A Personal Memoir

I'm not sure memoir is a good title, rather than facts and records, I have hazy recollections. Assuming my memory will not improve at this stage of the game, let me put to print that which I can still recall. In about 1958 my father built Flaggs Drive-In. McDonalds had opened on Lehigh Street, and pretty much proved that people were willing to sit in their cars and eat fast food at bargain prices. For my father, who was in the meat business, this seemed a natural. As a rehearsal he rented space at the Allentown Fair for a food stand, and learned you cannot sell hotdogs near Yocco's. He purchased some land across from a corn field on Hamilton Blvd. and built the fast food stand. In addition to hamburgers, he decided to sell fried chicken. The chicken was cooked in a high pressure fryer called a broaster, which looked somewhat like the Russian satellite Sputnik. The stand did alright, but the business was not to my father's liking, seems he didn't have the personality to smile at the customers. He sold the business several years later to a family which enlarged and enclosed the walk up window. Subsequent owners further enlarged the location several times. The corn field later turned into a Water Park, and you know Flaggs as Ice Cream World.

I'm grateful to a kind reader who sent me this picture of Flaggs

reprinted from January, 2011

Romney's 47%

Yesterday I went to the Social Security Office, across from the prison, to discuss my retirement options. I was given number 199. In addition to retirement, Social Security also dispenses money for disability. I would say from the gray hair, there were about three of us contemplating retirement, all the others were for disability. A few middle age men were carrying their fake canes. The canes aren't fake, it's the disabilities. I saw one such gentleman walk in from the parking lot, clearly the cane bore no weight, and was merely a prop. Most of the people waiting were quite young, in their twenties. Disability has now been expanded to include mental conditions such as depression, anxiety, additive personality and anger management. I will say many of them did look angry to me. It was hard finding a parking space. Business also looked good at the prison. If Johnny Manana's had gotten these crowds....

The above is reprinted from a previous post entitled Growth Industry In Allentown.  The Obama camp and their sycophants in the media, think that they're having a field day with the secret Romney tape.  In reality, the tape raises a question about a serious problem in America,  which Obama and his choir wouldn't want to address.

AEDC's Choo Choo

The Allentown Economic and Development Corporation has received a $1.8 million grant, toward a $4 million dollar project, to restore a portion of the Barber Quarry branch to service an industrial building on South 10th Street. The building once housed Traylor Engineering, which was a giant back in the day. Recently, it housed a smaller fabricator who President Obama visited on his Allentown photo opportunity mission. The business has since closed, but let's not have that reality stand in the way of grants. Last summer, I fought against Allentown's Trail Network Plan, which catered to the spandex cyclist crowd. The new trail was to be built on the Barber Quarry track line. Not only didn't the AEDC oppose the plan, it's director was an advocate. Now they will be funded to develop that which they wanted to destroy. Where do I begin in Allentown's World of Mirth?    Only in the unaccountable  world of agencies and grants, would $millions of dollars of our money be available for projects which are twenty years too late.  The track is long gone.  The only industry (Traylor Engineering) which would have need, is long gone.  The business reality of South 10th Street is now  a go-cart track and the Hive, which is a Junior Achievement type project.

Barber Quarry Branch Line Posts
The Train of Lehigh Parkway
Allentown Archeology
Junkyard Train

above reprinted from May of 2011

UPDATE: SEPT. 21,2012  AEDC And Pawlowski AT IT AGAIN Pawlowski Development Company is currently conducting a full court press on both the County Commissioners and the Allentown School Board to grant KOZ status to the closed Metal Works, the same building referred to above, from where both Obama and Romney spoke on their visits to Allentown. When Obama was here shortly after being elected, it was still operating. By the time Romney came during his primary, it was already shuttered. At no time did the owner ever cite lack of rail service, or payment of property taxes, as factors in the decline of his company. Pawlowski has Scott Unger, from AEDC, pitching the KOZ, saying that the building will have a choo choo train. The track has been removed and scrapped years ago, all the way from 3th and Union Streets. The cost to restore the rail bed to an empty building on speculation would be untold $millions to the taxpayers. Although in the world of federal grants there is little accounting, this would truly be the Track To No-Where. Ironically, one of the last existing areas with a track spur, along the river by Structural Steel, is being eyed for residential use.

The Politics of Allentown's Water Sellout

According to The Morning Call article by Emily Opilo, former Councilman Michael Donovan's effort to establish a citizen committee to study the water sale issue has been rebuffed by Julio Guridy and Company. Before we get too far into the political shenanigans, let me explain that apparently Opilo replaced Devon Lash, following a long standing Morning Call tradition of assigning a new reporter to the Allentown beat. Devon replaced Renshaw, but there were a few in between I can't recall. I'm sure Emily's a good reporter, but it would be nice to have someone covering the Big Sellout who knows the characters. Actually, I know the dope, but The Morning Call altered my recent editorial to protect Michael Schlossberg. I wrote that Mike's retiring early to avoid the political baggage of the water sale vote. They changed the sentence to Mike's retiring. Emily, their new reporter, wrote a story earlier this week on the sale. She allowed Schlossberg, who will be our new unopposed State Representative, to praise the sale concept without having to endure the political damage of actually voting for it. How nice for Mike, he gets to kiss the ring of Pawlowski and Company, with no consequence from the voters. Talking of no consequence, apparently Peter Schweyer skipped last night's meeting, which denied the Citizen Group input. Gotta love the Cabal.

UPDATE:  Click Here For Coalition To Save Allentown Water

UPDATE: BY DENNIS PEARSON: Eichenwalds motion should have been seconded so Council could formally vote on the motion. So what if the vote perhaps would have been 4 to 1 against the proposal . At least Council would have formally answed the petition. But Council last night chose the cowhardly way to vote it down.

Such action to me demonstrated that all is not good with Allentown's appointed Council. Davis and Mota would not buck Guridy and Pawlowsky. And the elected O'Connell normally an ally of Eichenwald left her hanging.

Guridy chided the crowd for not showing respect, not hanging on his every word. Guridy for public purposes says to be an open mind. But in reality it would be very surprizing if he voted against the Mayor's plan. Guridy must remember that his leadership position in Allentown government does not require free citizens to bow down at his presence and pamper him with adolation.

Indeed I had thoughts of sitting on Council myself. On Council I would not be concerned about longevity on Council but doing the right and honorable thing. The issues that are coming before Council are issues I have deep understanding of. But because I would never automatically vote the Mayor's way or Guridy's way I would never be appointed to Council by this Council. That is why I will not apply for this third appointment on Council within a year.

Democracy is dead in Allentown. But Tammany Hall is alive.           BY DENNIS PEARSON

postcard shows the water works in 1905

Still Hoping For Change

The same liberals weaned on Camelot, now resent Mitt Romney's success. Romney's assets are peanuts compared to the Kennedy Fortune, which has supported the families of a hundred different offspring since Papa Joe made the fortune running booze from Canada. Here in the local blogosphere, Mitt lost Bernie O'Hare's vote yesterday, when it was revealed that Romney knew that there was only 53% of the vote up for grabs this election. Actually, Mitt said that he wasn't going to worry about the 47% of the population benefiting from entitlements. It fits the Obama media machine to twist, pull and shape that statement into Mitt not caring about those people, as opposed to realistically writing off their vote. They discount the fact that he was a governor to many low income people in Massachusetts. They ignore the fact that he has a reputation of lending a hand in his faith based community. O'Hare is more offended by a candid statement made at a private dinner party, than the divisive statements made by Obama on the campaign trail. Obama has been dividing citizens by income since he was elected. Why is John Kennedy a hero on his sailing yacht, while Mitt Romney is portrayed as the captain from Gillian's Island? The Bernie O'Hare's feel guilty that they are so disappointed in Obama's reality. The eloquent words were not matched by expected deeds. What a relief to find a few words by his opponent, which can be pounced upon.

Dear Resident

What most Allentonians know about the water leasing plan is limited to Mayor Ed Pawlowski's letter included with their current water bill. Although the plan has been covered by the newspapers and local television, apparently the public listens, but doesn't understand. I make this conclusion because although the City Council hearing was well attended, there were not thousands of homeowners there with torches and pitchforks. Pawlowski's Dear Resident letter lets the homeowner know that there is a plan to rebuild Allentown, and it is working. The only thing between them and nirvana is the unfunded pensions, and The Long-Term Leasing of the City's water and sewer services is the solution that brings both immediate and long-lasting financial relief....and keeps us on the road to prosperity.