Soft Spots and Easy Marks

My mother was a tough cookie. My grandparents came over from Eastern Europe when she was little, and my grandfather worked at Bethlehem Steel, until a boiler blew up. Although he survived the explosion, he was badly injured, didn't speak much English, and it was the Depression to boot. Both my mother's parents died young, during the 1940's. My mother did have a few soft spots, one of them being that card sent every year by Father Flanagan. You wouldn't want to get in her way when she was headed to the mailbox with her contribution. I suppose the scandal broke in the late 1950's. Apparently,  my mother wasn't the only one with a soft spot for the boy carrying his brother. Turns out Father Flanagan received so many envelopes he couldn't even open them all. He had rooms full of money. Last year, the Allentown Rescue Mission had revenues of $3.5 million dollars. Their Father Flanagan, Gary Millspaugh, is searching for a COO, chief operating officer, to hire. Alan Jennings announced yesterday that Lehigh Valley Community Action will expand their operations into the Slate Belt. Soliciting to our soft spots has become big business.

UPDATE:The Rescue Mission has the city contract to sweep the sidewalk on Hamilton street, and refers to it as their work program. Yesterday, they announced that they would be discontinuing their drug addiction program. So in total, they seem to being doing less with more, and being subsidized by Allentown taxpayers to boot.

Pawlowski's Water Sham

Yesterday, Mayor Pawlowski gave a press conference in which he said that water rate increases would be capped to inflation, plus a moderate factor. Other pass alongs, which would increase fees, are any capital projects which exceed $2 million dollars. Practically any on going work will exceed $2 million dollars. The current project to replace water meters, which are only ten years old, cost $8,612,681.00. The current project to reline the water main under Union Terrace, and up Reading Road, cost almost half a million dollars a block. Currently, such system maintenance is financed by a state agency through loans amortized over 20 years. Under Pawlowski's five thousand page plan, homeowners will be paying up front as a private company deals with our aging water infrastructure.
UPDATE:Currently, Allentown utilizes all it's departments on a water main leak; Engineering, water, and street. A private company will bill the taxpayers for every private contractor involved in the same repair, and have an incentive to make every job contribute to the threshold necessary to pass the cost along to rate payers. For a City creative enough to form the NIZ to Transform Allentown, they should be able to meet the pension obligation without selling an asset operated by the city since before 1900.

The Engines Of Allentown

Fifty years ago Allentown was home to heavy industry, which required private engines to push material and finished product around their plants. Shown above is the engine at Structural Steel, located under the Tilghman Street Bridge. The Mack 5C plant, located at Lehigh and S. 12th Streets, had it's own engine. Traylor Engineering, on S. 10th Street, also had an engine. Although the private engines of Allentown are gone, a train whistle still blows, as Norfolk Southern rolls through South Allentown, on the old main line.

photograph from the Mark Rabenold Collection

A Revisionist Debate

Last night Obama said that he had called the attack terrorism in the rose garden, and the moderator backed him up; The same moderator who allowed him about four minutes more of talk time. Obama's use of the word that day was with a small t, in the most general sense of the word. The murder of anyone, much less four Americans, is terror. The Administration, Susan Rice, and Hilary Clinton in the next week all clarified that the attack was not organized by a Terror Cell, but resulted from spontaneous outrage, sparked by the YouTube video. Since then, that explanation has been discredited. We now know that indeed it was a Terrorist Group. For Candy Crowley to have backed up Obama on that revisionist claim was not only weak moderating, but biased to a fault. Worse, after the debate, she seemed to take pride in being part of the terror distortion.

Differing With Alan Jennings

A chance encounter several days ago allowed Alan Jennings and myself some face time. Not unlike others I happen to disagree with, he felt any issues I had with his programs could only be based on a lack of information on my part. Although I'm far too polite to tell him that perhaps some of his programs have defects, I did convey that my opinions are based on a long, strong institutional memory of events, places and people. It pains me now, just a few days later, to have to take him to task once again. Worse, he is in the midst of celebrating his annual report with the politically correct movers and shakers. I have been described as dangerous, because I am neither PC, ambitious or nice; But, back to The Morning Call article and Alan's words about National Penn moving to Reillyville.

Early this morning, National Penn Bancshares CEO Scott Fainor announced that the company will move its headquarters to downtown Allentown in 2014. The bank will bring hundreds of employees to the city, occupying several floors in City Center Two. The building will be constructed on the northeast corner of Seventh and Hamilton streets where a building once occupied by First National Bank of Allentown is being demolished The Community Action Committee of the Lehigh Valley has long worked with the region’s banks to ensure the Lehigh Valley’s lower-income families and their neighborhoods gain access to credit, which is the intent of the Community Reinvestment Act passed by the United States Congress in 1977. According to Alan Jennings, Executive Director of CACLV, CRA is one of the most effective tools for creating economic opportunity in the country. Jennings issued the following statement in response to the announcement by Fainor. “This morning’s announcement by National Penn Bankshares CEO Scott Fainor may be the most important “community reinvestment act” in decades. The decision represents another big victory for the Neighborhood Improvement Zone. The bank’s action shouts out its bullishness on Allentown and the region. In an era when too many people are cynical about the motives behind others decisions, this decision is clearly one in which the bank sees an opportunity to gain a big return on its investment, building its deposit base and expanding its lending. In other words, the bank sees an opportunity to make money. Nothing could be better for Allentown and the region: it will create jobs where they are most needed, strengthen the livelihood of downtown businesses, create wealth that will spill over to the neighborhood, and improve access to credit. The best community development program is called “profit” and we hope that lots of other investors join the effort. “We congratulate the bank for yet another bold investment in downtown Allentown. We thank NIZ pioneer Senator Pat Browne for his creativity, both the senator and Representative Jennifer Mann for their legislative success, Mayor Ed Pawlowski for his perseverance and focus on the city’s needs and City Center principles J.B. Reilly and Joe Topper for their ability to effectively capitalize on an opportunity, even when it means swimming upstream.” Jennings serves on the Board of Directors of the Allentown Neighborhood Investment Zone Development Authority. He stressed that he was not representing ANIZDA in making this statement.

Although it is a positive thing that National Penn is moving into the Reilly and Topper Building, it in no way constitutes an investment in Allentown. On the contrary, the taxpayers are investing in the mortgage and providing a vehicle for the bank to have reduced rent. Jennings fails to acknowledge that the tax money would be utilized by Pennsylvania for reasons other than Reilly's mortgage, such as the CHIP, children's health insurance program. I also fail to see how this building or it's tenants improves the lives of lower income families, or increases their access to credit. J.B.Reilly and Joe Topper did not have to swim upstream; It was more like a shark attack that nobody knew was coming. Alan doesn't mention that Scott Fainor and National Penn loaned J.B. Reilly $20million dollars to buy up Allentown property, before anybody else even knew that NIZ loans would be available for private owners. It was loaned before any criterion were established, and before the NIZ board was even appointed. I agree with Jennings that as long as the Arena Complex and associated buildings are being built, I wish them successful occupancy. But, lets not imagine that the neighborhood poor are going to be invited into National Penn headquarters for a makeover. Lets not blow smoke.

Clinton Falls On The Sword

Although Hilary Clinton has fallen on the sword about responsibility for the deaths in Libya, everybody knows where the buck really stops. Her announcement, one day before the debate, almost looks like a parlor trick from a novelty store. Obama was quick enough to take the credit for  assisting the uprising that toppled Gaddafi. He was quick enough to take  credit for organizing the NATO Coalition air offensive in Libya. I believe that the timing of Hilary's announcement will not be lost on the American public. Although comment moderation remains in place, I have removed the word verification process for this post.