Welcome To The Vendig

In 1933, with the end of Prohibition, my grandparents(maternal) started operating the Vendig Hotel. They were the working partners, another immigrant family, here longer, were the silent backers. The hotel was directly across from the current Main Street Depot Restaurant in Bethlehem, which was the old New Jersey Line Terminal. With my grandmother cooking, they became well known for crab cakes and other shelled seafood. What wasn't known, was that she was strictly kosher, and never even tasted anything she prepared. As some may recall, my grandparents came from Hungarian Transylvania (now Romania) in the early 20's. Family lore* says Bela Lugosi visited the hotel. Lugosi was born in the same area of then Hungary, and started his acting career playing Jesus in Passion Plays. In 1931, after immigrating to America years earlier, he got his big break playing Dracula. Typecast as a villain, Lugosi was reduced in later years to drug addiction and playing in low budget monster films. He died in the mid 50's and was buried in his Dracula cape.

*My uncle, who as a boy lived above the hotel, had no recollection of Lugosi. The partner families would later merge through marriage, and 40 years later come to own the old vaudeville theater in South Bethlehem known as The Globe. It too is gone.                                                      

reprinted from 2008

Defending Monocacy Park

I have often explained to people how Allentown WPA projects came to benefit so much from Harry Trexler.  In the late 1920's Trexler commissioned Franklin Meehan, a leading Philadelphia-based landscape architect, to design the park system for Allentown. When the depression hit in 1929, Trexler put implementing those plans on hold.  In 1935, when the New Deal WPA came to town,  the city was shovel ready with plans commissioned years earlier by Trexler. 

In the last decade (and before) I have been an advocate for maintaining the WPA structures within our park system.  While Allentown can boast of numerous magnificent structures, Bethlehem also received the royal treatment with the construction of the elaborate dam complex in Monocacy Park. 

Unfortunately for Bethlehem, the Wildlands Conservancy still has its sights set on demolishing that and all other dams. Although they publicly state that they respect a municipality's decisions on such matters, they never stop moving forward with their agenda.  They poison the well behind the scenes with state agencies, which have regulation over dams.  In South Whitehall, their scheming with counterparts in Harrisburg has driven the cost of keeping Wehr's Dam from $50K to $750K.

While I cannot actively take on the mission of protecting the Monocacy Dam, the least I can do is sound the alarm.  If there are people out there who realize that Bethlehem will never again be graced with such a magnificent park,  they should start organizing to defend it.

Sledding In Allentown

The photograph shown above is from 1958. It was taken in Little Lehigh Manor, the 1940's era housing development located above Lehigh Parkway's south ridge. I had the pleasure of growing up in that neighborhood. Our sledding hill of choice was above the Log and Stone House. 

Other popular sledding hills were in Allentown's west end,  behind Cedar Crest College, and Ott Street, between Livingston and Greenleaf Streets.  Years ago, a bridge crossed the creek by the park office at 30th and Parkway Blvd., with a parking area for sledders by the Cedar Crest hill. The Ott Street hill was closed to cars by the city, as an accommodation for sledders.  None of these hills are now accessible to a kid with a sled.

photo courtesy of S. Williams

reprinted from previous years

ADDENDUM THANKSGIVING 2021: Allentown is sledding into a new era, with a new mayor set for January. The Allentown of my youth, in the 1950's, is melting away. This blog, printed every weekday, is a chronicle of the past and a commentary on the present. My other project, Facebook group Allentown Chronicles, provides a venue for more participants.

Matt Tuerk's Transition Team

Matt Tuerk announced his transition team with pronouns after every name (he/him, she/her).  The pronouns concern me a little, because there are issues at city hall which should not be eclipsed by a preoccupation with political correctness. Missing on the transition team was yours truly (he/him), but rest assured that the new mayor will still receive my advice, probably in a much more public fashion than he would prefer.

Tuerk also announced that city hall personnel will stay as is. Many of those positions were filled and advanced by Pawlowski on less than the best practices, and were then left in place by O'Connell. Consequently, in some positions of authority there is still a reflection of Pawlowski's imperial attitude.  I can understand Tuerk wanting to start the journey with an experienced crew,  but I'm hoping to see some changes as time passes. We can no longer--for example--have a property owner targeted for amusement or revenge. We can no longer have supervisors who condone such bullying.

Music From The Morning Call

Readers of this blog know that I'm very critical of the Morning Call.  My criticism is both long standing and well informed.  Over the decades I've seen them contort numerous issues, both through taking politicians' statements at face value, and outright omission. My accusation is as recent as this past spring's article on Wehr's Dam.

On the other hand, I keep reminding readers that we're fortunate to still have a local paper. Most of the reporting is accurate, and without them we would be much more in the dark.  I take sincere pleasure in complimenting current columnist Paul Muschick. 

Muschick has been producing forthright articles, taking local institutions to task for their shortcomings. Recently, he has taken aim at the Parking Authority and our State House. 

Muschick is very good.  To get blogger mean, he'd have to work in a slaughter house and collect rent downtown.

A River Of Money Flows Through Allentown

Any official who was anybody, was under the Tilghman Street Bridge last week praising the new road to be built, wedged between Front Street and the river.  The Morning Call in their glowing article was wrong in its first line, The road stretches for about 3.5 miles on the east side of Allentown, and no more accurate thereafter. 

East Allentown of course is on the other side of the river, on the east side, and never gets anything.  If the money and project was going to the east side, then it would be indeed the big deal our bloated officials make this out to be. However, the bloaters and their erroneousness statements brought a smirk to my face, well worth the $22to$55 $million $dollars being $wasted. The Jaindl portion of the road being built is referred to as "private money."  I suppose in the world of bureaucratic grants, public money from another source, such as the NIZ diverted state taxes, almost seems like private to them.

Over the decades I watched the bureaucrats involved mature from interns to fully salaried public pontificators. State Rep Schlossberg warned that roads can be racist, but no worry, Hasshan Batts is on traffic duty.

Half a block to the west, Front Street will still run the same path from Hamilton Street north to Whitehall. Many thousands of people, over a hundred and fifty years, took dozens of small roads into their workplaces along the river during our prosperous past.  Taxes and public good came from those enterprises. Now our taxes will flow the other way, to benefit the connected bloaters.