The Tracks Of Allentown

Up to the early 1950's, you pretty much drove over tracks wherever you went in Allentown. While the trolleys moved the people, the Lehigh Valley Railroad freight cars moved the materials in and out of our factories. Shown above, the Lehigh Valley Transit trolley moves across the former steel Hamilton Street Bridge. The huge UGI gas tank can be seen on Union Street. While the trolleys gave way to buses by 1953, the freight rail spurs would tarry on for two more decades. 

 reprinted from January of 2013

Retiring In Allentown

U.S. News and World Report tells us that Allentown is the fifth best place to retire in the United States. Expect local real estate to explode as herds of gray haired migrate from Florida and Arizona to the Strata complexes in culturally rich center city. 

Local political genius County Executive Phillips Armstrong cited our metrics, like transportation. Expect to see more cappuccino and croissants at the Lanta Detention Center.

I can only hope that the magazine's news is more accurate than their retirement recommendations. However, if you disagree with me and find their retirement survey valid, there is great news. The best rated place in the country to retire isn't far away, Harrisburg! Please take Phil Armstrong with you.

Shapiro As Deaf, Dumb and Blind

First off, allow me to clarify that when I refer to dumb, I'm not referencing the inability to speak, but rather not being blessed with intelligence.  I first made that observation when he appointed Pat Browne as Revenue Director.  Browne's NIZ is an unlimited private subsidy on the back of taxpayers. For Shapiro to cite Lehigh Valley as a showcase of success, testifies as to his cluelessness.

Shapiro's team handed out little gift bags with slogans printed on them.  Assorted useless bureaucrats praised his plans, which supposedly will not raise taxes :)

Meanwhile, back at the pump, Pennsylvanians enjoy one of the highest gasoline taxes in the country.  I wonder if the Governor noticed that Rt. 22 has never been widened through the valley, thanks to his Pat Browne instead wanting a new exit for a developer's warehouse park.

I'd like Josh to prove me wrong, but in the meantime I'm not hopeful.

The Morning Call's Lost Memory

A lead story in today's Morning Call features the temporary construction jobs created by the arena, which will end by 2014. Although the article was written by two reporters, and included proud quotes from the city's community development director, none of them know or appreciate the thousands of jobs that block provided for over 100 years. The Palace of Sport and False Hope is not being build on previously vacant land, but on Allentown's mercantile history. While the reporters wrote about what the job means to one construction worker, they never showed the same sensitivity toward the displaced former merchants. Ironically, over the years, those 34 demolished buildings  provided the paper with many advertising dollars. We will see how much revenue comes to The Morning Call from the arena.

  

reprinted from January of 2013

2019 In Allentown

Ed Pawlowski is in the second year of his fourth term, an unprecedented record in Pennsylvania. Although people refer to him as the little Daley, a reference to his Chicago roots, he has never gained support outside of the Democratic stronghold of Allentown, which he rules without debate. The bloom is off the rose at the arena; 2018  showed only twenty three events beside the home hockey games, and most of them were poorly attended. The remaining merchants, in the adjoining blocks, resentfully refer to it as The Dead Zone. Although the new arena complex manager, and the new police chief, promise to work together to better safeguard the patrons upon departing, suburbanites continue to fear the place, and rightfully so. The Reilly Apartment Tower, once conceived as a hotel before being built in 2013, is receiving the national HUD award for providing in house daycare for single mothers. Cynthia Mota, president of City Council, promises to work with Aqua America about the water rates, currently highest in United States. City Center Two, vacant since being constructed in 2014, will become the new City Hall in 2020. In separate studies, prepared by both the Administration and City Council, taxpayers are expected to realize significant savings by the move. The current City Hall will become administrative offices for the Lehigh County Prison, one of the fastest growing correction institutions in the country.

above reprinted from January 2013
 

ADDENDUM JANUARY 30, 2024: The above  post was written in 2013, looking ahead to the future in 2019. Ed Pawlowski did not finish his 4th term, at least not in Allentown.  The arena never even did have 23 events besides hockey games in one year. Hamilton Street is still a dead zone, a $Billion Dollars and eleven years later. We had so many police chiefs since 2013, I can't remember all their names. Cynthia Mota is now the president of City Council. The prison, if not the hotel, retains good occupancy.

Allentown 1950

Sixty years ago downtown Allentown hummed. It was fueled by the vision of people who developed empires, not cookie cutter ideas from the National Magazines for Bureaucrats, like the arena. Shown here is the Transit Office and depot at the side of 8th and Hamilton. General Trexler had been a principle in the Trolley Company, which also built the 8th Street Bridge, to connect Allentown with points south, all the way to Philadelphia. In addition to being the terminal for the Philadelphia bound Liberty Bell, it also fed the merchants of Allentown with thousands of shoppers from its many Allentown routes. The shoppers now sit on the cold steel benches at the Lanta Detention Center on 7th Street, as the non-visionaries prepare to demolish the center of town, to build a monstrosity.

The light and shadows reveal that this is an early morning photo. In a few hours 8th and Hamilton (behind the trolley) would be clogged with shoppers                                                               

reprinted from December 2011

ADDENDUM JANUARY 29, 2024:A lot has changed since I wrote this piece over a decade ago, but also very little. Although we have a cookie sheet of new buildings, both commercial and residential, the town remains virtually empty. The arena is vastly underused, seemingly a prop to justify the NIZ scheme. Fortunately for the few principals involved, most criticism of the development is limited to this blog.