Allentown Parknership Endorses Status Quo

After seven months, the Parknership finally announced their board of directors. With Tuerk and his park director taking two of the nine seats, there will be no change in current park philosophy. Worse, the weed walls have gained a couple more enthusiasts on the board. In addition to the Trexler Trust, the Rider-Pool Foundation has stepped forward as a major Parknership backer. That foundation is closely affiliated with the Wildlands Conservancy, promoter of the weed walls.

While the board has the expected diversity, there is no advocate for the WPA, or the traditional park system. The Trexler people on the board, Janet Roth and Donald Bernhard, do have institutional knowledge of the park system, and the Trust has financed any work done on WPA structures in the last decade. I'm grateful for that!

My input will continue to be limited to this blog. Eventually, my WPA suggestions are implemented, with credit given elsewhere. I have even less hope for the creek banks under this administration and the new organization. I was hoping that this new Parknership might steer the park system back toward its classic design and values, but instead it seems to reinforce the new agenda.

Double Whammy For Taxpayers In Allentown

Some of our local state elected officials met at the Baum Art School with a hired consultant to solicit input and build support for a downtown revitalization initiative. After these same officials condone the NIZ spending of a $Billion of taxpayer money for revitalization, don't they realize how meager the return on public value has been from the NIZ? Don't they realize the irony of their new initiative? 

In the Morning Call's report on the meeting, the reporter writes that the NIZ has transformed the formerly empty neighborhood into a cosmopolitan region. She wouldn't know from the paper's archives that actually Hamilton Street was not empty, and that it is not cosmopolitan now. In reality, Hamilton Street was much, much busier back then. The former Family Dollar store was the busiest in their chain. Rite-Aid was busy, as were most of the stores in the 700 block of Hamilton. Because the Morning Call acted as a press agent for the NIZ, their archives are very distorted. 

While I do agree with the consultant that Allentown is a dead zone, apparently Tuerk, Schlossberg and Miller think that vitality is a small $million more away. Nick Miller said “Speaking from the state’s perspective, we’ve invested a lot in buildings and we now need to invest in people,”  Tuerk wants his former employer, Allentown Economic Development, involved. Promise Neighborhoods' input was invited. It was suggested that nearby residents be set up in businesses.

As a taxpayer in Pennsylvania, I would pay the consultant off for his time, and hope that all the recommendations are ignored and forgotten. I do believe that Reilly's latest project, the Archer music venue, will bring some more foot traffic downtown, as will the new apartments and condos in the former PPL buildings. I ask our above mentioned politicians to stop thinking that spending more of our money is always the solution.

The Livingston Club, Allentown's Benevolent Oligarchy

Back in the day, when the town had three department stores, the major decisions affecting Allentown's future were made at the Livingston Club. Harvey Farr would meet Donald Miller and John Leh at the Club for lunch, and discuss acquiring more lots for Park & Shop. The bank officers of First National and Merchants Bank would discuss loans with the highly successful merchants, many of whom had stores in all three major Lehigh Valley cities. As the heydays winded down, likewise the exit plans were made there. The City of Allentown acquired the Park & Shop lots, becoming the Allentown Parking Authority. Leh's became the Lehigh County Government Center.

The new oligarchy consists of much fewer men, they could all met at a small table in Shula's, and be entertained by watching street people  arrested. The former 1st National Bank location is now a new Reilly building. The former Livingston Club building is now a parking lot, and future site to another Reilly building. Shula's is also a Reilly building.... 

reprinted from August 19, 2015

ADDENDUM DECEMBER 12, 2024:I can't say where the current oligarchy can meet, because the restaurants now have a short shelf life. But, they don't need a large table, just big enough for Reilly and a couple Jaindls'. Perhaps they would also invite Sy Traub, he's been at the table since the NIZ began, as consigliere. I suspect that if the ghosts of Farr, Miller and Leh looked at all the new privately owned buildings, which are paid for with public tax money, they would feel pretty small compared to the new players.

WPA, A Work In Progress

On Labor Day in 2011, The Morning Call ran a story about my efforts in regard to the neglected WPA structures, and announced my upcoming meeting at the Allentown Library. Among those in attendance at that meeting was Karen El-Chaar, director of Friends Of The Allentown Parks. Later that year, I took El-Chaar on a tour of the WPA structures throughout the park system. In 2013, I conducted my first tour of the WPA in Lehigh Parkway, in conjunction with Friends Of The Parks. This year, El-Chaar successfully secured a grant from The Trexler Trust, which is currently being used to restore the steps at Fountain Park. The grant is being supervised by Lindsay Taylor, Allentown Park Director. The work is being done by Dietrich Stonemasonry, and managed by parks supervisor, Rick Holtzman.

Although much work remains to be done, it's my sense that all the decision makers mentioned above, are developing a greater appreciation of the unique gift that the WPA bestowed upon the Allentown park system.  I'm hoping that both that interest and work continues this coming spring and summer, especially in preserving the remaining portion of the wall in Lehigh Parkway. 

 reprinted from October 19, 2015

ADDENDUM DECEMBER 11, 2024:The Allentown park system is getting a large hand up from the new Parknership, funded by both Trexler Trust and Rider- Pool Foundation. Although if truth be told, the work done on the WPA structures has resulted from my advocacy, I have been excluded from the new organization. It is my hope that work continues on the structures, it is long overdue.

Jarrett Coleman"s Pressure Returns Bucks To State

What a coincidence that Jarrett Coleman has been pushing for audits of the NIZ, and that the NIZ found some extra moola to give back to Pa.  Understand that besides Coleman, there is no pressure on NIZ board, whatsoever.  On the contrary, Reilly keeps building and the board keeps approving. 

Although no authorization in the original legislation, the board now allots itself close to $800K for operating expenses. In any state except Pennsylvania, the Revenue Department might be keeping tabs, but here the NIZ architect himself is the Revenue Director!?!

The recent dividend from Coleman's tenacity about NIZ audits hopefully is just the beginning. The fact that other state legislators from outside the Lehigh Valley aren't leading this effort is testament to how broken Harrisburg has become. That Josh Shapiro is a party hero, doesn't speak well for the depth of their bench.

Allentown's Historic Syrian Community

When my grandfather first arrived in Allentown he lived in the Ward, on 2nd. Street. It was around 1895 and the neighborhood was full of immigrants. Some groups came from the same area in the old country, most noticeably the Syrians, from the village of Amar*. They were Antiochian Orthodox, a minority in a Muslim country. The congregation of St. George's Church on Catasauqua Ave., largely is descended from those immigrants. Well known names in Allentown, such as Atiyeh, Haddad, Hanna, Makoul, Koury and Joseph are among their members. They were among one of the first groups to organize, and those organizations still exist. The photo above was organized by the Syrian American Organization in 1944. Note that Jewish, on the left, is treated as a nationality.

click on photo to enlarge

UPDATE APRIL 12, 2023: The above post is reprinted from March of 2010. I have repeated the post several times since over the years, and have written other posts concerning Allentown's historic Syrian Community as well. Although I didn't grow up in the Ward, I grew up with their children, who had by then also lived in other sections of town. Throughout the 1950's and 60's, the organized Syrian community wielded considerable strength in local Democratic politics. On Sunday Allentown recognizes the Syrian community with a flag raising at city hall.

ADDENDUM DECEMBER 9, 2024: This was a dramatic weekend for the Allentown Syrian community mentioned above. The Assad regime, both father and recent son, had provided protection for the Christian minority in Syria, and were generally well regarded by the local community here in Allentown. The local Syrians, here since about 1900, came because of religious persecution in their homeland. Although the new rebel leader has indicated tolerance toward minorities in Syria, the Christians and other minorities are understandably nervous.