Open Letter To Ed Pawlowski

Mayor Pawlowski, the last thing Allentown needs is another park. In all due respect, I forgot more about the park system than you ever knew. There are endless items throughout the system that are in need of repair. The most used pavilions in the city, in Cedar Park on Honochick Drive, are in dire need of roof shingles and paint. Yes, I know that they are scheduled for replacement, but that is the story of the park department and the city, since your arrival in Allentown. Defer maintenance, and build some new feature. I know that maintenance looks boring on a resumé.  The repaired wall in Lehigh Parkway does look good, but you're only fixing it because it's a retaining wall, and it must be repaired to reopen the road. It was deferred maintenance that caused the problem in the first place.

Anyway, back to the incinerator parcel. I know it adjoins the Basin Street parcel that you should have never bought from Abe Atiyeh. Making a new park out of the incinerator and Basin Street is just cover for one of your political maneuvers. How sad that you're sucking in the new park director on this transparent scheme. But, she's a big girl, and should speak up about priorities.

p.s.  You should speak to Scott Unger, he may need that bridge to bring the choo-choo back to S. 10th Street.

Butz Offers Opportunity

Butz's are offering more than rental space, you have an opportunity to join in the revitalization of Allentown. Now, your opportunity will not be as lucrative as Butz's opportunity. Because of the NIZ, he can use your state income tax, and that of your employees, for his debt service on the building. Butz doesn't mention that in the promotional video, rather he talks about the time being right for their third phase. Actually, it's only right because the absurd NIZ legislation is an offer the family can't refuse, but the renting will be slow. To fill the previous two phases he had to call on his connections, placing both the County Visitor Center and the Chamber of Commerce as tenants. The new building even compromises the view and light for his existing building. I wish him well with the new space, but with Butz, Reilly and Jaindl having the same valley connections, the pickings are getting slimmer.

I would like to clarify for my readers that I have no ill will toward the Butz's,  Jaindl's or J. B. Reilly.  Although, my sure none of them have any use for me and this blog,  my issue with the NIZ is the law itself, not the people involved.  All the people I criticize as beneficiaries of the NIZ are otherwise contributing members of the community.  I don't even fault them for taking advantage of this subsidy on steroids.  I fault the excuse of a state government in Harrisburg,  where we could teach even New Jersey the tricks of the trade in corruption.

The Singer and the Steakhouse

Yesterday, the infamous Shula's Steakhouse singer was in district court on charges unrelated to the Arts Walk incident.  He claims that the Allentown Police have a vendetta against him.  Maybe they do,  their boss's boss is known for his vendettas.  The Hunsicker family, long associated with baseball on the south side,  made the same accusation about Pawlowski last week at city council.  But, this post is about the real crime last August by the steakhouse.

In the molovinsky on allentown hall of justice,  J.B. Reilly, Pat Brown, Jennifer Mann, Sy Traub, etc. would have been in court yesterday, not the singer.  They, and the others that are responsible for using public money to bring Shula's to the Strata Building (which is filled up no matter what Molovinsky says).  They are responsible for the vendors who got stuck holding the bag for pennies on the dollar, when Shula's went bankrupt.

Elsewhere, in the upside down NIZ world, the parolee center is closing after 35 years, so that Reilly can build his City Center Tower Number 6.  Some of the parolees will be transfered to Scranton and Wernersville, now, that shouldn't disrupt their lives.  Hey,  if you're a singer or a parolee, move along, it's Reilly Time.

Blackboard Rumble In Allentown

School fights usually take place about a block from Allen, but this one is taking place behind the scenes  on Penn Street, with the Allentown School Board.  A molovinsky on allentown exclusive;  A simple majority of the school board wants to buy superintendent Russ Mayo's contract out, although he has only one year left to go on it.  Buying the contract out would complicate a replacement search, because better candidates are weary of superintendents being replaced for political reasons, and that would be the only conclusion one could reach about Mayo's departure.   Currently, five board members favor a buyout, while the other four feel that Mayo is being made a scapegoat for the discipline issues associated with the school district.

Apparently, Mayo has the confidence of the business community, as he was able to solicit substantial donations to fund the new district run charter school, Building 21.  Besides saving the buyout money, the board could probably attract better candidates for 2017-2018 year, without the stigma of having bought out two superintendents in a row.

SPECIAL EDITION: Arena Ruled Tax Exempt

Ultimately, in his 23-page decision, Reichley deemed that the arena, parking and even the Hamilton street restaurants were in keeping with ANIZDA's tax exempt mission to revitalize Allentown.  The Morning Call

Judge Reichley has ruled against the Allentown School District in its suit against the ANIZDA to tax the arena.  Was Reichley correct, and should he have recused himself from the case,  having voted for the district as a state representative?

As I have recently posted, I don't believe that the NIZ really ever intended to revitalize Allentown, but was a ruse to subsidize J.B. Reilly.   Lets be blunt, the intentions and credibility of whole Allentown affair is tainted.  J.B. Reilly, according to reports published in The Morning Call,  was preparing to contribute $50,000 to Pawlowski's campaign,  just prior to the FBI raid last July.  I would doubt that Reilly was making this donation because he thought that Pawlowski would better serve us in the senate than Pat Toomey.  The Allentown NIZ was a scheme spawned in deception,  from sending out straw buyers to intimidate the former merchants,  to including the Morning Call property,  to squash scrutiny from the press.  The arena complex was broken down into condominium units,  with certain area's deemed public, and other area's privately owned by J.B. Reilly.  In addition to the taxing issues raised by the school district,  which fox in the henhouse did the assessment prorations,  assigning value to the different portions for this hybrid project?

ADDENDUM: The Morning Call article has a definite spin that the lawsuit threatened the continued revitalization of Allentown. This spin has been indicative of all Morning Call articles on the NIZ, especially by this reporter, Matt Assad.   In reality,  real revitalization of Allentown will only occur with improvement to the school district, which the ruling hampers.

photo by Harry Fisher / The Morning Call

Wildlands Conservancy Tick Festival

There is a full blown tick festival growing along the creeks in the Allentown Park system.  Under Pawlowski,  the park director is in charge of recreation, while the Wildlands Conservancy dictates park policy. The riparian buffer zones have been  expanded this season, and should be at least two feet tall within a week.  With the Cedar Beach Swimming Pool out of commission,  the children instead will be  introduced to Lyme's Disease, if they attempt to cool off in the creek.

In South Whitehall, the parks are run by the Wildlands groupie Randy Cope. He plans on replacing the scenic Wehr's Dam with a riparian buffer, blocking both access and view of the creek.  His claim to frame is showing outdoor movies, by the soon to be demolished dam.  While the South Whitehall Commissioners grossly overstated the dam's repair costs to justify a referendum this coming November,  the dam is no longer even mentioned on any of the township's printed or digital park pages;  It is as if they already allowed the Wildlands Conservancy to destroy it.  It's a good thing that the township residents are not concerned about local politics,  because they are so poorly represented.

Shown above is the miniature stone bridge over the spring channel in Lehigh Parkway.  I have cleared this WPA treasure from the overgrowth several times in recent years. 

What Was The NIZ Meant To Do?

Molovinsky writing blog in early morning

If the NIZ was meant to revitalize center city Allentown, it has failed miserably. A simple walk down Hamilton Street shows less activity than before the $Billion dollar influx. I believe that its intention was only to enrich a few individuals. Although apologists for the subsidy say that anybody could have done what J.B. Reilly did, with courage, they are in fact only enablers for this scheme. In truth, Reilly was fronted the money before the ANIZ board formally existed,  and had agreements of sale for much of the NIZ property before the general public even had knowledge of the program's specifics.

One of the rules for retail success is the illusion of easy parking. Never mind that you're parked half a mile away in the mall parking lot, the stores are in your line of sight. In Allentown, the administration controlled Parking Authority offered and sold the line of sight surface parking lots. Furthermore, they are now charging $2 an hour to park, although the arena has very few events. There is nothing to indicate that revitalizing was really the goal, and there's less to indicate that the revitalization will succeed.

The mayor, waiting to be indicted, is going around cutting ribbons for the little people, and serving lunch to the poor people, of which there is no shortage. Prior to the air being left out of his ballon, he thought he was going to ride the revitalization to Harrisburg or Washington. His campaign fund is now his legal fund. The Morning Call has begun to begrudgingly tone down its cheerleading, realizing that their credibility was being jeopardized. Meanwhile, to keep up with all the shenanigans, I had to increase the blog staff.