The Jewish Community Center recently announced that they plan on relocating from 22nd and Tilghman Streets, to a location yet determined, west of Allentown. I remember when they moved into their current location, in the late 1950's. The facility served the baby boomer generation with a superb gym and swimming pool. The pool was managed by Dennis McGinley, and his programs resulted in the numerous kids developing into competitive swimmers. Hal Grossman coached the basketball teams, and it was common for Allen High to have one or two center players on it's varsity team. In recent years, the early childhood programs were well received by the entire community. As someone noted, the move will be a tremendous loss of social capital in Allentown's west end.
Recently Dan Hartzell, traffic columnist for The Morning Call, wrote that the 15th Bridge construction is ahead of schedule. Dan's not much for controversy. His easy light column is based on asking the spokesman at PennDot a question, then paraphrasing the answer into a column. PennDot, Allentown, nor anything, is ever criticized; Easy light for the long haul. I suppose the six men working on the bridge are on schedule. In the four months since the photograph above was taken, they have completed one of six piers necessary for the bridge. Meanwhile, the 100 plus men working on the arena have laid over 200 times more concrete, practically completing the arena foundation around a square block. While the arena will benefit J.B Reilly and the two brothers who own the hockey team, 30,000 residents of south side Allentown are inconvenienced by the snail pace of the bridge construction. It's a question of priorities.
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Over the decades, there has been a number of water leaks and catastrophic gas explosions in Allentown; The Mountainville Inn, Oak Street, Corporate Plaza and North 5th Street, pictured above. Although the city, for liability reasons, doesn't confirm water leaks as the cause, it was the reason in at least several of the cases. Leaking water erodes the ground supporting the metal gas pipe, which in turn sags and cracks. After the gas tragedy last year on 13th Street, UGI is replacing their aging infrastructure. The water pipes in Allentown are much older than the gas pipes, many over 100 years old. The city has been systematically rebuilding entire streets in center city for years. They have the institutional knowledge of this underground situation. This fall we relined a portion of the Schantz Spring feed pipe near Union Terrace, which is a metal pipe from 1905. Recently, an advocate for the lease to a private company wrote that private companies will have an incentive to repair leaks, to save water and maximize profit. I respectfully disagree, they make their money selling the water, which is obtained free of charge, taken from the springs and the Little Lehigh creek. On the contrary, they will maximize their profit by deferring maintenance and pipe replacement. Leasing the water system to a private company will jeopardize public safety. 
Back in the era, underground comic artist Mark Beyer produced several invitations to Weaver loft events, which often combined art and music.