A Monopoly of Policy

Yesterday, petitions from both Democrats and Republicans were due at the voter registration office. Although Allentown is the third largest city in Pennsylvania, and the sole recipient of the largeness called NIZ, only one party is represented at the polls; There are no Republican candidates, either for mayor or city council. It's still possible for an independent to run; The last time that happen was in 2005, with Yours Truly, who now struggles for Allentown with a keyboard and this blog. Regardless of your view of Allentown's policies, nobody can deny that being a one party town is detrimental to good government. Currently, even the fourth estate has been silent for years. With the newspaper property included in the arbitrary NIZ zone, the machine seems to have covered it's bases. Although I and this blog have been called naysayer, presenting an alternative point of view seems more important now than ever.

Dressing Advertisements as News

This weekend The Morning Call had a special four part feature called OUTLOOK/2013. Sorry, that I can't be more specific if it was Saturday or Sunday; It was a Sunday feature delivered in Saturday's paper, you know the one, it said to put the clocks back for Daylight Savings. The articles were written by the news staff, and looked like news, but there were no downsides presented, not even the usual token ones. The back of each of the four sections had advertisements by the businesses written about within. The first section let us know that the valley business was growing. That section had a large ad by the Jaindl Companies, which assures us that in addition to turkey production, they do Responsible Developing. The second section gets more specific about Ocean Spray and Nestle Waters, but not specific enough to mention that Ocean Spray discharge is so acidic that they had to build their own pre-treatment plant, and that they failed even New Jersey's low EPA standards. Needless to say, in the article about Nestle, not a word about sucking the Little Lehigh Creek dry, to put that fluoridated Allentown water into plastic bottles, with pictures of mountain springs, to be distributed all over the country. Section three concentrates on the Arena and NIZ in center city Allentown. "Hundreds of people walking to work, not just from our apartments, but from other people's. We're going to have that again." said J. B. Reilly, City Center President. The final section contained essays by our esteemed leaders; Elected, appointed and anointed.

The Landed Gentry

One of the popular misconceptions in our granola society is that our open space is threatened. Consequently, in addition to welfare and corporate welfare, we now have landed gentry welfare. We purchase land, at almost market value, and even allow the owner to keep it. Although there is a deed restriction prohibiting development, who can guarantee it will be enforced in future generations? In every case I'm personally familiar with, the owner never had any intention of development; In one instance, the owners were compensated over $1million.

In some cases the owners are working farmers, in many, just gentlemen farmers with country homes. An article in Sunday's Morning Call laments the reduction in the farmland preservation funds. Nothing in the land preservation compensation really guarantees continued farming, that would be somewhere between indentured servitude and slavery. In 2006, Pennsylvania spent $102 million in Growing Greener handouts. Although the program has been cut back in recent years, there is a long list of applicants hoping to get some of this handout. The granola eaters should drive across Pennsylvania. There is a lot of open space even in this heavily populated state, over 8 million farm acres. While we close mental hospitals and sell nursing homes, we pay yuppies playing weekend farmer, development rights on land they never intended on subdividing anyway.

reprinted from August 9, 2010

UPDATE: My associate, Bernie O'Hare, recently had a post touting the success of the Northampton County program, in purchasing practically everybody's development rights who wanted to get in with this politically correct scam. When the state government is cutting back on education dollars, when teachers are being laid off, this is an absurd misappropriation of taxpayer money.

A Crack In The Facade

The exchange between Alan Jennings and Alvin Blount had an element of tenseness. The Arena Authority announced that as part of the $600 million development plan, $107,000 would go toward starting a job training program for center city residents. Blount, a member of the local NAACP said, "So, at the end of the day, we're saying this ship could sail without any benefit to the community," Ironically, defending the Authority was Alan Jennings.

More likely than not, the program will be run by part of the Jennings' organization. $107,000 translates to hiring one program director and an assistant. In truth, beyond cleaning the arena bathrooms, neither the arena or the NIZ will bring jobs suitable for such a training program. Companies induced to relocate in the zone have professional employees; Lehigh Valley Healthcare Sports Medicine,  National Penn Bank Center, and a large accountant. And don't except the crack in the facade of opportunity to spread too far; The local NAACP is headed by Dan Bosket, who works for Alan Jennings.

High Culture Tonight

Ladies and Gentlemen, step right up and enjoy this evening, as outlaw vagabonds of the 1970's have joined together to celebrate Greg Weaver. Many of the paintings have never before been seen by the public. It is the essence of Weaver; Unaffiliated people, from all walks of Allentown, rubbing elbows for high culture with free admission. Seven o'clock tonight, 542 Hamilton Street.

JCC To Move

The Jewish Community Center recently announced that they plan on relocating from 22nd and Tilghman Streets, to a location yet determined, west of Allentown. I remember when they moved into their current location, in the late 1950's. The facility served the baby boomer generation with a superb gym and swimming pool. The pool was managed by Dennis McGinley, and his programs resulted in the numerous kids developing into competitive swimmers. Hal Grossman coached the basketball teams, and it was common for Allen High to have one or two center players on it's varsity team. In recent years,  the early childhood programs were well received by the entire community. As someone noted, the move will be a tremendous loss of social capital in Allentown's west end.