WPA Effort Goes Facebook

Thanks to the kindness of others, our WPA efforts are on  Facebook. Although I will take credit for the photograph of the bridge, dam, and wall, the page was started by others, and is currently maintained by Steven Ramos. This coming Wednesday, August 28th at 6:00p.m., City Council will discuss the fate of the Robin Hood dam. If you would like the dam and ambience to remain as is, please consider attending the meeting. If you like to see the WPA structures in our park system maintained, please make your Facebook friends aware of the WPA Facebook page.

It's Like A Postcard

Last week when I prevailed on some players at City Hall to meet me in Lehigh Parkway, somebody remarked that it's like a postcard. With the creek banks now overgrown, it would difficult to recreate the nationally distributed postcards of Allentown parks from the 1950's. But the old postcards still exist, giving testimony to the beauty that was ours. There will be a formal discussion with the City Council Park and Recreation Committee next Wednesday at 5:00p.m. They will hear about stream velocity theory and habitat from the grant driven new age science crew. I will talk about beauty. I still believe that the parks were created for the pleasure of people.

King Of The Gypsies

According to my mother, a Gypsy king was buried in Allentown in around 1960, she knew about such things. She was born in Galgo, Hungary, an area of Transylvania, now part of Romania, near present day Gilgau. In Galgo, the Jews and Gypsies lived on the edge of town. In the early 20's, my grandparents, along with their Gypsy neighbors, came to Bethlehem to work at the Steel. On weekends, to make extra money, my grandparents would open their house and show Hungarian movies. None of their relatives, Jew or Gypsy, save one cousin, survived the nazi's; even the cemeteries were desecrated. As you can see from the document above, my grandfather earned his citizenship the hard way.

REPRINTED FROM DEC. 23, 2007

UPDATE: My post above is from 2007. In tomorrow's paper, The Morning Call has the story about the Gypsies coming to Allentown. Apparently, the Gypsy prince drowned, and a memorial service was held in Allentown. I suspect my mother had the details correct, and my memory was at fault.

Weekend In The Parkway

Lehigh Parkway provided a retreat for generations of Allentonians since it was built in the mid 1930's. In 1941, the current bridge over the Little Lehigh replaced the old cow bridge, and the picnic area called Robin Hood was completed. The area contained parking, picnic tables, rest rooms and a fountain overlooking the beautiful creek. Needless to say, the view and access to the creek was unimpeded.

Muddy Waters

It's been a tough five years for the Little Lehigh under Donny Cunningham. First, he has remained silent on the drilling of wells at the stream's headwater, to accommodate the bottling industry he shepherded to the valley. Now, The Morning Call has publicized the fact that the Lehigh County Authority (water and sewage) has an on going spillage of sewage into the waterway. Recently, when I criticized Cunningham's Plan to demolish the historic stone arch Reading Road Bridge,  Bernie O'Hare, defended the plan by quoting the "Bridge Doctor", Glenn Solt. Solt is Cunningham's public works director. Solt said that stone arch bridges look pretty, but they're filled with "crap." The Morning Call article quotes Richard Young, Pawlowski's Public Works Director. Young states that the Allentown Sewer Plant, which handles the sewage from the Lehigh County Authority, only intentionally dumps raw sewage downstream from the water plant. He fails to mention that the manhole covers, which overflow during storms, are upstream or just before our water plant. The above photo shows such overflow just west of Schreibers Bridge, which is only a few blocks before the water plant intake pipe. I hope Cunningham and Solt don't see this post. Schreibers Bridge is also a historic stone arch bridge. Built in 1828, it was rehabilitated in 1920 and 1998. Maybe Cunningham should concentrate on what's flowing under the bridges.

photo from The Morning Call
reprinted from July 2010

UPDATE:Some things have changed since I wrote this post in July of 2010, some things have not. Donny Cunningham resigned as County Executive and now heads Lehigh Valley Economic Development.  This blogger has managed to keep Solt from tearing down the Reading Road stone arch bridge.  Schreiber's Bridge, built in 1828, is carrying the load for the 15th Street Bridge, which is being replaced. Raw sewage still overflows from the LCA pipe in Lehigh Parkway,  and the Wildlands Conservancy picks and chooses science to suit their endless pursuit of grants.  According to Wildlands there is no sewage in the Little Lehigh, and the only pollution problem will be solved by removing the beautiful historic dam at  Robin Hood. They  were also silent about well drilling at the Little Lehigh headwaters, and anything else that might negatively impact their revenue stream, which is now partially funded by Nestle Bottling Company.

Not The Jew

Lately prejudice, specifically racism, has been in the news. The Trayvon Martin case even got Oprah to bitch about the clerk balking at handing her the $38,000.00 purse, she had to settle for a $10,000 purse. An article in The Morning Call about a reunion of Hess Brothers employees brings me to one of my blog ideas never written. I believe that anti-semitism helped numerous businesses thrive in Allentown. I can tell you that as a Jew growing up in Allentown, that there was no lack of anti-semitism, it comes easy for the Pennsylvania Dutch Germans. I can also tell you that as a customer there was no reason to go the Leh's or Zollinger's, other than they weren't the Jew. I've met business people who prided themselves on never having worked for Max Hess Jr. I met business people who after learning the business from Hess, went out on their own, and still called him a Jew. If Hess wasn't a Jew, and merchants had to compete with his merchandizing skills without getting some business due to anti-Semitism,  there would have been fewer businesses on Hamilton Street.