Allentown's Apartment Myths

Recently, an antagonist erroneously wrote on facebook that I hate Allentown, and that I profit from chopped up houses.

People often attribute Allentown's problems to center city houses being converted into apartments, as if this occurred recently. Many will be surprised to know that almost all the converted apartments existed for over 60 years. When the GI's returned from WW2, the trend was for small single family houses with small lawns, i.e. Levittowns. Most conversion of the row houses took place in the late 40's and early 50's, and more less stopped by the early 60's.  Because of them, Hamilton Street remained viable for twenty years beyond the main street in Bethlehem, Easton and Reading. Allentown was chosen during this era as the All American City. During those 50 years, 1940 to 1990, nobody complained about the apartments or the tenants.

What has changed is the demographics, so there is at best a classist, or at worst, a racist element to the current complaints about center city apartments.

The existing converted houses are not going away, unless Allentown wants to compensate the owners for their property rights. What can only be contemplated, at this point, is the future consequences of new housing, in both converted industrial buildings, and new apartment buildings in the NIZ.  Is Allentown helping itself, in the long run, by creating additional housing stock?

Shown above is the converted mansion from the Mary Tyler Moore Show.  Mary lived on the second floor, while her friend Rhoda had the third floor apartment.

molovinsky on allentown is published early morning every weekday.

Double Down(Towns)

People often speculate as to why Bethlehem now is a destination, while, too often, Allentown is considered a place to avoid. The long answer will not fit within this short post, but here may be a few reasons. Bethlehem had two downtowns, on both sides of the river. While downtown Allentown certainly was the premier shopping area for the Lehigh Valley prior to the malls, it may have become a victim to over-planning. In the late 60's, early 70's, Allentown attempted to compete with the suburban malls by building a canopy on Hamilton Street. The viability of Hamilton Street was extended for a few years, but the magnetism of Hess's could well have been the reason. Bethlehem also built a pedestrian mall on Broad Street, but the historical quaintness of Main Street remained. Although the commerce in its southside business district languished, the architecture remained. By the time Allentown removed the canopies in the late 90's, the architecture of its buildings had long been bisected and altered. As historical became chic, Bethlehem profited from having done less in the past.

Its southside business district is a time capsule, architecturally unchanged since the turn of the last century. It now is becoming a mix of boutiques and bistros in a fashionable historic setting. Last, but not least, Bethlehem benefited from consistency of developmental leadership. While Allentown has had a succession of Economic Directors, Tony Hanna, with benefit of his institutional memory, has led Bethlehem for many years.

Shown at the top is pop up photo matches from the 1930's, promoting Julian Goldman's Fine Clothes For The Family on the South Side, East Third Street. Also shown is Tony Hanna, along side of the former Goodman Furniture Store.

above reprinted from July of 2012

ADDENDUM DECEMBER 28, 2018: Allentown lost most its historical mercantile district with the arena, and new NIZ office towers. They are without architectural merit.

Stacking The Deck

When Donny Cunningham appointed Ed Pawlowski to the Lehigh Valley Airport Authority, he stacked the deck against Queen City Airport. Pawlowski has advocated selling Queen City for development since before he was mayor. The fact that this city needs no more commercial or residential space is lost on him. South Mall, once home to three large department stores, now has one. The property has underperformed for decades. Needless to say, the last thing the school district needs is more housing and students. The distance between Queen City and Lehigh Valley Airport provides a safety margin between commercial planes and small aircraft. The Airport Authority is a case-study in poor decision making. They took land for runway expansion they never used, now owing the original owners ten times the price in penalty and interest. (LVIA is under court order to pay $26million) They expanded their departure terminal to a size they never needed. They constantly remodel the under used facility. They fired their director with no succession plans in place. Cunningham appointing Pawlowski, with a predetermined agenda, is the last person that board needed.
In an article today in The Morning Call, it states that the sale and development of Queen City could create "thousands of jobs." That is ridiculous.

above reprinted from December of 2011

ADDENDUM: Since I printed the above post in 2011, Queen City managed to stay on as an auxiliary airport. With the demise of Bon-Ton, things have only gotten worse for South Mall. LVIA continues to make unnecessary improvements, and there are still painfully few destinations on their departure board.  Ed Pawlowski is now residing at a federal detention center in Connecticut.

The Cheesesteak Reality

The photo and caption above is from the Morning Call.  I did not read the story.  I saw the meme on facebook, where I also did not read the post or comments.  Only the native Allentonian nostalgia types ponder which institution has better cheesesteaks.  Before Vince's, the spot was outfitted for Tony Luke's,  a Philadelphia cheesesteak king.  The successive failures aren't related to the  cheesesteaks, but to the changing demographics.  Cheesesteaks aren't a staple in Puerto Rico.  Cheesesteaks are not a staple to the younger office workers, who can't get out of Dodge fast enough,  come five o'clock.

We aging dinosaurs remember when Hamilton Street was the place, and Brass Rail cheesesteaks were king.  The demand was so great, that the establishment, in addition to the dining room, had walkup spots in both front and back.  That business wisely moved its operation out of center city to Lehigh Street.

Until which time the newspaper understands that it is cheesy to write about the sandwich, and ignore the demographic realities,  this blog will continue to serve the truth, both here and to take out.

A Snowy Morning In Jerusalem

Snow is a rare occurrence in Jerusalem, but on January 10th (2013) it snowed 6 inches, the biggest storm since 1992.  Although this blog concentrates on local political commentary, I do indulge in a few distractions. Among those are local history, boxing from the Joe Louis era, and stories from the Holy Land.  With all topics, the quality of the visual image presented here is paramount to me.

reprinted from February of 2013

The Resignation Of James Mattis

Jim Mattis was a hybrid general...part Mad Dog, part intellectual. Between his military retirement  and his appointment as Defense Secretary,  he was the Annenberg Fellow at the Sanford's Hoover think tank. He was equally at home reading Paul Linebarger's classic 1948 Psychological Warfare, or sleeping in a foxhole in Afghanistan.  As Commander of the Joint Forces, and then NATO,  his commitment to allies was bedrock.  When Donald Trump announced our withdrawal from Syria,  Mattis could no longer in good conscience serve as our 26th Secretary of Defense.

That decision by Trump also cost us the service of Brett McGurk, who was the leading envoy in the war against ISIS.  It is my hope that John Bolton remains as National Security Advisor, and that Mike Pompeo stays on as Secretary of State.  The country needs Trump receiving good advice, even if he fails to listen.


Mattis arriving in Afghanistan in 2001 to take command

A Family Story

This post is unusually personal for this blog.  My grandfather came to Allentown from Russian Lithuania  in 1891.  In the next few years he was joined by his parents, and five siblings.   The family settled on 2nd Street, along with many other Jewish immigrants of that period.  He worked in various jobs, including a cigar factory, until he could establish himself as a butcher, as in the old country.  Because we were here for over a hundred years,  I consider myself somewhat of a local historian.

As a boy growing up in Little Lehigh Manor, on the ridge above Lehigh Parkway, I explored the WPA structures when they were still comparatively new.  Because of that background, I was able to uncover the Boat Landing, and advocate for our  traditional park system.  One of my father's uncles worked for the park system, caring for Lehigh Parkway.

What brought me to this post is my great grandmother's tombstone in Fountain Hill, which I recently visited.  She is buried in an old Jewish cemetery that is no longer in use. Although, her tombstone is very old, it replaced an even older one , that then laid behind the former Wentz's tombstone factory at 20th and Hamilton, for many decades.  I am the last Molovinsky in Allentown.

photo taken behind Wentz's before recent demolition of that facility.

reprinted from December of 2016