Deleted By Pawlowski

On Sunday morning, Ed Pawlowski put a sketch of the proposed renovated Cedar Beach Pool on his facebook page. It's actually very nice, I have no issue with the plan. I do, however, have a issue with the misinformation dispensed by him and his administration, about the parks and other aspects of the city. You can no longer see the scene pictured above. The beautiful little Robin Hood Dam in Lehigh Parkway was demolished by the Wildlands Conservancy, and the vantage point from which this photograph was taken, has been closed since the WPA wall collapsed. Neither of these losses was necessary. I unsuccessfully tried to save the WPA dam, and likewise, unsuccessfully, lobbied for repairs to the wall. Some of my efforts concerning our iconic park system are chronicled on a separate facebook page, WPA-Lehigh Valley Save Our Structures.  Pawlowski deleted a comment and link to that page, that I put on his posting.  However, the proof is in the barriers, which block off Lehigh Parkway to thousands of citizens. The city gladly accepted misinformation from the Wildlands, and also dispensed misinformation and excuses concerning the wall. Pawlowski now states that Cedar Beach pool is closed because of a sink hole under the pool. When it was closed earlier this summer, the city then claimed a leak in the filter system. Now, rather than repair it as previously stated, we learn that a whole new plan for the pool was actually in the works.

Although the FBI is annoyed at Pawlowski's style of hiding things from the public,  that  generally doesn't bother me too much. The voters have the corruption, and corresponding rubber stamps that they endorsed, election after election. However, when it comes to the iconic park system, I become agitated. This unique park system was a legacy meant to be passed on to future generations. To me, it's importance is way beyond Pawlowski's pay-grade.

photocredit: molovinsky

Bill White's Confusion

I had to shake my head reading Bill White's column yesterday. While I often criticize Bill for wasting his bully pulpit on grammar and his reoccurring themes, it's actually better than the revisionism he bestowed upon the Morning Call yesterday.  He wrote, "The Morning Call has focused attention over the years on practices that hinted at pay to play, but those revelations never generated enough heat to trigger legislation or internal reforms." That's news to me Bill, although I realize that the paper has now ended it's eight year  honeymoon with Pawlowski, that only occurred after the recent FBI raid.  By my scorecard, you would have to cite examples of these revelations about pay to play you claim the paper made. Up to recent events, the paper took everything from the Pawlowski Administration at face value.  In reality, the paper, and pardon me for saying, you in particular, were cheerleaders, especially for the NIZ.  You even called me misguided for suggesting that the NIZ was a plan based on layers of inequity; Inequitable to most of the existing businesses in the valley, and segregating against the residents of center city. Although you now write that "Time is running out for politics as usual,"  most of the few local political mavericks have ended up in your Hall Of Shame.  If your memory lapses continue,  you might want to see your physician.

A-Treat Rules In A-Town

Early last night, outside of Allentown City Hall, I watched activist Robert Trotner plea for Bill 39, the legislation against Pay To Play. Now, if he had been praising one of the reintroduced A-Treat flavors, the public would be interested, but political ethics, not so much. The local media did give coverage to Mr. Trotner and his band of eternal optimists, but compared to A-Treat, it's nothing that the public cares to digest. Here in Allentown, there are priorities and values, and things worth waiting for, like the soda flavors of their youth. Now, eventually the ethics ordinance will pass, and the current administration will be replaced by a cast of new characters. But, what the public really cares about are the important things, like watching the monster trucks in the new arena, while drinking a giant-sized A-Treat.

Allentown Burns While Pawlowski Fiddles

Is it just me, or is Allentown in a reactive haze? I keep hearing about the cloud over Allentown, since the FBI scrutinized Pawlowski and city hall. The police chief wants to be anywhere, except here. Pawlowski and his company, Allentown city council, say that they can't blame Chief Fritzgerald from striving for upward mobility, but after only two years? We quietly just gave the fire department a new five year contract that has them dancing in their underwear. While they settle for 2% increase in year two, it's 3% yearly thereafter. Since the scant arena schedule has been criticized, the promoter has announced a new monster truck show, and that he will hire additional part-time peanut vendors.

Things are also rough in the blogging business. Yesterday morning, I met Bernie O'Hare and Lou Hershman for what wasn't Breakfast at Tiffany's. After O'Hare called the waitress a bitch, she refused to serve us. After recently noting that Bernie was on the up cycle of his weight swings, a reader accused me of using 20 year old pictures of myself. I'm pictured above two weeks ago in the deep south, with a 1975 Mack fire pumper, which was made in Allentown.

Allentown City Council

Wednesday night, before a council committee meeting, there is a protest planned against council's slowness to adopt an ordinance against Pay To Play. The protesters shouldn't be too rough on the council, they did take some action, they postponed the committee meeting. It was the Parks and Recreation committee. As a parks activist, I say no loss, they never made a good decision anyway. But, this post is about something else, a police chief who can't wait to get out of Dodge. I thought that Chief Fritzgerald outlived his usefulness when he implied that his son's arrest may have been racial profiling. Ironically, the same high octane Philadelphia lawyer who defended junior Fritzgerald, has now been retained by our mayor. When news broke that senior Fritzgerald was a finalist for a chief job in Kansas, council president Ray O'Connell said that it would be our loss. Ray must be searching for a father figure, because that's a loss we should encourage. We can be sure that the Wichita job isn't the only application that Fritzgerald has submitted. He already has one foot and his brain out the door. The police department's first reaction to the Slam At Shula's was that the singer was being hostile. Understand, that for a quality response like that, we had hired national consultants and spent a year looking before we hired senior. Please spare us such shams in the future, I'd rather that when papa leaves, they just hire junior for chief.

ADDENDUM: The cancelled Parks and Recreation meeting was scheduled for this evening, not Wednesday. Wednesday's Finance Committee meeting has not been cancelled.

The Morning Call Express

While The Morning Call has thrown Pawlowski under the bus, it continues to puff for the NIZ. A recent article on how the zone is benefiting the surrounding neighborhood was just more smoke coming out of that puff engine. Needless to say, they quote Alan Jennings, their go to person for most articles. Alan's organization has the franchise on community benefit, and of course, therefore, thinks that some good has rained on the local peons. The bureaucracy even produced a webpage, Upside Allentown, complete with pictures of smiling intercity children. In truth, the quality of their life has diminished. They now pay double to park, because of the Arena Excuse. Their former shopping center on Hamilton Street was demolished for that monstrosity, and if real success ever come to the district, they will be gentrified away. Meanwhile, former Mayor For Life is getting run over every time he tries to stand up. How flat can they get Pawlowski? While I no longer contribute letters to the paper,  I do see my ideas from this blog metamorpihize into long articles in the paper. For instance, they now acknowledge that the arena sits there empty, night after night. However, they will never admit that it was just a public pretense for the Reilly City Center Real Estate Empire.