Saturday Night In the Little Apple

This weekend I popped into an opening at Soft Machine Gallery at 101 Ridge Avenue. Although the gallery might be in the 1st Ward near the Lehigh River,  the art is as uptown as it gets. John Mortensen and Eva DiOrio started the gallery in a rented space on 15th Street about ten years ago, before creating their own current space on the corner of Ridge and Linden Streets.

The show, which runs through October 5th, features the South African born and Israeli trained  constructions of Michelle Marcuse,  the mixed media collages of Netherland trained Diane Tenerelli, and the whimsically edgy drawings of Kate Hovencamp.

On the way back to the blog bunker, I drove up Linden Street past the Strata buildings. With Stratas on my left, not a millennial in sight on the right, or wrong side of the street. It is as if  J.B. Reilly installed an invisible dog fence to keep his tenants in and safe, not so much different than a minimum security prison. 

I've added the Soft Machine logo and info to this blog's web version sidebar.  It's inspiring to know that people still invest their time and capital elsewhere in the city, without our tax subsidizes as in the  Hamilton Street NIZ.

Allentown Wants To Kill The Messenger

State Representative Peter Schweyer suggested that if Judge Anthony doesn't apologize for referring to a cesspool when sentencing a murderer, that he should resign. I think that Schweyer should resign for not facing facts. I would also recommend that Mike Schlossberg resign.

Mike Schlossberg said that Anthony's comment changes the narrative. Since when is the blunt truth a narrative? According to Schlossberg, the narrative is that 300 people marched against crime. Did that march chase crime away? Since the march, there have been both shootings and stabbings.

Schweyer called Judge Anthony's cesspool comment a cheap shot against Allentown.  I believe that Schweyer's comment was the cheap shot.  Schlossberg called Anthony's comment over the top.  I think that Schlossberg's comments are below par.  Worse for these state representatives, I think that they grossly miscalculate the voter's attitude about the violence.  Simply put, they are sick and tired of it, and the politicians who are in a state of denial and do nothing about it.

A Cesspool Named Allentown

When Judge Anthony used the term cesspool the other day in regard to the shootings in Allentown,  I expected that there would be some push back. Although he was referring to the rash of shootings taking place in the former All American City, I expected to read about him accused of racism, or some other popular accusation of insensitivity, often used to suppress the forthright from speaking the plain truth.  Instead, he is being accused by  our elected leaders of a truly inexcusable insult against our so called award winning revitalizing city.

Judge Anthony is correct,  the city has become a cesspool, and the awards are bull. Furthermore, if our elected leaders are so complacent that they view this daily carnage as acceptable,  it is their leadership that may well be inexcusable.

These elected leaders cite articles praising all the new buildings, and claim that all cities this size have these urban crime issues.  Actually, Allentown is no larger than ever, and most of the new buildings are owned by one man, who was set up by these same elected leaders. Beyond some new offices and their workers poached from the local suburbs,  there is no more activity downtown....Revitalizing is more than some new bricks owned by one person.

If Judge Anthony erred about the shootings, it is that he forgot to mention the stabbings.  I hope that our elected leaders do not start accusing the messengers, and expect us to accept the current level of violence as normal.

Growing Up Parkway

I'm a baby boomer. I was born in December of 1946. As soon as my mother climbed out of the hospital bed, another woman climbed in. I grew up in the neighborhood now called Little Lehigh Manor, wedged between Lehigh Street and the top of the ravine above Lehigh Parkway. That's me on our lawn at the intersection of Catalina and Liberator Avenues, named after airplanes made by Vultee Corporation for the War. We had our own elementary school, our own grocery store, and the park to play in. On Saturdays, older kids would take us along on the trolley, and later the bus, over the 8TH Street Bridge to Hamilton Street. There were far too many stores to see everything. After a matinee of cartoons or Flash Gordon, and a banana split at one of the five and dimes, we would take the bus back over the bridge to Lehigh Street.




Not that many people know where Lehigh Parkway Elementary School is. It's tucked up at the back of the development of twin homes on a dead end street, but I won't say exactly where. I do want to talk about the photograph. It's May Day, around 1952-53. May Day was big then, so were the unions; Most of the fathers worked at the Steel, Mack, Black and Decker, and a hundred other factories going full tilt after the war. The houses were about 8 years old, and there were no fences yet. Hundreds of kids would migrate from one yard to another, and every mother would assume some responsibility for the herd when it was in her yard. Laundry was hung out to dry. If you notice, most of the "audience" are mothers, dads mostly were at work. I'm at the front, right of center, with a light shirt and long belt tail. Don't remember the girl, but see the boy in front of me with the big head? His father had the whole basement setup year round with a huge model train layout. There were so many kid's, the school only went up to second grade. We would then be bused to Jefferson School for third through sixth grade. The neighborhood had its own Halloween Parade and Easter egg hunt. We all walked to school, no one being more than four blocks away.

reprinted from February of 2017

Center City Kids And Stevens Park

Over the last decade, a large portion of my effort on this blog has been focused on maintaining what I refer to as the traditional park system. To me, that would include the WPA structures and both access to, and view of the streams. I rallied against the riparian buffers, and what I consider the excessive emphasis on recreation. In the park department, although there is no less than six supervisors for recreation, there is not one person assigned to the parks per se.

While the designation playground at Cedar Beach cost $1 million dollars, only $25,000 has been spend on the WPA structures in the last decade, and that was a grant from the Trexler Trust. However, this post isn't about my opinion of current park priorities, but rather the implementation of the current policy.

 The designation playground at Cedar Park was almost, if not criminal in design and implementation. A former park director as the time purchased every item in the Playworld Catalog, from a company he had a prior relationship with from his previous job. So we ended up with an oversized playground, in a location inaccessible to center city kids. Regarding these kids, and our current emphasis on recreation, perhaps no park is more important than humble Stevens Park, at 6th and Tilghman Streets in center city. Although the playground equipment and infrastructure are well up to snuff, community groups found it necessary to reclaim the park this past Saturday. This park should be a sanctuary for the children of center city, and the police department should do whatever is necessary to make it that way. In 2019, that might well require a 24 hour presence.

Stevens Park sits on the site of the former Stevens Elementary School, as shown above in 1918.

Kingdom At Stevens

On Saturday afternoon, Stevens Park, a large center city playground, teemed with festivity. As the parents and older kids swayed to the Latin beat from a live band, children at the other side were entertained with craft activities. In between, large stands provided free hot food. The event was sponsored by Kingdom Life Family Center, an outreach ministry based in Orefield. After leaving the park, I decided to visit some merchants who are relocating to 7th Street from Hamilton. On 7th, I encountered the Pastor of the Ministry, Tony Adamo. It is his hope to secure a storefront in that vicinity, and establish a full time presence in Allentown. That would be a blessing.

above reprinted from November of 2011

My apologies for an earlier post where I acted so haughty about Stevens Park. Ive been sick the past couple weeks. That being said had family over today and bragged about the new park. Took my 2 yr old and a couple other toddlers with parents. Trash everywhere! Dirty needles...I picked up 6 heroin used bags. I was horrified! We left, kids in tears. Me on the verge! I went later with husband and cleaned it up. Ive been so excited for the young neighborhood kids....it will soon just get totally trashed. And Im moving......

The above comment appeared on a community facebook page. I have redacted the writers name. The Morning Call did a pictorial spread on the the renovated park, but of course the women above gives us an actual nitty gritty experience from visiting the park. Despite the reality of who will congregate there after hours, and whatever nefarious activity that may take place, it is important to provide attractive parks within the urban center for children.   However,  the nature of the neighborhood requires that the park receive extra cleanup and surveillance.

 Allow me to commend the Parks Department on a renovation well done.

photocredit: The Morning Call/Harry Fisher

above reprinted from June of 2017

UPDATE SEPTEMBER 2, 2019:  This past weekend the Morning Call had an article about a Community Day at Stevens Park, sponsored by several community groups. Earlier that morning,  police investigated shots being fired in the park.  Although the article's heading was about reclaiming the park, as you can see from my older posts above,  reclaiming the park is actually an on going process. A new reporter covers new community activists, optimistic that they have solutions to a problem which has been ongoing for a decade before them.  As I wrote in 2017, the location of the park (6th and Tilghman) requires an ongoing police presence, no less than 24 hours a day.