Real LIfe In Allentown

Putting aside the endless NIZ promotion by The Morning Call,  real life in Allentown hasn't gotten any better. Stabbing and shootings have become so commonplace,  that they're relegated to the middle of the paper. The reputation of the school system is so dismal, that people choose charter schools, not because of their merit, but just hoping for something a little better.  A school system that once had a national reputation for theater and art, is now known for fights and beating up policewomen. Add  a scandal ridden mayor and city hall, and we owe Billy Joel an apology. We accused him of maligning Allentown, we can't blame him this time. While the paper can't contain its joy over the arena, the city can't contain its crime.

There was a recent drive-by shooting in the small residential area wedged between Target shopping center and route 22, within sight of Cedar Crest Boulevard. Early Sunday morning, close to the municipal golf course and again within sight of Cedar Crest Boulevard, a car was left sitting on the owner's driveway, missing all four wheels.

Office workers may now drive downtown to work, but come five o'clock, all but a few childless millennials will drive back to suburbia, where more often the woes of Allentown now follow them.

Allentown And Its Newspaper

When I was a kid, the paper was printed twice a day, The Morning Call and The Evening Chronicle. Many subscribers, like my parents, received both editions. The paper was locally owned, as were the businesses that advertised within. The owner/publisher, the Miller family, were part of an oligarchy that ran Allentown. Donald Miller was also a partner in Park&Shop, predecessor to today's parking authority.

Today, the paper is owned by the Tribune Company, and has virtually no institutional memory of the town. To my knowledge, there is nobody on the staff born in Allentown. The most senior writers arrived in Allentown no earlier than the early 1970's. When the paper asks for memories or photographs of the heydays, what they receive is all new to them. Yesterday, a columnist recommended a history written by somebody who left Allentown as a 15 year old in 1962, and never returned, except for a visit in 2010.

The newspaper situation in Allentown mirrors a national trend. Many communities, like Bethlehem, no longer have a local paper. I just think that each article they write should have a disclaimer.

The Morning Call and Xanax

For those of us who know and care about Allentown, they should deliver the Morning Call with a xanax, because the paper's that frustrating. Just when I thought that Bill White was about as deluded as he could be, he doubles down.  In his column today, he praises a story about Allentown, by someone who hadn't lived or visited here since 1962.

I will tell you that he believes the city's two biggest challenges are drugs and jobs, and that although he told me the same book 10 years ago might have concluded that Allentown was a lost cause, that's not the feeling he gets today, even though he recognizes the divisions and challenges that remain.  

The author's hope about Allentown is because of the arena and surrounding revitalization,  a misconception right up Bill's alleyway. I understand that this writer doesn't know squat about Allentown, having left 53 years ago, but how about Bill White, who has been here since the 70's?  Bill should be wondering  why an outsider's uninformed impressions,  resonate with him so much?  Although the FBI has discovered a cesspool of corruption, Bill can't seem to see beyond his seats at the arena. We, who have lived through the changes in Allentown, don't care about the impressions of a former resident, who wrote his book reading Morning Call clippings. We only wish that Bill White and the Morning Call would have the reported on the damage inflicted upon this city as it was occurring.  However, those that spoke out were more often called naysayers, and some put into a hall of shame.

Allentown City Council Awoke (For Five Minutes)

On Wednesday evening, City Council, for the first time in six years that Ed Pawlowski has been mayor, didn't approve one of his proposals. The proposal wasn't actually rejected, but the 3 to 3 tie vote doesn't allow his scheme to proceed. Who voted which way, is the topic of this post. Although the Pawlowski promoted Trash to Energy company was going to charge the city twice as much, for twice as long as a competitor, the RubberStamp Trio once again sang the Yes Song. Worse yet, all three singers, Schweyer, Schlossberg, and Guridy, would like to be State Representatives. Rejecting the non- competitive offer was Jeanette Eichenwald, Ray O'Connell and Cynthia Mota. Jeanette has emerged as an independent voice on Council, but until Wednesday, usually stood alone. Many people had expectations when Ray O'Connell was elected, but it took over two years for him to stand on his own. The great surprise of the evening was new councilwoman Cynthia Mota, who asserted herself at only her second council meeting. I did not attend the meeting. This analysis is from the benefit of phone calls, and two excellent articles by Devon Lash in The Morning Call.
reprinted from February of 2012
ADDENDUM: Within a month of writing the post above in February of 2012, Delta Thermos would wine and dine Cynthia Mota,  she would change her vote, and never again vote against the mayor.  The night of the vote change, the Pawlowski and Groen scheme had the council chamber packed with over 400 union workers, most of them from out of the area. Furthermore, they had bikers outside, trying to intimidate normal citizens from entering. The FBI has requested documents pertaining to this sorry chapter in the Pawlowski story. Schlossberg and Schweyer did go on to become midgets in the State House.  Had Delta built the plant, right now truckloads of New Jersey garbage would be using the new American Parkway Bridge, to deliver additional trash to the plant.

Trump and Pawlowski on Refugees

Trump is giving the press and the garden variety liberals a fit, suggesting that foreign Muslims be denied visas from entering the country. Although, I also find a religious barometer offensive, I'm equally disturbed over the common notion that such a suggestion will only drive Muslims to extremism.  If prejudice normally created such a result,  I would presume that all blacks and Jews would be very militant by now.  Trump is only articulating a common fear.

Syrians refugees have a friend in Pennsylvania, Allentown mayor Ed Pawlowski. Yesterday, he attended another news conference, pleading for Congress not to complicate the path to Allentown for the refugees. While Trump plays on the fear,  Pawlowski wants to be associated with compassion.  While Donald hopes to be elected,  Ed hopes to be exonerated.

Bill White's Pawlowski Column

Although Bill White's column is a template set on seasonal themes, such as Eating His Way Through Musikfest, he also now serves as the paper's de facto editorial writer. Recently, I observed that although the paper's love affair with the NIZ continues, the honeymoon with Ed Pawlowski seems to be over. On Sunday, Bill White interrupted his normal Christmas light column, and with profound regret, suggested that Ed Pawlowski should resign. Bill said that he refrained from writing an earlier column defending Ed, but that sentiment had, never the less, permeated several of his columns. White strove to disassociate himself from the naysayers, which he now labels as Pawlowski haters.

White's fundamental faulty thinking is contained in the last line; Ed Pawlowski helped get Allentown moving in the right direction. What White refuses to acknowledge is that Reillyville has nothing to do with Pawlowski, it just happened on his watch. Reillyville, although perfectly legal, is not the pure driven snow that White and The Morning Call have bestowed upon it. It is an aberration of the marketplace, for the private gain of just a few individuals. It is a result of a morally flexible state government, with a long tradition of corruption. It is promoted and justified by a newspaper impressed by new buildings of no merit, occupied by poached tenants. The NIZ creators, in their profound manipulative way, even included the Morning Call building in the zone, although it's across the street from the rest of the district.

American Jihad

Because we're so afraid to offend, although it sure looked liked terror,  yesterday's news about the mass shooting in San Bernardino started with speculation about work place violence.  Only after it was discovered that the shooters had over 5,000 rounds of ammunition,  could our liberal press mutter the word terrorism. Instead of terror, the focus now will be on gun control,  already the press is blaming the NRA.  We are so afraid of profiling,  we instead pat down little  92 year old grandmothers at the airport. We are so afraid of being called xenophobic, we have become fish in a barrel.

ADDENDUM: This afternoon, ten hours after I wrote this post,  the authorities and press concede that indeed the attack was terror.  The Obama administration still wants to link it to gun control, but I have no doubt that this couple would have acquired firearms and ammunition, regardless of regulations.