The Three Cities

Uncle Sam has given the Lehigh Valley $3.4million dollars to study development. Our tax dollars will be spread out among the bureaucrats, and those in training, to insure that nothing tangible results from the money. Those in charge are experienced in the art of nebulous double talk. Holly Edinger, from the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corp. said "This spending from HUD will enable the Lehigh Valley to have an unprecedented community conversation about our future." Allentown will use our share to study the now closed factory, where both Obama and Romney had press conferences. Community Development Director Sara Hailstone said "What this will allow us to do is bring jobs back to the core where people can walk to work and walk home from work and we believe that is one of the most sustainable projects we can be involved with." Actually, Sarah, in a time long before you, workers did just that, using the WPA Fountain Park Steps. Using our share to repair those steps would actually produce a return on both the money and your words. Phil Mitman said "This is really about our taxpayer money coming back to the Lehigh Valley." I suppose Phil's right, at least the money is being wasted in the valley.

UPDATE: Alan Jennings and Renew LV are dancing in their underpants about the HUD grant. Most of grant will fund the salaries in various such organizations to conduct public input meetings and other abstractions.

This post is a commentary on a Morning Call article by Scott Kraus.

2nd and Hamilton

Up to the mid 1960's, before Allentown started tinkering with urban redevelopment, lower Hamilton Street still teemed with businesses. The City had grown from the river west, and lower Hamilton Street was a vibrant area. Two train stations and several rail lines crossed the busy thoroughfare. Front, Ridge and Second were major streets in the first half of the twentieth century. My grandparents settled on the 600 block of 2nd Street in 1895, along with other Jewish immigrants from Russia and Lithuania. As a boy, I worked at my father's meat market on Union Street. I would have lunch at a diner, just out of view in the photo above. The diner was across from the A&P, set back from the people shown on the corner. A&P featured bags of ground to order 8 O'Clock coffee, the Starbucks of it's day.

above photo taken by Ed Miller in 1953, and included in Pleasant Family Shopping. Gratitude to LVCI for the link

Israel Bashing

As a life long reader of The Morning Call, over the decades I have seen many serial writers obsessing on their hatred of Israel. Before 1967, they had to question the legitimacy of Israel's creation in 1948. Since then, they now can claim that Israel is an repressive occupier. The current local mantle against Israel is carried by Vincent Stravino.
This retired physician is more articulate than his predecessors, but employs the same propaganda techniques. He always starts out mentioning that he has been there, but then laments if only they didn't participate in human right abuses, what a wonderful place it would be. He states his claim of abuse as a fact, always finding some study which confirms his contention. He always ends his letters mentioning his Jewish and Israeli friends who share his indignation.
On his next trip, the good doctor could visit an Israeli hospital, and see the Palestinian and Arab patients who benefit from the hope of Israel, but that's not his agenda.

The above letter letter was rejected by The Morning Call.

..... we're not going to be able to run this letter as written because it directly comments on Stravino....You can still challenge him by countering points he made in his letter....

I declined the invitation to bicker with Stravino issue by issue, other writers and myself have done that in the past. When I submitted the letter I was aware of the paper's long standing policy that replies must address the issues, not the writer. However, the point of my letter was that he has an agenda, and just plugs in different accusations. I do not believe that the doctor is in any way anti-Semitic, but has been indoctrinated from a point of view which fails to comprehend the entire situation in Israel.

Selling The Arena

The Morning Call staff was treated to a special premiere* of the Hockey Arena Power-Point, before that presentation hits the public circuit. The publicly funded impact study, or should I say study for impact, states that the arena could generate $39million into downtown's economy. Although they hope to draw no more people than Sovereign Center, that facility claims only benefiting Reading's economy $8million. An expert on such municipal projects, Dennis Coates, said "It is basically a public relations document as opposed to an economic analysis."

*Although much of the critical analysis of the impact study occurs after the jump in the hard copy edition, it is a well done article by Scott Kraus.

Around the Corner

Yesterday's post about the zoning hearing for Rite-Aid, out on North 7th Street, showed a classic 1950 black and white photograph of Hamilton Street. Today, we go right around the corner, on South 7th Street. Being the oldest blogger in the valley, and being an aficionado of old photographs, you will be submitted to these excursions. Before we begin, a few notes about yesterday's image. Notice that there are many more shoppers on the north side of Hamilton, than the south. This phenomenon always existed. Were the better stores on the north side? Real estate prices and rents were always higher on the Hess's side. OK, lets go around the corner. The Suburban Line Bus is getting ready to head west, the county poor home being the last stop; Today it is known as Cedarbrook. The Lehigh Valley Transit Company had their main stop a block west, on S. 8th Street. The bus is parked in front of the YMCA, which housed a market at street level. If the photograph was extended on the right side, you would see the monument. Across Hamilton Street is Whelan Drug Store, that location currently occupied by a bank. The billboard above, then advertising local Neuweiler Beer, was a prime sign location. Behind the drug store stands the Dime Bank, which will remain as part of the new transformational Arena Complex. Glad you could join me, now get off the bus, and back into 2011.

Where Was Peter?

Yesterday I received a plea from Peter Lewnes if I could join the effort to stop the Rite-Aid from using their box store plan on 7th Street. Below are excerpts from his letter.

I'm writing for your support against a corporate takeover of 7th and Allen Street at tomorrow night's zoning hearing board meeting. ...
7th Street Allentown's development is facing a serious setback tomorrow night. The Rite Aid Corporation is seeking to demolish 602-618 N 7th Street, an anchor building that admittedly requires a ton of renovation but historically housed Rite Aid and served them well as a facility.
The threat lies with what they propose to replace it with. The Seventh Street Development Committee has worked to protect center city from suburban sprawl and becoming an extension of 145 in Whitehall... SSDC continually advocated for restrictions on big-box, suburban-style development along the corridor - any type of development that would be detrimental to its street-oriented, pedestrian-friendly design.
What Rite Aid is proposing for the corner of 7th and Allen Street flies directly in the face of the results of this public, community-driven process. ... Approving such variances would set a dangerous precedent, making it that much easier for future developers to further decimate the heart of our neighborhood shopping district....
Peter Lewnes

Where was Peter when the city decided to tear down the historical 700 block of Hamilton Street, in the traditional shopping block, to build the Big Ice Box? Where was Peter when merchant after merchant lined up at City Council to plead for their livelihood and 20 years of their labor? The 7th Street Business District has actually prospered from the pending demolition of Hamilton Street. Several merchants have relocated there, including the dynamic New York Fashion.
Asking where Peter was is somewhat rhetorical. I realize that if Peter doesn't serve directly at the favor of the Mayor, his efforts on 7th Street are never the less codependent on City Hall. I wish him well this evening at the zoning hearing.

Bernie O'Hare also covers Lewnes's letter

The Cattle Drive

A few years ago, Allentown decided it had too many low income people, and that they would curtail that demographic by condemning buildings. Hundreds and hundreds of buildings were tagged in center city, some for such minor violations as peeling paint. It's not uncommon to find up to four tagged buildings in one block. They tagged so many buildings, that rather than contain blight, they helped create it. They also confounded the inconsistency of their housing policy by easing the requirements to convert former commercial buildings into apartments. The end result is no less density, no less apartments, but more blight. They are now trying a herding technique. The poor are being driven off of Hamilton Street, relegated to the upper blocks of North 7th Street. The Administration hopes that Pawlowski Plaza and event center at 7th and Hamilton will attract those with a gold credit card in their wallet. They might need cattle prods to keep the perceived riffraff away.