Before The Transformation

For most of Allentown's past, there was no need for a Transformation. We were the ideal city, so much so, that in the early 60's, we were proclaimed The All-American City. We were Mayberry, only much larger. Our little leagues played under the lights, and our fathers worked for top union wages. Imagine a city that could boast that it actually manufactured in own fire engines! Imagine a city that had no litter. We now have so much litter, not only do we need trash cans, we need trash compactors. We once were a destination and envied; We are now resented, and sued. This blog will continue to report current city events as I perceive them, engage with the bureaucrats as my energy permits, and occasionally share a glimpse of our past.

above reprinted from March of 2012

ADDENDUM MAY 21, 2024:Although a dozen years have passed, this blogger proudly remains a thorn in the side of the exploiters. In some ways the mission is more important than ever, because the local press, while remaining non-confrontational as in the past, is now reaching far fewer people. It's a good time for the exploiters... with a depleted middle class, those that remain are either too poor or too wealthy to concern themselves about our modern robber barons.

The Landed Gentry

One of the popular misconceptions in our granola society is that our open space is threatened. Consequently, in addition to welfare and corporate welfare, we now have landed gentry welfare. We purchase land, at almost market value, and even allow the owner to keep it. Although there is a deed restriction prohibiting development, who can guarantee it will be enforced in future generations? In every case I'm personally familiar with, the owner never had any intention of development; In one instance, the owners were compensated over $1million.

In some cases the owners are working farmers, in many, just gentlemen farmers with country homes. An article in Sunday's Morning Call laments the reduction in the farmland preservation funds. Nothing in the land preservation compensation really guarantees continued farming, that would be somewhere between indentured servitude and slavery. In 2006, Pennsylvania spent $102 million in Growing Greener handouts. Although the program has been cut back in recent years, there is a long list of applicants hoping to get some of this handout. The granola eaters should drive across Pennsylvania. There is a lot of open space even in this heavily populated state, over 8 million farm acres. While we close mental hospitals and sell nursing homes, we pay yuppies playing weekend farmer, development rights on land they never intended on subdividing anyway.

reprinted from August 9, 2010 

ADDENDUM MAY 20, 2024:As you can see from the post above, I'm a long time critic of farm preservation. Drive a few miles north or west from Allentown, third largest city in Pennsylvania, and you're in country. Last week we learned that David Jaindl sold a parcel in New Jersey for $27.5 mil that he purchased five years ago for $11mil.. the state bought it for preservation. They could have saved the taxpayers $16mil by purchasing it from Talen as Jaindl did. New Jersey cares less about the taxpayers than Pennsylvania, which is no easy trick.

Sy Traub Approves Fox To Inspect Henhouse

Seymour Traub recently suggested that the ANIZDA commission some entity to do an independent analysis of the NIZ, and the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission was appointed to the task. 

Pat Browne created the NIZ by throwing it into a state bill unread by most of the state house, only Allentown qualified by its definition of population. I have observed the NIZ since the beginning. I debated the proposal with Sy Traub on Business Matters before the first bulldozer came. I championed the former property owners who were bullied with threats of Eminent Domain by straw buyers. 

Assigning Lehigh Valley Planning Commission as an independent arbitator is comical. Years ago they literally wanted to appoint Jaindl, largest property owner in Pa., to the board, before a public outcry against the absurity. They are handmaidens of the first class...

The big offense against the state taxpayers is that the new companies/employees on Hamilton Street were paying state taxes elsewhere in the Lehigh Valley, and were poached by Reilly to the NIZ. The cigarette tax is largely responsible for the "growth" figures, and taking that revenue away from the CHIP was another loss to the state. This has been the quintessential insider game. Even the LVHN is complicit, by moving department head offices to above the arena entrance, so that Reilly could harvest the highest paid employee taxes. The crime figures cited by LVPC are also misleading...the quality of life in Allentown has only gone down. 

If you drive down Hamilton on a Sunday, the street certainly looks much more prosperous. You would assume that during the week the street must be teeming with people...you would be very wrong. By poaching those tenants he put suburban office parks in financial straits, and they weren't subsidized by the taxpayers. So growth ISN'T growth when the playing field is so crooked. That cigarette tax was going to CHIP, Children's Health Insurance Program, now it's going to Reilly. Those doctors' taxes were going to the state, now they're going to Reilly. 

I believe the motive and timing for the report was damage control against Jarrett Coleman's effort for scrutiny in Harrisburg. The Morning Call dutifully took the hook and carried water for the NIZ once again.

The Dinosaurs Of Sumner Avenue

Up to the early 1950's, Allentown was heated by coal, and much of it came from Sumner Avenue. Sumner was a unique street, because it was served by the West End Branch of the Lehigh Valley Railroad. The spur route ran along Sumner, until it crossed Tilghman at 17th Street, and then looped back East along Liberty Street, ending at 12th. Coal trucks would elevate up, and the coal would be pushed down chutes into the basement coal bins, usually under the front porches of the row houses. Several times a day coal would need to be shoveled into the boiler or furnace. By the early 1970's, although most of the coal yards were closed for over a decade, the machines of that industry still stood on Sumner Avenue. Eventually, they took a short trip to one of the scrap yards, which are still on the same avenue, but not before I photographed them.

reprinted from 2011

photocredit:molovinsky

State Of The Parks

The Park Master Plan, done by a Philadelphia planning firm, and commissioned by the Trexler Trust in 2005, concluded that Cedar Park was being loved to death. Since then, construction and activity in that park has at least doubled. The mega destination playground attracts hundreds of children whenever schools out. The parking lot for the swimming pool is filled with cars for the playground. This summer, pool patrons will be forced to park on the grass. All the paths on the rose garden side of Ott Street have been paved, and a new path constructed across the former open space between the garden and picnic pavilions. Also, a new water line has been laid through that section to feed the demands of western Lehigh County, while the waste return will flow along side the Little Lehigh Creek, through Lehigh Parkway. The parks are just plumbing for the county and recreation for the city. In the Parkway, the entrance road has been made one way, and one side of the bridle path closed, because of the leaning WPA wall. Although $millions of dollars have been spent on over-using Cedar Park, not one cent was spent on maintaining the iconic WPA stone structures. In addition to the wall problem in the Parkway, the steps and pillars at Union Terrace are structurally endangered. While the park department goes ahead with plans to connect the various parks with more bike paths, the WPA steps at fountain park are deteriorating. Welcome to Allentown, where community, infrastructure and history are all ignored, while new projects are planned.

above reprinted from April of 2012

ADDENDUM MAY 16, 2024:Since I wrote the above twelve years ago, some specifics have changed, but the premise has stayed the same... The WPA structures remain very low on the park department priority list. The Robin Hood Bridge shown above has been despoiled, with the rubble of the former small dam piled around the stone bridge piers.

Small Victories

In the best case, molovinsky on allentown chronicles my efforts in community activism, in addition to being a source of analysis for local issues. Last week a small victory resulted from such efforts. Our local dignitaries broke ground for a new garage at Lanta. Several years ago, when the garage plans were first announced, it was to be built on the parking lot of Bicentennial Park. Allentown needed money, and Lanta had a grant to build a new garage. Lanta claimed that the ball park property was the only feasible location, and the City claimed that Bicentennial Park had outlived it's usefulness.

Bicentennial Park is virtually the history of baseball in Allentown. First opened in 1939 as Fairview Field, it was home to the minor league team of the Boston Braves; The Allentown Dukes played there through 1948, when Breadon Field was built in Whitehall, site now of the Lehigh Valley Mall. Over the years thousands of Allentown kids had the yearly thrill of playing "Under The Lights". In addition to hosting the Allentown Ambassadors, it currently serves women's fast pitch softball. In addition to the outrage in our park system, I will be adding the ballfield as a topic in my upcoming SPEAK OUT ALLENTOWN MEETING. from Lanta Mugs City, May 14,2009  

I conducted a meeting at a small local church, which attracted a couple members of City Council and the Hunsicker Family, who led the drive to build the park, decades ago. City Council went on to pass a resolution recommending that the park not be sold, and Lanta did eventually figure out an alternative space for the garage. Needless to say, I wasn't one of the dignitaries invited to the ground breaking, nor were my efforts mentioned in the newspaper article, but a small victory, never the less.

Baseball Memoirs, June 3, 2009 

above reprinted from April of 2012