Boxing Eggs

When I was a little boy, I would work at my father's meat market, boxing eggs. The job was pretty straightforward. I would take eggs from a big box, and put them in small boxes with folding lids, each of which held a dozen. If I did a whole crate without breaking an egg, I did a good job. The real adventure was the drive to the shop. We lived just off Lehigh Street, and would take it all the way to Union Street. The many landmarks are now gone forever, only remaining in my camera of the past. Shown above in 1952, is the portion of Lehigh Street near the Acorn Hotel, which is not visible in the photograph. Before reaching the Acorn, you drove under The Reading Railroad bridge overpass, which recently has been dismantled and removed. That line served the Mack Plant on S. 10th Street. Just beyond the area pictured, the Quarry Barber railroad spur also crossed Lehigh Street, at the bridge over the Little Lehigh Creek. That line also crossed S. 10th, and served Traylor Engineering, now known as the closed Allentown Metal Works. Just last week Mitt Romney was there, to rebuke Obama's former visit to the site. Mayor Pawlowski is now rebuking Romney, but none of them really know anything about its past. A half block away, on overgrown steps built by Roosevelt's WPA, a thousand men would climb home everyday, after working at Mack and Traylor. Freight trains, on parallel tracks, from two different railroads, were needed to supply those industrial giants.

After my father rounded the second curve on Lehigh Street, we would head up the steep Lehigh Street hill. It was packed with houses and people. At the top of the hill, we would turn right on to Union Street. Going down Union Street, Grammes Metal was built on the next big curve. Grammes made a large assortment of finished decorative metal products. Beyond Grammes were numerous railroad crossings. The Lehigh Valley Railroad tracks crossed Union, as did the Jersey Central and several spurs, near Basin Street. It was not unusual to wait twenty-five minutes for the endless freight trains to pass. A two plus story tower gave the railroad men view and control of the busy crossing. A few more blocks and we were at the meat market, in time for me to break some eggs.

reprinted from July 2011

Morning Call's Soft Coverage

As a local political blogger, I had to snicker at the headline shown above. While the Morning Call has never attributed a shed of credibility to Donald Trump, they now wondered if Pawlowski's punishment was too harsh? If newspapers were judged, the Morning Call would be found guilty of being clueless about a corrupt mayor for 13 years.

 I've broken several stories about irregularities occurring in the valley. One was several years ago, about the highest paid positions at Lehigh Valley Health Network having offices above the arena, so that Reilly could harvest their state taxes. While the paper never investigated or printed the story, Wednesday night I heard it repeated at the City Council meeting. I take satisfaction in contributing to the local knowledge, even if I'm ignored by the paper. The Morning Call likewise continues to ignore my revelations about how the Wildlands Conservancy is conspiring with South Whitehall, to bypass the voter's referendum on Wehr's Dam.

The paper's new editor-in-chief, Mike Miorelli, while recently editorializing about the paper's gumption, hasn't shown any.

The newspaper article above wondering if Pawlowski's sentence was too harsh was signed Staff, instead of a reporter's name. I can understand not wanting credit for that story.

19th Street Theater District Goes Loud

Last night Allentown city council decreed that the noise complaints against the Maingate were actually racially based against the changing demographics in the city. That distorted logic played well with the hundred or so supporters that the Maingate owner brought with him. Candida Affa testified that her gay bar had experienced the same intolerance years ago.

Residents of St. George, 18th, Liberty and Allen Streets might be surprised to learn that hardly anybody will be adversely effected by the Noise Exemption District. These are the invisible people who conduct neighborhood cleanups and hold street fairs on 19th Street. There was no polling of the residents, and some only found out about the proposal yesterday. Many others do not yet even know that City Hall just arbitrarily compromised the quality of their lives.

Conspicuously missing from the contorted map of the new district is the Wert's Cafe complex. Although Police Chief Granitz stated that he will abide by council's decision, his concerns about equal enforcement of law were apparent.

Allentown doesn't belong in the bar business, especially choosing winners and losers. It's always interesting and disappointing to see the new council members trade their ideals for a seat on that dais.

Noise Exemption-The Wrong Thing

In a current Morning Call article, Mayor Ray O'Connell says that passing a noise exemption for the Maingate and Ringer's Roost is the right thing to do. In reality, it is exactly the wrong thing, almost by every measure.

O'Connell spends enough time at Ringer's to believe that his friend Don Ringer will not abuse the noise exemption that he has been lobbying for. However, Don, like many of us, keeps getting older, and may have the marketability of his business more in mind. We know from experience that the Maingate would test the noise level constantly, putting the Allentown Police Department in an incredibly awkward position.

In previous posts on this ill advised proposal, I have dwelled on the obvious easy conflicts, such as disrupting the harmony of the neighborhood, and the ambience of the theater on 19th Street.

However, mincing words is not my style. In the photo above the Morning Call referred to Ringer's as O'Connell's headquarters. O'Connell, over the years, has a unique relationship with the current city council, they are essentially all friends. If nobody hasn't noticed, the police department has enough to do with the current shootings and stabbings, without turning the existing theater district into Dodge City and the Long Branch Salon.

If O'Connell and council really want to reform Allentown, avoiding corruption alone is not enough, they must guard against cronyism.

The Lehigh Valley Old Main Line

The last portions of the Old Main Line were recently removed from Jaindl's NIZ waterfront parcel. Save for this blogger, not a peep from anybody else in protest. On the contrary, the track removal was spun as a positive, with notions that it would become part of the rail to trail network.

Shown in the photo above, the Old Main crosses Hamilton Street. There was a siding for the large white warehouse on the far right side of the photo. The line had numerous sidings, serving companies both along the river and on Front Street. For A&B Meats, the siding went into the plant.

Just south of Union Street there was a freight terminal and small yard. Although the old iron trestle bridge still spans the Lehigh north of American Parkway, only little scattered sections of rail remain on the west side of the Lehigh River.

ADDENDUM: My pieces on local history are not taken from Wikipedia and other sources, but rather from my experiences growing up in Allentown.  My father's family operated a small meat packing operation on Union Street. Included in the parcel was a garage on Walnut Street, and the white warehouse shown above on Hamilton.  I spent many hours waiting for the trains to cross Union Street.

Lehigh Valley Lifestyle

Last week's headlines centered on a daylight assault at the Lehigh Valley Mall's Lifestyle Center. The details were a little confusing...Seems one defendant was attacking another, for robbing him previously, while attempting to sell him stolen goods. Anyway, what got my attention was the juxtaposition of defendant and lifestyle. More and more these actors are becoming the news in the Lehigh Valley.

Some people blame the media, especially the Morning Call, for reporting on such happenings. I think that not to do so would be journalistically irresponsible. The valley is no longer Mayberry, we haven't been now for decades. For many of these characters, gangster seems to be the lifestyle of choice.

photocredit:Rick Kintzel/The Morning Call