Visiting Easton

Being one of the last warm days of the year, I thought we would visit Easton. I thought perhaps it would be more interesting to do the trip circa 1948. Lehigh Valley Transit had a trolley that went from 8th and Hamilton, through Bethlehem, to the circle in Easton. In the photo above, we're coming down Northampton Street, just entering the Circle. The Transit Company was using both trolleys and buses, until they discontinued trolleys completely, in 1953. At this time, Hamilton, Broad and Northampton Streets were the shopping malls of the era, and public transportation serviced the customers. The Transit Company, now Lanta, currently serves the Allentown population from a prison like facility at 6th and Linden Streets; It just needs a fence. Easton mayor Sal Panto is now also abandoning the merchants for a remote transportation/correction facility, which will entertain the inmates with the Al Bundy High School Dropout Museum. Hope you enjoyed the trip.

above reprinted from November of 2011

ADDENDUM JUNE 14, 2024:At the time this was written in 2011, Sal Panto was trying to build a National Museum of High School Sports, thus  my cracks about Al Bundy from the Married With Children TV show. But, what is truly amazing is that he is still mayor, 900 years later. Is he that good, or is Easton that politically indifferent?

Around The Corner

Yesterday's post about the zoning hearing for Rite-Aid, out on North 7th Street, showed a classic 1950 black and white photograph of Hamilton Street. Today, we go right around the corner, on South 7th Street. Being the oldest blogger in the valley, and being an aficionado of old photographs, you will be submitted to these excursions. Before we begin, a few notes about yesterday's image. Notice that there are many more shoppers on the north side of Hamilton, than the south. This phenomenon always existed. Were the better stores on the north side? Real estate prices and rents were always higher on the Hess's side. OK, lets go around the corner. The Suburban Line Bus is getting ready to head west, the county poor home being the last stop; Today it is known as Cedarbrook. The Lehigh Valley Transit Company had their main stop a block west, on S. 8th Street. The bus is parked in front of the YMCA, which housed a market at street level. If the photograph was extended on the right side, you would see the monument. Across Hamilton Street is Whelan Drug Store, that location currently occupied by a bank. The billboard above, then advertising local Neuweiler Beer, was a prime sign location. Behind the drug store stands the Dime Bank, which will remain as part of the new transformational Arena Complex. Glad you could join me, now get off the bus, and back into 2011. 

reprinted from November of 2011

City Of Allentown Hires Molovinsky

No, rest assured that they didn't hire me. On the contrary, because of this blog, they would like to drag me in front of an eager district magistrate, and throw the book at me. 

However, they did hire my father's Uncle Harry in about 1935.  At that time, same time that they were building the magnificent WPA structures which the city is now allowing to go to seed, Earl Price was the City Forester, and in charge of maintaining the parks. 

By 1900,  my great grandparents and all their offspring were living in the Ward.  I'm now the last Molovinsky left in Allentown, so this blog cannot embarrass any family members.  It can, however, if I do my job correctly, cause some distress among those who are failing to properly honor the city's history.

Harry Molovinsky is in the back row, fifth from the right, in the light colored jacket.

use of photo courtesy of the Price family

ADDENDUM: It has been three weeks since I requested to be included in the new Allentown Parknership...There has been no response. While the new non-profit is being financed by the Trexler Trust in cooperation with the city administration, apparently a deep knowledge of the parks is not one of their requirements.

Allentown's Jewish Band And Scrap Iron

In 1915 Allentown's Judaean Band was the first Jewish band in the United States.  It had started with a group of young men at a 6th Ward soda fountain.  Many of the original members didn't have, or even know how to play an instrument.  Jacob Max, the Tilghman Street scrap dealer, took the group under wing and sponsored the music lessons, instruments and uniforms. The band had great  success for a few years, until its ranks were depleted by service in the Great War.

Among the members was Harry Molovinsky, my grandfather's youngest sibling, and Jakey Max, a prizefighter who became Allentown's first Jewish firefighter.

Jakey worked at the extended family scrapyard for a short while, after both Jacob and his son were killed in separate traffic accidents. The scrapyard stayed in the Max family until 1972.  Today it's called Liberty Recycling. 

reprinted from June of 2020

A Jewish Neighborhood In Allentown

At the turn of the last  century along with other ethnic groups, Allentown's Jewish community was centered in the 6th Ward. On 2nd Street there were two synagogues and numerous Jewish merchants. Among them was Louis Sussman, who operated a bakery and construction business from the corner of 2nd and Allen. His building also housed a textile scrap operation in the basement, and a special event rental hall on the second floor.

There were several kosher butchers, my great grandfather among them. Currently, with the closest supermarket being at 4th and Tilghman, numerous corner markets still operate on 2nd Street. Today's merchants have the same motivation as those who operated from those stores in 1924.

While I have some knowledge of the history of those buildings, it's a new day for both the current merchants and their customers. Shown above on Allen Street are the garages Louis Sussman built in 1912 for his growing construction business.

The Allentown Parking Authority Monster

Although the shopping district in Allentown has shrunk down to only Hamilton and 7th Streets, the meter district remains as it did during the heydays of the 1950's. The meters extend from Walnut to Chew, from 5th to 10th, well over 1000 meters in 20 sq. blocks. Parking meters extend out to 10th and Chew Sts, three full blocks beyond the closest store.* These meters are a defacto penalty for the residents, mostly tenants. In essence, it is a back door tax on Allentown's poorest citizens. The apologists claim the tenants can purchase a resident meter pass, however their friends and visitors cannot. To add insult to injury, in 2005, to help finance a new parking deck for the arts district, the Parking Authority doubled the meter rate and fines. Testimony to City Council permitting the rate increase indicated it was favored by the merchants. At that time I documented to the Council that in fact the merchants were not informed, much less in favor. The vote was 5 to 2, with Hershman and Hoover dissenting
* I used the above copy on my posting of October 3, 2007. In the past several weeks the Parking Authority finally removed the meters in the 900 block of Chew St, 50 years beyond their legitimate need.

UPDATE: The post above is reprinted from September 2009. I have published dozens of posts on the Parking Authority. In 2005, I conducted two press conferences on their abuses; One conference was at 10th and Chew Streets, and concerned the oversized meter zone. The second conference, directly in front of their office, concerned the fabricated merchant survey that they  presented to City Council. Old tricks die hard. Forward ahead to 2015, and the Parking Authority will once again penalize both existing merchants and residents.  The new plan is to double the meter parking rate from $1 an hour, to $2, and extend the metering time to 10:00pm.  They claim that the merchants are in favor of this plan. Although I will not conduct my own survey, as I did 2005,  their survey defies logic.  Why would any of the few surviving merchants want their customers submitted to a destination city parking rates in Allentown? Despite the hype,  Allentown is not Miami Beach or N.Y.C.. In reality, just as the taxpayers are subsidizing the arena zone,  now the merchants and residents will be subsidizing the arena plan through punitive parking rates.

UPDATE Memorial Day Weekend 2015: I did end up asking several merchants, and no, they were not surveyed. Eight years from the original date of this post, and the Authority is still up to the same shenanigans.   Reilly's City Center tenants, merchants and customers will get a free pass for the Authority's inconvenient parking lots. Other existing tenants in the NIZ, such as the south side of the 900 block of Walnut Street, will not be eligible for residential parking permits.  If you have a problem with any of this, remember, you must now put money in the meter at night, before  complaining to City Council.

UPDATE MARCH 20, 2020:  As of noon yesterday, the Parking Authority suspended tickets in the residential permit zones.  However, normal parking meter tickets will continue.  This would have of course punish merchants still open for business during this virus crisis. However, while there are virtually no merchants left on Hamilton Street since the NIZ revitalization, the punishment would have mostly affect the minority merchants on 7th Street....or in other words, life as usual in Allentown. Governor Wolf has declared that all non-essential businesses must close. Will the monster also now stand down?

UPDATE OCTOBER 20, 2020: Numerous voters trying to drop off their ballots at Government Center at 7th and Hamilton, report that the monster has awoken, and is giving out tickets. 

UPDATE AUGUST 10, 2021: I've been writing about the Parking Authority corruption for over fifteen years.  You will not read about this corruption in the Morning Call, because the paper has always benefitted from their association with it, going back to the days of Park & Shop.

UPDATE NOVEMBER 18, 2021: The Authority is now accused of munching on the poor waiting in line to pick up their children at the inner-city schools. Welcome to the Authority's menu, and welcome to Molovinsky On Allentown, which has been reporting on the monster's diet for the last fifteen years.

ADDENDUM JUNE 7, 2024: More than one parking authority director has left Dodge before his/her shenanigens came home to roost. Up there on that list is building parking decks under specs, which then needed extensive rebuilding. Tied for first place is selling off the original long paid off, convenient surface lots, to save connected developers a few bucks for their new projects. (Which in turn required  more expensive decks.) We now find out that the APA is a couple $mils in the hole...Their solution, adding back new meters where they don't belong and increasing parking fines. Allentown hired a former FBI agent to investigate discrimination in city hall, they should instead hire him to investigate the Parking Authority Monster.