The Wages of Greed

Shown above are former customers with a former merchant, in a former store, in a former building on Hamilton Street. They are all gone now, replaced by a hole and lawsuits. When I first starting blogging about the arena, over a year ago, there wasn't too much interest. I wrote about fairness, level playing fields and the years those merchants had invested in Hamilton Street. They pleaded to no avail with the Administration and City Council; They even had a meeting with Pat Browne. They are an industrious people, and landed on their feet. I cannot say the same for Allentown. If it was greed or arrogance, apparently the Reilly/Pawlowski/Browne cartel reached for a little too much. Townships have joined townships defending their tax-base against the EIT grab. Developers outside of the NIZ will now also legally assert themselves to remain competitive. As Pennsylvania cuts back on services, local representatives will have to explain their vote for HOCKEY-GATE. As the bonds are delayed, if not cancelled, a local banker and bank will have to hope for repayment. J.B. Reilly is now sitting on a square block of inter-city apartments, not the clientele he envisioned. One thing is for certain, if the project gets back on track, the pot will not be as sweet as the big boys hoped, nor should it.

 April 16, 2011 Involuntary Conversion
 April 19, 2011 Late, and Maybe Wrong
 April 19, 2011 Hailstorm at City Hall
 May13, 2011   Hardball for Hockey
 May 17,2011  A Quick Learner
 May 18.2011  Another Day, Another Battle
 May 19,2011  The Night Hamilton Street Died
 May 21,2011  Pawlowski's Sham
 May 24,2011  A Better Arena Site
 May 27,2011  Exaggerating the Arena
 May 30,2011  Stealing Allentown's Treasures
 June 2,2011   Ripping Out Downtown's Heart
 June 3,2011   Open Letter to Lee Butz
 June 8,2011   Moving the Gooks 
 June 8,2011   Molovinsky Takes Aim
 June 15,2011 Asians Offered Rickshaw Concession
 June 17,2011 Step Right Up, Prize Every Time
 June 28,2011 Arena Shell Game
 July 7,2011    Raw Cookie Dough
 July 14,2011  Allentown's Double Standard
 Aug. 25,2011New Twist to Arena Dance
 Aug. 26,2011Arena Gets Press Pass
 Sept.  8,2011 Allentown's Future
 Sept.11,2011 The End of the End
 Sept.15,2011 Who Needs Shopping
 Sept.20,2011 Allentown's Malaise
 Sept.21,2011 Your Esteemed Opinion
 Oct. 3, 2011   Korean on Mayor's Menu
 Oct. 6,2011   Allentown's Tea Leaves
 Oct.11,2011  Unhappy Campers
 Oct.14,2011  The Morning Call Forgets The Meat
 Oct.20,2011  Who Thinks You're Dumber
 Oct.23,2011  Future Downtown Arena Attendee
 Oct.27,2011  Allentown Picks Winner, Then Announces Contest Rules
 Oct.31,2011  Gentrification Day in Allentown
 Nov.3,2011 Pawlowski's Palace of Sport
 Nov.5,2011 Secrets From The Shadow
 Nov.14,2011Public Arena Meetings
 Nov.20,2011Selling The Arena
 Nov.30,2011Arena Dooms Old Allentown
 More Hockey Arena Posts from the molovinsky on allentown  archives will be added later in the week

Pawlowski's Expensive Hole

Allentown eventually had success with former mayor Heydt's hole at the Hess's site, the PPL Plaza was built. Although Pawlowski's hole is much bigger, and has cost much more, eventually private developers would build separate buildings for real tenants. With home hockey games only 40 nights a year, and the Sands already having booked first rate acts as a draw to their casino, the arena is doomed to failure. The hotel plan is a moronic pipe dream. Who will want to deal with 7th and Hamilton for a medical appointment at the proposed sports medicine center? After 5 years of failure, the Arena Authority will hire a new manager. In 10 more years, Allentown will tear it down. I prefer leaving an expensive hole.

reproduced from an update on a previous post

A Sexist Post

Much like Popeye, I can't take it anymore without saying anything. Half the women driving upscale SUV's are driving with one hand, and holding their cellphone in the other. Who are they taking to? They're talking to other women with unlimited cellphone plans. What's so important? Absolutely nothing. Until recently, Presidents of the United States didn't have cell phones. The No Texting Campaign is anemic; Not only shouldn't you be typing while driving, you shouldn't be holding a cell phone. Ohio is the only other state surrounding Pennsylvania which submits drivers to this danger.

Pushing Pawlowski Back

I grew on Liberator Avenue. Liberator and Catalina Avenues, and Coronado Street, were named for Vultee-Consolidated WW2 planes, and are next to the airport built as part of the war effort. Vultee Street was built to connect the hangers with the Mack 5C plant, which was given over to Vultee-Consolidated for plane part manufacturing during the war. Vultee Street was the runway, and Lehigh Street would be closed off if a plane was landing. Today, this small airport now known as Queen City, has been under relentless threat by Mayor Ed Pawlowski, now a member of the Lehigh Valley Airport Authority. This past Tuesday, fellow board members started pushing back against Pawlowski.

"You're not the mayor of the Lehigh Valley International Airport." board member Frank Kovacs to Pawlowski

The board voted to build a new taxiway, indicating there's not much consensus to sell the airport, which has been Pawlowski's objective. Pawlowski wants to add to Allentown's real estate glut, for a short sighted tax gain. Matt Assad, from The Morning Call, wrote an excellent article explaining the arguments to both sell and keep Queen City. He also provides quotes of the tense discussion between board members and Pawlowski. This blogger is not surprised by Pawlowski's position, but questions Don Cunningham's judgement in appointing him to the Authority.

State Of The Parks

The Park Master Plan, done by a Philadelphia planning firm, and commissioned by the Trexler Trust in 2005, concluded that Cedar Park was being loved to death. Since then, construction and activity in that park has at least doubled. The mega destination playground attracts hundreds of children whenever schools out. The parking lot for the swimming pool is filled with cars for the playground. This summer, pool patrons will be forced to park on the grass. All the paths on the rose garden side of Ott Street have been paved, and a new path constructed across the former open space between the garden and picnic pavilions. Also, a new water line has been laid through that section to feed the demands of western Lehigh County, while the waste return will flow along side the Little Lehigh Creek, through Lehigh Parkway. The parks are just plumbing for the county and recreation for the city. In the Parkway, the entrance road has been made one way, and one side of the bridle path closed, because of the leaning WPA wall. Although $millions of dollars have been spent on over-using Cedar Park, not one cent was spent on maintaining the iconic WPA stone structures. In addition to the wall problem in the Parkway, the steps and pillars at Union Terrace are structurally endangered. While the park department goes ahead with plans to connect the various parks with more bike paths, the WPA steps at fountain park are deteriorating. Welcome to Allentown, where community, infrastructure and history are all ignored, while new projects are planned.

A Failure To Prioritize

In a recent Morning Call article, about making the entrance road into Lehigh Parkway one way because of a leaning WPA wall, the City defended itself citing priorities. That's exactly the problem in Allentown, misplaced priorities. While the irreplaceable WPA icons have been allowed to crumble, we have macadamized every walking path in Cedar Park. While we concentrate on a new bridge over the Lehigh River for the American Parkway, we allowed the 15th Street Bridge to rust away. Now, because the 15th Bridge is half closed, the historic Schreibers Bridge is being damaged by intensive traffic and heavy trucks. An article in yesterday's Morning Call concerns Allentown possibly overcharging the suburbs for sewage. The article fails to mention that both the City and The Lehigh County Authority have been cited for sewage overflow into the Little Lehigh Creek. and mandated by the DEP to upgrade the system. Both political entities concern themselves with expansion and cash flow while ignoring infrastructure and our quality of life; A failure to prioritize.