Growing Up Parkway

I'm a baby boomer. I was born in December of 1946. As soon as my mother climbed out of the hospital bed, another woman climbed in. I grew up in the neighborhood now called Little Lehigh Manor, wedged between Lehigh Street and the top of the ravine above Lehigh Parkway. That's me on our lawn at the intersection of Catalina and Liberator Avenues, named after airplanes made by Vultee Corporation for the War. We had our own elementary school, our own grocery store, and the park to play in. On Saturdays, older kids would take us along on the trolley, and later the bus, over the 8TH Street Bridge to Hamilton Street. There were far too many stores to see everything. After a matinee of cartoons or Flash Gordon, and a banana split at one of the five and dimes, we would take the bus back over the bridge to Lehigh Street.




Not that many people know where Lehigh Parkway Elementary School is. It's tucked up at the back of the development of twin homes on a dead end street, but I won't say exactly where. I do want to talk about the photograph. It's May Day, around 1952-53. May Day was big then, so were the unions; Most of the fathers worked at the Steel, Mack, Black and Decker, and a hundred other factories going full tilt after the war. The houses were about 8 years old, and there were no fences yet. Hundreds of kids would migrate from one yard to another, and every mother would assume some responsibility for the herd when it was in her yard. Laundry was hung out to dry. If you notice, most of the "audience" are mothers, dads mostly were at work. I'm at the front, right of center, with a light shirt and long belt tail. Don't remember the girl, but see the boy in front of me with the big head? His father had the whole basement setup year round with a huge model train layout. There were so many kid's, the school only went up to second grade. We would then be bused to Jefferson School for third through sixth grade. The neighborhood had its own Halloween Parade and Easter egg hunt. We all walked to school, no one being more than four blocks away.

reprinted from June of 2008

When Lehigh County Valued History

Back in the early 1970's, a former teacher in Allentown's West Park neighborhood borrowed my photograph of a grain mill, and championed its preservation to the Lehigh County Commissioners. Her efforts resulted in Haines Mill being preserved. It was a time when the county commissioners understood the concept of history and uniqueness. The county now preserves farmland, with the pollyanna notion that farmers will spout there, wear straw hats, and sell organic vegetables on the weekends. Although 22,000 acres have already been preserved, the county just authorized additional $millions to that end. A comment in the Morning Call said that it will insure that we have food in the future. Amazing how little people know about how food gets to the supermarket in 2016. While there is nothing unique about this farmland, and nothing really guaranteed about the preservation, it seems like progress to the environmentalists. Meanwhile, the commissioners and Historical Society turn a deaf ear to Wehr's Dam and other irreplaceable structures, being needlessly threatened.

That former teacher just passed away at 98 years of age. I still take photographs and champion for places that will never be again, but the current board of commissioners does not have the sense of history and esthetics of their predecessors.

reprinted from July of 2016

The Allentown Parking Authority Monster

Although the shopping district in Allentown has shrunk down to only Hamilton and 7th Streets, the meter district remains as it did during the heydays of the 1950's. The meters extend from Walnut to Chew, from 5th to 10th, well over 1000 meters in 20 sq. blocks. Parking meters extend out to 10th and Chew Sts, three full blocks beyond the closest store.* These meters are a defacto penalty for the residents, mostly tenants. In essence, it is a back door tax on Allentown's poorest citizens. The apologists claim the tenants can purchase a resident meter pass, however their friends and visitors cannot. To add insult to injury, in 2005, to help finance a new parking deck for the arts district, the Parking Authority doubled the meter rate and fines. Testimony to City Council permitting the rate increase indicated it was favored by the merchants. At that time I documented to the Council that in fact the merchants were not informed, much less in favor. The vote was 5 to 2, with Hershman and Hoover dissenting
* I used the above copy on my posting of October 3, 2007. In the past several weeks the Parking Authority finally removed the meters in the 900 block of Chew St, 50 years beyond their legitimate need.

UPDATE: The post above is reprinted from September 2009. I have published dozens of posts on the Parking Authority. In 2005, I conducted two press conferences on their abuses; One conference was at 10th and Chew Streets, and concerned the oversized meter zone. The second conference, directly in front of their office, concerned the fabricated merchant survey that they  presented to City Council. Old tricks die hard. Forward ahead to 2015, and the Parking Authority will once again penalize both existing merchants and residents.  The new plan is to double the meter parking rate from $1 an hour, to $2, and extend the metering time to 10:00pm.  They claim that the merchants are in favor of this plan. Although I will not conduct my own survey, as I did 2005,  their survey defies logic.  Why would any of the few surviving merchants want their customers submitted to a destination city parking rates in Allentown? Despite the hype,  Allentown is not Miami Beach or N.Y.C.. In reality, just as the taxpayers are subsidizing the arena zone,  now the merchants and residents will be subsidizing the arena plan through punitive parking rates.

UPDATE Memorial Day Weekend 2015: I did end up asking several merchants, and no, they were not surveyed. Eight years from the original date of this post, and the Authority is still up to the same shenanigans.   Reilly's City Center tenants, merchants and customers will get a free pass for the Authority's inconvenient parking lots. Other existing tenants in the NIZ, such as the south side of the 900 block of Walnut Street, will not be eligible for residential parking permits.  If you have a problem with any of this, remember, you must now put money in the meter at night, before  complaining to City Council.

UPDATE MARCH 20, 2020:  As of noon yesterday, the Parking Authority suspended tickets in the residential permit zones.  However, normal parking meter tickets will continue.  This would have of course punish merchants still open for business during this virus crisis. However, while there are virtually no merchants left on Hamilton Street since the NIZ revitalization, the punishment would have mostly affect the minority merchants on 7th Street....or in other words, life as usual in Allentown. Governor Wolf has declared that all non-essential businesses must close. Will the monster also now stand down?

UPDATE OCTOBER 20, 2020: Numerous voters trying to drop off their ballots at Government Center at 7th and Hamilton, report that the monster has awoken, and is giving out tickets. 

Disgrace On Front Street

Students of this blog know that I'm not a big fan of the Allentown Economic Development Corporation.  Under the Pawlowski regime, they adopted his practice of fluff and puff, devoid of much substance.  Up until now my biggest complaint was their ridiculous plan on restoring the Barber Quarry branch rail line to S. 10 Street.  Although I always oppose removing existing tracks,  there is absolutely no reason to restore now missing tracks on speculation.  The probability of them attracting an industry heavy enough to need rail service is no better than zero.  So far, in about 15 years,  all they managed to do is put a go-kart track in a former Mack factory.  Although they have a $multi-$million $dollar budget, I know landlords who better manage more properties with a pickup truck and cellphone.

But today's post is about the former Neuweiler Brewery.  Mike Fleck, Pawlowski's former indicted campaign/business manager,  hooked up Ruckus Brewing with the AEDC,  which gave them the Neuweiler property.  Although Ruckus is primarily a couple young marketing guys with no actual brewing or property development experience,  they were given several extensions on their Neuweiler option.  They are now allowed to harvest income from renting storage space in the former distribution portion of the brewery, but have made no repairs to the brewery portion itself.  Understand that Pawlowski had the former owner actually jailed for conditions at the property, which is in much worse shape now.

The current condition brings us to a new chapter. Despite its imposing industrial architecture, the building may be beyond feasible saving at this point.  Now anything can be saved, but at what cost? The building is under the public expense program called NIZ.  The NIZ is a unique program, which uses public tax dollars for private ownership.  I would prefer that my state tax dollars not be diverted to save this wreck,  only to enrich some NYC owners.

Now for a reality check.  Only this blog (later joined by LV Ramblings) sounded the whistle on Pawlowski's Allentown.  Only this blog chronicled the situation down at the former brewery. Bureaucrats are always reluctant to cut bait on their previous poor decisions.

above reprinted from 2018

ADDENDUM OCTOBER 19, 2020: Although I have been waging a write-in campaign for State Representative in the 183rd District, the Morning Call hasn't reported my candidacy to their readers in those communities,  which  they purport to serve. Furthermore, they know that unlike many candidates, I do not need the job or career, and that I have been an activist about government for decades. 

Those seeking better representation, and better use of their tax dollars, should network my write-in candidacy to their friends in the district.

The Short Life Of Allentown Bill 72

On Wednesday night, Daryl Hendricks introduced a Resign To Run Rule, co-sponsored by Julio Guridy. The bill stated that city employees must resign their position before running for office, and that elected officals, such as city council members, must be in the last year of their term before declaring for another office. Hendricks maintains that such rules help against corruption, and we all know that former mayor Pawlowski is in the big house. 

His proposal woke up the dais, since half of council, and a third of city employees, want to try for the top office in 2021. 

By the time the meeting ended, Julio withdrew his sponsorship. While Julio himself is in his last year, he realized the bill itself was deck stacking. 

The bill reminded me of the old Charlie Tuna ads, when the fish dresses up, hoping to be caught by the Tuna Company. He is informed that they are looking for Tuna that taste good, not just looks good.

One result of the short lived proposal was that Leonard Lightner, Community Development Director, declared his intention to run for mayor. Previously, this was a widely known secret.

Pawlowski's corruption was no surprise to those of us who followed city hall. While we didn't know contract details, we knew that a heavy hand was pushing people around. This blog reported on his shenanigans for years. Combine a strong arm mayor and a complacent local newspaper for a decade, and you get a Pawlowski.

The Sunday Drive

My family wasn't much for recreation.  My father worked six days a week, from early morning until early evening.  We did go for a long car ride on Sundays.  Back then gasoline was cheap, and having no destination wasn't thought of as wasteful.  Children were more content to sit in the back seat and look out the window, now they want a video screen in the vehicle.



Even children's play then involved more imagination and interaction.  Howdy Doody was just a puppet on strings, who spend most of his time talking to an adult, Buffalo Bob, can you imagine?

 Sitting in that back seat in the mid fifties, I might well had



my "coonskin" hat with me.  Fess Parker was a genuine American hero.  It mattered little if he played both Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone, both were king of the wild frontier.  The ride probably lasted for two hours and then we would go to a restaurant to eat dinner.  Compared to now, there were very few restaurants.



My mother would cook all the other meals that week, and we probably ate out more than most.  Supermarkets were the new rage in food shopping, but the butcher, baker and candle stick maker were still going strong.  If my father headed west or south, chances are we ended up at Shankweiler's Hotel, famous for chicken and waffles.   They were at the intersection of Old 22 and Route 100.  The building still exists and currently is a bank.  The family also owned another hotel on Route 309.  Both locations also operated adjoining Drive-In movies.



If my father headed north or east,  we would end up at Walp's, which was on the corner of Union Blvd. and Airport Road.  Walp's was a much more urban place.   While Shankweiler's was an old country inn,  Walp's was built as a modern restaurant.  I enjoyed those rides, they were a learning experience.

reprinted from previous years