Allentown And Litter

When I grew up in Allentown and graduated from Allen in the mid 1960's, the sidewalks were clean. Now, I don't mean just free from litter, but they were actually clean. Women in babushkas would come out of their houses with buckets of water, and wash off their stoops and sidewalks.

On Monday mornings, from the amount of litter downtown, you would think that there was a parade over the weekend. Years ago a bureaucrat said, "You see litter on the street, but you don't often see people littering." Actually, you can see them littering...Park near any center city market, and watch the wrappers drop like leaves off a tree in the fall.

 The Parking Authority could issue tickets for littering, but of course it's much easier to sneak away after ticketing a car, than confront a person directly.

Years ago there were not so many barbershops downtown, and the streets were clean. Now there are endless barbershops, but the streets are filthy.  People seem much more concerned about their appearance, than that of the city.

When I write posts such as this, people get very offended, and accuse me of being culturally insensitive. I could care less, but wish that they would pick up after themselves more.

photocredit: old stock photo from Baltimore Sun, not Allentown.

Boxing Tournament Sets Low Bar For Students

The  Executive Education Academy Charter School is hosting a boxing fund raiser next month... It's tone deaf on every front....

The first version of the promotion said come watch your favorite celebrity get punched in the face.  I'm actually a boxing fan, and I certainly don't think that boxers are any less intelligent or accomplished than anybody else. But, never the less, I hope that our school taxes, being diverted to charter schools, find more academic goal models for their students.  Furthermore, schools should not be staging any public event during the virus crisis.  I suppose they don't think that any of their students  aspire to a career in public health or medicine.

Because many local celebrities are involved in this promotion,  this post, like many other of my posts over the years, will offend more than a few people.  As usual, I could care less. I was offended last week when three young men shot a fourth in the head, to steal his gun. I'm offended by how low the community allows the bar to be set for our students.

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.