SteakHouse Rustling

Most of the poaching for J.B. Reilly's City Center has gone on quietly, save for this blog. I did mention how the move by National Penn was Allentown's gain, but Boyertown's loss. I suppose my biggest protest involved the major accountant vacating the Masonic Temple for new digs in City Center 367. Apparently, the management of Promenade Shops also isn't taking the highjacking of Shula's as a community benefit, and has filed a lawsuit over the lease default. With these steals spread out over a large area, and a blind eye from the local MSM, the negative consequences of the NIZ has been mostly hushed over. Combine a license to rustle like the NIZ, with the ambition and connections of a J.B., and one area's benefit causes a corresponding demise elsewhere in the state. The number crunchers in Harrisburg did realize the problem after the fact, thus the newly hatched CRIZ alternative. The sorry story of our state representatives also contribute to Pennsylvania's dilemma; Complacent incumbents unopposed term after term. We are at the point now where nobody will invest anything in Pennsylvania, without being subsidized by the taxpayers.

For Whom Does The Morning Call Work

An article in today's Morning Call by Matt Assad follows the paper's new agenda, reporting J.B. Reilly's business promotions as news. This latest article claims that there is a shortage of market rate housing for the yuppies and empty nesters, but a surplus of low rent housing for the poor. Although Assad is correct about the proportion of low and high end units available, he's taking Reilly's promotion as a fact. In reality, just like the restaurants needed to be primed by giving out gift cards, the flats and lofts will also need to be pumped. Currently, Reilly is taking $100 returnable deposits for his yet completed apartments, certainly not an indicator of demand. Getting people to drive into center city for dinner is one thing, getting them to live there is another. The stated demand is bogus, the real urgency is taking advantage of building a real estate empire at taxpayer expense.

Stealing For Jesus

A former sportscaster is on trial for bilking hundreds of sports fans out of thousands of dollars, for sport travel packages that he failed to deliver. He has been defending himself wearing a cross and holding a bible, claiming that he misspent the money on good deeds. I have no interest in the defendant or the case, only the defense concept, which isn't novel. Over the years, hundreds of defendants seem to find religion in the time between being arrested and facing the judge. I would think that such pious people wouldn't mind spending some time incarnated, atoning for their sins. This blog occasionally veers from local politics and history with holy land posts. Perhaps this post should be filed under unholy.
photo by Rick Kintzel/Doylestown Intelligencer

An Eminent Domain Failure

During the early 1970's, Allentown demolished the entire neighborhood between Union and Lawrence Streets. It was, in a large part, home to the black community. How ironic that we destroyed the cohesion of a neighborhood, but renamed Lawrence Street after Martin Luther King. The only remnant of the neighborhood is the St. James A.M.E. Church. Going up the hill today we now have a vacant bank call center on the east, and the Housing Authority Project on the west. A whole neighborhood existed in from both sides of Lehigh Street, including black owned shops. The houses were old and humble, but people owned them, many for generations. Some blacks at the time wondered if the project was Urban Renewal or Negro Removal?
above reprinted from January 24, 2011 (then titled Downhill on Lehigh Street)
You don't have to go far from Hamilton Street to see an eminent domain failure; Only several blocks and 40 years. Fortunately, for our imported leaders, memory of this debacle has faded. Allentown now wants to discard the most historic mercantile block of Hamilton Street, so that an out of state developer can force feed hotdogs to people from Catasauqua, at minor league hockey games.
reprinted from 2012

Editor's note: By any criterion, including my own, the NIZ is not a failure. However, I proudly present this analysis of a previous urban renewal project. For those inclined toward reading only optimistic and happy promotion, may I recommend the Morning Call.

Smoke And Reality Of The NIZ

Ce-Ce Gerlach in her debate with Ed Pawlowski on Business Matters had to keep calling the mayor out on his distortions about the NIZ. He referred to a position of waitress at the Hamilton Kitchen as transformative. Although it may be life changing for that particular woman, being a waitress is nothing novel or prosperous for hundreds of others in the Lehigh Valley. Ce-Ce pointed out that the quality of her life at 9th and Walnut won't improve until there are grocery stores and pharmacies in her neighborhood. Toward the end of the program Pawlowski finally did concede that the jobs going to the local folks are entry level. Funny to see a Democrat defending trickle down economics. While Ce-Ce would like to see inclusionary zoning for the new upscale flats, Pawlowski had a slip of the tongue and referred to it as exclusionary. I believe that neither Ce-Ce or suburban apartment owners need worry about gentrification in downtown Allentown, it won't happen.

When Puppets Think They're Real

Ray O'Connell is poised to be the next Allentown City Council President. Julio Guridy is spinning the change that he is granting the position to O'Connell, because it will be good for him to be president for a year. He notes the big decisions, such as the water lease and the NIZ, as his legacy. Michael Schlossberg, on a recent Business Matters, noted his involvement in the NIZ by voting for eminent domain. On Pawlowski's facebook page, a friend compliments him as the architect of the NIZ and Allentown's revival. I'm sure that when J.B Reilly is depositing the state income tax checks into City Center's account, he doesn't care which of the puppets wants to think of himself as real.