South Whitehall's Transparency Issue

As an advocate for Wehr's Dam and traditional park systems, I was slightly disturbed when South Whitehall's Commissioners congratulated their park director, Randy Cope, for winning an award for the Covered Bridge Park Master Plan. That plan recommends that the dam be demolished, and that the Jordan Creek be lined with a riparian buffer. Both those agendas are the business of the Wildlands Conservancy, which participated in the plan's formation. Visitors to Allentown's parks in the summer are distressed to have their access and view of the waterways blocked by the unsightly weed walls. The notion of replacing the vista of Wehr's Dam with just a wall of weeds shows no respect for history or beauty.

This weekend I learned that dam demolition and riparian buffers are family business for Randy Cope, whose father Scott Cope, is a director at the Wildlands Conservancy. I also learned that the former park director of Allentown, John Mikowychok, had met with the Conservancy, and was bought on board with dam demolishing before he even began working in his Allentown position. This explains how he endorsed demolishing two small dams on the Little Lehigh, before he actually ever saw them. Although I never underestimated the influence of the Wildlands Conservancy, I didn't realize that they were actually inside and running the park departments.

It's disappointing that after attending township meetings for five months, nobody in the administration had the courtesy to inform either myself, or the other advocates, with a potential conflict of interest disclaimer concerning their park director. In light of these new revelations, it is now apparent that Wehr's Dam must be added to the Historic Overlay District, if it is to be preserved.

Jew Killing, A Long Tradition

In response to the synagogue killings in Jerusalem, the media has been speculating about a religious war. I'm not sure where those reporters have been for the last 3,000 years, but killing Jews is a historical sport. Almost every language even has special words for the ritual. For many centuries before the Holocaust, killing Jews was called a pogrom. In 1929, the Jews of Hebron were massacred. Yes Dorothy, there were Jews living there long before Israel was created in 1948. There's even a long tradition of killing Jews in their synagogues. Twenty two Jews were murdered in an Istanbul Synagogue in 1986.

What's new is that Jews in Israel are capable of shooting back, capable of defending themselves. Although the world is used to dead Jews, they don't like Jews who fight back. For Israel's audacity to defend itself, it is called racist, apartheid and even nazi. Fortunately for Israel, it doesn't allow those insults to deter them from defending themselves.

South Whitehall Slams It's Placid Residents

Imagine a municipality where the elected officials can announce a 37% increase in taxes, and not one citizen questions it. Such is the case in the burb just west of Allentown. In their defense, the Township maintains that this is the first increase in 29 years. They have been previously operating with a surplus, generated by decades of high end development. One thing is for sure, the township operates virtually with no outside scrutiny, seen elsewhere in the Valley. I think that when the new tax bills arrive next spring, even the normally calm township residents will take notice.

An Allentown Cheesesteak Story

Readers of The Morning Call have seen several photo spreads of Tony Luke's opening on Hamilton Street. Two spreads in a row showed Mayor Pawlowski and the owner hyping the new cheesesteak spot, along with at least two articles in recent weeks announcing that the business was coming. The same readers have also seen coupon ads by Zandy's, which have been advertising in the paper for maybe 20 years. Zandy's, on the intersection of St. John and Lehigh Streets, is a third generation Allentown business. Yesterday, a reader commented on a different blog topic that the NIZ is crony capitalism, supported by crony journalism. Submitted comments about which cheesesteak you think is better will not appear, I don't care about that. What I do care about is a mayor and a newspaper, who now seems to think that Allentown starts and stops at the NIZ portion of Hamilton Street.

Allentown's Misplaced Park Priorities

It wasn't that many years ago that Allentown was nationally known for it's park system. This distinction resulted from the foresight and wealth of General Harry Trexler. The general had an elaborate system designed by distinguished landscape architects in 1928, but when the Depression struck in 1929, the plans were put on hold. By the mid 1930's when Roosevelt's New Deal was formulated, Allentown had shovel ready plans. Up to 4,000 men labored throughout the park systems building irreplaceable stone structures. The completed iconic park system became a designation with a national reputation. Move ahead to 2014, and we have a city hall with no institutional memory or knowledge of these resources. We have a succession of park directors from out of town with a background in recreation. The current park budget again doesn't have one dollar earmarked for WPA restoration.* Not unlike Detroit, we will be building a Kaboom Playground, a strategy for impoverished inter-cities, utilizing public planning and participation in construction. While the Kaboom project is the emphasis of the park department, the top wall of the double staircase leading down to the amphitheater at Union Terrace is crumbling. Another winter of wet and freezing may well destroy another monumental structure which we could never replace. Where is Allentown going?

*For the first time since I began advocating for the WPA, this year's budget has $25,000 allocated for an engineering study of the Fountain Park Steps.  Although this hopefully will be a beginning, I believe that the funds would be better spent on a stone mason. The top of the wall at Union Terrace and St. Elmo Street, and the missing treads on the Fountain Park steps, could be replaced with no engineering necessary.

Obama helping to build Kaboom Playground

The Crime and Nonsense of Grants

Just a few years ago Allentown and the local Chamber of Commerce were conducting Vision meetings for the merchants of Hamilton Mall. While these soon to be displaced saps thought that they were planning Hamilton Streets' future, Reilly and Browne were cooking up the NIZ. On a more regional level, in 2011 the valley received $3.4 million dollars to study development. This hunk of HUD cash was distributed to local agencies, who like baby birds with open beaks, ate it up. The baby birds included LVEDC,LVPC,CACLV,and LANTA. A special director was hired and community meetings were conducted to collect your input. They named this disappearing $3.4million Envision. You can now attend the final meetings where the conclusions are available; Imagine that.

ADDENDUM: There is a mistaken notion that a grant, especially a federal HUD Grant, has little bearing to our pockets. Apologists for this bureaucratic waste say well at least the money is being used locally. If the money is being wasted locally or not, this waste is being repeated locally, regionally and nationally. Grant writing specialists are prized employees in all levels of government. Although due diligence needs to proceed any project or expenditure, the grant process has assumed an expensive life of it's own.

molovinsky Battlefield Policy

Mayors' Nutter and Pawlowski were recently taped for a Business Matters segment. Both mayors lamented the lack of pension reform as anchors around the neck of government. Neither gentleman bothered to mention that their party, which they fully support, failed to muster even one vote for pension reform in the state house. Although it's easy for me to point out that hypocrisy, many of the other issues I bring to light are painful. I normally support the Lehigh County Commissioners who are being obstructionists in keeping Cedarbrook viable. Although I criticize the South Whitehall Commissioners for allowing the Wildlands Conservancy to set the time table for the Wehr's Dam decision, I admire most of their other good decisions. I suppose that I might be less abrasive and more diplomatic championing these causes, or more political as some would say. My problem then is that there would be one less voice speaking out, and there's so few already.