Jordan Meadows vs. The Rose Garden

As an advocate for the traditional park system, I have been campaigning against the Riparian Buffers for years. I think that people should be able to see the creek, at least around the Rose Garden in Cedar Park, and the Robin Hood section of Lehigh Parkway. Every park director since 2005 has disagreed with me. When I complained to current director Mandy Tolino about invasives in the weed wall, she replied that there were some natives mixed in. The city maintains that the buffer keeps the waterway cleaner.

Allentown has made an exception to their park policy in the Jordan Meadows. There, anything and everything goes, and goes into the creek. The growing homeless camp has a population of about a hundred people. The adjoining property owner, Nat Hyman, has noticed the contradiction, and made arrangements for a pending lawsuit. However, he is first giving the city another opportunity to address the homeless encampment, and has even offered to help fund a proper shelter.

Needless to say the encampment would not be tolerated along Cedar Creek by the Rose Garden. Last year one denizen and his tent got a quick boot.

related post at O'Hare's Ramblings

Fairground Farmers Market

If you grew up in or near Allentown, chances are that you been to the Farmers Market. The market has been in operation since 1953, all year except during Fair Week.  

While those visiting downtown Allentown will recognize very little from the past, the Farmers Market is frozen in time. Some of the purveyors have been there for near 60 years. 

When I was a boy, my father operated a meat concession at the market for a year or so. He gave it up because he recognized so many of the customers from his market on Union Street, and realized that he had  doubled his overhead to serve the same clients.

For those of us who find change not always for the best, the Market remains a comfort.

reprinted from August of 2023

Freight Trolleys and Shenanigans

This was supposed to be a Men's Stuff post, about the working cars on the Lehigh Valley Transit Company. Doing research for the previous post on that company, I became fascinated that they operated a freight operation with the trolley cars. I started acquiring documentation and photographs about the working cars necessary for such an operation. They built power substations throughout the valley that generated electric, then converted the AC to DC for their use. The rolling stock required coal trolleys, wire stringing trolleys, snowplow trolleys, and etc. I will present these black and white photo treasures in future posts, because I got side tracked by a shenanigan; you know me. Lehigh Valley Transit operated out of the Fairview Carbarn, which Lanta still uses off of Lehigh Street. Despite a trolley fleet that covered the entire City, plus the remainder of the Valley (Bethlehem and Easton), all the Men's Stuff working cars, and trolley service to Philadelphia, Lanta now needs Bicentennial BallPark because they acquired five (5) new hybrid buses? Supposedly these five new buses require a special garage. Although the Fairview facility now handles 78 regular buses, the ballfield has to go because of the five new hybrids.

 enlarge freight trolley by clicking on image

above reprinted from May of 2010

UPDATE July 4, 2019:  Attempting to save the ballpark, I organized a meeting at a center city church.  Attending the meeting were two city council members and families involved with Bicentennial Park.  Pawlowski and Lanta finally backed off, and the ballpark remains. Some people who attended that meeting became interested in Allentown politics, and attend council meetings to this day. Pawlowski's shenanigans have since caught up with him.

ADDENDUM JUNE 26, 2025: I did this post about the freight trolleys over fifteen years ago. Back in the day, especially when they (Lanta) were accommodating Pawlowski and the upcoming NIZ, I would even attend the Lanta public meetings. My words at the public commentary portion were always met with cold eyes.  Lanta has remained a handmaiden for the influential, and serving the public remains secondary.

Festival de Estacionamiento Doble

Join Mayor Tuerk on Saturday July 19, as 2nd Street is turned into a meandering  Caribbean lane.  The Double Parking Festival will run from Tilghman to Hamilton. Enjoy authentic food, free from permit, licensing and inspection restrictions by the man. 

The event is being coordinated by Xana, he/she/they, Allentown's new director of Above and Far Beyond. This new position was created because the People & Culture Specialist, Kumari Ghafoor-Davis,  limits herself to DEIAB (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Acceptance, and Belonging)

This new annual event will be the fourth Latino vote pandering festival on the city calendar.  A car stereo contest will be based on volume and bass vibration. The only ICE present will be in your drink cups. Security by Promise Neighborhoods.  Park where and how you like.

artwork by Fred Schoenk

Promise Neighborhoods Gets An Easy Pass

Last week the Morning Call gave Promise Neighborhoods another Easy Pass. Two paid employees conducted a survey on neighborhood violence. Only five men participated, and they were paid with gift cards to fill out the forms. 

It is painful that our tax dollars are being used to provide grants for such things. It is painful that our local paper found it news worthy enough to have fourteen photos about it. The men were photographed from the left, then the right, collectively and then individually. One photo showed just a man's hands with a pencil.

This blog gives no easy passes. The only stories about Promise Neighborhoods that are interesting is that there was another shooting this past weekend, and that Hasshan Batts is stepping down with little explanation. Now, that might be a back story worth a paper's time!

photocredit:The Morning Call

Pennsylvania's Odd Couple

Both were elected by partisan purists at the time, but world events have brought them closer together than foreseen.  Granted, the D is a very odd duck from the beginning. John Fetterman's support of Israel, while a traditional Democratic position, has stood out because of Netanyahu's extremism.

On Saturday night, both Pa. senators, Fetterman and McCormick, praised Trump's military action against Iran. while most Democrats were complaining about lack of congressional approval. Those congressional approvals might take some of the S out of any surprise.

I'm wondering if Fetterman will become his party's whipping boy, he already wasn't their favorite. I'm hoping that with BiBi's existential threat reduced, he will take the stranglehold off Gaza. If the bombing ends up a one off, as Trump claims it was, or an entrapment as feared by many, remains to be seen.