To Whom Is Tuerk Speaking Spanish

This week I took Matt to task twice, allow me to end the week with a trilogy. I question what is really behind his bi-lingual jogging posts? Are there that many Latinos in Allentown who do not understand English, or is the explanation for those bi-lingual posts political pandering?

I'm sure that there are those in the Latino community who will broadcast that Tuerk's Spanish videos show respect. Tuerk self describes as Allentown's first Latino mayor.

Tuerk being bi-lingual could benefit the city, but he would have to deliver much tougher messages than we have heard so far. Being in year five at city hall, he could take the opportunity to put some shine on a rust belt city. Pawlowski tried to ride the NIZ development to Harrisburg or Washington, but got detoured. While I see no such detour for Tuerk, I do see a missed opportunity.

Uncle Matt Wants The Teenagers To Call Him

I hope that Matt's plea for teenagers to contact him isn't the whole game plan against violence in Allentown. If so, we better button down the hatches very tightly. I watched kids in Reading doing burnouts around the Pagoda on WFMZ.  I remember when it was Reading's pride and joy. WFMZ covers commotion in both Allentown and Reading. The news stories have a short shelf life. Likewise, the Morning Call vacillates with their stories, either not at all, or for months on end. Either one, either way, there is much more commotion than we hear about.

Over the weekend there was a rescue at Canal Park. Some female was pulled from the middle of the Lehigh River. If she was homegrown or from New Jersey, I don't know...the story only appeared very briefly.

Of course the big problem with Matt's call-in plan is who will be calling? The junior achievers will be calling in with good suggestions, but they're not the shooters. The shooters wouldn't be caught dead calling in, or they might end up that way.

Mayor Says We Have To Do Better

Contacted in Los Angeles at another conference, Mayor Matt Tuerk said that We Have To Do Better in response to the recent shooting. Actually, he has to do better. Needless to say, enough with the conferences already. I was just complaining about him going to one in Madrid, Spain. Give us a break!

As for the police chief, if he's standing down on quality of life issues under the mayor's direction, maybe he's OK. If he's standing down on his own, time for a new chief. On my weekly cruise down Tilghman to Front, I noticed the usual disregard for traffic rules. A large group of motorcycles and motorized bikes pulled out of an alley onto Tilghman. 

I understand that the city has a Latino majority, and Tuerk has played that card well. But unless he hopes to be mayor forever, he has to also play the other cards. He should remind himself that even Victor Martinez couldn't get his preferred candidate elected in the 22nd District. 

There is more violence than is being reported. Recently there was a drive-by shooting in deep Hamilton Park. It's past time to think that Promise Neighborhoods, or any other profitable non-profit, can control the deteriorating situation. It is time for a beefed up police department. Who should lead it, and the city itself for that matter, are the questions?

A Community Loss

Back in 2010/2011, when I was conducting meetings on the WPA at the Allentown Library,  they were documented by Imantrek, aka Sydney McKenzie. With my tricky name spelled wrong, I was on the cover of his Grounzero magazine. Over the years we have stayed in touch.

In addition to Imantrek, he also went by the handle Red Bokeh(Society). In more recent years, he turned his camera to fashion and entertainment. He identified as an underdog, and with some reason. He resented being passed over for photography jobs by some local organizations, despite his long time involvement in local issues.

With Sydney's premature passing last week, the community suffered a grassroots loss. I was notified by a diverse group of people, who as far as I know had nothing in common, except an appreciation of Allentown and Sydney Imantrek McKenzie.

Allentown Baby Boomer Memories

Allentown Chronicles is a collection of thirty-six posts from Molovinsky On Allentown. It is not the usual sepia toned photographs from 1900. It contains none of the canned wikipedia summations found in other Allentown history books. 

It is mostly my memories from the 1950's. Early summer mornings sitting in my father's old station wagon on the way to his meat market, waiting for long freight trains to pass by Union Street. Many of the posts mention those rail tracks, which tied Allentown's post war prosperity together.

Allentown certainly isn't the same. The car radios are much louder now with a different music. There's litter in the streets, but I still remember times past.. My hope is that a few of these posts remind you of your childhood in Allentown.

Link to paperback at Amazon

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.