Hasshan Batts Not A Bashful Man

Hasshan Batts was on my radar a few years ago, when a video emerged with him angry about a parking ticket. He was ranting about racial discrimination. I can assure him that the Parking Authority also victimizes white, yellow and brown people

He also made this blog page previously when Cynthia Mota repeatedly nominated him to be appointed Pawlowski's replacement mayor. Cynthia forgot to mention that she was at the time in his employ at Promise Neighborhoods. Although I broke the story here, the Morning Call gave no attribution when they reported the same story several days later, but that's another complaint, for another day.

I'm back on Hasshan's case today because of his current editorial in the Morning Call. It concerns Black History Month and he's certainly a qualified representative. My issue is his conclusion...to support Black leadership, local Black businesses and Black-led nonprofit organizations... I personally don't think that support should be automatic because a person or group is black, but because they're  competent individuals. But the glare is Black-led nonprofit. Just like Mota forgot to mention that she worked for Batts, Batts might mention that he leads a Black non-profit.

photo of Hasshan Batts and Alan Jennings

ADDENDUM: Police Chief Charles Roca had officers join Batts' candle vigil at the scene of the latest shooting. While Roca wants to show police empathy to community pain, he may be inadvertently Defunding his own department.

The Morning Call's Steep Price

On Saturday, the Morning Call featured a story about Enid Santiago's challenge to the primary election, mentioned that she is now a write-in candidate, and linked to the voter's guide they published the day before. The paper's pre-election coverage now included every candidacy, except mine.

Ironically, the article documented that there was no basis for Santiago's charges alleging ballot irregularities.  The newspaper cheerfully cooperated with her to gain maximum publicity for a write-in campaign, after losing a primary election. 

I have paid a steep price for scrutinizing local government, and calling out the newspaper for not doing the same.  However,  my activism, and subsequently this blog, wasn't motivated because all was well in the Lehigh Valley.  Between ineptitude and corruption, watchmen are always needed.  The Morning Call went from good old boy local ownership, to outside corporate indifference, with neither entity motivated to upset the local status quo. 

Years ago a critic such as myself was limited to an occasional letter to the editor, or a soapbox on the corner. Things have changed with the internet. Myself and other bloggers can present information previously kept from the public.  Somebody researching former Mayor Pawlowski will find questions about his integrity here on this blog, more than a decade before the Morning Call broached the topic.  On many other topics, such as the Parking Authority and the NIZ, which I have scrutinized,  the paper has yet to take its head out of the sand.  

In regard to the NIZ,  this blog documented that the city, through straw buyers, was using strong arm tactics to dislodge the former merchants of the arena block.  The Morning Call was not only compliant, but complicit in that scheme.  They were the only private entity included in the NIZ map, on the north side of Linden Street. 

Although my criticism of the paper has cost me any coverage in regard to my campaign for Harrisburg, it's a price I'd rather pay, than joining their endorsement of status quo mediocrity in our community.

above reprinted from November of 2020

The Morning Call Awakens To Allentown's Monster

After being subservient for over a decade, The Morning Call finally decided to investigate something about the NIZ. After the paper submitted a Right To Know request, Pat Browne changed the law to thwart their inquiry. I have often said that the NIZ was written in pencil, and has been changed numerous times, as J.B. Reilly and other benefactors sought ever-expanding opportunities. 

In my view, the Morning Call was almost complicit in the NIZ's early shenanigans. They had no issue with being included in the first map, although their building was across the street from the district's main zone. Reilly would end up owning the Morning Call building for use in the cigarette tax add on amendment. That map itself has become a historic relic, because amendments to the NIZ law now allow the NIZ to trade for property outside of the district. 

This blog was vindicated by the FBI when Pawlowski's deals were adjudicated. The NIZ may never be deemed illegal because our elected dolts signed off on it, but it may well become a case study in government ethics.

Shown above, I'm flanked by Pawlowski bagman Mike Fleck and NIZ Authority lawyer Seymour Traub as I'm complaining about how former property owners were bullied into selling. While back then the Morning Call's Bill White labeled me misguided for my criticism of the NIZ, the paper is now finally beginning to see the monster they helped promote. 

Lamont Doesn't Impress In Northampton

I don't suffer either political correctness or myths well. One of the myths that aggrevate me most is farmland preservation. Fly over Pennyslvania some time and you'll realize that the state is mostly farmland. The only thing in short supply is farmers, and the notion of training people to become farmers is even more absurd than preservation itself. We have no food shortages, and farmland preservation is a solution looking for a problem. 

When I read a recent op-ed praising preservation by Northampton's Lamont McClure, I was very unimpressed. McClure wants to "combat" warehouse proliferation. In our real, real estate world, the Jaindl Company develops their land with good road access, and rents thousands of acres to grow feed corn. *

Although McClure is fellow blogger Bernie O'Hare's current favorite pol, I never paid him much mind before. Yesterday, O'Hare reported that McClure also wants to reward county prison employees with a 25% raise for three months, if the workforce reaches a vaccination rate of 75%.

Fortunately, I'm not a taxpayer in Northampton County. Although I no longer routinely tolerate attending meetings, I would be compelled to help Lamont find his misplaced common sense.

photocredit:Lehigh Valley Ramblings

*ADDENDUM: The Farmland Preservation programs can mostly only afford to buy land that wouldn't be developed anyway.

 ADDENDUM: The Farmland Preservation programs could never afford the warehouse ready land near major interstates. Farmland Preservation is a feel-good nonsense program largely enriching the landed gentry.

National Republican Discourse

As a conservative independent, when not casting my vote for an independent, it more often than not goes to the Republican candidate.  While my disillusionment with Trump occurred early in his term,  any defense of him completely expired on January 6th, 2021.  

While I take heart in Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger and Mike Pence,  the RNC Salt Lake winter proclamation defending January 6th can only hurt the party in 2022 and 24. Hopefully, by their spring meeting, they will be more Republican, and less Trumpican. 

Trump didn't win the election in 2020, and likewise he wouldn't win in 2024. However,  there is a backlash to the progressive Democratic programs now occurring.  The Defund The Police mentality has turned the urban cores into a lawless jungle.  The endless stimulus payments have a negative effect on the economy. There are real opportunities for rational Republicans to prevail.  However, supporting Trump's delusions is not rational. 

I suppose Republican candidates feel that they can walk the tightrope to win primaries in the spring, and then move more toward the middle for November.  They are overestimating themselves, and underestimating the voters.

Over The Dam In 2014

For this early morning edition blog, 2014 is under the ice and over the dam. Between fighting to preserve Wehr's Dam, running for office and providing reality checks about downtown Allentown, its been a busy year.

I believe that the unvarnished truth is a commodity in short supply in the Lehigh Valley. From the main stream media, out of town readers would think that Allentown has turned completely around. We who actually plug the meters on Hamilton Street know that although the new buildings are in place, the promised commerce has yet to begin. So far even the arena events can be counted on one hand. Mayor Pawlowski had read so many proclamations about the New Allentown in the local paper, he thought that he could ride that bus to Harrisburg. Although the articles about success were premature, I do believe that real change is coming Allentown's way.  

molovinsky on allentown will be glad to celebrate that success when it arrives, but in the meantime, will tell it like it is.

above reprinted from December 31, 2014

UPDATE FEBRUARY 4, 2022: Although over seven years has passed since the above was written, things are pretty much the same in Allentown... Not many events at the arena, or people on Hamilton Street. While Covid-19 is a valid excuse for the last two years, we know now that the expectations of 2014 were not to be anyway. Allentown may become a successful urban office park. The up and coming politicans may mature into leaders. We may be able to establish civility in the urban core. Hopefully, we can avoid becoming one more large crime ridden city.