Stairway To Shame

In the mid 1930's, Allentown, and especially its park system, was endowed with magnificent stone edifices, courtesy of the WPA; Works Progress Administration. This was a New Deal program designed to provide employment during the aftermath of the depression. Stone masons from all over the country converged on this city and built structures which are irreplaceable. The walls and step structures in Lehigh Parkway, as the Union Terrace amphitheater, are legacies which must be protected. Pictured above is the grand stairway from Lawrence Street (Martin Luther King Drive) up to Junction Street, built in 1936. The steps are in a state of disrepair. They lead to the great Junction/Union Street Retaining Wall, thirty feet high and two blocks long, which was completed in 1937. I call upon the Trexler Trust and Allentonians of memory, to insist these steps are re-pointed and preserved. The current Administration knows little of our past.  It's important to save the things in Allentown that matter.

The City of Allentown is embarking upon a $3.8 million dollar capital plan to change the nature of our parks, funded in large part by the Trexler Trust. Although a number of fads will be accommodated, not one dollar is earmarked to preserve the existing WPA treasures. General Trexler envisioned the parks as a reserve for the passive enjoyment of nature. Among the new Disney-World type plans are a wedding pavilion in the Rose Garden, and the largest playground in eastern Pennsylvania to be built in Cedar Park. The trail through Cedar Creek Park will have lights installed, and the picnic areas will be expanded. Anybody driving past Cedar Beach on a Monday morning sees the trash generated currently by only a few picnic tables. How many more park workers will be required to deal with the consequences of these new plans? The playground is being billed as a "Destination Playground", who will pay to keep that clean? Allentown should build and monitor numerous playgrounds throughout center city, within walking distance for children and parents. The Trexler Trust and The City of Allentown have a responsibility to first repair and maintain these iconic stone edifices which are unique to Allentown.

photo info: the dedication stone is on the Union Street wall. The steps shown in the photo here go through a tunnel in the wall and climb up to Spring Garden Street. They are in total disrepair. This posting is a combination of two previous posts, which appeared on this blog last September.

above reprinted from May of 2009

UPDATE APRIL 10, 2018: My campaign to save the WPA structures has been on going  for over a decade. About 10 years ago, I organized meetings at the library to bring attention to the neglect inflicted upon these structures. In the process I tutored Karen El-Chaar, from Friends Of The Parks, on the issues. She then was able to obtain a grant from the Trexler Trust,  and repoint the Fountain Park Steps. I opposed the more outlandish proposals cited above for Rose Garden area, and plans were scaled back.  I organized efforts to dig out and reveal the WPA Spring Pond and Boat Landing, both of which were discarded decades earlier. Because of the neglect, the Lehigh Parkway wall collapsed, but has since been partially rebuilt, to allow use of the entrance road into the park. In cooperation with Friends Of The Parks,  I conducted tours of Lehigh Parkway, featuring its history and WPA structures. During the Pawlowski regime I offered my advice to City Council on the traditional park system and WPA, but it was rejected.  I again make the same offer to Mayor O'Connell and the new administration.

UPDATE MARCH 3, 2020: Although O'Connell did invite me to a meeting about the parks, I am once again a persona non grata.  Karen El-Chaar is now director of parks.  It is my understanding that the Trexler Trust has commissioned a study of the Parkway Structures,  but declined to share any information with me.  It is my informed opinion that the immediate services of a stone mason are much more needed than that of their consultants. Time is the enemy of these structures.

Trouble On Junction Street

I've always been interested in the WPA.  As a child growing up above Lehigh Parkway on Liberator Avenue, I explored structures which, unfortunately, no longer exist. Before this blog and its voice, I prevailed upon both Joe Daddona and Bill Heydt for emergency repairs.

I first posted about Junction Street in 2008. Although only two blocks long, the street contains monumental WPA projects. It hosts both the steps and the high retaining wall on Union Street. The steps served our war effort, as workers used them from center city to work at the Mack plants on S. 10th Street.

In 2009, I conducted a series of public meetings at the Allentown Library on the WPA.  In attendance was Karen El-Chaar, then director of Friends Of The Parks. Karen later secured a grant from Trexler Trust to repair the Fountain Park steps.

El Chaar is now parks director for the city, but unfortunately, the WPA structures still have not become a priority for the city. My stock with the Trust and the city administration ebbs and flows, because I never mince words as I continue to speak out on various issues.

Shown above is recent damage to a small part of the wall leading down to Martin Luther King Drive. Although I want to see it restored, other WPA structures in our parks are actually jeopardized by neglect. Number one on my wish list is the double stairwell in Lehigh Parkway.

Learning Curve For School Board

Morning Call columnist Paul Muschick hopes that Allentown School Superintendent Thomas Parker stays on. I hope that he finds another job and moves on. We know that he has already tried, with Nashville.

Allentown has already greatly enhanced his resumé. Only 38 years old, he moved here from a much smaller job. Allentown was hell bend on hiring someone of color... all three finalist for the position were minorities. Parker knows that in these woke times, being a minority is a qualifier in itself.

I think that those school board members who hired Parker should consider it a teachable moment. Although I don't expect anybody to fess up to poor decision making, hopefully they will realize that for the next contract, fiscal expertise must be the yardstick.

Farce On Front Street

Back in the day before the FBI raid on Allentown City Hall,  those interested in corruption in Allentown were pretty much limited to myself and O'Hare.  Missing in action was the Morning Call.  Although they would occasionally use this blog as an unattributed source, they avoided my most controversial exposés.  Among them was my revelations about the Neuweiler Brewery.

Although the FBI and  Justice Department decided to prosecute Pawlowski and Company on nine deals,  I suspect that the menu actually had many more choices.  Among them may have been the current Neuweiler Brewery deal.  When Ruckus Brewing was introduced as an applicant for the Neuweiler Brewery, I wrote about it here, way back in 2013.  My research revealed that Ruckus had no experience at the time in either actual beer brewing or real estate.  What they did have was a business consultant very connected to the administration in Allentown, Mike Fleck.

Although Pawlowski and Fleck were indicted and convicted,  the Allentown Commercial Industrial Development Authority proceeded with handing over the brewery to Ruckus.  Ruckus received numerous deadline extensions on their application, and represented the brewery as a done deal to raise cash. All these irregularities were previously reported on this blog, and ignored by the local press. They are currently permitted to rent out space as is, in a building in which the previous owner was arrested and jailed for not correcting code violations.

When shenanigans occur in Allentown,  this blog is often the first source to chronicle the questionable activity.

For the full story on the Neuweiler Brewery, please follow the links provided below. 

Post on Neuweiler Brewery from May 29, 2008

Post on Neuweiler Brewery July 11, 2012

Sequel to July 11, Post (July 16, 2012)

Post on Neuweiler Brewery May 2, 2013

Post on Neuweiler Brewery Jan. 31, 2013

The Neuweiler Brewery, A Pawlowski/Fleck Shenanigan, July 8, 2015

Morning Call Catches Up To Molovinsky On Neuweiler Sept. 30, 2015

above reprinted from August of 2019

ADDENDUM FEBRUARY 27, 2020: The Morning Call reports today that the project has applied for a loan from the NIZ board, and will use the distribution portion for their own offices. The iconic brewery section has been allowed to deteriorate beyond practical salvation. However, being that it is really our tax money being used for private gain, I expect that down the road, we will pay to restore it anyway. Scott Unger, director of the ACIDA states that “Self-occupancy is the highest level of commitment." What that really means is that the boys haven't found a real tenant, but let that slide, like everything else about this project.

Edwards Replaces Mickenberg On NIZ Board

Rev. Gregory Edwards has been appointed to replace David Mickenberg on the NIZ Board. Although this appointment has not yet officially occurred, it is a done deal. Mickenberg just found out that he resigned as director of the Allentown Art Museum, and O'Connell states that his next nomination to the NIZ board will be Edwards.

Activists in Allentown have been demanding more diversity on boards and positions of leadership. Allentown hasn't had great results when color by itself becomes the criterion...So it seems with a previous police chief and the current school director. Although it is apparent that those two appointees only used Allentown for a stepping stone, this is an observation that you will only read on this blog. Don't look for the activists to be that introspective, or the media to be this politically incorrect.

The NIZ is a business board for which Edwards has marginal experience, but no less than Mickenberg, whom he replaces. However, now there are calls that diversity should be the factor in Mickenberg's replacement at the museum.....

ADDENDUM: I've been informed that O'Connell actually proposes that Edwards replace John Williams, former president of Muhlenberg College.

Wehr's Dam Conspiracy Against Voters

The South Whitehall Commissioners never expected the voters to approve the referendum in November of 2016 to retain Wehr's Dam, especially when they had associated it with a possible tax increase. They thought that they could accommodate the Wildlands Conservancy in demolishing the dam, with no political consequence to themselves.

In July of 2014, the Commissioners gave the Conservancy permission to conduct a study of the dam, which was intended to justify its demolition. The engineering firm for the Conservancy then claimed that the dam was leaking under itself, at one small spot. On February 13, 2015, the DEP wrote the township; "The Wildlands Conservancy has recently brought to our attention that there is some confusion relating to the current condition of the Wehr's Dam..." For the Commissioners to have granted the Wildlands Conservancy permission to interface with the state was improper. The dam is the historic property of the township residents, not an outside party.

A subsequent study of the dam by another engineering firm could not confirm the above referenced leak. It is now necessary for the Commissioners to put aside their agenda of accommodating the Wildlands Conservancy, and honor the results of the referendum. They must change their Park Master Plan, which still calls for the dam's demolition. They must now advocate for the dam with the state DEP, and correct any misconceptions about its condition.  The reality is that the dam is an overbuilt massive concrete wedge, sitting on an enormous concrete platform, which would stand for another 100 years with no repair.

Although its been over three years since the referendum, the township hasn't applied one dab of cement to the dam. On the contrary, they have been rebidding the repairs trying to actually get a higher price, to exceed the amount authorized by the voter's referendum. They are trying to undo the will of the voters. The dam sits in a state of benign neglect, waiting for the state to accommodate the Wildlands Conservancy and condemn it.

photocredit: Jason Fink

above reprinted from February 2017

ADDENDUM FEBRUARY 2020: Since this letter to the editor was written in 2017, things have gotten worse for Wehr's Dam. The former South Whitehall park director, Randy Cope, is now in charge of Public Works for the township. His father is the former CFO of the Wildlands Conservancy.

 1. Randy Cope now states that it will cost $1million to repair the dam, but he doesn't reveal that the cost increase is because of the communications between the Wildlands Conservancy and the state DEP. Those communications were intended to drive the repair cost above the amount approved by the voters in the referendum.  Even though the dam is rated low hazard, the township made no attempt to defend the dam against the Wildlands' allegations.  The Pennsylvania DEP is fine with the Wildlands' scheme,  and boasts about more dam removals than any other state in the country.

 2. The Wildlands Conservancy has campaigned to demolish the Dam since 2014, and now is in charge of the Township's multi $million dollar Greenway Project through the park.

 3. Another main supporter of the Wildlands in South Whitehall is commissioner Tori Morgan, who has been appointed President of the new township board of commissioners.

 4. Although the Morning Call has rejected and ignored the above letter since 2017,  I'm hopeful that new leadership at the paper will investigate these violations against both the voters and local history.