Double Down(Towns)

People often speculate as to why Bethlehem now is a destination, while, too often, Allentown is considered a place to avoid. The long answer will not fit within this short post, but here may be a few reasons. Bethlehem had two downtown's, on both sides of the river. While downtown Allentown certainly was the premier shopping area for the Lehigh Valley prior to the malls, it may have become a victim to over-planning. In the late 60's, early 70's, Allentown attempted to compete with the suburban malls by building a canopy on Hamilton Street. The viability of Hamilton Street was extended for a few years, but the magnetism of Hess's could well have been the reason. Bethlehem also built a pedestrian mall on Broad Street, but the historical quaintness of Main Street remained. Although the commerce in it's southside business district languished, the architecture remained. By the time Allentown removed the canopies in the late 90's, the architecture of it's buildings had long been bisected and altered. As historical became chic, Bethlehem profited from having done less in the past.

It's southside business district is a time capsule, architecturally unchanged since the turn of the last century. It now is becoming a mix of boutiques and bistros in a fashionable historic setting. Last, but not least, Bethlehem benefited from consistency of developmental leadership. While Allentown has had a succession of Economic Directors, Tony Hanna, with benefit of his institutional memory, has led Bethlehem for many years.

Shown at the top is pop up photo matches from the 1930's, promoting Julian Goldman's Fine Clothes For The Family on the South Side, East Third Street. Also shown is Tony Hanna, along side of the former Goodman Furniture Store.

Second That Emotion

Smokey at 70

Alan Jennings Gives Taxpayer Bath

Alan Jennings may well be the most influential person in the Lehigh Valley; I don't think The Morning Call quotes anybody as often. Last week, in a panel discussion about newspapers, he acknowledged that he bends the arms of the powerful and that nobody wants to be on his wrong side. He is praised by democrats and republican, liberals and conservatives alike. If all that wasn't enough influence, the week before he received the national award from Jesse Jackson, for making capital available to the low income.

Shaking my head, I felt like Justice Alito reading that Jennings had lost only 40 thousand dollars helping over 70 startup businesses. He must mean money belonging to his organization, and not the taxpayers. This post is about a bath he gave the taxpayers, and how Abe Atiyeh came out of it smelling like a rose.

Jennings gets a thrill out taking people on welfare and making them instant business owners; I call it giving them a fish market instead of a fishing pole. In 1996 he set up Rose and Miguel Rodriquez in a paint recycling business called Angel's Touch Paints, in a rented space on N. Franklin Street.* In 1997 Lehigh County would pay them $7,000 to recycle it's paint leftovers, and then buy back rebatched paint at $5.00 a gallon. The operation only required the space of about a three car garage. Also, about this time, Abe Atiyeh purchased the sprawling, contaminated Allentown Paint Manufacturing Plant on East Allen Street. Long and behold the influence; The DEP spent $755,000 cleaning up the old paint factory and gave Angel Touch $165,000 more, for equipment and lease expense to relocate there, in a space 100 times larger than they needed. **

Angel Touch and the Rodriquez's are long gone. Abe has a clean building and the existing multiple tenants never even heard of Angel Touch. Actually, the building is so large that they could still be there, lost somewhere inside, like the $920,000 of our money.

*Dan Hartzell, The Morning Call,April 28, 1997:pg. B.04

**Dave Levinthal, The Morning Call, June 4, 1999: pg. B.12

The 6th Ward

When my grandfather first arrived in Allentown, he lived in the Ward, on 2nd. Street. It was around 1895 and the neighborhood was full of immigrants. Some groups came from the same area in the old country, most noticeably the Syrians, from the village of Amar*. They were Greek Orthodox, a minority in a Muslim country. The congregation of St. George's Church on Catasauqua Ave., largely is descended from those immigrants. Well known names in Allentown, such as Atiyeh, Haddad, Hanna, Makoul, Koury and Joseph are among their members. They were among one of the first groups to organize, and those organizations still exist. The photo above was organized by the Syrian American Organization in 1944. Note that Jewish, on the left, is treated as a nationality.

* hopefully my Syrian friends will correct any historical errors I have made.

click on photo to enlarge

The Sunday Drive

My family wasn't much for recreation. My father worked six days a week, from early morning until early evening. We did go for a long car ride on Sundays. Back then gasoline was cheap, and having no destination wasn't thought of as wasteful. Children were more content to sit in back seat and look out the window, now they want a video screen in the vehicle.

Even children's play then involved more imagination and interaction. Howdy Doody was just a puppet on strings, who spent most of his time talking to an adult, Buffalo Bob, can you imagine?

 Sitting in that back seat in the mid fifties, I might well had

my "coonskin" hat with me. Fess Parker was a genuine American hero. It mattered little if he played both Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone, both were king of the wild frontier. The ride probably lasted for two hours and then we would go to a restaurant to eat dinner. Compared to now, there were very few restaurants.

My mother would cook all the other meals that week, and we probably ate out more than most. Supermarkets were the new rage in food shopping, but the butcher, baker and candle stick maker were still going strong. If my father headed west or south, chances are we ended up at Shankweiler's Hotel, famous for chicken and waffles. They were at the intersection of Old 22 and Route 100. The building still exists and currently is a bank. The family also owned another hotel on Route 309. Both locations also operated adjoining Drive-In movies.

If my father headed north or east, we would end up at Walp's, which was on the corner of Union Blvd. and Airport Road. Walp's was a much more urban place. While Shankweiler's was an old country inn, Walp's was built as a modern restaurant. I enjoyed those rides, they were a learning experience.

Over The Top

I don't think blogger Rolf Oeler would argue with me describing him as over the top.      His blog,

LV Ironpigs, pulls no punches; I like that. It certainly has gotten Rolf in some trouble with the local blogging Pope, Bernie O'Hare. Rolf is barred from LV Ramblings. Truth is, I also reject some of Rolf's comments, he can be brutally frank and relentless. In this local blogosphere, dominated by both left leaning and puff blogs, there should be a place for his viewpoint.