Open Letter To Mayor Pawlowski

Mr. Mayor, I don't know if you remember me, Mr. Molovinsky allowed me to use this newsletter to write you before. Maybe you remember, I live in the senior highrise on Union Street, and used to get my prescriptions at the Rite-Aid on Hamilton Street. Maybe you remember, I used to work at the Mack factory on S. 10th Street, but that was long before you even heard of Allentown, much less lived here. Here's my question. I was a union guy and usually voted Democratic anyway, but why is there no one else on the ballot this year? Why are those City Council candidates putting their posters all over town when they have no opponents? I don't use a computer, but my daughter prints out Mr. Molovinsky's newsletter for me. We have been walking up to Hamilton Street and looking at that hockey stadium, holy cow! My buddy, on the next floor, says that you're running for governor or president. I said, No, he's running for our mayor again.

p.s. Mr. Molovinsky took this picture of me a long time ago.

Lehigh County's Opportunity

When Matt Croslis endorsed Scott Ott on Thursday, the politics of old cried pay to play. Muller's henchmen, and their sycophants in the blogosphere, even rumored and fabricated details of the payment. Croslis has now vetoed the very amendments that Ott and the reform commissioners passed at the budget hearing. The IT budget, the same sex health benefits, the crime center, and the tipster budget, are all back. Truth be told, the old establishment which Muller represents, cannot understand independent thinking. In their world, if you're not touting the establishment line, you must be receiving some payoff. It's refreshing to see new people, like Croslis and Ott, assert independence. It's nice to know that the voters on Tuesday have the opportunity to rid themselves of business as usual.

The Donovan Factor

The Donovan campaign has some wheels, not so much as a viable shot for mayor, but it's effect on the contested race of the election, Muller vs. Ott. The Republicans in Allentown are no factor, the six of them may, or may not vote. My guess is that Donovan will get their default vote. The group in play is those Democrats and independents that are disillusioned with Pawlowski. Each vote that Donovan gets, may well be from someone who would have otherwise stayed at home, but now in the voting booth, will vote for Muller. Conventional wisdom has Ott winning in the suburbs, but Muller sweeping Democratic Allentown. If Donovan increases the turnout in Allentown, Muller benefits.

UPDATE: It would be ironic if Donovan voters were to vote for Muller, particularly those who were against the water lease deal. Ott was against the water lease deal, recognizing it as a bad deal, and voted against extending the charter of the LCA. Muller is on the LCA board and voted for the water lease deal.     from an anonymous comment

County Executive Endorses Scott Ott

Democratic County Executive Matt Croslis Endorses Scott Ott for Executive ALLENTOWN, PA – Today, Democratic County Executive Matt Croslis endorsed Scott Ott for Lehigh County Executive. This major cross-party endorsement affirms Scott Ott's results-oriented approach to governance. “My goal as County Executive was to be transparent and collaborative in an effort to put people before politics,” said Executive Matt Croslis. “This approach has been successful in large part because of the working relationship I have developed with Scott Ott. I believe Scott will bring a fresh perspective to Lehigh County and that he will work tirelessly to find new and innovative ways to provide the necessary services of County government in the most cost effective manner. It is my hope that my endorsement will promote bipartisanship and continue to put the interests of the County residents before politics.” "I'm honored to have the support of Matt Croslis," Ott said. “During his time as county executive, we haven't always agreed, but I could always count on Matt to tell the truth, which made it easy to work together with him to find solutions for the taxpayers we represent. I'll continue to work to make local government more sustainable, accountable, focused and effective."

UPDATE: The Morning Call reports endorsement

The New Jobs Of Allentown

J.B. Reilly said this week that the downtown development is bringing 3,000 jobs to Allentown's $600 million NIZ. Between the National Penn Bank, and his other prospective tenants, that figure seems high. Giving him the benefit of the doubt, and considering everything else he's gotten, we can easily throw that in, each job will cost the state taxpayers $200,000.00. Now, this is nay-sayer math, but then again, this is a blog. Talking of nay-saying, last night over 200 unemployed  packed into a center city church, hoping for some benefit from the NIZ. I think a church was an appropriate venue, because that will take a lot of prayer. As I had written in a previous blog post, the new jobs, except for the peanut vendors at the arena, will be white collar, college degree required. This brings us to the photograph shown above. As they demolish the former Gallery Building in the 900 block of Hamilton Street, we see that the steel beams were fabricated at the former Lehigh Structural Steel. At one time, the buildings on Hamilton Street were built by entrepreneurs, to accommodate our prosperity.  Now they are funded by taxpayers, hoping to steal another town's employees.

Bernie's Spin Cycle

Many of my readers also read Bernie O'Hare's Ramblings. Yesterday, I was asked if Bernie was on the Democratic payroll, and I replied that he was not; You couldn't pay someone to carry water that enthusiastically. However, Bernie was good at mixing a little fact, some out of context quotes, and old fashion prejudice, to create his recent narrative against Ott. In Bernie's World, the Republican Chairman and his commissioner wife dispense silver shekels to certain candidates, to produce Judas's, who he also refers to as lapdogs. According to Bernie, this chairman is an evil manipulator, who doesn't allow Republican candidates to run in Allentown proper, to control voter turnout for the county. Bernie even has the local conservative talk radio host not believing the Republican candidate. Yes, the party chairman is wealthy, they often are. It takes a person who is pretty financially comfortable to devote so many hours to something which has no salary. No one ran as a Republican candidate in Allentown because it has become a fool's errand, with the Democratic registration advantage and straight lever pulling. The radio host always uses a devil's advocate approach to interviews. He supports the candidate that Bernie portrays he doesn't believe. Don't believe everything you read on the blogs, unless of course, you're at this site.

UPDATE: This post was edited to clarify that any ethic insensitivity by O'Hare was an  isolated incident.