Empty Nesters Flocking To 7th and LInden

According to Matt Assad of The Morning Call,  millennials and empty nesters are flocking to Strata Flats to rent the apartments.  I suppose that they like the ambience of the 7-11, which is catty corner from the apartments.  Demand is so great that Reilly will build additional apartments across from Symphony Hall, which is next to the Hook Restaurant, formerly the Cosmopolitan, once the project gets through city planning.  Sure hope the city planners go along with Reilly, I know that they're tough on him.  Wonder if they will allow him to use wood frame like he did on the first building?  You will also be surprised to know that Alvin Butz's new NIZ Phase 3 passed city approval.

This is the second infomercial that Assad has written for Reilly, promoting his apartments.  It's apparent to me that Reilly has found a way to harvest NIZ money from residential tenants. If he isn't somehow tapping their  state income tax,  I would then be suspicious of  the prorations between the residential and commercial portions of the buildings;  Understand that nobody checks the NIZ figures, nobody produces or checks financials, and nobody cares.  All is fair in love and the NIZ.

shown above Plywood Plaza, aka Strata Flats 

above reprinted from November of 2015

ADDENDUM MARCH 11, 2020: The reporter mentioned above has moved on to officially writing press releases for a local commercial development agency. Reilly continues to use wood and plywood framing on his new Walnut Street apartments. Community activists need not worry about inclusionary zoning. Reilly will have to rent the Walnut Street units to the dominant intercity rental market, no millennials will live there.

Flash From Past

Occasionally, some of the older boys in Lehigh Parkway would get saddled with taking me along to a Saturday matinee in downtown Allentown. We would get the trolley, in later years a bus, from in front of the basement church on Jefferson Street. It would take that congregation many years to afford completing the church building there today. The trolley or bus would go across the 8th Street Bridge, which was built to accommodate the trolleys operated by Lehigh Valley Transit Company. Downtown then sported no less than five movie theaters at any one time. Particularly matinee friendly was the Midway, in the 600 Block of Hamilton. Three cartoons and episode or two of Flash Gordon entertained our entourage, which ranged in age from five to eleven years old. We younger kids, although delighted by the likes of Bugs Bunny, were confused how the Clay People would emerge from the walls in the caves on Mars to capture Captain Gordon, but our chaperones couldn't wait till the next week to learn Flash's fate. Next on the itinerary was usually a banana split at Woolworth's. Hamilton Street had three 5 and 10's, with a million things for boys to marvel at. The price of the sundae was a game of chance, with the customer picking a balloon. Inside the balloon was your price, anywhere from a penny to the full price of fifty cents. The store had a full selection of Allentown souvenirs. Pictures of West Park on a plate, the Center Square Monument on a glass, pennants to hang on your wall, and picture postcards of all the attractions. Hamilton Street was mobbed, and even the side streets were crowded with busy stores. Taking younger kids along was a responsibility for the older brothers, the streets and stores were crowded, but predators were limited to the Clay People on the silver screen.

reprinted from previous years

Reform That Never Came

When Tom Wolf first portrayed himself as a reformer six years ago, I wondered.  Driving a Jeep and not living in the state mansion doesn't make someone a reformer in itself.

Six years later, we still have the same old, overly large state house. We still have all the useless politically appointed commissions, and we still have the same old reform promises, with no action.

On Friday morning PennDOT sprayed Cedar Crest Blvd. with salt brine. Although there was only a remote possibility of less than a flurry, the brine was flowing like wine at a party.  I then realized that the mild winter was coming to an end, and PennDOT must use up their supplies to justify their upcoming budget.

I know of no aspect of state government that has changed, at all.

Report From A Retiring Watchdog

No, I'm not running for mayor, but I used to consider myself a watchdog of mayors. Ten years ago, this blog would report every day on something about the city, or its government. I would attend city meetings on a regular basis. I would report on city policy, and even try to influence it, through this blog and opinion pieces in the newspaper. For a while my musings were heard regularly on a local radio station.

While some less involved may have been surprised when the long term mayor was incarcerated, I suspected that there were more transactions for which he may have been indicted. When he was elected for the fourth term, while under indictment, I knew that my former Allentown no longer existed.

I still get engerized for such icons as our park system, but I no longer attend council meetings on a regular basis. Occasionally, I still enter the political fray, but only when the proposal is so contrary to the city's well being.

Long term readers of this page may have noticed more republishing of my older historical posts. A year ago I started a facebook group, Allentown Chronicles, with an emphasis on local history. Many members are former Allentonians, who also prefer yesteryear's Allentown.

The Dinosaurs Of Sumner Avenue

Up to the early 1950's, Allentown was heated by coal, and much of it came from Sumner Avenue. Sumner was a unique street, because it was served by the West End Branch of the Lehigh Valley Railroad. The spur route ran along Sumner, until it crossed Tilghman at 17th Street, and then looped back East along Liberty Street, ending at 12th. Coal trucks would elevate up, and the coal would be pushed down chutes into the basement coal bins, usually under the front porches of the row houses. Several times a day coal would need to be shoveled into the boiler or furnace. By the early 1970's, although most of the coal yards were closed for over a decade, the machines of that industry still stood on Sumner Avenue. Eventually, they took a short trip to one of the scrap yards, which are still on the avenue, but not before I photographed them.

reprinted from previous years

photocredit:molovinsky

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.

reprinted from November of 2015

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.