Ignoring The Blueprint

Back in the early 2000's, when Ed Pawlowski was Community Development Director for Mayor Roy Afflerbach, Trexler Trust suspended it's support for the Allentown park system. The yearly park grant was put into an escrow account. It had been discovered that the Trexler park grants were being diverted, and used for the general fund of city operation. To prevent that sort of misuse in the future, the Trexler Trust in 2005 commissioned a master plan for the park system, suggesting what sort of projects would be an appropriate use of their funds. The comprehensive plan, from a Philadelphia land use planner, took inventory of the entire park system, making recommendations for each separate park. It concluded that Cedar Park was being overused, loved to death. In the meantime, back at Tammany Hall, Ed Pawlowski ran for Mayor in 2005, with some of his closest advisors being Trexler Trustees. The Park and Recreation posts were combined, and a new director was hired. Greg Weitzel, with a graduate degree in recreation, was fresh from building a destination playground in Lewisburg. With Pawlowski and Company distracted with their Transformation Schemes, Weitzel commissioned more Destination plans, ignoring the expensive Trexler blueprint. When Weitzel, like Elvis, left the arena last week, he took with him plans for a destination water park at CedarBeach.  Had he stayed, we would be competing with Dorney Park.  The Trexler Trust remains under Pawlowski's influence, ignoring their own mandates.

Allentown Becomes Reillytown

molovinsky on allentown exclusive*
Just as William Penn gave this town to William Allen two hundred and fifty years ago, Pat Brown, Jennifer Mann and Ed Pawlowski have now given the town to J.B. Reilly. Actually, Reilly's getting a better deal than Allen, because the existing taxpayers will underwrite all his new acquisitions. This blogger has learned that with three exceptions, Reilly has purchased the square block across from the arena; that would be from 7th to 8th, and Hamilton to Walnut. The exceptions are the LCCC Portland Place building, and two adjoining store fronts. All other properties are either under an agreement of sale, or have one pending. One of the sellers claim that they were initially approached by a strawbuyer, who used language of eminent domain, similar to the tactics employed on the arena side. Although the offers appear fair to generous, several of the sellers supposedly felt they had little to no option. Although I initially thought that the threat of domain was an idle threat, perhaps it is possible. City Council really doesn't know what authority they gave the City and it's agents, when they signed that dotted line. One council member hoped it wouldn't result in just some rich white guys getting richer; Guess what? Just as the general public was not aware that the NIZ taxing mechanism could be used by approved private parties, few people understand that property taxes** will be used if the earned income and sales tax fall short. In addition to the block outlined above, Reilly's City Center Investment Corp., funded by an initial $20million from the City Authority, and a yet disclosed second amount, is buying up both sides of Hamilton, from 5th to 10th Street. Additionally, he is purchasing the property north of Linden Street, to Turner Street. Several displaced former merchants who owned property on Hamilton, will now be tenants in Reilly buildings.

City Center Investment Corp. is a visionary real estate development and management company....We look forward to welcoming many tenants to live, work and play in what will be an inviting, accessible urban community.

Considering that Reilly hasn't been given the keys to the city, but rather the city itself, let us hope he succeeds.

*When The Morning Call reads this post, and produces their own longer version, with charts and maps, will they give this blog appropriate credit?
**Our trusted elected officials insist that property taxes cannot be used.(May14,2012)
Reprinted from January 9, 2012, as a companion piece to the Reillyville Video at LV Ramblings

Great Balls of Fire

The Morning Call doesn't refer to me as disdainful, misguided and dour for nothing; I take them to task. No doubt they considered Sunday's piece on the arena epic. Although I have already criticized it for verboseness and style, allow me to redress some errors of substance. The largest area ever submitted to a redevelopment bulldozer was the Lehigh Street hill, near South 6th Street and the now closed racquet ball club. Three square blocks were then leveled. Like the arena project, the displaced were a minority, who received little consolation for their ordeal. This morning's article continues to minimize the abuse recently suffered by the displaced merchants. Last summer, the newspaper dismissed the merchants as selling discount clothes and cheap electronics. Today, one very short paragraph was used to dismiss their twenty years on Hamilton Street. They're conveniently dispatched by saying that they were overpaid for their property. They could have written how the day care center never reopened, or one merchant  ended up on Hanover Avenue, with no foot traffic or business. The laborious article is written with a wildfire theme. The reporters marvel themselves with the imagery; Inferno,firestorm,burning, extinguishing the flare-up,spark,etc, etc, WE GET IT. The article minimizes the City's arrogance and secrecy, instead, elaborating on accusations that the townships are being punitive toward Allentown. While they briefly gloss over the insider deals,  they write that municipalities and developers have been colluding on the lawsuits. They quote Alan Jennings defending Allentown and the project, but omit that as an advocate for the poor, he's on the wrong side of the issue. The article concludes with an insider explaining what a catastrophe it would be for Allentown, and the Lehigh Valley, if the arena isn't built. Although it would be a catastrophic for Pawlowski and Reilly, the rest is meant as an ultimatum. The article ends with threats about a wildfire and scorched earth.

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.
I usually age a post at least a year before I would reprint it. The above post is less than a month old, from April 20th. Things have not been going well for Pawlowski's hole. The municipal lawsuit has been enjoined by more townships, and the state wide township association might well join the fray. It appears now that we might be aging the hole. I have added a list of links to the April 20th edition of this post. Those links outline the history of the arena from inception, through November 2011.


UPDATE: Sunday's Morning Call has a feature story on the arena. In four pages and six thousand words, they cover the paragraph above. The article concludes with the notion that it would be a tragedy if Allentown is left with the hole, I'm not so sure. The expensive $35million dollar hole would have the potential to eventually attract market demand uses. That may well serve the taxpayers better than a $600 million dollar failure, which enriches the few, and burdens the community for the next century.

Discovering Pawlowski's Hole

Bill White and Paul Carpenter took a walk together about two weeks ago, something they hadn't done in years. Walking west, up Linden Street from The Morning Call, they discovered Pawlowski's hole.

 "Holy Cow, what's that?" asked Carpenter.

 "I bet it's for that arena," replied White.  "I'll do some research."

 Bill emailed Paul later in the day. I was right, the hole is for the arena.

  Arena for what? 

  Hockey.

 Carpenter reply.  I love hockey, I'll do a column about that.

 Since that walk, Bill attended the Great NIZ Debate at WFMZ, and pumped out two columns. Paul had his first one today.

photocredit:Harry Fisher/ The Morning Call

Guarding The Parks

I never imagined that as a boy growing up in Lehigh Parkway, that 60 years later, I would have to spend my time defending the parks. Especially defending them against the Park Director and The Trexler Trust. Weitzel thanked the Trexler Trust in his departing statement last week. He left town for a new job, with his resume enhanced by all the plans we paid for. Pardon me, but I have been saying for years that he was building a resume at the expense of our treasured park system. His Water Park plan was so over the top, that even City Council asserted themselves, an exercise they hadn't performed in years. Supposedly, Trexler Trust, still subservient to Pawlowski, was prepared to fund this absurdity. How sad that Fountain Park Pool has been closed for several years over $160,000 worth of repairs, when we just spend $80,000 for the Swimming Toward The Future Presentation. That study claims that it will cost $4 million to renovate our existing pool system. I believe that they exaggerated that figure, to justify their proposed $11 million Water Kingdom. I have learned that Allentown is conducting a nationwide search for a new park director. We would be better served by someone already working in, and familiar with our park system. We had enough grandiose plans and projects in the last five years to last us for many decades to come.