Time, Money and Cheap Locals Keep Pawlowski Here

Unless Rob McCord becomes Governor, Allentown is probably stuck with Pawlowski for at least the next four years. Seems as if his pesky city responsibilities helped keep Ed from devoting enough time to fund raising.."Every time I sat down to make fundraising calls, another issue would come up that would require my attention," he said...Stepping down will allow me to focus all of my energy on the job that I really love: being the mayor of Allentown,"I didn't know that anybody twisted his arm to run for governor. Also the locals contributors here seem to lack the vision necessary to properly fund one of their own. McCord traveled here in the snow to receive Ed's endorsement. I'm not sure which part of Pawlowski's announcement today should offend Allentonians more, but one thing is clear, his heart clearly isn't here. I did not attend the news conference, this analysis is based on local news sources.

The Morning Call Slow Pitches To Mike Fleck

In today's profile on Mike Fleck, The Morning Call says that the political consultant  plays hardball, indeed he does. Although Fleck may play hard, the paper treated him with kid gloves. In the recent City Council race, Fleck had hired a local attorney to intimidate a candidate into withdrawing. The court ruled the action violated the election code, and the candidate, Kim Velez, was reinstated on the ballot. Not a word of that shenanigan appears in the article, although at the time, the incident was covered by the same reporters. The slowest t-ball pitch in the article concerns the notion that there is a firewall between Fleck's business consulting and his political consulting, here in Pawlowskiville? Although they mention the teenage marketing company Ruckus, they omit the fact that they secured yet another extension from the ACIDA on their Neuweiler option, even though they have resorted to now trying to solicit investors from the internet.

UPDATE: In the comment section a reader suggests,  "Let the city R's pay their volunteers if necessary to get the job done and get out the vote."  Is this the direction Allentown should go in?

Tom Muller's Conversion Complete

It was suggested this past November that Muller was a Republican at heart, but had converted to the Democratic Party only to save the county from the radical inclinations of Scott Ott. The other day Lisa Scheller had an excellent letter in The Morning Call. In it she argued that the county pension contribution should be lowered from 5.5% because CD'S haven't paid that much in years. She also opposes the conflict of interest on the pension board, where most of it's members will receive the pension on which they are setting the rate. According to published reports, I didn't attend the meeting, Muller resorted to dragging Scheller's personal wealth into the debate; "I seriously doubt Commissioner Scheller has any of her wealth in CDs, or much of her wealth in CDs," Apparently, between being elected in November, and starting office in January, Muller must have been sent to Chicago for a workshop on class politics and divisive rhetoric. Although only a few months ago Muller's campaign literature featured him as a conservative businessman, yesterday he seemed like a union boss, while attempting to vilify Scheller in front of a room packed with county employees. Muller knows only too well that CD's are an analogy for conservative investments, and that insolvency caused by public pensions is the crisis of the decade. Muller won the pension board vote yesterday, but it was Scheller who had the taxpayer's back.

Do Local Zombies Read The News

When AOL expanded the Patch local news websites a number of years ago, I couldn't comprehend the business plan. Although it provided employment to a number of laid-off former Morning Call reporters, how could the Lehigh Valley support 12 local news sites, when it could barely support the two remaining newspapers? Did Upper and Lower Saucon really justify a site, much less two separate ones? This past summer AOL cut back the number of local editors to five. Yesterday, The Morning Call reported another massive layoff at Patch, which AOL has spun off to Hale Global, a turn around specialist. Although the Morning Call reports only one surviving editor, two others are still listed on the local sites. When AOL purchased The Huffington Post, more than one experienced national blogger questioned the price. The web makes it easy for anybody to produce a newsletter. Getting people to read it is another story. Getting them to monetize it by clicking on advertisements, is a third story.

In Her Blood

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 villages of Amar and Zweitina. They were members of the Antiochian Orthodox Church, a Christian 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.

click on photo to enlarge

UPDATE: While announcing Kim Makoul's appointment as Public Defender, County Executive Tom Muller said that it's in her blood. I grew up in the era when George Joseph was district attorney. He inspired Kim's dad, Richard Makoul, to attend law school, and become one of the valley's most successful defense attorneys.

This post is reprinted, using a different title

State of The City Called Allentown

When Mayor Pawlowski gives the State Of The City speech on Friday at the Hilton at 9th and Hamilton, will he say next year when I speak at the new hotel, this place will be a flop house? Speaking of flop houses, lately the local news has been dominated by the poor and the homeless. What a juxtaposition these new buildings make with Allentown's walking poor. While community activists demand that some of the new jobs in the Arena Zone  go to the local underemployed, and many public dollars will be spent on administering such training programs, the actual hired employees wouldn't be able to fill a closet at the new hotel. Nobody need worry about those realities at the speech on Friday. Nobody need worry about the difficulties facing the already challenged Allentown School District. Friday's speech, which will be limited to figures, numbers, and graphs about the new buildings and the promise of Transformation, will be applauded by the cheerleaders, and reported by the media.

The Return of Governor Pawlowski

Last year when cities all over Pennsylvania were clamoring for the type of development occurring in Allentown, and with Governor Corbett's dismal polling numbers, a Pawlowski run made sense, at least to Ed Pawlowski. With campaign contribution reports due at the end of the month, this blog believes that Governor Pawlowski will return to being a mayor. Unless a number of very deep pockets came forward, Ed's viability as a candidate will have waned. His campaign manager, Mike Fleck, has given no indication to the contrary in a recent local television show. Although the imported office jobs will increase the lunch traffic for downtown eateries, the sought after dinner crowd will not materialize. Despite Obama's speeches, the economy remains impaired. Locations which do not have Allentown's perceived grime and crime, such as the Promenade Mall, could not support more than a couple upscale restaurants. Much hype has gone into the Transformation of center city. The suburban middle class people populating the artist renderings will not turn into real people on the street. Let's hope for the sake of  Pawlowski's career plans that he finds another ticket to ride out of town, before the new arena becomes a white elephant.