Waiting In The Wings In Allentown

The Morning Call is featuring a story on the recent protests and the leaders thereof. The theme is that Allentown is now a minority-majority community, and these new groups are the new message.  Never mind that during the recent protests the chants included We Demand Or...., Defund The Police and F*ck The Police.

Other minority-majority communities which had the same dialogue decades ago, such as Detroit and Chicago,  have high crime rates, despite ample minority representation.  Cities which have ostracized their police departments, like Baltimore, have officers routinely stand down  or call out sick.

Allentown's demographic changes have been reflected in its changing governance.  Currently, three of the seven council members are from minority communities. The police department is headed by a chief respected by all sectors of the population.

I believe, factoring everything in, that Allentown is doing fairly well.  The strawberry pie in Hess's Patio is never coming back. Most people now in Allentown don't even know what that reference means.  Even those who want changes should be careful what they wish for.

photocredit:WLVR-FM

ADDENDUM: I expect this post to be my last in regard to the event of last Saturday, and the protests that followed thereafter. In addition to those events, the Morning Call treatment of the story also deserved examination. I suspect that their coverage was more sympathetic to the protesters, than to the sentiments of their remaining paid subscribers.

UPDATE JULY 17, 6:30PM: Although the district attorney determined that the police acted reasonably last Saturday, those same "leaders" glorified by the Morning Call are now calling for the officer to be fired and more demonstrations, starting tonight.

A Park Problem In Allentown

reprinted from May of 2018

Ray O'Connell invited me to his office this week to talk about problems with the WPA structures in the park system.  My invitation was a long time coming.

In 2009, I started conducting a series of meetings at the Allentown Library, to inform the public about the deteriorating condition of the WPA structures.  In subsequent years, I organized a group effort to unearth the Boat Landing, which was buried decades earlier by a former park director.  I convinced the former water shed director to unearth the Spring Pond, which was allowed to become overgrown.  I unsuccessfully attempted to save the miniature dam, which was built to complement the Robin Hood Bridge in 1941. The city foolishly allowed the Wildlands Conservancy to destroy this charming accent.  I conducted tours of the Parkway, both public and private.

This week I proposed to Mayor O'Connell that the park department simply spend $25 thousand each season(out of their $3 million dollar annual budget),  and have one structure repointed. Two years ago, Karen El-Chaar from Friends Of The Parks, secured a grant through the Trexler Trust for $25 thousand.  With that modest amount she had the steps repointed at Fountain Park.  El-Chaar attended my meetings years ago, and became interested in the cause.  Unfortunately, the city government works in a much more bureaucratic fashion. Also in attendance this week was park department foreman Rick Holtzman, who elaborated on the process.  Work is preceded by an engineering study, which can end up costing as much as the work.  Bids are then put out, and responding stone masons must be bonded in order to be eligible to bid.  Consequently,  very few contractors bother to bid, and the prices are much, much higher than they need be.  However,  that is Mr. Holtzman's dilemma....  My mission is to point out what needs to be done,  and publicize the progress, or lack thereof.

For over a year I have been lobbying for the landings to be repaired on the double stairwell in Lehigh Parkway.  If these landings are not repaired this season, the steps themselves will be jeopardized.

I appreciated Mayor O'Connell's time.  The park department, despite the bidding process,  is managing to open a dog park and build a skateboard park.  Several years ago they managed to spend over  $1.5 million buying two unnecessary new parcels.  Since I started advocating for the WPA over a decade ago, the park department has built numerous new features, and spend many $millions of dollars doing so.  In all those years they have not done one thing for the WPA.  They rebuilt part of the Parkway wall,  but only after it fell down from neglect, closing the park entrance.  It is now time that they start maintaining the structures which first made this city's park system a destination.

reprinted from from May of 2018

UPDATE JULY 16, 2020: The remainder of the entrance wall, including the double stairwell, is in the process of being repointed, courtesy of the Trexler Trust. Although the deteriorated landings are not included in the specifications, I am hopeful that Allentown/Trexler Trust will include them.

Morning Call Changes Tune

The lead Morning Call article about the police incident at Sacred Heart Hospital changed its tune and subtitle as yesterday progressed. In the earlier version, they quoted an expert on police use of force, who stated that the officers did nothing wrong.

In the next version of the story they featured a local black professor, who criticized the police for wanting to control the man, rather than treat his apparent illness. It seems to me that this professor has his policemen and doctors mixed up. The opinion of the policing expert is still in the article, but now at the end, beyond the attention span of many readers.

I cannot recall an article which changed its tune so drastically. I cannot help but wonder if the progression was organic because of the additional expert, or editorially the paper decided it was unfashionable to side with the police.

Tonight Allentown City Council will be besieged by those invested against the police, hopefully council will defend our blue line.

picture of upcoming book by professor quoted in Morning Call article

Allentown's Floating Opera

In John Barth's famous story Floating Opera, the author notes that the town folk can only see that part of the performance as the barge with the actors floats by. They do not know what happened before or after the floating stage is within their view.  So it appears with the incident Saturday night in front of Sacred Heart Hospital.

While the short video, which circulated social media Saturday evening, ends the policeman's knee on the sick man's head, it doesn't show that it was only there for a total of about five seconds, and only there to facilitate getting a spit shield installed, to protect the hospital personnel from germs.

At the midnight demonstration Saturday night, and again last night during the protest march, the leaders were demanding the name of the officer. They were demanding that the police be defunded. They were chanting F*ck The Police. 

If ever there was a thankless job, those police officers have it. 

photocredit:Rick Kintzel/The Morning Call
Full video at hospital from WFMZ

Saturday Night Protest In Allentown

What may turn out to have been an officer's knee momentarily on a defendants head while being constrained and handcuffed, brought the justice warriors and virtue signalers out in force on Saturday night. Shouting that if they don't get what they want, they will burn it down, the march went up Hamilton Street to the police station at 10th.

Although Mayor O'Connell and Police Chief Granitz came to the protest to explain that an investigation will be conducted, the protesters persisted to know how soon they can expect satisfaction?

The video ends one second after the officer uses his knee as an extra hand. Did it remain there, and for how long?  Although social media called it a knee on the neck, that also isn't clear, and it appears that the knee is more up toward the combatants ear. Those that are leading these groups, and so anxious to ferment tension, are not unlike those who yell fire in a movie theater.

So far two city council members, Ce-Ce Gerlach and Josh Siegel. have joined ranks with the protestors.  Gerlach at least questioned her dual role as a resident and council member,  while Siegel thinks that his council cohorts who favor due process,  must go.  He clearly doesn't belong behind the dais.

Allentown and its minority populations are lucky to have Glenn Granitz as chief.  I know of no previous chief in Allentown's history who has been more available and responsive to the public.  The protesters must also realize that he is administrator of the police department,  and that those officers, as anybody else, deserve due process in any inquiry.

screen shot of Chief Glenn Granitz facing protesters Saturday night.

UPDATE JULY 13, 2020: Although molovinsky is usually published weekdays, this was posted Sunday morning, in reaction to the protest Saturday night. The normal schedule will resume tomorrow.

UPDATE 9:00AM:WFMZ has changed its website copy to reflect that the policeman's knee was on the defendants head, not neck.

The Mighty Atom

Years ago at the Allentown Fair, as one would push through a sea of carney delusion, tucked back by the 4H animals was an island of reality. There, in an old battered truck, an ancient Jewish strongman performed incredible feats of strength, to sell only homemade kosher soap. Standing on a platform on the rear of his truck, flanked by photographs from his performing youth, he would bent horse shoes and bite through nails. Many years earlier, my mother as a little girl in Bethlehem, saw him pull a truck uphill with his hair. Even as an old man, like a reincarnation of Samson, his grey hair was still long.
In the summers of 1964 and 1965, myself and a friend,(Fred Schoenk, retired Allentown art teacher) made and sold printed tee-shirts at the fair. We had the honor to know Joseph Greenstein(The Mighty Atom) and his wife. For those interested, there are various articles on the Mighty Atom and even at least one book. Enjoy the fair!

reprinted annually since 2007

The Allentown Fair has been cancelled for 2020 because of the coronavirus.