Pawlowski For 2018

MOLOVINSKY EXCLUSIVE

Mayor Ed has been telling confidants that he plans on pre-launching for his forth term later this year. He has been studying cases where the FBI, while indicting underlings, have never actually indicted the top dog. Now, while I find this delusional, it does explain Ed's facebook posts and other behaviors of denial. It also explains Ed's new appreciation of the little people, and his photo ops at their gatherings. Such a pre-launch would also keep the vultures, such as Sam Bennett and Charlie Thiel, at bay.  Last night,  The Morning Call began running an interview with Jack McMahon,  Pawlowski's high powered Philadelphia criminal attorney. He states that Pawlowski,  "clearly has done no wrong," and that Pawlowski is tried of being a punching bag.  molovinsky on allentown may have to rent an office downtown to keep up with this development. Wonder if J.B. Reilly would give me a good deal?

ADDENDUM: In the tape and interview with The Morning Call, McMahon explains that Pawlowski is a religious, honest family man. It's a large city and if people under him participated in play to pay, it was without his knowledge. Any criminality must have been orchestrated by Mike Fleck, because like Schultz in Hogan's Heros, Pawlowski saw nothing;  He was busy campaigning, for governor and then senator.  I understand that McMahon is a paid mouthpiece, but I find his tape and explanation unsettling. Is it meant to intimidate people?  Is he implying that those who have pleaded guilty, such as Mary Ellen Koval, acted on their own, or mistook Fleck as speaking for Pawlowski?   What does this interview do for the morale of city workers? The mayor is actively looking for scapegoats. Have we gone from amusingly delusional to scary?

Partisan Politics In The Lehigh Valley

I know something about partisan politics in the Lehigh Valley. In 2014, I ran as an independent for state representative in the 183rd District.  There has not been an independent in the state house since the mid 1930's.  Not only is the state house partisan, there's even competition between the counties, by members of the same party.  This area just isn't much for open elections.  In 2014,  seven of the eleven incumbents had no opponent, neither in the primary or general election.  This cycle there's slightly more competition, especially in the 183rd, where eleven term Julie Harhart has chosen not run for a 12th term.

On the Lehigh County Republican side,  with Scott Ott having moved to Texas, and the Woodman/Scheller family unit no longer being kingmakers,  Dean Browning was hoping to reassert himself. He and Glenn Eckhart are working to get Marc Grammes from Slatedale  elected as state representative in the 183rd.  Just across the Lehigh River, in the Walnutport area, the Northampton County Republicans are backing Cindy Miller. She is state senator Mario Scavello's aide, and supposedly Harhart's anointed successor.  I also was interested in running as a Republican, but as an outsider, received no offers of help from the Lehigh party hierarchy.  Cindy Miller has filed challenges to both Grammes, and another person also running from Northampton County.  Grammes supposedly failed to file his financial disclosure with the ethics office, which may well be a fatal error.  Eckhart has already mentioned running a write-in campaign on Grammes' behalf. On the Democrat side in the 183rd,  there is supposedly also a challenge to a second candidate seeking the seat.

The whole scene reminds me why I'm so much more comfortable as a independent.

billboard from 2014 election

Allentown's NIZ Revealed

Although the office workers and their income taxes used for Reilly's mortgage debt service are real, this blog has always maintained that the so called demand for restaurants and high end stores is fakery. Worse, that fakery is hyped as reality by The Morning Call. Between the lines of the Shula's Bankruptcy, my contention is proved correct.  Shula's owed virtually every vendor they dealt with money. They were just another prop in Reilly's illusion show. Reilly operates the Dime and the Starbucks himself, and reportedly provided the liquor licenses to several of the other eating spots.  I also still contend that there are many ghost tenants in the Strata Flats, as indicated by dark windows and few people seen, coming or going. Although, none of this is a crime,  the paper printing the promotions as news, is disturbing.

photocredit:Harry Fisher/The Morning Call

Breakfast At Tiffany's With Pawlowski

On the morning of March 10th, the Chamber of Commerce is proudly,* no less, hosting breakfast with Mayor Ed Pawlowski, at the Renaissance. For a mere $99 dollars, $49 for members, you can learn about all the development news in Allentown's NIZ. The event is being sponsored by Alvin Butz and the other benefactors/beneficiaries of the Allentown regime. I'm sure that the defenders of this event will say that it was scheduled last year, like the Rotary's State of the City.  Instead of the sponsor's table, perhaps there will be the subpoena table.

* although the word proudly was used in previous years, for some reason it does not appear on the Chamber event news announcement this year.

Arena Steals From Taxpayers, Reichley or Wrongly

The Allentown School District has filed a lawsuit against the Arena for not paying property taxes,  yet containing retail businesses, which compete with taxpaying businesses.  Defense counsel for the arena claims that this is permitted by the NIZ state law, as enacted in Harrisburg.  Unfortunately, for the taxpayers, this case is being heard by Judge Douglas Reichley.  Reichley said "The curious thing is that none of those entities are here. None of those [businesses] appear to be complaining."  I find that statement very telling.  While you wouldn't expect to see the few small pre-NIZ surviving business owners at such a  court case, you might expect Reichley to make a relevant disclosure;  Reichley didn't mention that previously he was a state representative,  who passed the NIZ.

photo from the Chickie's & Pete's at the arena

Allentown's Arena District, A License To Steal

The owners of PPL Plaza, who are losing Talen Energy to Jaindl's waterfront NIZ, have sued the NIZ for the unfair playing field that the NIZ has created.  Attorneys for the NIZ say that the Plaza owners made a bad business decision in 2006, and overpaid for the building.  Of course the Plaza owners are correct,  an unlevel playing field is an understatement.  To add insult to actual injury, the NIZ board has decreed that Jaindl can apply a percentage of the taxes paid by the Talen workers for his debt service.   The Plaza owners were not the only owners hurt by the NIZ.  Among losses by other owners, Doug Frederick is losing Morgan Stanley, Boyertown lost Penn National, and the Masonic Temple lost Buckno Lisicky.

Although Pawlowski and The Morning Call like to say that Allentown has been revitalized,  in truth the revitalization has mostly centered on the wallets of J.B. Reilly, and a few other chosen individuals.  While the pre-opening arena hype spoke of 140 events a year, the white elephant stands idle, all but for a few dozen nights.

I have heard speculation that Pawlowski's overdue indictment might be related to pending charges against some principles involved in the NIZ,  but I don't believe that they are the fish to be fried.  Unfortunately, the NIZ was given a license to steal, from your elected midgets in Harrisburg.

Pawlowski Coming Home To Roost

The consequences of our ambitious mayor from Chicago are coming home to roost, shootings and bodies piling up. The national searches, like for the former police chief, came to naught. His campaign funds, first for governor, and then for United States Senator, are now being used for his defense fund. His refusal to resign, and a newspaper which confuses the press with promotion, has created a slow motion, suspended animation of reality. But, let me say that the reality is not so good anyway.

We have a poverty rate of about 60%, most of whom have no interest in local government. While we have a set of self serving phonies willing to replace our current elected officials, there are some sincere citizens devoting their energy for a better Allentown. You can see them at the City Council meetings asking questions, which are seldom, if ever answered.

ADDENDUM: In 2005, when i ran as an independent for mayor, although shut-out by the Morning Call, i warned about the poverty magnet;  A number of competing programs were actually inducing the poor to move to allentown, in droves.  Pawlowski  contributed to this situation in a number of ways,  funding such organizations with community block funds.  Ten years later,  he thinks that we can build our way out of this situation with a hockey arena,  apparently not.

photocredit:The Morning Call