Cannibal Valley

During the summer of 1952, Lehigh Valley Transit rode and pulled its trolley stock over to Bethlehem Steel, to be chopped up and fed to the blast furnaces. The furnaces themselves ceased operation in 1995, and are now a visual backdrop for young artists, most of whom never saw those flames that lit up that skyline. Allentown will now salvage some architectural items documented on this blog, and begin tearing down its shopping district, which was serviced by those trolleys. As young toothless athletes from Canada, entertain people from Catasauqua, on the ice maintained by a Philadelphia company, Allentown begins another chapter in it's history of cannibalism.

photo from August 1952, showing last run on St. John Street to Bethlehem Steel

reprinted from December of 2011

The Misconception Of Hamilton Street

There's not many mid size cities that can boast having two national chain stores within one center city block, Allentown could. Not too many cities could say that one of those stores was one of the biggest producers in a chain of over 7000 stores, Allentown could. There's not many cities that are ignorant enough to tear down their most successful block, a virtual tax machine, Allentown is. This horrible mistake took a combination of political arrogance and public misconception. The arrogance is well known, so let me concentrate on the misconception. The perception was a few undesirable people, buying cheap things. The reality is Family Dollar sells the same merchandize in their suburban and rural stores. Rite Aid fills the same prescriptions and sells their standard merchandize. The new upscale stores, visioned for the arena front, will never produce the sales tax produced by Family Dollar and Rite Aid. The arena will never have that amount of employees, nor produce that much earned income.* The traffic congestion and lack of parking for arena events will destroy the new restaurants. Welcome to the white elephant, welcome to the ghost town.
Shown above and below is the early morning delivery to Family Dollar, every week of the year.
*sales tax and earned income currently going to city and state will now go to debt service for arena
above reprinted from December of 2011 

ADDENDUM JUNE 5, 2024:Since I wrote the above post almost thirteen years ago, nobody can say that there is still shopping on Hamilton Street. I know that there's a few stores still open, but it's certainly no longer a shopping district. Exactly what kind of district it is is debatable. I think urban office park is most descriptive. One would think that after $2Billion of taxpayer dollars, there would be much more vitality.

Whine and Cheese

Decades ago I could be found at an Allentown Art Museum opening. As the years passed and I became more cynical, I started referring to those events as Whine and Cheese. Now of course, I call those people yuppies, and have long since been removed from their mailing lists. In the last several months my regard for them, and the Old Allentown Preservation Association, has grown even lower. Both groups sat silently by, while the architectural and historical gems of Allentown were destroyed. Allentown only had a few significant facades. I captured the above image this summer. We need not speculate if the new arena will last 80 years, or if people in the year 3000 will consider it's architecture significant; It will be long gone.

above reprinted from January of 2012

ADDENDUM JUNE 4, 2024: Needless to say,  the bulldozer ate the beautiful facade above for the our underused arena. What's bringing me back to again complain about our cultural institutions is their silence about the irreplaceable WPA art deco post office, sitting there being submitted to vandalism and theft.

Allentown's Vanishing History

A reader sent me the above image last night. It looks down the hill from 7th and Hamilton, north, toward Linden Street. He has been attempting to locate the old Lafayette Radio store on 7th street, because of a pleasant memory from his childhood. By my day, the store had moved onto the southern side of the 700 block of Hamilton Street. History is quickly succumbing to the wreaking ball in Allentown. All the buildings shown above, on the left or west side of 7th Street, have been knocked down for the arena. Most of the buildings on the photo's right side are also gone. I suspect the few remaining ones will be gone soon, as they have been recently purchased in speculation of the Transformation Phrase 2, the Event Center. With the departure of Salomon Jewelry, Tucker Yarn remains Hamilton Street's last remaining business from the glory days. It's first store, on 7th Street, can be seen on the left side of the above photo.

The above image can be found in Doug Peters' Lehigh Valley Transit

above reprinted from January of 2012 

ADDENDUM JUNE 3, 2024:None of the buildings shown above, or businesses mentioned, still exist. Worse, new comers to Allentown know nothing of what was here before they arrived. Those of us with such memories of Allentown's past are in short supply, and of no value to the new guard. Never the less, I persevere with this blog and Allentown Chronicles, the facebook group. My solicitation to join the new park non-profit remains ignored.

Social Engineering Designs Allentown's New Zoning

Allentown's new proposed zoning ordinance incorporates every progressive notion of 2024. We will address affordable housing by allowing alley and backyard tiny houses. We will address higher urban unemployment rates by enlarging industrial and commercial districts into formally residential zones. In other words, they will codify and further accelerate our decline.

In the real world of litter plagued Allentown, the unemployed are the chronic unmotivated.  If we create more commercial space, we'll have to create* more business people for them, because real entrepreneurs have no trouble finding space for their businesses.

According to our city planning director....Increase opportunities for housing supply, walkability and vibrancy, and also to introduce new regulations that are employment friendly, focus on manufacturing,”... listing several of the goals of the zoning overhaul.

Apparently, Allentown has found the  solution to the off shore manufacturing situation and the Chinese trade imbalance.

*Community Action of Lehigh Valley used to set people up in business. Instead of giving them a fishing pole, they gave them a fish market. 

I'm taking this opportunity to display a photograph of 8th and Hamilton taken by Bill Schoenk in 1941. Mr. Schoenk worked at Mack Truck and raised a family on S. 9th St. His wife Betty was a crossing guard for many years in the neighborhood.

Allentown Needs More Boots On The Ground

Whenever a politician comes to town with a grant, it makes the paper.  Casey and Wild were both trying to take credit for a new grant for the Allentown Police Department. Chief Roca wants to use the money for more cruiser cars. We have used previous grants for more cameras and gun shot detectors. Mayor Tuerk wants to use the money for a new building, I'd like the money to go for more officers. 

Yesterday, I saw a Parking Authority vehicle drive past a double parker, without even slowing down to wave the lazy S.O.B on.  News has it that the Authority is in financial trouble. Someone has to start moving the double parkers along, and it doesn't have to be done from a new cruiser. I seen too many cops also past by the double parkers. Perhaps if we have more officers, we'll end up with a few who don't ignore quality of life issues. Most of the cops I see now-a-days are directing traffic from the parking decks on Linden Street. 

Shown above is an officer from 1912 by the then new West Park.  I can tell you that now in 2024 we could use him again back in that same park, especially around 3:00, when school lets out.