Jordan Heights

In 1903, the 600 block of 2nd Street housed one Russian Jewish family after another. They built a small synagogue there, which was kept open until about ten years ago. My grandfather, who then worked at a cigar factory, had just saved enough to bring his parents over from the old country. They lived in an old house at 617 N. 2nd. The current house at that location was built in 1920. By the time my father was born in 1917, the youngest of five children, they had moved to the suburbs just across the Jordan Creek.

My grandfather lived on the corner of Chew and Jordan Streets. He butchered in a barn behind the house. The house is still there, 301 Jordan, the barn is gone. He would deliver the meat with a horse and wagon. On the weekends, when the family wanted to visit friends, the horse insisted on doing the meat market route first. Only after he stopped in front of the last market on the route, would he permit my grandfather to direct him. excerpt from My grandfather's Horse, May 13, 2008

Allentown has just designated the neighborhood west of the Jordan to 7th Street, and between Linden and Tilghman Streets, as Jordan Heights. The area encompasses the Old Fairgrounds Historic District. Allentown's old fairground, in the years between 1852-1888, was in the vicinity of 6th and Liberty. It was an open space, as is the current fairground at 17th and Chew Streets. When my grandparents moved to Jordan Street it was a modern house, just built in 1895. Many of the Jewish families moved to the suburbs between Jordan and 7th. The Jewish Community Center was built on the corner of 6th and Chew, today known as Alliance Hall.
I wish the Jordan Heights initiative well. There's a lot of history in those 24 square blocks, and hopefully much future.

reprinted from June 2010

The 6th Ward

When my grandfather first arrived in Allentown, he lived in the Ward, on 2nd. Street. It was around 1895 and the neighborhood was full of immigrants. Some groups came from the same area in the old country, most noticeably the Syrians, from the village of Amar*. They were Greek Orthodox, a minority in a Muslim country. The congregation of St. George's Church on Catasauqua Ave., largely is descended from those immigrants. Well known names in Allentown, such as Atiyeh, Haddad, Hanna, Makoul, Koury and Joseph are among their members. They were among one of the first groups to organize, and those organizations still exist. The photo above was organized by the Syrian American Organization in 1944. Note that Jewish, on the left, is treated as a nationality.

* hopefully my Syrian friends will correct any historical errors I have made.

click on photo to enlarge

reprinted from March 2010

Allentown's Mysterious Arena to Water Trick

It's difficult to understand how an arena which promises to revitalize Allentown cannot generate enough new taxes and commerce to save our water system. It's difficult to understand how municipal bonds for a discretionary recreational facility sold like hotcakes, while bonds backed by a revenue stream of captured water users, would be a hard sell. It's difficult to believe that this city, and this city council, have both these acts going on at the same time. One must question to what extent the Pennsylvania Economy League really acted as an honest broker in it's advise to council. An Allentown Water Authority could buy the system from the city by issuing revenue anticipation bonds based on water and sewage income, and keep control and ownership for the citizens of Allentown. Water, unlike hockey tickets, is recession proof, a necessity of life. These are exactly the type of bonds sought by investors. The pension crunch is two years away. A responsible City Council would seek another opinion on the marketability of water bonds, especially with so much citizen opposition to the current plan.

Best By Test

Growing up in Little Lehigh Parkway, now called Little Lehigh Manor by the Realtors, the milkman was an early morning fixture.  Almost every house had the insulated aluminum milkbox.  The milk trucks were distinctive, and the drivers wore a uniform, indicative of their responsibility.  Freeman's milk was the best by test, or so the slogan said.  Their trucks were red and immaculate.  The dairy building  still stands, a quarter block north of 13th and Tilghman Streets.  They competed with a giant, Lehigh Valley Co-Operative Farmers.  That dairy, on the Allentown/Whitehall border, just north of the Sumner Avenue Bridge on 7th Street, even sported an ice cream parlor.  Milk, up to the mid 50's, came in a bottle.  The milkman would take the empties away when delivering your fresh order.  In addition to white and chocolate,  they produced strawberry milk  in the summer.  About once a week the milkman would knock on the door to settle up;  times have changed.

Occasionally the bottle, and later the cartons, would feature themes and advertisements.  A picture of Hopalong Cassidy would entertain young boys as they poured milk into their Corn Flakes.  Earlier, during the War, (Second World) bottles would encourage customers to do their part;  buy a bond or scrap some metal for the war effort.

reprinted from August 2009

Allentown's Democracy Dilemma

Although it's the photograph  currently on the City Web Site, it's again out of date. They have yet to take a new picture,  showing that Jeff Glazier replaced Mike Schlossberg. Glazier is the third appointed member. If the new redistricting map had not been rejected by the court, Peter Schweyer would have also resigned for the state house, making four of seven council members appointed, instead of elected. Our appointed Council now tells us that it is their decision to make in regard to the water; that we have a representative democracy.
Long time east side activist Dennis Pearson observes: I recognize that at present in Allentown the providing of water service and sewer service is a monopoly held by the City. The City being a corporate entity in which the stakeholders, the electorate, have the opportunity from time to time to chose the decision makers who ultimately control the operation of these facilities. And at public meeting, these stakeholders with property owners and citizens included, from time to time can be vocal concerning issues related to these municipal monopolies. But what the Mayor is proposing to do with Council's consent is turn this monopoly over to another entity whose operations would be more private, providing fewer opportunities for the public to vocalize their concerns about future problems related to the new more private entity management decisions related to the operation of these plants.

The citizens of Allentown have a dilemma. I believe that selling the water system (lease is a misnomer for a 50 year term) is above a mayor's pay grade. It certainly is above the pay grade of a temporarily appointed council.

The People's Candidate

In the late 1970's, neighbors would gather in the market on 9th Street to complain and receive consolation from the woman behind the cash register. Emma was a neighborhood institution. A native Allentonian, she had gone through school with mayor for life Joe Dadonna, and knew everybody at City Hall. More important, she wasn't shy about speaking out. What concerned the long time neighbors back then was a plan to create a Historical District, by a few newcomers.

What concerned Emma wasn't so much the concept, but the proposed size of the district, sixteen square blocks. The planners unfortunately all wanted their homes included, and they lived in an area spread out from Hall Street to 12th, Linden to Liberty.* Shoving property restrictions down the throats of thousands of people who lived in the neighborhood for generations didn't seem right to Emma. As the battle to establish the district became more pitched, Emma began referring to it as the Hysterical District.
Emma eventually lost the battle, but won the hearts of thousands of Allentonians. Emma Tropiano would be elected to City Council beginning in 1986, and would serve four terms. In 1993 she lost the Democratic Primary for Mayor by ONE (1) vote.

Her common sense votes and positions became easy fodder for ridicule. Bashed for opposing fluoridation, our clean water advocates now question the wisdom of that additive. Although every founding member of the Historical District moved away over the years, Emma continued to live on 9th Street, one block up from the store. In the mid 1990's, disgusted by the deterioration of the streetscape, she proposed banning household furniture from front porches. Her proposal was labeled as racist against those who could not afford proper lawn furniture. Today, SWEEP officers issue tickets for sofas on the porch.

Being blunt in the era of political correctness cost Emma. Although a tireless advocate for thousands of Allentown residents of all color, many people who never knew her, now read that she was a bigot. They don't know who called on her for help. They don't know who knocked on her door everyday for assistance. They don't know who approached her at diners and luncheonettes all over Allentown for decades. We who knew her remember, and we remember the truth about a caring woman.

* Because the designated Historical District was too large, it has failed, to this day, to create the atmosphere envisioned by the long gone founders. Perhaps had they listened to, instead of ridiculing, the plain spoken shopkeeper, they would have created a smaller critical mass of like thinking homeowners, who then could have expanded the area.

Parting Allentown's Water Lease

Allentown City Council had hired the Pennsylvania Economy League to analyze their pension debt problem, in-regard to Pawlowski's plan to lease the water system. The League, while hedging their recommendations, found Pawlowski's plan the most feasible alternative. This conclusion provided all the cover Council members needed to reject the petition last night, in a 6 to 1 vote. An expert on municipal matters feels that the water activists made a strategic mistake. Had the petition been a simple ordinance against selling the water system, instead of a Charter Amendment change, it would have required only one vote from the citizens, instead of two. Such a pending vote in May would have clouded the water for companies bidding on the lease. Never the less, the battle is far from over. Water Companies certainly know that there is citizen opposition to this plan. With over 4000 citizen signatures, an injunction may be considered by the activists.

UPDATE: This blog started out as an adjunct to my activism. After numerous battles and years against City Hall, I am, more and more, allowing my written word to represent me. I consider my late friend Emma Tropiano to be a mentor. Although I never met or knew of him, I had another mentor, Bert Luckenbach. Mr. Luckenbach was still giving them hell when he was 92 years old. He lived in the neighborhood of my youth, Lehigh Parkway (Little Lehigh Manor) and was a staunch park defender. Here's a passage from one of his letters to the editor.

What this town needs is for its citizenry to assert its basic rights and priorities over those public servants who perform with an assumption of proprietary interest, ignoring their true status.
                                                                              Bert Luckenbach,1987