Pep Rally at Reillyville

Sometimes the news is more absurd than this distractor could ever fabricate, such was the case Wednesday afternoon. Two hundred invited guests packed into Symphony Hall to the Reilly Institute, to hear a lecture on the future of center city, or I should say City Center. An urbanist author explained how there is a national trend back to living in cities. Although I haven't written a book, nor have I stayed at a Holiday Inn, I know Allentown. Reilly can make them work downtown, but he won't be able to make them live there. There is no reason to live there. You can reach center city from anywhere in the suburbs in ten minutes. Allentown is 20 years away from creating any culture that could compensate for the crime and grime. That will take much more than five new buildings.

When Allentown Came To A Standstill

Thirty one years ago, almost to the day, Allentown received a record snow storm of over 25 inches, not counting the drifts. It snowed 5 inches an hour on February 11, 1983. At the time I was living by West Park, and joined in the neighborhood effort to dig out West Street. Despite those efforts, occurring all over the city, there was no place to go, and no place to park. If Allentown still has the neighborhood fabric for such efforts is questionable.

photocredit:The Morning Call

Morning In The Parks

Although I have been profoundly disappointed by the Pawlowski administration and City Council in my efforts to defend our unique park features, I have not allowed that defeat to deprive me of one of the benefits of Allentown, enjoying the beauty of the parks. The winter provides a certain magic in the parks, for those who can cope with the cold. This particular winter requires some discipline, but the rewards are there. Recently, I came within six feet of a Blue Heron, standing still while fishing in a creek.

photocredit:molovinsky

The Winter of My Discontent

With the forecast of another snowstorm coming Wednesday evening, my memory turns to the winter of 1993-94. I was living on a long corner on Union Street, in Hamilton Park. By this time in 1994, the path from my front door to the sidewalk was like a snow tunnel, with walls over three feet high. The busy intersection had a crossing guard, and it was important that I kept the corner clear, constantly digging through the plow curl from two directions.  The reason I remember that winter wasn't because of my house, but at the time I maintained buildings in center city. My days consisted mostly of salting, chopping and shoveling, one property after another, from one snowstorm after another. Driving my station wagon, filled with 50lb. salt bags, up the alleys was like a kiddie ride at Dorney Park, the ruts would steer the car, no hands were necessary. This post and the previous one are somewhat unusual for me. I have for the most part maintained a privacy wall between my business and my blogging. Tomorrow evening, The Tenant Association of Allentown will complain to City Council about slumlords; I thought that in the interest of balance I would give a glimpse into conscientious landlording. Although the meeting might be cancelled once again because of the snow, Allentown's many good landlords will still be out shoveling the sidewalks.

photocredit:The Morning Call/Dumping snow off the former Tilghman Street Bridge into the Jordan Creek

They Shoot Landlords, Don't They?

When I ran as a long-shot independent for mayor in 2005, against Ed Pawlowski and Bill Heydt,  the first thing I did was take The  Morning Call reporter on a tour of the properties that I managed.  As an intercity landlord, operating apartments between 4th and 12th, Walnut and Tilghman Streets,  I knew that the rentals would become  Allentown's biggest problem.  After the WW2,  it became fashionable to live in a twin or small ranch, and Allentown's row houses began being divided into apartments.  Those apartments were mostly occupied by singles or childless couples, and helped keep downtown and Hamilton Street vital, long past many of it's sister cities.  In the 1960's, despite the thousands of converted apartments,  center city was clean, and Allentown was the All American City.  Both the tenants and landlords were hard working and conscientious.  As the urban poor from New York and New Jersey discovered the clean streets of Allentown, and it's moderately priced apartments,  a steady influx of new residents arrived daily.  These changes were not encouraged by the landlords.  Nobody ever purchased a building hoping to replace their conscientious middle class occupants, with a poorer, more problematic tenant base.  Various social agencies staked many of these newcomers to the first month rent and security deposits.  Although politically incorrect, I said at the time that Allentown was creating a poverty magnet.  My phrase and analysis back then is now recognized as an unintended consequence of such programs.  During Heydt's administration, Allentown passed a Rental Inspection Law.  Some viewed  this as the solution to the rental problem, I didn't fully agree;  You cannot legislate pride of ownership. Bad operators could, and easily did, cross the T's and dot the i's.  Pawlowski's solution has been to tag buildings as unfit for habitation, so many,  that the process itself has created blight.  Halls of Shame, either by the city or private groups, only stigmatize both the property and owner, but don't produce a solution.  The programs in place, if applied with more flexibility, can work.  The school district is starting to show concern about the consequences of more apartments and students.  Recent zoning changes allowing the conversion of commercial space by right, rather than by variance, could well add to the problem.  At the end of the day,  all landlords want to see their investment appreciate.  The city must learn to work with that basic incentive as a vehicle for change.

UPDATE: There will be a special public meeting with City Council Wednesday evening at 6:00 p.m., concerning the housing problems in Allentown. The flyer below was created by the Tenant Association of Allentown. Although I do not agree with all their methods, this blog supports the concept of advocacy in Allentown, and is glad to publicize their agenda.

The Beatles Concert at Convention Hall

In the summer of 1964, when I was 17, I took a bus from the old terminal on S. 6th Street, to California. I had a letter from the manager of Trexler Orchards, asking his associate in Oxnard, California, to give me a job in the lemon orchard. That manager also owned a carwash, and gave me a job there instead.  I rented a small cabin at the end of a backyard, they were built during the war to provide extra housing for the G.I's. After two months at the carwash, I was rescued by a former Allentonian. His father had moved the family years earlier, to work at the Western Electric plant in Hawthorne. Kenneth was about five years older than me, and he and his friends prided themselves on gate-crashing. In my few weeks there we crashed several concerts and Disneyland. I returned at the end of summer, in time for the Beatles concert in Atlantic City. Putting my new delinquent skill to work, I vaulted over the turnstile and ran into the seating section. If the Beatles sang or not, I couldn't tell you, the screaming made it impossible to know.  Kenneth became an accomplished celebrity photographer, among other things. He passed away several years ago, and his family returned to Allentown to spread his ashes in Lehigh Parkway.