Flash Gordon, and a banana split at one of the five and dimes, we
would take the bus back over the bridge to Lehigh Street.





Not that many people know where Lehigh Parkway Elementary School is. It's tucked up at the back of the development of twin homes on a dead end street, but I won't say exactly where. I do want to talk about the photograph. It's May Day, around 1952-53. May Day was big then, so were the unions; Most of the fathers worked at the Steel, Mack, Black and Decker, and a hundred other factories going full tilt after the war. The houses were about 8 years old, and there were no fences yet. Hundreds of kids would migrate from one yard to another, and every mother would assume some responsibility for the herd when it was in her yard. Laundry was hung out to dry. If you notice, most of the "audience" are mothers, dads mostly were at work. I'm at the front, right of center, with a light shirt and long belt tail. Don't remember the girl, but see the boy in front of me with the big head? His father had the whole basement setup year round with a huge model train layout. There were so many kid's, the school only went up to second grade. We would then be bused to Jefferson School for third through sixth grade. The neighborhood had its own Halloween Parade and Easter egg hunt. We all walked to school, no one being more than four blocks away. Years ago when I met my significant other, she told me she taught at an elementary school on the south side, but that I would have no idea where it was.

compilation of two posts from June 2008

Dept. of Parks and Lies

Allentown's Dept. of Parks and Lies has announced the third public meeting for the Trail Network Plan on Wednesday, Jan. 13, 7:00 at the Allentown Public Library. A newsletter about this meeting has been included with the current water bills. It claims that, so far, more than 500 people have participated in the planning process; quite an amazing claim! The Trail Network is a plan to interconnect all of Allentown's Parks, rather than concentrate on neglected maintenance in each one. Retiring Community Development Director, Joyce Marin, has asserted that this project would be an economic boom for the city. Her other accomplishment in Allentown was continuing the Growers Market at PPL Plaza. Thus far, Allentown has hired four consulting companies for this project; Greenways Incorporated, Stromberg/Garrigan and Associates, Toole Recreation Planning and Mctish, Kunkel and Associates.

Although I will not be charging the City, please join Molovinsky and Associates that evening to provide the City with some more feedback.

ADDENDUM: Andrew Kleiner, author of the blog Remember, which concentrates on our parks, has endorsed this plan. Andrew studies environmental science at Muhlenberg College. I have submitted the following comment to his blog:
andrew, as i read the link you provided, it indicates that jan. 13th is the END of the public input, in other words, another done deal, as was cedar parkway. you have previously asserted on this blog that the process was more in the beginning stages. as one who identified numerous problems in our parks, (jordan, canal, trout) it's disappointing that you don't see this as a distraction, especially financially, from providing solutions to the real problems. the contention, especially about surveys, that over 500 people favor this proposal is a blatant sham. apparently we will built more blacktop paths connecting neglected parks. this will have NO economic spinoff for allentown, and is strictly a recreational plan, at the expense of environmental concerns.

Allentown As Landlord

Over the years I have known quite a few professional rehabbers. Not all rehabbers are created equal. Some put out a nice product, while others give the house a lick, a promise, and a coat of paint. Never the less, all these entrepreneurs cost the taxpayer nothing. While the house is being repaired and sold, real estate taxes are paid.

On the other hand, the bureaucracies also dabble in real estate. While the private investor is a one man band with a pickup truck and cell phone, usually the bureaucracy has a staff and overhead, at tax payer expense. The properties they acquire tend to remain dormant for many years, and dilapidate in the process. Witness the fenced houses across from the Verizon Building on Linden Street. Witness the Schoen Furniture building on Hamilton Street. Much of this real estate was acquired during Bill Heydt's first term, some even earlier. The bureaucrats would reply that they're keeping these properties out of the "wrong hands", or that they're placing them with responsible owners. The transiency of center city, both residential and commercial, would seem to dispute those assertions. Although Mayor Pawlowski now seeks to sell some city real estate as a tax band-aid, none of these acquired properties have attracted buyers. I've been in few, time has rendered them beyond repair. Instead, now he must resort to sell important long term city assets, such as Bicentennial Park and the Park Department maintenance building across from the stadium.

But it's a newish mayor, with new bureaucrats in the agencies, so guess what? Here's a list more houses we are now in the process of acquiring;

Properties to be Acquired by Eminent Domain by the Redevelopment Authority

914 N 4th Street
615 N 6th Street
616 N 6th Street
906 1/2 N 6th Street
735 N 7th Street
121 N 9th Street
112 N 10th Street
112 N 11th Street
318 N 13th Street
902 N 18th Street
377 1/2 - 379 Allen Street
393 Allen Street
536 Allen Street
511 Chew Street
1112 Chew Street
1002 - 1006 Club Avenue
320 N Fountain Street
369 Liberty Street
533 Liberty Street
392 Pratt Street
1202 Union Street

These will join the list of 62 other properties, which the City has owned since as far back as September, 1996

Pa. Legalizes Prostitution

see post at Poliblog

Allentown Saved By A Cheeseburger

This past week at the Job Forum in Washington, President Obama made it clear that he will use stimulus money to prevent state and local governments from adding to the unemployment figures. How Allentown got to lead off the President's Recovery Tour is a matter of speculation. Some contributed our selection to being an important swing area politically; personally, I thank Billy Joel. Although Allentown truly fit the definition of the rust belt at the time, so did fifty other cities, such as Buffalo. Living here in Allentown has a ring to it which I think will finally pay off for us, twenty seven years later. I can only assume that during the time it took Obama to eat that cheeseburger, he and Pawlowski bonded enough for one of those local bailouts; Pawlowski has never been shy about sticking his hand out.

photocredit:Monica Cabrera/The Morning Call

Obama Here In Allentown

We who live Billy Joel's song, know that living here, and visiting here, are two different things. Obama's visit here yesterday cast Allentown in a favorable light. Mayor Ed Pawlowski did a good job representing the city, especially the previous evening on MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews. Obama's charisma heartened his supporters and students at the local community college.

As a person of the fifties, especially from Allentown, I was disappointed at his resigned surrender of our manufacturing future. In a town where Western Electric, General Electric and Black and Decker manufactured products, it's hard to get excited about caulking rowhouses. No tangible plan was presented to encourage loans to remaining manufactures. I know he came to listen, I assume he heard what they said, but did he understand what they meant?

photocredit:Don Fisher/The Morning Call