Allentown Operating Vehicle Inspection Trap

Thanks to the Morning Call and their right to know effort, we have learned that Allentown dispensed 49,000 tickets last year for cars being out of inspection.  I use the negative word trap, because that is exactly what it is.  Many years ago, Coopersburg ran a speed trap... There was a borough cop actively waiting for traffic on Rt. 309.

Although I'm very conscientious about my car, I have been late for inspection several times. There are only fourteen states in the country which do inspections annually.

Entertainment venues, such as the arena and Symphony Hall, might want to consider how this aggressive beast affects their long term attendence.

I think it's becoming apparent that the current operation of the Allentown Parking Authority might not be in Allentown's best interest.

ADDENDUM 1: The APA stated that they're surprised how few tickets were issued for double parking.  I have never driven through downtown WITHOUT seeing double parkers.  So,  the APA could find 250,000 cars last year to ticket, but not see the double parkers?  They are not even improving the quality of life, just churning out tickets for their cash flow. Who are the real criminals?                                                     

ADDENDUM 2: Auto inspection has a history of abuse in Pennsylvania. It wasn't that long ago when they had inspection TWICE a year....Imagine the TAKE the APA could make from that!!! It's time to send some people at the Parking Authority packing.

Examining The Parking Authority's Appetite

I suppose that nobody can call me a newly hatched critic of the Parking Authority. I have been on their case since before I started this blog in 2007. In 2005, as an independent candidate for mayor, I held two press conferences about that monster's appetite, even back then.

The first conference was at 10th and Chew Streets. I wondered why the Authority still had parking meters out there, when the business district had shrunk to a couple blocks of Hamilton Street decades earlier. The Morning Call was actively suppressing my candidacy, and did not cover my conferences. For my second conference in front of the Authority's office, the paper instead interviewed the APA director at the time, promoting her policies. 

There is a long back story between the Morning Call and The Allentown Parking Authority.  The Authority was started to bail out Park & Shop, when their lots became less profitable. One of the three Park & Shop owners was Donald Miller, owner of the Morning Call.  The Parking Authority started as the handmaiden of the connected in Allentown, and has remained so to this day. 

During the following decades those parking lots have been sold off to a few connected developers, giving them already cleared, inexpensive, ideally located building sites.  The Authority then proceeded to build expensive parking decks, creating a massive debt service. Divide that debt service by the average fine of a parking ticket, and you'll know how many people a month that monster must eat to survive.

In addition to being a critic of the Parking Authority, I have become a critic of the NIZ.  While the NIZ uses our diverted state taxes to finance a few privately owned real estate empires, the APA provides the parking for those NIZ tenants. The APA is financed by tickets placed on the windshields and backs of the citizens. 

The Parking Authority in Allentown can certainly be an appropriate asset, with the current parking congestion and violations. However,  a more equitable funding source, rather than overly aggressive ticketing, must be employed.

shown above Park&Shop postcard, showing the former parking lots

City Council Foxes Guard Parking Authority Henhouse

On Wednesday evening, optimistic victims of the Parking Authority went to City Council hoping for relief from the current punitive ticketing.  Although an elaborate dog and pony show was staged, relief was never in the cards.  Three of the Council members sit on the Parking Authority Board, and helped that agency design the current citizen punishments... the quintessential fox guarding the henhouse.  

Council will never be able to safeguard citizens if they remain on the Parking Authority Board.  Although that provision goes back to the Authority's creation in the early 1990's, it is now time to provide oversight, not complicity.

Matthew Tuerk, who preaches inclusion and diversity, slipped out of the meeting before the citizens realized that only disappointment was coming their way. Those who receive the most tickets are the poorest among us.  He knew the evening's coming script, and had the police and fire chiefs there to defend current Authority policy.

While the Authority touted their new mini lot on 7th Street, they forgot to mention all the surface lots they sold off, for the gain of several developers. 

Matt Tuerk talks a new day in Allentown, but as an old activist, I can tell you it is business as usual.

photo of Betty Cauler, whose efforts brought the reform attempt forward, trying to convince a stubborn city council.

Parking Authority Monster Stays On Same Diet

Last night City Council hesitated to change the Parking Authority's diet, from its usual mix of mostly poorer residents, with just a sprinkle of westenders.  Since at least three of the council members are on the Authority Board, this reluctance to change is of no surprise.  They're scheduling another delay/meeting to further discuss the matter.

Candida Affa has been on the Authority Board for well over a decade, long before being elected to City Council.  She expressed concern about fire engines operating in alleys.  Not all alleys are the same in Allentown.... Downtown the alleys are narrow with row houses. In the west end the alley's are wider, with no houses. 

A hard working center city restaurant owner explained to the City Council/Parking Authority Board members, (one and the same),  how he and his customers are harassed with tickets. His plea fell on deaf ears.

ADDENDUM: Last night was the first council meeting I attended in a few years. Attendance is detrimental to everybody's blood pressure, both mine and councils. While some of the council members were new faces, the nonsense remained the same.  The contention by the Authority, the administration and the council that the evening calls to the authority would overburden an already overburdened police department, were contrived.  Eleven o'clock at night people call the  police department, not the parking authority, if there is commotion or a situation.

Allentown must turn out in force for the next meeting, and let those council members, also on the parking authority, who happen to be running for re-election,  know that they want reform, not just another meeting.

Allentown's Historic Syrian Community

When my grandfather first arrived in Allentown he lived in the Ward, on 2nd. Street. It was around 1895 and the neighborhood was full of immigrants. Some groups came from the same area in the old country, most noticeably the Syrians, from the village of Amar*. They were Antiochian Orthodox, a minority in a Muslim country. The congregation of St. George's Church on Catasauqua Ave., largely is descended from those immigrants. Well known names in Allentown, such as Atiyeh, Haddad, Hanna, Makoul, Koury and Joseph are among their members. They were among one of the first groups to organize, and those organizations still exist. The photo above was organized by the Syrian American Organization in 1944. Note that Jewish, on the left, is treated as a nationality.

click on photo to enlarge

UPDATE: The above post is reprinted from March of 2010. I have repeated the post several times since over the years, and have written other posts concerning Allentown's historic Syrian Community as well. Although I didn't grow up in the Ward, I grew up with their children, who had by then also lived in other sections of town. Throughout the 1950's and 60's, the organized Syrian community wielded considerable strength in local Democratic politics. On Sunday Allentown recognizes the Syrian community with a flag raising at city hall.

The Train Of Lehigh Parkway

This holiday season, as people drive over Schreibers stone arch bridge to get in line for Lights in the Parkway, few will be aware of the industrial past surrounding them. The Barber Quarry railroad branch line crossed the road, just beyond the bridge. On the left was the Union Carbine's Linde plant, the concrete loading dock is still visible. Although the last train ran in the early 1980's, the wooden railroad trestle is still there, to the west and south of the bridge. The area is now used as part of the disc golf course. The photograph was taken by Dave Latshaw in 1976, and is part of the Mark Rabenold Collection.

above reprinted from December 3, 2010 

ADDENDUM APRIL 11, 2023: Although the former Union Carbine loading dock was visible for many decades, it now has been replaced by new apartment buildings on the parcel.  Also different is the intersection just uphill from the bridge, the long standing triangle island is no longer there.