The Mexican General and Canal Park

In the 1960's, if you snuck into a park at night with a girl and a bottle of beer, you were sure to encounter an officer we called the Mexican General. It didn't matter which park, what time or how remote of a spot you found, he would find you. How he could patrol all the parks at the same time was beyond comprehension. 

I do not know his true heritage, except that he resembled the Mexican officer in the 1950's TV series Zorro. On the topic of heritage, the Lehigh Valley Railroad train engine heading into Canal Park above in October of 2020, is four decades beyond its real time. In 2012, Norfolk Southern painted Heritage engines in the colors of the different former lines absorbed into the current east coast carrier.

If the officer mentioned above really was Mexican and Spanish speaking, he would certainly have his hands full today in Allentown parks, especially Canal Park on the weekends. Hundreds of people from New Jersey have made the park a destination. The time has come for Allentown to close the parks past a certain time of day. An alternative would be to hire 500 more police officers.  

Mayor Tuerk has scheduled a news conference today on the parks....Tomorrow I'll tell you what he got wrong.

reprinted from July of 2025

ADDENDUM JUNE 5, 2026: It is my understanding that the mayor is away on another conference. It is also my understanding that we're in for a warm weekend, and I suppose a busy Canal Park.

Dr. Oz Praises The Wizard

I watched the recent White House press conference hosted by Dr. Oz. While he addressed all the medical related questions, he punted on others. Repeated questions about Bill Pulte being qualified were deflected with Oz stating that the issue was out of his lane.

One reporter was standing and rather noticeable in a red dress. At the end of the conference she raised her hand and was called on. She asked about medical treatment for TDS, and Oz replied that it was a difficult condition to treat, because it's hard to treat stupid.

I have little doubt that the exchange was staged with celebrity MAGA reporter Cara Castronuova. Other surprising answers for a physician was that Trump had some repeated medical tests because he likes hearing good results. I was disappointed when Fetterman beat Oz, but after watching the press conference, I think that I voted for the wrong person.

When Mack Was Allentown

I grew up around the corner from Mack's famous 5C plant, on the corner of Lehigh and S. 12th Streets. In the early 1950's, the brightly colored truck tractors would cover the lot next to the old assembly plant. All day long, a new tractor would leave for delivery somewhere, with two more piggy back on the coupling hitches. Over the years I have written a lot of posts about Mack, especially how their workers would use the Fountain Park WPA steps, walking to their jobs on S. 10th Street. Mack made all their own truck parts there, except the tires. Built Like A Mack Truck, was a result of the local craftsmanship.

In Saturday's Morning Call article about Mack investing in the Macungie plant, the vice president is quoted as saying that Mack was here to stay. By Saturday evening, that vice president was no longer with the company, according to WFMZ. I remember when the larger share of production was moved to South Carolina in 1987. Shortly before that plant closed in 2002, they handed out sunglasses to symbolize their bright future there. I remember when the World Headquarters on Mack Boulevard moved to North Carolina. I don't know about Mack's long term future in the valley, but I do know that the ties that bind have long since been broken.

Jack Mack, one of Mack Truck's founding brothers, was killed in an auto accident in 1924. He is buried in Fairview Cemetery on Lehigh Street.

above reprinted from 2016

ADDENDUM JUNE3,2026:I'm producing a small book on Allentown, without the usual Wikipedia type history, but with excerpts from the archives of this blog. This post is included.

Confessions Of A Less Political Blogger

I'll take credit for the check-in desk at City Hall, it was originally installed to keep me out. With news of Ed Pawlowski's upcoming release, I'm reminded of how much less I scrutinize city government.

I recently visited a city council committee meeting to congratulate Ce-Ce Gerlach, and commented on the long neglected WPA stairwell in Lehigh Parkway while I was there. I only know a few people in current city hall, and sadly we have lost one of them.

I do not know who the current city planner is, but I do know that he is superfluous. City planning is being done by J.B. Reilly's City Center R.E..  While Pawlowski enriched his campaign funds at our expense with city contracts, Reilly is enhancing his real estate portfolio at the expense of city planning. While a new art museum may make his holdings near 10th and Hamilton appear more classy in a news release, it won't change the needle in reality. But what concerns me is the downgrade to 5th Street, the Baum School and the Art Park. It also greatly reduces future prospects for the Post Office, the most architecturally signifiant building remaining in Allentown.

The above 1934 photograph of the art deco post office is the contractor's documentation of the project's progress. The back of the photo states; Taken Sept 1 - 34 showing lobby, floor, screens, desks, completed & fixtures hung

No One Coming To Allentown's $2Billion Potemkin Village

Downtown Allentown, aka J.B. Reilly's NIZ, is a dead zone. While Bethlehem and Easton have a day and night life, Allentown remains devoid of life. The only reason I care, and you should, is that it isn't Reilly's money, but ours. Reilly's privately owned buildings are financed with diverted state taxes, our taxes, which must otherwise be made up, by who again, but us.

I have been writing about this since day one. The list of the complicit silent has grown to now include the blue blood Allentown Art Museum board. They have agreed to move the art museum to Reilly's proposed cultural corner at 10th and Linden. Meanwhile in reality, Reilly is reduced to staging local boxing matches in his new Archer Theater. The Museum move leaves the Baum School and the art park artless.

Meanwhile, those same blue bloods dine at night in Bethlehem and Easton. Those two cities prospered from organic growth, not some contrived real estate scheme. There is some new moronic plan where ambassadors will confront anybody more prosperous than a street person who parks downtown, and ask how they can help? How reassuringly pathetic can we get?

End Of The Line In Allentown

Shown above is the former Wentz Tombstone shop at 20th and Hamilton Streets. Shown leading up to the workshop were tracks of the former Quarry Barber train spur.  Many years earlier, the line crossed Hamilton and served a former soda bottling plant on Linden Street, behind the stadium.  That building eventually was taken over by the park department, which allowed it to deteriorate, rather than replace the roof. The park department still believes in neglect, rather than maintenance.  

Before the flatcar with granite reached the tombstone plant, it traveled between the stage and pond at Union Terrace. Two small bridges crossed the waterway behind the pond, one for the train and one for pedestrians coming to the park from Walnut Street.

I have been campaigning to get the park department to replace the pedestrian bridge it had removed, rather than repair it about eight years ago. There is nobody in the administration that remembers the bridge, they're all newcomers to town. But I remember, and I don't mind reminding them.

reprint