The Greatest Generation

Armed Forces in WW2 were dependent upon the construction speed and skills of the Navy Seabees to move their efforts forward. In December of 1942, the 35th U.S. Naval Construction Battalion embarked for the South Pacific. They would divide into two teams and build airstrips on Espiritu in the New Hebrides and on Banika in the Russell Islands.









After a rehabilitation leave in New Zealand, the battalion returned to Banika before being reassigned to Manus in the Admiralty Islands. They would arrive on Manus shortly after it's capture from the Japanese, and build ammunition dumps, warehouses and The Naval Headquarters. After 24 months in the South Pacific war zone, they would return to San Francisco on Thanksgiving 1944 for leave.

reprinted from May, 2010

Jerusalem

In the city of awe-inspiring sites, the most imposing is The Dome of the Rock. The Dome covers the Rock from which Muslims believe the Prophet Muhammad ascended to Heaven to receive a message from Allah. The Jews believe the rock is the Foundation Stone, from which the world was created. On it, Abraham was prepared to sacrifice Isaac and the Ark of the Covenant stood when the Temple occupied the Mount. The Mount and Temple was enlarged by Herod, during the lifetime of Jesus.

Jews pray at the retaining wall, The Western Wall, which survived the Temple's destruction by the Romans in 70 A.D. The bottom four rows of stones date from Herod, below current street level, there are 17 more layers.

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is west of the Temple Mount. The first church was built on the site in the 4th century. Christians believe the church encompasses both the sites; where Jesus was crucified, and also buried and rose from the dead.
reprinted from April, 2010

The Misconception of Hamilton Street

There's not many mid size cities that can boast having two national chain stores within one center city block, Allentown could. Not too many cities could say that one of those stores was one of the biggest producers in a chain of over 7000 stores, Allentown could. There's not many cities that are ignorant enough to tear down their most successful block, a virtual tax machine, Allentown is. This horrible mistake took a combination of political arrogance and public misconception. The arrogance is well known, so let me concentrate on the misconception. The perception was a few undesirable people, buying cheap things. The reality is Family Dollar sells the same merchandize in their suburban and rural stores. Rite Aid fills the same prescriptions and sells their standard merchandize. The new upscale stores, visioned for the arena front, will never produce the sales tax produced by Family Dollar and Rite Aid. The arena will never have that amount of employees, nor produce that much earned income.* The traffic congestion and lack of parking for arena events will destroy the new restaurants. Welcome to the white elephant, welcome to the ghost town.
Shown above and below is the early morning delivery to Family Dollar, every week of the year.
*sales tax and earned income currently going to city and state will now go to debt service for arena

Silence of the Lanta

Hannibal Lecter has been offered parole on the condition he restrict his diet to Hamilton Street bus riders. Once a month he will be permitted an Asian merchant; on thanksgiving he may have a preselected blogger. Mr. Lector will be micro-chipped and given a new Hamilton Street loft apartment. He will be monitored by the new surveillance cameras. Mayor Pawlowski and Armand Greco will provide more details at a press conference early next week at the new Lanta Terminal.
reprinted from October 20, 2007
UPDATE: Hannibal wasn't eating those Asians fast enough, they were forced off Hamilton Street by eminent domain in 2011.

Stacking the Deck

When Donny Cunningham appointed Ed Pawlowski to the Lehigh Valley Airport Authority, he stacked the deck against Queen City Airport. Pawlowski has advocated selling Queen City for development since before he was mayor. The fact that this city needs no more commercial or residential space is lost on him. South Mall, once home to three large department stores, now has one. The property has underperformed for decades. Needless to say, the last thing the school district needs is more housing and students. The distance between Queen City and Lehigh Valley Airport provides a safety margin between commercial planes and small aircraft. The Airport Authority is a case-study in poor decision making. They took land for runway expansion they never used, now owing the original owners ten times the price in penalty and interest. (LVIA is under court order to pay $26million) They expanded their departure terminal to a size they never needed. They constantly remodel the under used facility. They fired their director with no succession plans in place. Cunningham appointing Pawlowski, with a predetermined agenda, is the last person that board needed.
UPDATE: In an article today in The Morning Call, it states that the sale and development of Queen City could create "thousands of jobs." That is ridiculous.

NIZ, A Study in Favoritism

Bernie O'Hare has an excellent post on the irony of Pennsylvania tightening it's belt and instituting a new give=away program at the same time. He writes;

According to State Senator Pat Browne, dwindling state revenues make these cuts necessary. "We have been in a trough, a serious trough," he laments to a reporter. What the good Senator fails to point out, however, is that he dug the hole about which he now so sadly complains. He helped draft legislation that gives major tax breaks to well-heeled entrepreneurs, so that those on the brink, can continue to suffer.
All in the name of hockey.
Back in 2009, Browne and State Rep. Jennifer Mann,..(wrote and had passed)- the "Neighborhood Improvement Zone." To be fair, that program is available for any local government with a population between 106,000 and 107,000 in the 2000 census. It's certainly nobody's fault that the only local government fitting this bill just happens to be Allentown.
Aside from the outright grant, what's really repulsive about this is that taxes that should go to the state, to pay for things like schoolbooks and Medical Assistance, will instead be funding a J.B. Reilly development, helping him get richer....

What is also repulsive about this program is the secretiveness and selectivity with which it was implemented. Although it was known that the Arena Authority would be able to use the taxing vehicle for it's debt service, it's availability to private parties was not publicly disclosed. I attended a private meeting with Allentown's Community Development Director, Sarah Hailstone, and the merchants. During the course of the meeting, and a subsequent one, it was never disclosed that private investors could utilize the tax advantages of the NIZ legislation. The merchants also had a meeting with Pat Browne, who also did not disclose the secret. In addition to the earned income tax, it also includes the 6% Pennsylvania sales tax. Had the merchants been aware of this tax incentive, it would have greatly enhanced their relocation options. The merchants and public only gained knowledge of this provision upon the announcement of J.B. Reilly's projects. At that point the Administration claimed that any application would have to be approved by them (AEDC) to see if it forwards the Vision for center-city. Whose vision? A new Authority is now being formed, and will be in charge of the Vision. All I see is favoritism.