One Subject, Two Bloggers

Apparently, both Bernie O'Hare and I are posting on the same subject tomorrow.  Bernie's version will historically be viewable by midnight this evening,  while I put up my posts, while pre-heating the ovens in the family bakery,  around 4:00 AM.   Expect Bernie's piece to be longer, and mine,  of course, more insightful.

Drama At Civic Little Theatre

Architecturally, the 19th Street Theater has no rival. The tile elephant trunks coming down the edges of the facade have delighted viewers since 1928. Up to last year, there was one other Venetian type building in Allentown, in the 700 block of Hamilton, but it was  knocked down to accommodate the arena monstrosity. The 19th Street theater has survived because of it's current affiliation with the Civic Theatre, a non-profit cultural group. Shown above is the Franklin, in the 400 block of Tilghman Street, which survived until 2008. That theater,  built a century ago in 1913,  was also called the Jennette for about forty years.

reprinted from July 2013, then titled, Allentown's Last Movie Theaters

ADDENDUM: When I was a little boy, the Civic Theatre was already putting on productions for both adults and children. As an adult, Barry and Sharon Glassman have been synonymous with the theater's continued vitality. Unfortunately, I have recently received a report that the theater is currently suffering from Founder's Syndrome.

Founder's syndrome is a difficulty faced by many organizations where one or more founders maintain disproportionate power and influence following the effective initial establishment of the project, leading to a wide range of problems for both the organization and those involved in it.

According to this source, half of the staff, and a third of the board, have parted way in protest of the current leadership. I have not investigated this allegation. My gut feeling is that the Glassman's have been the energy and glue which has kept the theater continuously open for the last several decades. I will accept, by moderation, limited comments to this post which may shed light on the current situation.

UPDATE: After several complaints about the current leadership, and requests to provide space for this topic,  not one of the callers has submitted a comment.  Apparently, they wanted me to air their grievances, but they don't want to comment themselves, even anonymously. With that sort of timidity, I don't know how they think that they could run the theater any better.

Mazziotti Traveling Ethics Show

Last night, the Vic Mazziotti Traveling Ethics Show arrived "fashionably late" to the Allentown City Council, according to Bernie O'Hare. We learn that Pay To Play must be legislated away. I'm not impressed with such proposals, naive me thinks I should be able to take such basic concepts of honesty for granted. Last week, in the comment section of O'Hare's post on Mazziotti's showboat ordinance, I took Vic to task. I think that ethics should be on display in every public decision, and that Vic has been lacking in that department, when it comes to Cedarbrook, the county nursing home. Last year, Mazziotti and his fellow reform slate Republicans rejected the proposal to remodel a wing of Cedarbrook into a rehab center, which is the profitable avenue employed by the industry. Instead, after stalling for a year, they now want to re-employ a former consulting firm to repeat a previous study. Last week, when I suggested that the Reformers were stalling until it's time for the bulldozer, Vic sent a message that I should call him. Apparently, he wanted to send me to the Reeducation Indoctrination Camp, operated by the Reform Team. However, yesterday, even the Morning Call noted the stalling on Cedarbrook. "That quest for knowledge has dragged on for months, and commissioners still find themselves in a fact-finding mode."

Vic was late to council last night because the Commissioners were also conducting their own meeting, on Cedarbrook, to decide what kind of questions they should again ask their rehired consultant. Vic states that "We're making a 25-year decision here." It's unclear if he means that the decision will affect the county for 25 years, or if it will take him 25 years to make the decision. At any rate, it's clear that he doesn't want to make any decision before the election in November. I'm actually being kind. The refurbishment could have been completed already, and Cedarbrook on it's way to being viable. Play to Pay regulations don't impress me,  especially when an elected official still play games with a public trust like Cedarbrook.

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.