Light Rail, Circa 1935

The Lehigh Valley Transit Company ran a trolley between 8th and Hamilton and just outside Philadelphia between 1901 and 1951. In 1913 the company completed the 8th Street Bridge, which remains one of Allentown's icons to this day.



The Liberty Bell functioned as a trolley as it stopped in Coopersburg, Quakertown, Sellersville and the different towns along the way, but approached speeds of eighty miles a hour on the open track between them. At the last station in Upper Darby, passengers could transfer to a different company to complete the ride into center city Philadelphia.










Here in the Valley the company transitioned to buses by the early 1950's, and became part of Lanta in 1972. Lanta and Easton officials might take notice that the Allentown Ticket Office, shown in above photo, is only 75 feet from 8th and Hamilton, which was the center of the business district. The intercity rail beds are pretty much gone now. The same people who now advocate light-rail, couldn't wait to tear up the tracks and make bike paths.

reprinted from May 2010

Using A Bad Lesson Well Taught In Philadelphia

Back on May 4th, before the death in police custody in Minneapolis, I wrote about Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw.  She instructed the police force not to arrest for minor infractions, like theft and prostitution, during the virus crisis. Large groups of young people were running amok in center city Philadelphia convenience stores,  scooping up everything their backpacks could hold. Meanwhile at City Hall, woke mayor Jim Kenney stayed silent about this decline in civilization. Only after a couple weeks, after a merchant and citizen backlash, did Outlaw and Kenney finally reverse policy.

Philadelphia inner city kids were taught a bad lesson by their police commissioner and mayor. 

Perhaps with that lesson fresh in their mind, some of them may have graduated to the looting this past weekend.

My first reaction to the looting on Walnut and Chestnut Streets was that the police must have stood down. How could looters smash windows and enter a Wells Fargo Bank without being stopped? How could all that theft and destruction only result in 13 arrests Saturday night?

I realize that there are a limited number of police and that Philadelphia is a large city. While I can't pass judgement on the police response, I will on the looters shown above. I do not believe that their thinking centered on George Floyd and institutional racism, but rather about what they could steal.

Here in the Lehigh Valley, the mayors and police chiefs conveyed their commitment to social justice.  But more importantly,  the local protestors expressed their hopes and solidarity in a lawful manner.

photocredit:Steven Falk/Philadelphia Inquirer

Allentown's Jewish Band And Scrap Iron

In 1915, Allentown's Judaean Band was the first Jewish band in the United States.  It had started with a group of young men at a 6th Ward soda fountain.  Many of the original members didn't have, or even know how to play an instrument.  Jacob Max, the Tilghman Street scrap dealer, took the group under wing, and sponsored the music lessons, instruments and uniforms. The band had great  success for a few years, until its ranks were depleted by service in the Great War.

Among the members was Harry Molovinsky, my grandfather's youngest sibling, and Jakey Max, a prizefighter who became Allentown's first Jewish firefighter.

Jakey worked at the extended family scrapyard for a short while, after both Jacob and his son were killed in separate traffic accidents. The scrapyard stayed in the Max family until 1972.  Today it's called Liberty Recycling.

Voters' Intent On Wehr's Dam Disregarded

South Whitehall, urged on by Commissioner Matt Mobilio,  has confirmed that they have no inclination to keep Wehr's Dam.   They feel no obligation to honor the voters' referendum of 2016 to save the dam.  They have distorted the voters' intent, and rationalize that anything over the $600k authorized by the referendum, frees them from any such obligation.

During the meeting of May 20, they said if we choose to keep the dam.

   The voters already chose that in 2016.  That amount of $600K was put in only as a fair faith estimate.

During the meeting of May 20, they said things outside of our control  affect the cost.

   The township and commissioners intentionally allowed things to get out of their control, by allowing the Wildlands Conservancy, dedicated to demolishing dams,  to interact with state DEP about the dam.  This ex-parte communication between the Wildlands and the DEP, not mentioned at the meeting, has escalated the repair into a rebuild.

Matt Mobilio wondered aloud during the meeting how they can get out from under this obligation. The board agreed to release to the general fund money set aside every year for the dam.

What Mobilio doesn't seem to understand is democracy... just as voters intended him to serve as a commissioner, they intended the dam to be kept.

The Matt Mobilios of the valley have it easy with a complicit newspaper.  For over three years, and three editors, the Morning Call has refused to publish my letters about the conspiracy against Wehr's Dam and the voters of South Whitehall.

photocredit: Jason Fink

Duck Paté Once Again At Cedar Park

In yesterday's post, I wrote about the Poison Hemlock and other invasive species taking over the creek banks in the Allentown Park System. This is a result of the ill-advised riparian buffers, promoted by the Wildlands Conservancy.

Yesterday morning the park department started to clear cut the stream banks in Cedar Park, the only way to get rid of the invasives. Removing them by hand would require the labor of the whole department, for the whole summer.

The buffers serve no ecological purpose in Allentown, because the storm water is piped directly into the streams, under the buffers.  However, the Wildlands Conservancy never lets specific realities get in the way of their generalized science.

These faux buffers have numerous victims. Yesterday this year's batch of ducklings were turned into paté  and mulch, when the mower went over their nests. For the rest of the summer, the city will allow the faux buffer to grow,  blocking both view and access to the creek.  It's not a good plan for the ducks or the children.

Allentown should defer to General Trexler's landscape architect, and again allow its citizens to enjoy the parks, as designed.

Beauty and Beast In Allentown Parks

My recent photograph of a Blue Heron in Cedar Park has a slight Rousseau quality to it.  The visual element contributing to that effect is the white flowered plant behind the beauty.  Unfortunately, that element is a beast, Poison Hemlock, an invasive species which is taking over the creek bank.

While I campaign against the Wild Conservancy's riparian buffers in our parks,  so do real botanists.  To keep such invasive species from along our un-mowed creeks would ironically take much more labor than simply cutting the grass.  Unfortunately, for the iconic Allentown Park System, the Wildlands and their invasive species are winning the war.  Last week the park department planted 100 trees, not along the creek banks, but 75 ft out, at the edge of the Conservancy's designated buffer border. 

Although I have lost the buffer battle, I will continue to fight for the WPA,  hoping to save some structures.

Allentown truly had an iconic park system.  It's a shame that it doesn't have the will or sense to preserve such an asset.