Anonymous Comments Now Permitted

I have decided to once again allow anonymous comments on the blog. While a commenter can establish a pseudonym, whose identity is unknown to both me and other readers, there remain those more comfortable with the anonymous option. Comment moderation will continue; that is, comments must still be approved for publication. While the blog office opens very early on weekday mornings, it also closes early in the evening. Comments submitted after 6:00pm will not appear until the following morning.

Allentown (Water) Goes Private... Anonymous Comments Now Accepted

Tomorrow morning at 11:00am, Mayor Pawlowski will announce the sale of Allentown's water and sewage departments to a private operator. The sale is being conducted to satisfy the pension obligations incurred by the police and fire contracts. Two well placed sources have provided this blogger with two versions of the announcement. In the first version, the systems have been sold for $150 million. In the second version, the systems will be put out to bid. In this city, it's very possible that both versions are true; It will be formally put out to bid, but he has a predetermined buyer at the 150 price. The buyer would assume control of both the plants and distribution systems, and be responsible for every aspect of operation. A former city worker insures me that the quality of service from the water department will certainly suffer. Blogger Bernie O'Hare contributed to this post.
UPDATE: The Morning Call apparently felt compelled to issue a statement, and posted their announcement of the pending sale two hours after this post.  They quote an unnamed source saying "If this done right, this will solve the pension problems overnight, but we must install proper oversight and control."  Allentown has no experience with doing things right, or with oversight and controls.  We are in trouble.
UPDATING THE UPDATE:  Our local LCA might well be a bidder (or the bidder) for the Allentown systems.  The current project through Cedar Park interconnects the systems, and will expand their capacity to deliver treated water to western Lehigh County. If the Lehigh County Authority is in fact the buyer, the consequence of selling this prime Allentown asset would be tolerable. Allentonians could expect responsible stewardship and reasonable fees.

building the water works in 1928

above reprinted from July of 2012 

UPDATE JANUARY 28, 2022: When the FBI started to scrutinize the Pawlowski administration in 2013, the water and sewage sale was already a done deal. Allentown had a large capacity for both water and sewage because of Lucent's silicon wafer production, which was water intensive. The water/sewer systems were Allentown's golden goose, always profitable, with the promise to remain that way. A decade has passed. The Morning Call's golden boy Ed Pawlowski, always promoted and never scruntized by them, is in the pokey. Allentown is still in financial trouble, but no longer has its profitable water component.

The Morning Call's Marred Editorial Page

We who opine about local news agree that the Morning Call has about as censored an editorial page as there could be. Most obvious is the paper's use of its Go-To people. Whether for news or opinions, the same people appear in articles and op-eds, time and again. One of the longest standing Go-To regulars is Alan Jennings. Yesterday, his featured front and center editorial on freeing Ed Pawlowski might be a low point even for a newspaper that compromises itself on a regular basis. 

Jennings contrasted Pawlowski's incarceration with Donald Trump's freedom. It was of course a cheap parlor trick, trying to take advantage of our extremely polarized politics. For the Morning Call to permit such a tactic only degrades itself further. 

While Jennings' loyalty to his friend Pawlowski is admirable, his editorial itself was beyond being distorted. Jennings even questioned Pawlowski's guilt. While we give defendents the benefit of the doubt, Pawlowski was convicted on over 45 counts. Numerous people testified under oath about Pawlowski's schemes at the taxpayers' expense. 

Pawlowski's appeal rights will be determined by the court, not pleaded by a Morning Call Go-To favorite. Likewise, that court will decide the appropriateness of the sentence given.

The Morning Call should concern itself with examining their editorial page standards.

Jeopardizing Your House For Ocean Spray

Unknown to Lehigh County residents, one of the reasons Ocean Spray moved here was to avoid costly upgrades to their pre-sewer treatment plant. When you're in violation of New Jersey environmental standards, what do you do, you turn to Donny Cunningham. Here in Sap Valley, we invited Ocean Spray with incentives and called it progress. They, along with the other new bottling industries attracted by Cunningham and LCA, will now jeopardize your home. Rather than expand the sewer treatment plant, homeowners are being forced to block their plumbing safety net, their floor drains. Up to a decade ago, floor drains were mandated by code so that if a pipe broke, your home was protected against flooding. Although nothing has ever gone down my floor drain, I must now block it to comply with new regulations. The thinking is that a drop saved here, and a drop saved there from thousands and thousands of homes, can spare the LCA the expense of enlarging the sewer plant, or building an additional one, and still meet EPA standards. Hell, there's even enough capacity left to invite Ocean Spray. Now, if your hot water heater springs a leak, its too bad for you.

reprinted from April of 2014

ADDENDUM DECEMBER 18, 2019: While the commercial rates paid by the bottling companies remain attractive to them, homeowners in Allentown and other local municipalities are now seeing their residential water rates double.

molovinsky on allentown is produced every weekday, year-round. 

ADDENDUM JANUARY 26, 2022: We now learn from Peter Hall at the Morning Call that carcinogens found in the Delaware River have been traced back to the pre treatment LCA plant in Macungie. Furthermore, that plant is accepting tanktrucks of porta potty waste and chemical waste from New Jersey. What the MC article doesn't mention is that the flow to the Delaware, by way of the Lehigh, goes through the Little Lehigh, a source of Allentown's water. We have become New Jersey's slop bucket, their bedpan.

Allentown's New York Tragedy

Years ago, some in Allentown complained that imported people from New York and New Jersey were lowering the quality of life in Allentown.  This past weekend the person who shot the NYC police officers came from Allentown.

In reality the quality of life is lower in both places.

New York's new mayor, Eric Adams, is pushing back against liberal demands to defund the police.

Let us hope that Allentown's new mayor follows Adam's lead in recognizing that livability in our city depends on a strong police presence.

Allentown's Problem

On social media, someone wondered why Allentown wasn't a local destination,  like Bethlehem or Easton. Most of the answers centered on crime, or the perception of crime, and onerous parking.  I refrained from reminding the group that diverted state taxes were financing the privately owned urban office park that replaced the historic mercantile district.

Bethlehem and Easton present visitors with history, architecture and ambience.  Allentown lost all those attributes, as one developer leveled Hamilton Street for his office empire. In fairness to Allentown's situation, it must be noted that the pandemic has restricted the number of office workers who would otherwise be present.

The architecture of Bethlehem and Easton remains from their shopping district's past. Their restaurants and shops resulted from market demand.  Allentown is a staged production, hoping to attract customers. 

The easiest problem to remedy is the parking.  As noted on this blog as it was happening,  Allentown made a huge mistake allowing a couple of developers to build on the surface parking lots.  People want close by convenient parking, not a parking deck three blocks away. 

To be frank, Allentown Parking Authority, Planning, Zoning and other municipal oversights have catered to the developer, at the expense of everything else.  Their rationale was that their successes are linked. Although there is some linkage,  it's a big city with many shareholders. 

Despite a $Billion dollars of privately owned, publicly financed development, Allentown is a dead zone. The Morning Call hyped the developer's press releases as news, and ignored the empty streets and failing restaurants. 

I am hopeful that the new administration will address some of these issues, starting with the Parking Authority.

photo: Beginning demolition on Hamilton Street for the arena and its adjoining offices