Your Esteemed Opinion

Thursday evening you're welcome to express your idea's for Allentown's riverfront, to an out of town paid consultant. Allentown may receive a $5million dollar grant, which it could use to purchase the former Structural Steel property, if the current option holder fails to close. If you cannot attend the meeting, try batting your lips in front of your bathroom mirror. In reality, your mirror cares more about your opinion than the city. Yesterday, I met with a displaced Hamilton Street merchant. Although the Hamilton Street plan is very real, there was no public input what-so-ever. This merchant had about 90 days to make alternative arrangements for the past 26 years of his life. He was stunned when I told him that a connected developer can also use the taxes generated in the NIZ for his private debt service. Although these displaced merchants attended two private meetings with City Hall, and one with Pat Browne, they were never offered or told of that option. The Riverfront dog and pony show is Thursday evening, at the Wheel of Deals Building, at Front and Hamilton Streets.

An article on the meeting by Devon Lash appeared in yesterday's Morning Call

Allentown's Malaise

Although the mayor thinks that his palace of sport and event center will be transformational, but for a few apologists and opportunists, I hear no enthusiasm. I do often hear that the first fan who becomes a victim of violence, will doom the attendance. I often hear that the project is in the wrong location. What is most important, is where I hear these comments. Although Allentown's plans may be voted upon at City Hall and Government Center, it's future is decided at it's most important institutions, the morning diners. At the tables and booths of these courts of last resort, the project earns nothing but head shaking and skepticism.

artwork by Mark Beyer

Last Trolley, 1953

When the last trolley ran on June 8, 1953, shown above, Allentown did not turn into a ghost town. Buses had already been ferrying the lion's share of transit riders for a few years. The Transit Station would remain on S. 8th Street, and the changeover was rather smooth. The Hamilton Street district, with it's three department stores, three large five and dimes, and hundreds of smaller merchants, would thrive for twenty more years. Whitehall Mall was constructed in 1966, followed ten years later by the Lehigh Valley Mall, in 1976.

Trolley Demise in Allentown

A fellow blogger, a younger urbanist sort, speculated that automobiles put the end to trolleys in the Lehigh Valley. He was half right, actually it was the Mad Men from General Motors. In the early 1950's, Americans were still a one car family, even in the prosperous Lehigh Valley. The mass transit system was still full of the other family members, still using the system for work, shopping and school. Between the late 1940's and 1953, Hamilton Street had both trolleys and buses. In the late 40's, General Motors wined and dined transit officials all over the country, exhorting the benefits of their buses. Shown above is a Lehigh Valley Transit work car, towing a trolley to Bethlehem Steel to be scrapped. The photograph was taken in 1952 on St. John Street, heading toward the Fountain Hill route. In June of 1953, the last trolley would run on Hamilton Street.

Dinosaur in Digital Age

I am for sure a dinosaur in the digital age. Although I did purchase a small compact digital camera about three years ago, I remain in the point and shoot mode. To be honest, the pictures were fine, especially for a blog which uses images only about 2X3 inches. Never the less, being an old camera addict, I have begun to research available digital alternatives. There is a new photographic phrase called street photography, and descriptions of camera's most suited to that pursuit. As an old photographer from the street, I find that amusing.
UPDATE: We are fortunate here in the valley to now have two full service photography stores. Both Cardinal Camera's new branch at the Promenade, and Dan's Camera City, have the inventory and expertise to help any dinosaur. I'm impressed with the compact Olympus Pen series, featuring interchangeable lenses and a large 4/3 sensor.
molovinsky/Boston Common, 1967

Who Needs Shopping

It was my intention to do a couple of posts on the old line Allentown merchants, both of them. I called the first The Gems of Allentown, although it dealt with yarn. I chose that title because the second post was to be on Salomon Jewelers. Salomon and Tucker Yarn were all that was left of Allentown's merchants, from before the Pawlowski era. Yesterday, I received a comment from a reader called The Voice of Reason

I recall that about 35 years ago, bethlehem had a grandious plan to reinvent downtown Bethlehem. The area between Center, Church, Union and the Monocacy Creek was to be razed and rebuilt with a mall, a convention center, a performance center, parking decks, office towers and residential buildings. The model was beautiful and you could hardly recognize the "old" Bethlehem.... Fast forward to 2011 - It took twenty-five years to finally develop the section between Guetter and Main. It took longer to replace the void at the NE corner of Broad and New. An office tower and a failed attempt at a "mall" remain in the other section. Luckily, cool heads prevailed and the rest of the plan was scrapped. Can you imaging a Main Street without the Sun Inn? Imaging a Main Street without any of the Victorian buildings that exist from Broad to Church. These buildings arguably make bethlehem unique ....
I hope against hope that there may be a similar awakening in Allentown; just because you can do something, doesn't mean that you should. VOR

Yesterday, an article in The Morning Call reported that Salomon's are leaving Allentown.* He has sold his Hamilton Street building to developer J.B. Reilly and will relocate the business west of the city. Salomon hit no home run on the sale. Reilly recently paid as much for a building, across from the arena block, which has been boarded up near 7th and Linden for years. It's apparent to me that Salomon is less than enthusiastic about Allentown's transformational plans, at least as a merchant. Who needs shopping anyway?
Salomon will remain open during the holidays through June