Will Trexler Trust Honor General's Memory?

As a defender of the traditional park system in Allentown, there are some realities that I have to deal with. The Trexler Trust, as a contributor to over half the park department budget, has enormous influence. The second influential group is the Wildlands Conservancy. After battling them over two dams, I know that their hubris is not above manipulating, distorting and outright lying to further their agenda.  Currently, the park department is hiring a consultant to make a recommendation about the pond dam in Trexler Park. This of course is nonsense, let me translate; The Wildlands wants the dam gone, and the park department is cooperating to justify it's demolition.

Years ago, a park director wanted to demolish the Trexler greenhouse, supposedly to save money.  But, he then turned around and spend $750,000 to plant a native species wet lands along a section of the park's creek. Last year, the park department completely cut down all those plantings. We truly lost the greenhouse for nothing. The Trexler Trust had to sign off on the greenhouse's demolition, because it was specifically mentioned in the General's will. Although, perhaps not mentioned, the pond never the less was very important to the General, and is the heart of the park. Having seen the same deception while fighting for Wehr's Dam, I know that nothing need be done to the Trexler Park Dam, except that the Trexler Trust must step forward, and respect their benefactor's memory.

ADDENDUM:  After a sit down with the park director, a phone conversation with the parks supervisor and an on site inspection,  an update is in order. The pond and dam supposedly under study is not the main pond shown in the old post card above, but rather the smaller adjoining pond. However, with that smaller pond virtually empty from a supposed sinkhole,  the dam wall of the main pond above is completely visible, and it shows decades of neglect.  I hope that they take the opportunity from the smaller pond being empty, to repair the main dam wall.

Agenda Journalism By The Morning Call

Regular readers of this blog know that I often complain about the Morning Call. If it's an infomercial for the NIZ, or regularly giving some serial Israel basher space in Letters To The Editor, I'm not shy about complaining. I think that the paper again took some liberties with yesterday's article titled, Allentown teacher: Schools are in chaos. In the web version it was titled, Allentown Teachers Speak Out: Disruptive Students Run The Schools. The reporter tells us that she sat down with 20 teachers from all the grade levels, from schools across the city. One must wonder how she coordinated the meeting. From the title, we know that the school administration didn't set it up, that would leave only the union, which is currently negotiating it's contract. One school board member, Scott Armstrong, confirmed that it was believed that the meeting with the reporter was set up by the union. Consequently, one reader of my post yesterday suggested that teachers should receive combat pay. Another solution suggested by yesterday's Morning Call article would be more teachers. What we appear to have is the newspaper, inadvertently or not, promoting the teacher's positions in the contract deliberation.

A number of years ago The Morning Call did away it's editorial page. Although readers may assume that there would be a firewall between news and outright opinion, perhaps that's an assumption that should no longer be made about the Allentown paper.

Allentown Goes To The Sweathogs

I describe myself as a Fonz type delinquent in high school. However, when I didn't respond respectfully enough, I was at the vice-principal's office within a minute. After being sent there more than twice, I was suspended. After the second suspension, you were expelled. Welcome Back Kotter was a fictional TV show, about school in the urban jungle, where delinquents were managed, and education was an afterthought. Who would have imagined that forty years later, Allentown would be making national news for student fights, and assaults on the police.

We just experienced an incredibly spirited school board race with candidates promising solutions. We have both the teachers and police exasperated by the violence. Truth is everybody will just trudge on, we have become the urban jungle, we have gone to the sweathogs.

Allentown and The Syrian Refugee Issue

When my grandfather first arrived in Allentown he lived in the Ward, on 2nd. Street. It was around 1895 and the neighborhood was full of immigrants. Some groups came from the same area in the old country, most noticeably the Syrians, from the village of Amar*. They were Antiochian Orthodox, a minority in a Muslim country. The congregation of St. George's Church on Catasauqua Ave., largely is descended from those immigrants. Well known names in Allentown, such as Atiyeh, Haddad, Hanna, Makoul, Koury and Joseph are among their members. They were among one of the first groups to organize, and those organizations still exist. The photo above was organized by the Syrian American Organization in 1944. Note that Jewish, on the left, is treated as a nationality.

reprinted from previous posts

ADDENDUM: As a result of the Paris attack, a backlash seems to have developed against accepting refugees from Syria. The governor of Michigan, which has a large Arab-American population, rescinded his previous invitation, along with other governors. Allentown has one of larger Syrian American populations in the country, going back over 100 years. While most of the Syrians here are Christian, most of the refugees are Muslim, as are the victims in the current Syrian civil war. With both Pawlowski and Wolf extending an invitation, Allentown may see a significant number of the new refugees.

A WPA Monday

A month ago Mondays, I climbed the steps at Fountain Park to speak to the stone masons repairing that iconic structure. The steps were built in 1936, and would soon serve thousands of men walking down from center city to the Mack factory, to produce trucks for the war effort. It took me ten years to get the masons there, but by now I had another pressing objective. In the last couple of years, the top of the wall at the double stairwell at Union Terrace had become open, threatening that structure with potential catastrophic damage. After learning that the masons had no assignment beyond the Fountain Park steps, I drove over to the Park and Recreation Office.

Lindsay Taylor, the new park director, has been fairly cordial to me, considering my reputation as a mauler of city bureaucrats. I explained that the top of the Union Terrace wall was open, and that I had serious doubts about it surviving another winter of freeze and thaw cycles.  I requested that the masons make an emergency repair on top of the wall, while other repairs needed there could be delayed. Taylor agreed to consult her park supervisor, Rick Holtzman, about my request. Later that morning, I spoke with Holtzman, who agreed that it would indeed be appropriate to reassign the masons.  The masons were replacing missing steps and repointing the Fountain Park stairwell,  through a grant from the Trexler Trust. The grant had been written and requested by Karen El-Chaar, from Allentown Friends of the Parks. El-Chaar had attended my meetings years earlier on the WPA structures, and I had since  conducted tours of Lehigh Parkway in conjunction with her organization. Holtzman requested that El-Chaar clear the repair at Union Terrace with the Trexler Trust, since their funds were designated to be spent at Fountain Park. The Trust gave their permission for the masons to be temporally reassigned.

By the weeks end the masons spend a day at the Terrace, and repaired the top of the wall. I'm grateful that Lindsay Taylor and the Trexler Trust responded to stabilize that structure, and optimistic that their commitment to  our WPA history will continue.  I will  in turn  continue on,  when necessary, mauling the bureaucrats.

The photograph above shows the WPA steps being built in Seattle. I'm sure an identical sight could be seen on Lawrence Street in 1936.

Israel Bashing, A Morning Call Tradition

Pray for France, but also pray for Israel, where it's Paris everyday

There's a long tradition of Israel bashing at Letters To The Editor, in The Morning Call. Over the years the writers change, but the tradition continues. Currently, most of the letters are written by Vincent Stravino, of Bethlehem. Let me share a letter exchange between myself and the current editor at the Call.

To the editor, Suffice to say that Bethlehem resident Vincent Stravino is no friend of Israel, his letters always portray that country in the most unflattering of terms. However, his letter which appeared on November 11, was something that would normally only be seen in the Arab press. Despite numerous Israeli civilians being stabbed, Stravino describes Israel response as Nazi-like. He paints Netanyahu and Israel as demanding, pretending and undeserving. Stravino letters are often signed at the end associating him with some organization that sounds sincere about peace, but in reality, are anti-Israel. After years of his letters, I know that Mr. Stravino doesn't have much use for Israel, but why does the Morning Call keep giving him space for repeating the same point of view, over and over?  Michael Molovinsky

Michael, Your letter essentially attacks Stravino and doesn't offer any counterpoints to what he said. Thus we will not publish it.
Editor, Letters Page 

I had the same exchange with the editor concerning previous letters from Mr. Stravino on Israel. Although, it is indeed normal Morning Call policy that letters should address the subject matter, and not the author, Stravino letters aren't normal, or about facts.  Instead, they intentionally invoke negative emotions about Israel and it's people,  through adjectives and stereotypes. When the paper prints the repetitive letters of someone motivated by hate, but limits replies to scant factoids,  they are inadvertently condoning that hate. Sometimes, motives do matter.

ADDENDUM: To me, the points brought up by the letter writer are just a pretense or excuse to bash Israel.  I've been reading such letters long before Netanyahu was prime minister.  I've been reading such letters before Israel gained control of the West Bank in 1967, or the Gaza Strip.  Putting aside anti-Semitism, hatred of Israel has existed since modern Israel was created in 1948, and so have letters to the Morning Call reflecting it.  For that reason, I declined to offer counterpoints to what is just the latest letter, but chose instead to address the larger issue.