Lesson At Dieruff

A Dieruff High School social studies teacher would not have to take his class very far for a lesson in Allentown's history. Although never elected, East Side activist Dennis Pearson has been complaining for thirty years that the East Side always get short changed in Public Works. Such was the case in the mid 1930's, during the WPA work in Allentown. Roosevelt's New Deal program built the elaborate walls in the south side's Lehigh Parkway. Central Allentown received the magnificent Lawrence Street stairwell. The culturally elite of west Allentown received the Union Terrace Amphitheater, envisioned for Shakespeare. Pearson's east side got a few scattered steps to nowhere. The steps remained, and thirty years later Allentown built Dieruff High School. With expansions and renovations, some of the steps now adjoin the school. Flash ahead to the summers of 2009 and 2010.




I lobbied Allentown City Council members to appropriate some of the $millions of dollars in Cedar Park plans to begin preserving the irreplaceable WPA structures, starting to crumble throughout our park system. East Side elected councilman, Michael D'Amore, assured me that he only signed off on the Administrations plan, with the stipulation that the steps in Irving Park-Dieruff area would be restored at the same time. The work in Cedar Park was completed last year, including $millions of dollars with of recreation equipment from catalogs. The deterioration of the steps around Dieruff continues. Now there's a lesson in government!
photos courtesy of Mark Thomas 

above reprinted from September of 2011

ADDENDUM JULY 18, 2024:The new Allentown Parknership claims that they will be involved with the WPA structures, among other facets of our park system. For that reason I have applied to be on their board of directors. I know that they will have no other applicants who have been advocating for the WPA for over fifteen years. I will continue the east side step saga in tomorrow's post.

Why I'm Not Voting For Trump

I left Monday's post up for Tuesday, with an added addendum. One comment echoed Trump's reply at the debate, that he would honor the 2024 election result if it was fair.  I cut bait with Trump on Jan.6th, 2021 and  cannot vote for him this cycle because of that debate answer. If this election isn't fair, the Republicans share the blame. If they're not organized enough to have enough pole watchers, that's their bad. I know that they have not caught up with the mail ballot game, which alone may again lose them the election.

There are legal recourses after vote counting. After they are exhausted, it is incumbent upon the candidate to concede the election, especially on the national level. An orderly transition of power is essential for democracy. 

Although I cannot reconsider Trump for 2024 after his debate answer, fortunately for the country's tranquility, Trump is far enough ahead that he probably won't have to again resort to encouraging that the election results not be certified. I realize that this post will annoy many of my readers, who trend Republican. I'm personally an independent conservative, who usually votes Republican. 

I've tried to produce an honest daily blog for the last seventeen years, and ran for office twice myself as an independent. This blog is not monetized, so I don't dance for readership numbers. I don't dance for comments. I'll invest my vote this election with Kennedy, to help fortify the third party concept.

Left Blames Trump For Being Shot

Some derivative of you reap what you sow is turning up on my liberal facebook friends' pages. It took just an  hour or two for them to start blaming MAGA and Trumpism. They're complaining that the right isn't demanding gun control.  They're complaining that the border issues are racist, and they want their guns to keep the brown people out.

Steve Scalise, who was shot in a 2017 congressional baseball game, said on the news shows Sunday that we must dial down the rhetoric, especially the demonization of Trump. I credit Biden for his remarks Saturday evening along the same lines.

An article in the current Time Magazine states that the country isn't as polarized as the media projects. With newspapers being yesterday's news, magazines either have to be last month's news or get controversial with their titles. From my observation we are indeed more polarized than ever. If this tragic shooting tones things down, remains to be seen....My hunch is that it will actually deepen the divide.

photocredit:Gene J. Puskar/AP

ADDENDUM JULY 16, 2024: J.D. Vance choosen as VP.. Biden gives interview with NBC's Lester Holt. Failure or worse by the Secret Service.

The Press As Props

It was upfront that Biden had pre-chosen which reporters were allowed to ask questions during Thursday's Big Boy presser. With that pre-selection he could surmise what the questions would entail. The reporter with the hijab would likely inquire about the situation in Gaza. If Biden called on eleven selected questioners, what were the other 295 reporters beyond production props? Anyway...

Although cherry picking the chosen reporters helps to predict the questions, did the Biden camp go farther, and suggest questions to the few lucky among the many? Anyway...

I think my question and its answer will become news this weekend. If I was a reporter and had to stand in line in a hallway for 30 minutes just to be a prop, I would be agitated. I'm agitated writing this from the comfort of my kitchen table. Anyway...

ADDENDUM FRIDAY 10:00AM: So far I can find no speculation, beyond my own, that Biden knew what questions the chosen reporters would ask. However, the questions are being described as softball.

Shapiro Disqualifying Himself From National Office

Pennsylvania's Josh Shapiro was a rising star in the world of Democratic politics for ten minutes. On Wednesday afternoon he started to disqualify himself, and he didn't even know it.

Shapiro's problem goes back to a seemingly good appointment, Pat Browne to Director of Revenue. Browne, as a former state senator, was the architect of the Neighborhood Improvement District (NIZ), which seemingly revitalized Allentown, the state's third largest city. This transformation was seemingly chronicled by the Morning Call, one of the few remaining newspapers in the state. If I seem to be using seemingly repeatedly, it is because not everything, especially in politics and newspapers, is as it appears.

Allentown's former glory days main shopping street was transformed from a declined mercantile district into a new urban office park. The back story as it was unfolding, which isn't so pretty, was limited to this blog. The former merchants were given the heave-ho with threats of eminent domain. Almost all the parcels and new buildings ended up being owned by one man, who happens to be the childhood friend of Pat Browne. Almost all the new businesses which located into this new urban office park were poached by this chosen developer, at the expense of the surrounding suburban office parks. All the previous state taxes going to Harrisburg now went to this developer's debt service. A billion dollar empire of new, privately owned office and apartments, all owned by one man, being paid for by state taxes. New building by new building was promoted by the newspaper, article after article. Browne had cleverly included the newspaper building in the NIZ zone, and even that was gobbled up by the developer. New governor Shapiro reading those newspaper promotions noticed Browne's talent, and appointed him to be his revenue director. 

Because almost all the NIZ tax revenue information actually pertains to only one man, Browne on the way out the senate door, amended that information to be confidential. Browne certainly succeeded in creating a strong lockbox for his scheme. Shapiro's office issued this statement after Jarrett Coleman issued the subpoena...the Department of Revenue must continue to follow the law and has respectfully declined to provide this confidential information,”  

It is my hope that Shapiro is naive, not complicit. Time will tell.

ADDENDUM: Time ended up telling pretty quickly. I've been informed that the developer made a very large contribution to candidate Shapiro when he was running. It appears that the naive one was me, when I wrote the above post. Perhaps I'm also being naive about Shapiro disqualifying himself from national office because of such questionable contributions, maybe in today's reality he's learning the big boy ropes.

Jarrett Coleman Wins Subpoena For Taxpayers

Under Coleman's leadership, and against prepared opposition,  a senate committee yesterday voted to issue a subpoena to Pat Browne requesting information pertaining to Allentown's NIZ.  The NIZ has diverted over $half a $billion in state tax revenue for the private real estate empire of a couple local developers

.“The department’s arguments about taxpayer confidentiality are a smokescreen, because no data about individual taxpayers has been requested and confidentiality will be maintained” Coleman said. “The secretary is going to extraordinary lengths to hide this information from legislators and the people we represent. When this much effort is put into preventing people from seeing what’s going on, it casts a cloud of suspicion over the program and the people responsible for properly using the half-billion dollars in tax money. Ultimately, the information included in the subpoena is necessary to determine whether the program is a success or an expensive boondoggle.”

Before the committee voted to issue the subpoena,  state senator Christine Tartaglione spoke forcefully against it.  While she claimed that the full body rejected such an effort previously, it was actually not passed because of a tie vote. Also lobbying against it was senator Jay Costa, who complained about violating the tax confidentiality of the NIZ beneficiaries. Coleman assured his colleagues that the information would be keep confidential by the appointed auditors. Tartaglione noted that she has been in the senate for thirty years. I assume that both she and Costa know Browne quite well, and that he appreciated their effort to restrain Coleman's attempt to gain proper disclosure about a questionable legislation cloaked in secrecy.

Although the subpoena asks the information within a certain time period, there may well be quite a struggle between asking and receiving the information. Taxpayers should be grateful to Coleman for his tenacity in regard to this matter.