Was Guridy First Latino Council Member?

A Morning Call article on Saturday described Julio Guridy as Allentown's first Latino council member. Recently, Matt Tuerk was described as our first Latino mayor by the paper. If Tuerk's Cuban grandmother qualified him as a first, then certainly Martin Velazquez's Puerto Rican father made him the first Hispanic council member in 1994.  

In fairness to the paper, Velazquez's terms were many years ago, and the "First Latino" was missing from both the headline and article by Sunday. Guridy and Velazquez were both motivated to run in opposition to Emma Tropiano, especially her sponsored ordinance on English as the official language. Marty also became a candidate for mayor, and beat Emma Tropiano in the primary by one vote. 

I do agree with the article about Julio's contributions to Allentown. Although he and I over the years had some heated discussions, both in the council chamber and on the street, Allentown has certainly benefitted from his devotion to the city.

A Supremo Christmas

While I've never shown much enthusiasm for J.B. Reilly's attempt to revitalize downtown through his high end shops, neither has the marketplace. Christmas day, I visited the new Supremo Market on 7th Street, occupying the former Levine's Fabric store. The market was attractive, large, well stocked and mobbed.

There is an old saying that there are more nickels than quarters. I suppose that it should be no surprise that in a city populated by a large percentage of low income people, a well run store geared for that demographic can prosper. What's interesting is that while the taxpayer ponied up a $Billion dollars, so far, for the NIZ, the thriving Supremo costs us nothing. While the Morning Call writes one promotion after another for Reilly's portfolio, there is nothing said about this real success story in Allentown.

Let me provide some history.  Once upon a time,  that was the busiest block on 7th Street. The building was built as a Sears and Roebucks in the early 1950's, using a plan duplicated in other cities. The store did well competing with the three local department stores, and was first to go suburban.

Talking of history, some may notice a new item on this blog's sidebar. It's a picture of a Mack Truck Magazine cover, which was printed each month. I have titled the new insertion, LOCAL HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE.  Hopefully, the local political shenanigans will slow down, so I can devote more posts to our rich history.

stock photo from Supremo website

above post reprinted every December since 2015 

Allentown School District

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. 

above reprinted from December of 2010 

UPDATE DECEMBER 16, 2021: Much has happen, and much hasn't, since I wrote this piece a decade ago. We have some new school buildings, with a middle school finally on the drawing board for the east side. We have been through a series of superintendents. We now have an unwritten requirement that he/she must be a person of color. Recent progress in our system, along with the rest of the nation, has been stymied by the pandemic. I remain blunt and devoid of PC.

Allentown's Managing Director Position Superfluous

In 1996 when the current city charter (home rule) was approved, Allentown had decided against a manager, choosing instead to stay with the strong mayor system.  However, when Ed Pawlowski assumed office in January of 2006, he appointed a managing director anyway,  even though the position had never existed before in city hall. City Council at the time erroneously approved the redundant position.  I might point out that the particular director ended up being indicted by the FBI on his second round in that position.

When Leonard Lightner complained the other day that he was picking up the slack for the currently unfilled position, someone with more institutional memory might have informed him that at best he was just performing the duties originally intended for his Community Development position. 

I commend city council for putting the position on hold for now. I suggest that both council and Matt Tuerk reference the charter, so that they might become more familiar with which positions are actually mandated. Furthermore, I suggest that all discretionary positions be phased out, so that the police department can be expanded even beyond current recommendations. Perceptions of public safety and livability are quickly eroding.

postcard showing the new city hall in 1962

Nagy Novelty Company

In Downtown Allentown's commercial years, stores extended 3 blocks out from Hamilton Street. The only remaining remnant of that era is the parking meters, which apparently haven't noticed that the stores have been gone now for over 30 years. A magic shop mentioned in the previous post was on 9th Street, between Linden and Turner. On 8th Street, also a couple blocks off Hamilton, was the Nagy Novelty Company. The dictionary defines novelty as a small, often cheap, cleverly made article, usually for amusement. The Nagy's had thousands of them, floor to ceiling. There were little jokes and gags, sometimes risque, passed around parties in the 40's and 50's. When you pulled " Miss Lola, The Snappy Bubble Dancer" leg's out, your finger got snapped. 

The Nagy's, an ancient father, son and dog, stayed open till around 1980. I was never sure which one was the son. To me, as an aficionado of the old and curious, the store was a shrine. Items which they sold for a few cents, now sell on ebay for many dollars. They manufactured their own greeting cards. Shown here is the front and inside of an embossed card probably dating back to the 1920's.

reprinted from December of 2008

A Reflection On Christmas Lights

When I was a child, when it came to Christmas lights, more seemed better. I recall my father taking us to see a house out on Union Street, beyond Union Terrace, which decorated lawn, house and roof. The home owner continued that tradition for many years, until he became too old to perform that labor of love. 

When I became older and more visual, I found less decorations more tasteful. Not only was I drawn to less, but also older. Over the years my camera would turn to the retro decorations, especially those faded and shopworn. The film elmusion has held up better than my memory...I can only guess where the photo above was taken. 

Today's inflatables are not, in my opinion, camera worthy.

reprinted from previous years