The Livingston Club, Allentown's Benevolent Oligarchy

Back in the day, when the town had three department stores, the major decisions affecting Allentown's future were made at the Livingston Club. Harvey Farr would meet Donald Miller and John Leh at the Club for lunch, and discuss acquiring more lots for Park & Shop. The bank officers of First National and Merchants Bank would discuss loans with the highly successful merchants, many of whom had stores in all three major Lehigh Valley cities. As the heydays winded down, likewise the exit plans were made there. The City of Allentown acquired the Park & Shop lots, becoming the Allentown Parking Authority. Leh's became the Lehigh County Government Center.

The new oligarchy consists of much fewer men, they could all met at a small table in Shula's, and be entertained by watching street people  arrested. The former 1st National Bank location is now a new Reilly building. The former Livingston Club building is now a parking lot, and future site to another Reilly building. Shula's is also a Reilly building....

The Failure Of Fritzgerald, Allentown's Police Chief

I considered Allentown Police Chief Joel Fritzgerald a failure after he implied that his son's arrest may have been racial profiling. One of the reasons Fritzgerald was hired was to quell such accusations, not make them. I was critical of his hiring, Allentown hasn't had much success with national searches. We even hired out of town professionals to conduct the search, spare us such pageantry. Today, we learn that the police department is defending the treatment of the Shula Singer, because he was hostile. I would imagine that most people arrested are hostile. With lawsuits piling up against Allentown's Police Department, should Fritzgerald be in a double down mode? Don't expect Pawlowski to be tuned into this situation, he has his own legal problems.

Morning Call's Watchdog Has Doggie Dementia

The Morning Call has been running a series of articles it entitles Watchdog Report. The latest, on Sunday, rehashes the Atiyeh parcels, purchased by Allentown last year, supposedly for the park system. Associate blogger Bernie O'Hare, reminds us that he connected the dots between the purchase and Atiyeh's billboard company, last week. The Morning Call article also omits the fact that the purchase was first reported here, on molovinsky on allentown, last year. Although Bernie now notices that the paper is a sales agent for Atiyeh's billboard company, they had revealed that fact before. I also learned, or remembered, something new from the paper's story. Former park director, John Mikowychok, testified to city council that the Basin street parcel would allow the city to connect the envisioned trail network. An alternative title for this post was going to be Pawlowski's Toolbox, where I discuss the various department directors, and the distortions that they have uttered for their boss. After Mikowychok was here for only a matter of weeks, before he unpacked his suitcase or even seen the entire park system, he testified on the Wildlands Conservancy's behalf, to demolish the two small dams in Lehigh Parkway. He also apparently testified on Atiyeh's behalf, to purchase those parcels. I had, in the previous years, closely monitored the trail network plan, pushed by then park director Greg Weitzel. Although I attended the meetings on that subject, there was never any mention of a Basin street hookup. Now, I can't blame the paper too much for their memory lapses. They change out reporters like underwear, some have moved on even before they learned to hate me. Bernie O'Hare, his memory is probably affected by his radical weight gain/loss cycles. Don't worry about me offending anybody, they'll forget that they even read this.
ADDENDUM:  O'Hare's article last week did credit this blog with first reporting the land purchases last year.  I have modified the copy above to properly reflect that attribution.

Interviewing Mike Fleck In The Deep South

I found Mike Fleck at a bar on my the second night in Savannah. Bernie O'Hare was initially to conduct the search, but he's currently on the gain side of his current fat/skinny cycle.

Molovinsky:  What are your thoughts on Jolly Joe Timmer passing away?

Fleck:  You mean you came all this way to ask me that? How about Pawlowski and the wire tap?

Molovinsky:  No, I never thought that much about any of the people you represented, nothing would surprise me. Please answer my question about Timmer. 

Fleck:  The man knew polka. 

Besides for a pit stop in Charleston to see a 1975 Mack pumper made in Allentown, it was straight there and back. Can't wait for O'Hare to top out and start the diet, these trips are not my thing.

Sad Sack Voters

As an independent candidate last fall, I was often told by voters that they didn't want to waste their vote on somebody who they thought couldn't win; As if it were a game, and they were betting on it.  In reality, they were truly wasting their vote, on someone they knew would under-represent them. Although we talk about the poor choice of candidates, it's really poor choices by the voters who create the political field. On the national stage, we now have two independent types attracting the early attention. But, in both cases, there is a gimmick. Trump, nominally a Republican, is a well know showman. Sanders, really a left wing Democrat, posed for decades as an independent. He was only elected as an independent because of Vermont's unique character. In the political reality of America, you must be a celebrity to succeed as an independent. The last independent in the Pennsylvania State House was in the 1930's. Locally, party affiliation always seems to be the dogma that wins elections.

With the Mike Fleck controversy,  we here in the blogosphere receive many comments about making better choices in the voting booth. Although, there would be no down side to a change like that, I would be surprised to see the sentiment effect election results. Instead, the normal candidates will just incorporation the word change into their election speeches.

Pushing Anti-Pay To Play

Fellow blogger, Bernie O'Hare, has been pushing Vic Mazziotti's Anti Pay To Play ordinance proposal. Vic tells Bernie, "I'm going to push it," he insisted. "I'm going to push it real hard." Supposedly, in addition to pushing it with the County Commissioners, he's going to push it with Allentown City Council. Bernie would even like to see it pushed in Northampton County. I think it's amusing, especially for a city and county which just erected a $Billion dollars of real estate, with no scrutiny what-so-ever. They would reply that you got to start somewhere, sometime. Vic even wants to push it to the NIZ board. The NIZ board takes their orders only from G-D and Pat Browne. They even declined to stoop so low as to a community benefit agreement. As long as the voters keep electing used car salesman, there will always be add on charges. I think that the citizens got to start pushing back, in the voting booth.