Where's the Rent?

Recently, this blog explained the heavy handed way that City Center Investment Corporation had acquired virtually all the buildings across from the arena site. Yesterday, The Morning Call reported the compelling story about how a luncheonette tenant on 7th Street was told to vacate, for being a couple days late with her rent. I was glad the newspaper picked up on the story, but like the rent check, they're a little late. In the article they refer to the displaced merchants of the arena site has having served low-income shoppers. Perhaps the reporters didn't notice, but the luncheonette clientele are not from the west end. It's not the fine dining favored by the Administration. The same reporter, before the eminent domain hearing, referred to the merchants as selling discount clothes and cheap electronics. While it's nice that they're injecting a little humanity into the plight now, the damage has been done. The same reality applies to recent revelations about the Earned Income Tax in the NIZ. As the picture below shows, we no longer have a center city; We have a square block of rubble with the surrounding properties all owned by virtually one person. Welcome to the Transformation.

the rent collector is boxer Abe Simon, training for his heavyweight fight with Joe Louis in 1942; the photographer asked him to look mean. the bottom photograph is by The Morning Call.

Hawking a Newspaper

The full page promotion of The Morning Call by Tony Iannelli, on the back of Tuesday's front section of that newspaper, seemed inappropriate to me. The copy said it was important for Tony to get news from a credible source that he could trust. It identified Tony as President and CEO of the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce. Doesn't Tony realize that there are two cities in the Valley with a newspaper? If Iannelli is a spokesman for The Morning Call, can we count on honest reporting about his organization? This blog has previously wondered why the Chamber sponsored Vision Meetings for the merchants of Hamilton Street, while the Administration was starting to think about a bulldozer. The citizens of this city have been under-served by both the Chamber and the paper; where can we find a credible source we can trust?

Flash From Past

Occasionally, some of the older boys in Lehigh Parkway would get saddled with taking me along to a Saturday matinee in downtown Allentown. We would get the trolley, in later years a bus, from in front of the basement church on Jefferson Street. It would take that congregation many years to afford completing the church building there today. The trolley or bus would go across the 8th Street Bridge, which was built to accommodate the trolleys operated by Lehigh Valley Transit Company. Downtown then sported no less than five movie theaters at any one time. Particularly matinee friendly was the Midway, in the 600 Block of Hamilton. Three cartoons and episode or two of Flash Gordon entertained our entourage, which ranged in age from five to eleven years old. We younger kids, although delighted by the likes of Bugs Bunny, were confused how the Clay People would emerge from the walls in the caves on Mars to capture Captain Gordon, but our chaperones couldn't wait till the next week to learn Flash's fate. Next on the itinerary was usually a banana split at Woolworth's. Hamilton Street had three 5 and 10's, with a million things for boys to marvel at. The price of the sundae was a game of chance, with the customer picking a balloon. Inside the balloon was your price, anywhere from a penny to the full price of fifty cents. The store had a full selection of Allentown souvenirs. Pictures of West Park on a plate, the Center Square Monument on a glass, pennants to hang on your wall, and picture postcards of all the attractions. Hamilton Street was mobbed, and even the side streets were crowded with busy stores. Taking younger kids along was a responsibility for the older brothers, the streets and stores were crowded, but predators were limited to the Clay People on the silver screen.

reprinted from April 11, 2011

Allentown's Vanishing History

A reader sent me the above image last night. It looks down the hill from 7th and Hamilton, north, toward Linden Street. He has been attempting to locate the old Lafayette Radio store on 7th street, because of a pleasant memory from his childhood. By my day, the store had moved onto the southern side of the 700 block of Hamilton Street. History is quickly succumbing to the wreaking ball in Allentown. All the buildings shown above, on the left or west side of 7th Street, have been knocked down for the arena. Most of the buildings on the photo's right side are also gone. I suspect the few remaining ones will be gone soon, as they have been recently purchased in speculation of the Transformation Phrase 2, the Event Center. With the departure of Salomon Jewelry, Tucker Yarn remains Hamilton Street's last remaining business from the glory days. It's first store, on 7th Street, can be seen on the left side of the above photo.

The above image can be found in Doug Peters' Lehigh Valley Transit

Pat Browne's NIZ Shell Game

Back in the fall, when it was discovered that J.B. Reilly was loaned $20 million under the same terms as the arena, and that taxes would be used for his debt service, and before the rules to apply were formulated and publicly announced, Pat Browne said "I'm not sure why anyone is confused. The law is very clear." Yes, this is the same Pat Browne whose campaign brochure touts reducing the size of government, and sponsored the Taxpayer Transparency Act. Scott Kraus and Matt Assad, of The Morning Call, have reported* that various professional fiscal managers in the surrounding townships, have been caught off-guard by the NIZ wrinkles. Bethlehem's business administrator said, "What? That's crazy....we're not getting money we already included in this year's budget." Upper Milford's manager said "Our bread and butter is that Earned Income Tax. Any amount we lose is significant to us." Pat Browne's reply to the beleaguered administrators: "I'm not sure why anyone is confused. The law is very clear." This blogger has maintained, contrary to the patter coming out of the mouths of Pawlowski and Browne, that every dollar going toward these NIZ projects will have to be made up by the taxpayers, somewhere, somehow. Pat Browne says, "There is naturally going to be some adjustment, But we're talking about rebuilding the urban core of Lehigh County. The benefits to everyone, including the suburban municipalities, are going to be well worth the adjustments we have to go through to get there."

Senator Browne, those benefits remain to be seen. For someone who sponsored The Taxpayer Transparency Act, you sure can move those shells around fast.

*Taxing question:Arena tab extends beyond Allentown/by Scott Kraus and Matt Assad/The Morning Call/January 22, 2012

Misguided Park Priorities

The plan to turn one lane of both Linden and Turner Streets into bike paths, through center city, casts a spot light on current Park Department thinking. If ever there was an idea that was devoid of reality, and which ignores the welfare of the vast majority of citizens, that may well be it. In addition to affecting the two sides of Allen High School, Central Elementary School would also be adversely impacted. Those familiar with center city know that double parkers already have largely reduced traffic to one lane, never mind the pending Arena traffic. This bike plan is a component of the Trail Network Plan, which has dominated the park agenda for the last several years. It caters exclusively to the cycling enthusiasts, paving the existing paths and connecting the parks with more bike paths. This past fall a group of concerned citizens surveyed the iconic WPA stone Structures within our park system. The cyclists may be peddling too fast to notice the state of disrepair that has overcome these monuments. Last summer, a City Councilman agreed to vote for the Trail Network Plan, with the understanding that a set of stone steps on Jerome Street, at Irving Park, would be fixed. The Park Department then removed the steps; I suppose that's a fix of sorts. One of the stone pillars on the Union Terrace Amphitheater stage is being undermined by the stream. The grand stairwell at Fountain Park has numerous missing steps. While millions of dollars have been sought for the cycling plan, the stone structures are approaching the point of no return. While I wish the cyclists enjoyable use of the parks, the Park Director and Mayor must realize that the young and the old, and other passive users, are also entitled to enjoy the parks. They are entitled to sit a bench and enjoy the view . They are entitled to explore the stone structures with their grandchildren, safely, on maintained steps and walls. These structures defined our park system long before the current Administration. We have too many plans for new venues in this city, while our history is literally crumbling. We don't just need more new ribbons to cut, we also need to maintain those things which made us unique.

The above piece, under a different title, appeared January 21, 2012, on The Morning Call opinion page.