Lehigh Valley As Slow Learner

The Lehigh Valley, and Allentown in particular, could only be described as slow learners. 

Zac Cohen And Company still refuses to accept his loss in the election last November. Although they babble that voters will be disenfranchised if the Election Board certifies his opponent's victory,  the board is disenfranchising the public from a full judicial bench.  It is becoming very apparent that the board is less than non-partisan, while it waits for Zac to find more pebbles to toss.

Allentown complains that not enough contractors bid on improvements to Valania Park, but also wants to further restrict which contractors can bid on projects?  However, that contradiction is fitting for that park, which is being over-improved, considering both the amount, and type of activity that occurs there. 

A victim over the weekend from multiple stab wounds doesn't have any information to give police.....They never do.

The Morning Call keeps featuring letters bashing the Republican candidates...Is that their reader base, or their editor's bias? One would think from a marketing standpoint, that they would want a more balanced opinion page.

Park Follies And Misappropriations

Over the years this blog and myself have established credibility and expertise on Allentown's traditional park system and the WPA. I must report what I consider to be a major shenanigan by the mayor. $1.3 million dollars was taken to purchase two heavy industrial areas, to supposedly add to the park system. This $million plus dollars was taken from the water/sewage lease, which is being used as the mayor's discretionary fund, instead of the dedicated pension relief,  promised at the time. $950,000.00 was used to buy the parcel at Union and Basin Streets, near the city sewage plant. This is one of the oldest industrial areas in the city, and certainly not needed for more park land. Allentown has not been able to maintain the existing park land, or the features within it. The Fountain Park Pool has been abandoned, and the WPA structures are crumbling. The other just purchased parcel is the old fertilizer plant location,  along Martin Luther King Dr., west of the crumbling Schreibers Bridge. We have an administration with no memory or knowledge of Allentown's past. Anybody who knew what went on at the fertilizer/rendering plant, would not want their grandchildren playing there. The city's rationale for these purchases is to expand the biking paths and connect the parks. That's the folly, and now the misappropriations. Allentown has supposedly allocated money to engineer the repair of the leaning WPA wall in Lehigh Parkway. I know why the wall leans. Years ago, the stone shoulder between the park entrance and wall was blacktoped. As cars and city trucks drive around the curve, pressure is exerted against the wall. That strip of asphalt needs to be removed, and the stone buffer restored. The problem with the engineering study is that it's the third time it has been appropriated. In the last two budgets money was actually budgeted to repair the wall, now the process begins again. What happen to the previous appropriations? Must molovinsky on allentown now also establish expertise in forensic accounting?

reprinted from June 26, 2014

UPDATE JULY2015. The wall collapsed in Lehigh Parkway, closing the traditional entrance to the park.. Over the past several years I had met with two park directors and the city engineer, to no avail, trying to save the wall. Recently, I have reported a problem to the current park director about the Union Terrace WPA structure, that needs immediate attention. The new parcels, rather than connecting the parks,  are connecting the neglect.

UPDATE MARCH 8, 2018: Local news sources are reporting that Mayor Pawlowski is expected to resign today.  If this welcome news will have a positive effect on the park system remains to be seen. A potential mayoral contender told me that if he were in charge, I'd be working for the park department, planning WPA renovations.  I never asked for a job, nor do I want one.  However, when I did ask City Council to appoint me as a volunteer liaison on WPA matters,  I was met with silence.  A park employee told me that there is significant money in the new budget for WPA repairs.  Again, that is nothing new. How it will be appropriated remains to be seen.  There is one thing for sure;  Whoever the new mayor might be,  whatever the park budget might be,  my advocacy for the WPA structures will continue.

above reprinted from March of 2018

UPDATE MARCH 18, 2022: Four years have passed, and the follies and misappropriations continue. Although there are numerous issues of neglect in the existing park system, Allentown continues with its plan to make the Pawlowski purchases into new parks....They should be sold. Allentown is investing close to a $million dollars into Valania Park,  a nighttime  trouble spot at 6th & Union, but never repaired the stair landings on the WPA double stairwell shown above. Bogert's Bridge still cries for paint. The roadway in Canal Park is still crumbling. Although I remain an outcast with the local press and city government, I continue to speak out.

Duck Paté Once Again At Cedar Park

In yesterday's post, I wrote about the Poison Hemlock and other invasive species taking over the creek banks in the Allentown Park System. This is a result of the ill-advised riparian buffers, promoted by the Wildlands Conservancy.

Yesterday morning the park department started to clear cut the stream banks in Cedar Park, the only way to get rid of the invasives. Removing them by hand would require the labor of the whole department, for the whole summer.

The buffers serve no ecological purpose in Allentown, because the storm water is piped directly into the streams, under the buffers.  However, the Wildlands Conservancy never lets specific realities get in the way of their generalized science.

These faux buffers have numerous victims. Yesterday this year's batch of ducklings were turned into paté  and mulch, when the mower went over their nests. For the rest of the summer, the city will allow the faux buffer to grow,  blocking both view and access to the creek.  It's not a good plan for the ducks or the children.

Allentown should defer to General Trexler's landscape architect, and again allow its citizens to enjoy the parks, as designed.

above reprinted from May of 2020

ADDENDUM MARCH 15, 2021: Hopefully this post can save some ducklings this year. I humbly suggest that the park department change mowing policy for the hatching season. Certain sections of the creek and lake banks could be kept mowed, which would discourage nesting.  Other sections could remain growing, until which time the ducks have left the nests. 

ADDENDUM MARCH 17, 2022: Despite my best efforts, the ducklings were mowed once again last season. As spring surges the ducks are pairing up. Saving them requires more effort from  the park department. Those areas they deem as must be mowed, must first be thoroughly inspected for nests. The best policy would be to suspend mowing from mid-March to mid-June.

Allentown's Quality Of Life Border

A reader recently commented that he lives Allentown, and is sticking it out, as opposed to those who moved out to Parkland.  This is easy to say when you live in Allentown's west end, because the quality of life border isn't at Cedar Crest Blvd., but rather at about 12th Street. 

As the weather gets warmer, the streets get louder and more marred by litter.  Between Front and 7th Streets you're likely to encounter junior motorbike gangs, which ignore both stop lights and one way destinations.

With Tuerk and Roca there's a new sheriff in town, and it's a new town indeed.  We who remember when Dodge was quiet, remember a different Allentown. 

I suspect that in coming years this may seem like the good old days. Despite historically low mortgage rates, the current grossly inflated real estate frenzy will result in buyer's remorse and abandoned properties.

I can appreciate that my predictions will not be used for the city's public relations...For that kind of spin I recommend the Morning Call.

Business As Usual At The Morning Call

This blog promotes itself as a chronicle of local history and politics. Politically, besides for my park and WPA advocacy, my sole recommendation has been for more officers on the police force.  It's not that I don't have a wish list for other changes, but realistically in this one party town, only the police force is critical for the town's survival. 

It was gratifying to see in the Morning Call that both Chief Roca and Mayor Tuerk are pitching to beef up the force.  Interesting that councilman Josh Siegel, now interested in a state rep seat, supports the increase.  Not that long ago he was marching with the Defund crowd. 

The Morning Call's new city beat reporter, Lindsay Weber, included Hasshan Batts in her article, who would be the chief benefactor of the Defund movement.

The paper continues its tradition of its Go To people for quotes, who include Ce-Ce Gerlach, in addition to Batts.  As a long time inner-city landlord, I can tell you what is wrong with the Gerlach/Batts recommendation to fight poverty in order to fight crime. Allentown is very much a transient town. When the shooter just arrived from NYC or New Jersey three weeks ago, we need more police, not more social workers. The shooter had social workers in New York, and they didn't help him much anyway.

The irony of the paper reporting on Batts' formula is that none of its paid subscribers subscribe to Batts' nonsense. Send the police first, and protect the bystanders.

Lehigh Parkway Tops Allentown Remembering

Most of you know that in addition to this blog, I also administer a Facebook group, Allentown Chronicles.  Endlessly requesting membership, are people who just joined facebook three hours earlier, and want to sell members Allentown tee-shirts. If such shirts would actually be delivered if ordered, I do not know, I do not accept their membership.

On another local group I noticed the post above, which is actually a promotion.  A quick search revealed that the gentleman is only not from Allentown, he's not even from United States. Nevertheless, hundreds of people "liked" the post, and make suggestions as what should be added.  Many were surprised that certain landmarks were excluded. You must forgive the man, he never heard of Allentown before. He sells these posters to nostalgiacs everywhere.

Being the party pooper I enjoy being, I placed the following comment on the post...Everybody should be aware that this is a commercial company with no connection whatsoever to Allentown, which is harvesting your input to sell you a poster. They do the same everywhere.

You'll be relieved to know that my revelation didn't discourage the nostalgiacs from suggesting more of their favorite places.  The clever merchant puts a "like" after each one, giving the nostalgiacs beloved feedback. 

But allow me to use the scam for my own purpose. Please note that Lehigh Parkway has the dominant spot on the poster. I can only assume that the poster's solicitation for suggestions came up with Lehigh Parkway the most often.

Perhaps those in the current administration might consider that for most Allentonians, Robin Hood is the prime memory of Lehigh Parkway, and removing that rubble from the bridge's piers could only be a feather in their cap.