Morning Call Exclusive; Molovinsky Running For Mayor

SPECIAL FROM THE MORNING CALL: While the Sunday edition of the Morning Call will discuss the boring white bread on the horizon, such as Bennett, Guridy and Thiel, Wednesday's edition will feature Molovinsky's incredible plans. Moving back into Allentown, it is rumored that he has leased the former penthouse at the Americus Hotel. Below are excerpts from Wednesdays paper, where Molovinsky is interviewed by special assignment and former Call reporter, Naryl Derl.

Naryl Derl: Let me apologize for the shabby treatment I gave you back in 2005. 

Michael Molovinsky: Let's both move on, and save Allentown from the current scandal. 

Naryl Darl: Are you moving into the Americus?

Michael Molovinsky: Nothing has been signed yet, Reilly wants me in the new Strata lofts above Shula's. I told him I would only consider it if I pay full freight, but he can't understand that. I have declined a $20,000 campaign contribution from him, he can't understand that either.

Naryl Darl: What do you think differentiates you from the other candidates?

Michael Molovinsky: I'm honest.

Complete interview will appear in Wednesday's edition of The Morning Call.

Park Follies and Misappropriations

Over the years this blog and myself have established credibility and expertise on Allentown's traditional park system and the WPA. I must report what I consider to be a major shenanigan by the mayor. $1.3 million dollars was taken to purchase two heavy industrial areas, to supposedly add to the park system. This $million plus dollars was taken from the water/sewage lease, which is being used as the mayor's discretionary fund, instead of the dedicated pension relief,  promised at the time. $950,000.00 was used to buy the parcel at Union and Basin Streets, near the city sewage plant. This is one of the oldest industrial areas in the city, and certainly not needed for more park land. Allentown has not been able to maintain the existing park land, or the features within it. The Fountain Park Pool has been abandoned, and the WPA structures are crumbling. The other just purchased parcel is the old fertilizer plant location,  along Martin Luther King Dr., west of the crumbling Schreibers Bridge. We have an administration with no memory or knowledge of Allentown's past. Anybody who knew what went on at the fertilizer/rendering plant, would not want their grandchildren playing there. The city's rationale for these purchases is to expand the biking paths and connect the parks. That's the folly, and now the misappropriations. Allentown has supposedly allocated money to engineer the repair of the leaning WPA wall in Lehigh Parkway. I know why the wall leans. Years ago, the stone shoulder between the park entrance and wall was blacktoped. As cars and city trucks drive around the curve, pressure is exerted against the wall. That strip of asphalt needs to be removed, and the stone buffer restored. The problem with the engineering study is that it's the third time it has been appropriated. In the last two budgets money was actually budgeted to repair the wall, now the process begins again. What happen to the previous appropriations? Must molovinsky on allentown now also establish expertise in forensic accounting?

reprinted from June 26, 2014

UPDATE: This morning, I interrupt my planned schedule to republish the above piece from June 26, 2014, which is linked to in a post by Bernie O'Hare. The shoulder, which I refer to along the now collapsed wall in Lehigh Parkway, also served as a drainage swale. Over the past several years I had met with two park directors and the city engineer, to no avail, trying to save the wall. Recently, I have reported a problem to the current park director about the Union Terrace WPA structure, that needs immediate attention. At this point in time, I'll leave any analysis of purchase and gain of those parcels to Mr. O'Hare. However, I will say that rather than the parcels connecting the parks, in reality, they are connecting the neglect.

Spanking The Allentown Arena Promoter

Recently, I have been taking the Allentown Arena to task for having such a sparse schedule.  I stand corrected, nothing is better than the announced indoor midget car racing, coming in January.  The concept itself is so meager that the Morning Call entertainment editor spent half the column reciting the rich racing history in the Lehigh Valley, but it wasn't midget cars, indoors.  Perhaps, if they added a reality show twist; Maybe the cars could be driven by nude midget women, is that politically incorrect?  Anyway, whoever comes to that, I bet they won't be staying at the Renaissance Hotel, or eating at the attached Dime restaurant.

Waging War Against Allentown Park Weeds

Today, molovinsky leaves downtown Hamilton Street, and travels twenty blocks west to Cedar Park.  As an advocate for the traditional park system, I have been waging a war against the riparian buffers, which make our  magnificent parks an unsightly mess.  In Allentown, because the storm runoff systems are piped directly into the park streams, these token buffers are just a useless, unsightly insult.  This hot summer, this insult is added to injury, because Cedar Beach Pool is closed. Along the entire length of Cedar Park, there is not one area cleared of high weeds.  You would think that out of a mile of creek side,  we could mow the grass for at least fifty feet,  so that some children might enjoy the stream, as generations have in the past.

A Field Trip To Allentown's 7th & Hamilton

On Saturday evening, during prime dinner time, I surveyed the four trendy rent subsidized restaurants at center square. While the outside area at Hamilton Kitchen was fairly full with drinkers and snackers, the inside tables were virtually empty. Shula's was near empty. The Dime was about one third full, and Roar was also virtually empty. The Renaissance Hotel showed no signs of life in the lobby, suggesting few to no guests. An interesting comment was recently submitted to an older post.

The LVH building(at the arena) is a joke. As an employee, I wasn't allowed to park in that lovely enclosed parking lot underneath the actual building while going through EPIC training-- I had to park BLOCKS away-- It seems that all of the peons of LVH have to park quite a distance away as well from what I could see. While attempting to try to park in that "special" lot under the building, I had some nasty parking lot gestapo make me turn around since I didn't have the correct magical permit affixed to my rear view mirror. Undoubtably that lot is somehow restricted to "special people" . Honestly, they would have to hire a fleet of security officers to escort each and every one of us. I just walked quickly with my keys sticking out between my knuckles. When I work at the Bethlehem site, I wind up parking at the dead mall next door and spend fifteen minutes just walking to the desk where I work, so it made no difference to me. Taking a peak at the restaurants near the entrance, I find it hard to imagine most employees having lunches long enough to dine there, let alone being able to afford to eat there. Granted, I could afford a soft pretzel... As far as the gyn is concerned, I would rather pull out my hair one by one than deal with the traffic to go there in the morning before or after work. I highly doubt any potential patient would want to deal with driving there for a doctor's appointment, unless they live a very short distance away and are very familiar with the area. After driving through the decrepit outlying area filled with blighted/condemned houses and finally parking, the first thought that came to mind as I saw the newly developed area was, "I smell a rat".

It's apparent to me that virtually free rent may not be enough to keep these restaurants afloat. Reilly might have to consider actually paying them to stay open.

Sam Bennett Killed At Donecker Mansion

Sam Bennett had pledged to chain herself to the fence at the Donecker Mansion, to save it from the plan by St.Lukes Hospital to demolish the structure. Heavy demolition equipment made short order of the building today. Although I haven't heard any news reports about Bennett's fate, I can only assume that Sam was killed early this morning, protecting the mansion. Update and funeral details will follow.

The Ethics Behind Allentown's Revitalization

This weekend The Morning Call had a fine exposé by Scott Kraus on a victory party for the mayor's last election to that office, in January of 2014.  J.B. Reilly contributed fifteen of the twenty thousand dollars raised for the event. Apparently, not all the bills were paid, and not all the money was accounted for.

"If those funds were not used properly, I am upset." J.B.

I doubt that J.B. is upset enough to have lost any sleep this weekend. He was not accused of any wrongdoing. In our era of politics, spending $20 thousand on a party for Eddy doesn't seem improper.  In our era of political correctness, any left over money was supposed to go to the poor people, under Alan Jennings' umbrella organization;  Cake Crumbs For The Poor.  Why wouldn't someone contribute $15k  for Mayor Ed, after all, we're having a $Billion Dollar Revitalization, which J.B.will own.

What really was the big deal about Mayor For Life's third election victory? Mayor for life, a molovinsky on allentown coined phrase, is now being replaced by Pawlowski-Gate,  copyright pending. In the real world, which isn't funded by diverted taxdollars going to private owners, $20,000 would pay for a lot of baby formula and diapers. In the last few years, Allentown, in it's jubilation about the renaissance, has had too much money and not enough values or ethics.