What The Morning Call Could Learn From Allentown

I chuckled the other day when I read Bill White's column about what developers could learn from Levittown.  White was referring to the planned neighborhood development in the early 1950's with its own school.  What he didn't realize was that south Allentown's Little Lehigh Manor, from the early 1940's, was one of first in the country complete with its own school. It was followed in a couple of years by Midway Manor on the east side.

Allentown and the Lehigh Valley led the way during post war era with its heavy industry, commerce and technology. More so, we had a locally owned paper familiar with both the history and local doings of the time. The publisher then was a founder and partner in Park & Shop, a cornerstone of the booming Hamilton Street in Allentown. 

The Morning Call changed from local ownership to national newspaper chains. Although only a few blocks from city hall, they were clueless about a mayor rigging contracts for over a decade. Whistle blowers such as myself were branded naysayers and blocked from the letters page. 

Now I still learn from the paper...There are good reporters covering local government and events. However, it is up to readers and local commentators like myself to point out patterns and possible abuses.... The Morning Call has no motivation to take on the establishment in any way.

photo shows Mayday at Parkway Elementary School, one of the first planned neighborhood schools in the country

Fairview Cemetery, An Allentown Dilemma

The condition of Fairview Cemetery has been in decline for decades.  It first caught my attention in 1997, when I began hunting for the grave of a young woman who died in 1918. 

By 1900, Fairview was Lehigh Valley's most prestigious cemetery.  It would become the final resting place of Allentown's most prominent citizens, including Harry Trexler, John Leh, Jack Mack and numerous others.  Despite my status as a dissident chronicler of local government and a critic of the local press,  my postings caught the attention of a previous editor at the Morning Call, whose own grandmother is buried at Fairview.  While the paper did a story on my efforts in 2008,  and I did manage to coordinate a meeting between management and some concerned citizens,  any benefit to the cemetery's condition was short lived.

Internet search engines have long arms. In the following years I would receive messages from various people upset about conditions at the cemetery.  A few years ago, Tyler Fatzinger became interested in the cemetery, and took it upon himself to start cleaning up certain areas. I suggested to Taylor that he start a facebook page, so that concerned citizens and distressed relatives might connect.  Once again the situation caught the paper's attention, and another story appeared in 2019.  Tyler Fatzinger was recently informed by the cemetery operator that he was trespassing, and must cease from his efforts to improve the cemetery.

Why would both the cemetery and city establishments reject help, and discourage shining a light on this situation? Orphan cemeteries are a problem across the country. An orphan cemetery is an old cemetery no longer affiliated with an active congregation or a funded organization.  These cemeteries are often large, with no concerned descendants or remaining funds.  While perpetual care may have been paid by family decades earlier,  those funds in current dollars are woefully short.

In Fairview's case, the current management operates a crematorium and also conducts new burials on the grounds. Funds from the previous management were supposedly not passed forward.  While the Trexler Trust maintains Harry Trexler's grave, and a few other plots are privately maintained,  there understandably is no desire to take responsibility for the entire sixty acre cemetery. The current operator provides minimal care to the cemetery,  with even less for those sections toward the back.  While the cemetery grass may only be cut twice a season,  that's still more care than a true "orphan cemetery" would receive.  Some of the new burials appear to be on old plots, owned by other families, but unused for many, many decades, and on former areas designated as pathways between those plots. There seems to be no regulatory oversight. Recently, both state senator Pat Browne and the Orloski Law firm have acted in behalf of the cemetery operator.

While family members may be exasperated by the neglect,  local government does not seem eager to adopt either the problem or the expense of Fairview Cemetery.

A Family Story

This post is unusually personal for this blog.  My grandfather came to Allentown from Russian Lithuania  in 1891.  In the next few years he was joined by his parents, and five siblings.   The family settled on 2nd Street, along with many other Jewish immigrants of that period.  He worked in various jobs, including a cigar factory, until he could establish himself as a butcher, as in the old country.  Because we were here for over a hundred years,  I consider myself somewhat of a local historian.

As a boy growing up in Little Lehigh Manor, on the ridge above Lehigh Parkway, I explored the WPA structures when they were still comparatively new.  Because of that background, I was able to uncover the Boat Landing, and advocate for our  traditional park system.  One of my father's uncles worked for the park system, caring for Lehigh Parkway.

What brought me to this post is my great grandmother's tombstone in Fountain Hill, which I recently visited.  She is buried in an old Jewish cemetery that is no longer in use. Although, her tombstone is very old, it replaced an even older one , that then laid behind the former Wentz's tombstone factory at 20th and Hamilton, for many decades.  I am the last Molovinsky in Allentown.

photo taken behind Wentz's before recent demolition of that facility.

reprinted from previous years

Waging War Against Allentown Park Weeds

Today, molovinsky leaves downtown Hamilton Street, and travels twenty blocks west to Cedar Park.  As an advocate for the traditional park system, I have been waging a war against the riparian buffers, which make our  magnificent parks an unsightly mess.  In Allentown, because the storm runoff systems are piped directly into the park streams, these token buffers are just a useless, unsightly insult.  This hot summer, this insult is added to injury, because Cedar Beach Pool is closed. Along the entire length of Cedar Park, there is not one area cleared of high weeds.  You would think that out of a mile of creek side,  we could mow the grass for at least fifty feet,  so that some children might enjoy the stream, as generations have in the past.

photo by molovinsky

above reprinted from July 29 of 2015 

UPDATE JUNE 10, 2021: I haven't made much progress in my park battle against the weed wall. There is now a very small area on either side of the creek by the wooden cross over bridge, just west of the Rose Garden, where a mother with children can access the creek...There should be more such spots.  The park system still struggles to find lifeguards to man our swimming pools.  I still speak out on such issues.

The Arts Walk, Taxpayer's Merry-Go-Round

I find the revitalization of Allentown incredibly unexciting... It's rather unbelievable that there could be a $billion dollars of new construction, but not 10 cents worth of new vibe.

Despite Morning Call article after article, about both new office workers and more apartments, nothing has changed. Walking or driving down Hamilton Street during the week shows little sign of life. On the weekends, there is no sign of life.

By any measure other than J.B. Reilly's real estate portfolio, it is an incredible taxpayer funded failure. The only enthusiasm is from those with a vested interest.

pictured above, some former merchants of the Arts Walk who have come and gone.

Allentown School District Retrospective

One of the most amazing things about Allentown is that the population, despite the problems, has remained about the same since 1928. That was the year Allentown celebrated reaching 100,000. Today, we are about 106.000. Although the numbers stayed the same, the demographics have changed drastically. We are now officially a minority city. When I grew up, there was a saying, If you ain't Dutch, you ain't much. How's that for political correctness? Today, if you want to see a Pennsylvania Dutchman, you have to look at the picture on a bag of pretzels.

During my school years, a delinquent was a kid smoking a cigarette in the alley. Today, we have machete attacks, and parents beating someone else's kid in a classroom. In this environment, should we be concerned about math scores in Singapore? There is a disconnect between the discipline problems and the preoccupation for better scores on the standardized tests; Increasing civility is much more important. If we could get that math score up, will the public overlook the machete attack? We'll build a new school next to Jackson Elementary, move the students, and put the machete attackers in the old Jackson. Then, we'll take the real achievers and put them in an academy of excellence. Let's hope not too many parents insist that their child belongs in the academy. Let's hope that the prison school works out. We all agree that all the students are a precious commodity. What we really need is safe classrooms, conducive to learning. We need supervised streets, conducive for getting to and from school safely. Isn't it interesting that a child can leave Central Catholic at 4th and Chew, and be safer than a child leaving William Allen at 17th and Chew?

The photograph, from the late 1940's, shows a kindergarden class before Lehigh Parkway Elementary School was completed. One of the twin houses served both as the neighborhood school and church.

reprinted from December 2010

UPDATE JUNE 8, 2021: Several years ago the district had a national search for a new superintendent, preoccupied with hiring a minority, who more resembled the students. The gentleman is now moving on to a bigger district and paycheck, and the district is again conducting a national search. If the school board weren't such slow learners they would hire their best administrator from within, regardless of color.