The Dinosaurs of Sumner Avenue

Up to the early 1950's, Allentown was heated by coal, and much of it came from Sumner Avenue. Sumner was a unique street, because it was served by the West End Branch of the Lehigh Valley Railroad. The spur route ran along Sumner, until it crossed Tilghman at 17th Street, and then looped back East along Liberty Street, ending at 12th. Coal trucks would elevate up, and the coal would be pushed down chutes into the basement coal bins, usually under the front porches of the row houses. Several times a day coal would need to be shoveled into the boiler or furnace. By the early 1970's, although most of the coal yards were closed for over a decade, the machines of that industry still stood on Sumner Avenue. Eventually, they took a short trip to one of the scrap yards which are still on the avenue, but not before I photographed them.

photocredit: molovinsky

The Capitulation of Alan Jennings

Believe it or not, I haven't always been the statesman I am today. Years ago, this post would have probably been titled The Hypocrisy of a Poverty Pimp. Anyway, putting aside my growing diplomacy, Rite Aid had a surprising ally at the zoning hearing Monday evening. According to The Morning Call's Devon Lash, Alan Jennings, executive director of The community Action Committee of the Lehigh Valley, spoke on behalf of Rite Aid's plan; "... (it) will transform a blighted building...bringing jobs downtown, especially with the clock ticking down to demolition for the arena.. There's too much at stake downtown."
Bear in mind this is the same Alan Jennings who turns people into small business owners. He doesn't teach them to fish, he buys them a fish market. He brags that those gifted by his start up business division have a 97% success rate. He even has a division office at 7th and Liberty. Although Jenning's supported Rite Aid (and the Arena) moving forward, this supposed advocate for small business was nowhere to be seen when the former Hamilton Street merchants pleaded to City Council. Where was Alan? Alan was placing his bets. He knows from where the butter on his bread cometh. It doesn't come from the small displaced merchants of Hamilton Street, but from grants distributed by Pawlowski and gifts from large corporations which back his vision for Allentown. So while 34 merchants, who never received a grant or startup from the likes of Jennings, were displaced, their and our tax dollars will be dispensed by Jennings, to make startup Successes, from those who don't have the gumption to do it on their own. How's my diplomacy coming?

The Morning Call Peeps

Encouraged by the local page editor, Mike Miorelli, The Morning Call reporters continue to lift articles from the blogosphere, and not credit the blogger. The paper's website is featuring the video of the Dieruff High taser incident, as originally reported by Bernie O'Hare on Ramblings. Manny Gomiz says that the paper obtained the video. Actually, they got the story and video from O'Hare, who had obtained it through proper police surveillance channels. Bernie is not upset about the use of his intellectual property, but I'm offended. When material was lifted from my blog last year without proper attribution, Bill White defended the paper's practice. Last fall I inadvertently received an inter-office Morning Call email which described me as "disdainful", I suppose this post will not alter that perception.
UPDATE: NBC Philadelphia has picked up the story. Although they (erroneously) cite The Morning Call with the story, they credit the video to Lehigh Valley Ramblings (Bernie O'Hare)

Allentown's Transformation Myth

Like the midget on Fantasy Island saying De Plane, De Plane, Pawlowski keeps saying The Plan, The Plan. He even calls The Plan transformational. It's time to inject some reality into this myth. Although a local developer has been buying buildings, he is doing so with a $20million loan from ACIDA, which he can repay using taxes from those buildings. So far, despite projections of thousands of jobs and hundreds of new apartments, one company with one hundred jobs will occupy a slightly remodeled building. As one knowledgeable about the apartment business, let us hope those new apartments never come to be. The City of
Reading, with the same shift in demographics in the last decade, has just been declared the Poorest City in America. This designation occurred despite the Sovereign Event Center, which failed to halt that city's deterioration. Here in Allentown, a local auctioneer is offering one of the new 3 bedroom, 3.5 bathroom townhouses at 8th and Walnut Street starting at $65,000. Just a few years ago those new townhouses, built with subsidies and KOZ, were hyped by Pawlowski to be transformational.

The plane arrives

No Ageism in Allentown

If Allentown's new freshman City Councilman looks long in the tooth in this Morning Call file photo, you should know that the picture is from his previous campaign, in 1995. Frank Concannon will turn 89 this February. Although he didn't campaign for his victory last month, he has been chewing his food and moving his bowels mostly on his own. Either Allentown is completely free of ageism, or we no longer have a two party system. At least one new member will be appointed by Pawlowski in early 2012, as D'Amore assumes his Magistrate position. The taxpayers will save election costs and time by Pawlowski appointing his Council members.

Morning Call Filler Article

The Morning Call has written some pretty good articles on the Arena, but not today. In today's article, by Matt Assad and Scott Kraus, they are like baby birds who ate regurgitated worms from mother Pawlowski. The article is the straight Transformation presentation put together by a professional public relations company, and repacked today as a news article. It includes the whole show; New offices, stores and apartments, changing Allentown into a successful Pleasantville. Back in 2005, Pawlowski was selling, what was a baby step compared to this, the Weed and Seed Program. I asked him if he really believed that Weed and Seed would change Allentown. He avoided the straight question, but said "At least it's a strategy." Pawlowski has graduated in the use of public funds. He is enabled by baby birds; In City Council and The Morning Call.

Lowdown on Butzville

The Morning Call has a story on the Butz building expansion, and the financing to be used. Blogger Bernie O'Hare published an excellent commentary on the behind the scenes. Being an early morning edition, with an office under the streets of Allentown, I can fill in the missing pieces. Bernie muses on the financial cocktail of Butz using both a RACP grant and a NIZ loan. Funny he should say that, because the Sangria Restaurant, in Butz's building, has a cocktail called Your Money; I'll provide the ingredients later. Bernie also wonders how private developers will be able to compete with Butz and his subsidizes? Actually, Butz can't even compete with himself. All his existing tenants are taxpayer subsidized. The large space now occupied by Sangria stood vacate for years. Although the Building was subsidized by KOZ, Butz received a grant of nearly half a $million to outfit the space for Sangria, so that they could move in with no set up cost. The first contrived tenant was the Lehigh Valley Tourist Bureau. Come to 9th and Hamilton and see what? Park where? The second tenant was professional glad hand Tony Iannelli, and his Chamber of Horrors. In fairness to Butz, he did want to originally build from 9th Street to the alley, but the Alliance would not sell at that time.
UPDATE: IN FURTHER FAIRNESS TO BUTZ his existing office building replaced two boarded up buildings, that had little to no prospect for reuse. The existing building was a huge plus for Allentown, and one of the better results of the KOZ legislation. It appears to this blogger that the new Butz addition project is more NIZ loan worthy than the blanket loan given to Reilly.