O'Connell Needs To Define Integrity

When former mayor Ed Pawlowski was found guilty, Ray O'Connell told the media "Tomorrow is a new day with integrity, honesty and trustworthiness back in city hall." I'm sorry to report that despite that encouraging proclamation,  city hall in some sense may be worse than ever.

I have no reason to believe that campaign donations or money exchanges of any kind are continuing at city hall,  but otherwise, I must question what O'Connell meant about integrity?

Earlier in the fall I posted about a homeowner on the east side who was being improperly harassed by code to accommodate a neighbor.  I have photographic documentation showing the head of code, Robert Sandt, socializing with the neighbor, and the neighbor allowing code thru his rental property, to photograph their targeted victim's adjoining property, up to the day of the hearing.  At the hearing, in addition to the field inspector, Donald Reed, Sandt himself appeared.  At the hearing the city changed the initial charges, conceding that there was no defect with the homeowner's railings.  The magistrate allowed them to change their focus to a superfluous upright, and claimed that the deck was built without a permit.  Although the judge seemed eager to accommodate the city with a guilty verdict, he was forced to reverse himself, when the homeowner produced the permit from 2002.

The city code department has again filed the same violation against the homeowner, again submitting her to the same harassment.  The field inspector told the homeowner that Leonard Lightner, Community Development Director, ordered the refiling, because he is concerned for her safety in regard to the deck.  While the deck could support a Sherman Tank,  it is apparent that Lightner and O'Connell cannot control their code officers.  Neither Lightner or O'Connell returned my calls on this topic earlier in the fall.

For the first hearing, the code department actually fabricated a printout of permits, showing that the homeowner didn't have a permit for the deck.  If O'Connell thinks that dozens of man hours and falsifying documents to harass a homeowner is integrity,  Allentown is not much better off now than it was before, under Pawlowski.

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Allentown Still Needs Lessons On Favoritism

Although Allentown city council has decided to slow down its deliberation of an Entertainment District, Candida Affa still is pushing for the Maingate... "we should have designated areas in the third largest city in the state where people can go to enjoy louder entertainment.”  We actually have an entertainment district, down by the former train stations, in the lower section of Hamilton Street. Unfortunately that district turned into the Gunfire District, giving Allentown national embarrassment for the shootings.

While that district at 2nd and Hamilton has no houses, the new proposed district in the west end is packed with residents. In addition to the senior towers at 16th and Liberty, there are hundreds of residents in the proposed district. This past summer there were already shootings at the Maingate. 

Affa was Pawlowski's biggest and longest standing supporter on City Council. She should consider that her mentor is incarcerated because of favoritism. If she wants to support the Maingate at the expense of Allentown residents, perhaps she could rent the facility for polka dances, and other lower impact events.

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Jeopardizing Your House For Ocean Spray

Unknown to Lehigh County residents, one of the reasons Ocean Spray moved here was to avoid costly upgrades to their pre-sewer treatment plant. When you're in violation of New Jersey environmental standards, what do you do, you turn to Donny Cunningham. Here in Sap Valley, we invited Ocean Spray with incentives and called it progress. They, along with the other new bottling industries attracted by Cunningham and LCA, will now jeopardize your home. Rather than expand the sewer treatment plant, homeowners are being forced to block their plumbing safety net, their floor drains. Up to a decade ago, floor drains were mandated by code so that if a pipe broke, your home was protected against flooding. Although nothing has ever gone down my floor drain, I must now block it to comply with new regulations. The thinking is that a drop saved here, and a drop saved there from thousands and thousands of homes, can spare the LCA the expense of enlarging the sewer plant, or building an additional one, and still meet EPA standards. Hell, there's even enough capacity left to invite Ocean Spray. Now, if your hot water heater springs a leak, it's too bad for you.

reprinted from April of 2014

ADDENDUM DECEMBER 18, 2019: While the commercial rates paid by the bottling companies remain attractive to them, homeowners in Allentown and other local municipalities are now seeing their residential water rates double.

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City Takes Cronyism To New Noise Level

There is a proposal in front of city council to shelter the Maingate fairgrounds nightclub from noise violations by the LCB. The city would establish a new noise level in what it would deem an entertainment district. The bill is being promoted by Candida Affa, who previously created legislation to effectively shut down what she considered nuisance clubs. Also supporting her effort in regard to the Maingate is councilman MacLean and mayor O'Connell. They are all very wrong.

City spokesman Mike Moore stated that he has heard no objections to the Maingate proposal. I will email a copy of this post to his attention.

I would remind Affa, MacLean and O'Connell that the previous administration felt justified in deciding who were the winners and losers in regard to city bids, ignoring the guidelines that were in place. Likewise, the city should stay out of the bar business, and allow the LCB to exercise its control. There are neighbors who live by the fairgrounds. Just because they tolerate the fair one week a year, doesn't mean that they're never entitled to some quiet.

ADDENDUM: The Entertainment District would also include the Shanty and Ringers,  wedging the residents of the 500 block of St. George and 18th Streets into permitted year round noise.  These other bars were included so that the proposal doesn't smack of favoritism toward the Maingate, which it is.

photocredit:molovinsky

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Better From The Pagoda

When I was a kid growing up in Allentown, we would visit my cousins in Reading. Allentown and Reading seemed very similar, row houses and corner stores. My aunt owned a corner soda fountain. Those Sunday trips were special, because I could sit at the soda counter, eat ice cream and read comic books, to my content. Outside the store, you could look up and see the Pagoda, seemed sorta  magical. This weekend I returned to visit the Pagoda and the neighborhood. While the Pagoda pretty much hasn't changed, downtown Reading is devastated. Block after block is run down, with no revitalization in sight.

While this blog misses the Allentown center city of years ago,  Reading doesn't even resemble its former self.  If you visit, I suggest viewing it only from the pagoda. From that height the city looks as it always did, up close it gets very rough.

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The Hypocrisy Of Donald Cunningham

In his latest Morning Call column, Donny Cunningham laments the loss of yesteryear, especially in regard to the trolleys. Cunningham claims that today's millennials appreciate the same things as their great grandparents, such as farm to table food, and walking paths. Actually Donnie, those paths today were created from former railbeds. You cannot get nostalgic about trolleys while you're ripping out railbeds. When I protested Jaindl recently removing the last tracks in Allentown down by the waterfront, there was no objection voiced by Cunningham.

The sorry truth is that Don Cunningham was responsible for numerous attacks on our history. While Lehigh County Executive, his public works director went on a rampage against stone arch bridges. I did manage to successfully fight Cunningham and his staff to save one bridge, the Reading Road Bridge by Union Terrace.

I also note that Cunningham, as former Secretary Of General Services in Pennsylvania, has said nothing about the planned destruction of the historic architecturally rich state hospital.

Here in the valley of political correctness and revisionism, while the Morning Call will print anything from the establishment, this blog will call fouls for the few who still value truth.

photo: Reading Road Bridge, condemned by Cunningham, saved by blogger

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When Kahane Came To Allentown

He told the Jews gathered in Allentown that their leaders were spineless, that's how the controversial rabbi spoke. When Meir Kahane came to town in the summer of 1990, none of the Jewish institutions would give him space to speak. Before immigrating to Israel, he had formed the Jewish Defense League in NYC in 1968. He lectured that turning the other cheek was a Christian concept, and that the minimum take away from the Holocaust was that American Jews should own a gun, and know how to use it. His views in Israel about nationalism on the West Bank were much more controversial, and he was jailed there for incitement.
His speech in Allentown was one of his last. He was assassinated later that year during a speech in NYC. 

above reprinted from 2014, 2018

ADDENDUM DECEMBER 12,2019: Although it was 50 years ago that Kahane formed the Jewish Defense League in the NYC area, a resurgence of that group would still be needed today.

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