NIZ Injuries To Allentown

The NIZ has fostered various injuries on the city and it's citizens.  Reilly's dashed hopes for a mega project, encompassing an entire block, 7th to 8th and Hamilton to Walnut, resulted in the displacement of numerous  businesses and residents.  Furthermore, we lost rich history, such as the Elks Club.  Yesterday afternoon the paper ran it's second story of the day promoting Reilly's much smaller, substituted office condo project. The article is called  Five Things To Know about the new project.  There's actually six, and the sixth is that the paper never stops promoting Reilly's interests. This morning the paper continues with it's third piece on the new building, within two days.  Putting aside this endless cheerleading by The Morning Call,  the NIZ has surely peaked. Although a number of tenants were poached from different locations,  there was no net gain for the region.  A responsible Harrisburg would be analyzing  the consequences inflicted on the area.  However,  responsibility and Harrisburg have never been acquainted.

As I commented yesterday, Talen workers will be isolated down at the river, almost punished, if you  will.  The surrounding 6th Ward certainly doesn't provide much ambience.  Expect our local and state taxes to be expended there, to embellish Jaindl's position. The tearing out of the Lehigh Valley Railroad Old Main tracks through that parcel is another history victim of the NIZ.

photo of former Elks Club on S. 8th St., prepared for demolition, to make way for now cancelled mega-project by J.B. Reilly

above reprinted from May of 2016 

 

UPDATE FEBRUARY 10, 2021: Four years later from writing the above piece, an update is in order.  Reilly did build out the square block with more offices and apartments. He also did so at 6th and Walnut. It all looks the same, devoid of architecture and any feeling of community.  He also secured Talen as a tenant, slowing down Jaindl's waterfront plans. Jaindl is now just starting his first building. The Morning Call continues their promotion of Reilly's City Center Real Estate, and Reilly now owns the Morning Call building. While resented for it, I continue to speak out against the loss of the town's identity.

Freight Trolleys and Shenanigans

This was supposed to be a Men's Stuff post, about the working cars on the Lehigh Valley Transit Company. Doing research for the previous post on that company, I became fascinated that they operated a freight operation with the trolley cars. I started acquiring documentation and photographs about the working cars necessary for such an operation. They built power substations throughout the valley that generated electric, then converted the AC to DC for their use. The rolling stock required coal trolleys, wire stringing trolleys, snowplow trolleys, and etc. I will present these black and white photo treasures in future posts, because I got side tracked by a shenanigan; you know me. Lehigh Valley Transit operated out of the Fairview Carbarn, which Lanta still uses off of Lehigh Street. Despite a trolley fleet that covered the entire City, plus the remainder of the Valley (Bethlehem and Easton), all the Men's Stuff working cars, and trolley service to Philadelphia, Lanta now needs Bicentennial BallPark because they acquired five (5) new hybrid buses? Supposedly these five new buses require a special garage. Although the Fairview facility now handles 78 regular buses, the ballfield has to go because of the five new hybrids.

men only: enlarge freight trolley by clicking on image

above reprinted from May of 2010

UPDATE July 4, 2019:  Attempting to save the ballpark, I organized a meeting at a center city church.  Attending the meeting were two city council members and families involved with Bicentennial Park.  Pawlowski and Lanta finally backed off, and the ballpark remains. Some people who attended that meeting became interested in Allentown politics, and attend council meetings to this day. Pawlowski's shenanigans have since caught up with him.

reprinted from July 4, 2019

More Cigarette Tax For Reilly

The Morning Call reports that T&B Tobacco, a fixture on Linden Street forever,  has sold out to J.B. Reilly's NIZ empire.  While the Call article spelled out some of the NIZ financial benefits,  it didn't reveal all the trade secrets.

The newspaper has never been overly frank about Reilly's NIZ.*  Their building at 6th & Linden was included in the NIZ zone,  even when originally the zone was limited to only the other side of Linden Street. Reilly now owns the Morning Call building, with the paper's presence there limited to distribution only. However, since that first map,  everything about the NIZ is subject to flexibility.  The NIZ status of parcels within the zone can be traded for parcels outside the zone. 

Even the addition of the cigarette state tax was a profitable afterthought. While Reilly and the NIZ can now use the Pennsylvania cigarette tax for their real estate debt service, prior to the NIZ,  that tax went to CHIP, the Children's Health Insurance Program.

While this blog has published many posts about the NIZ and the paper's promotion of it*,  recently I have refrained from pointing out the obvious.  However, a quote from the seller of the tobacco outfit is too much to ignore.  He states about the NIZ, “It sure beats the hell out of how things were 20 years ago,"   It certainly does for him. In addition to the undisclosed $millions he received for his business, Reilly also gave him $2.5 million for his old tired building. 

* The current reporter is much more forthright about the NIZ than his predecessors, who wrote outright  promotions for Reilly's City Center Realty.

Allentown's WPA Watchman

Being a self appointed watchman over Allentown's WPA structures is an act in frustration. Since I started posting about the neglect of the structures in 2008, I have seen nothing of substance done. Actually, besides the steps at Irving Park being rebuilt, I have seen nothing done at all. While rebuilding that small staircase was positive, many negatives occurred in the meantime. The meantime has been over seven years. Also in the meantime, another set of steps were removed from Irving Park. The staircase at Union Terrace is deteriorating to the point where that structure is in jeopardy. The repair to a remaining staircase at Irving was done with a $25,000 grant from the Trexler Trust. In the last seven years, the park department's budget has been over $25 million dollars. The playground at Cedar Beach cost $1 million. Pawlowski has rejected my offer to be a liaison on behalf of the WPA structures. I'm pictured above standing over the former WPA wall, after it collapsed this summer, closing Lehigh Parkway's classic entrance. This city's history and future are tied to our park system and other quality of life issues, not just some private/public new buildings. I know there's no big money or national attention to be gained in fixing an old wall, but we have a responsibility to the things which made this city unique.

above reprinted from October of 2015

ADDENDUM OCTOBER 5, 2018:  On Wednesday evening,  city council confirmed Karen El-Chaar as the new park director. Her three predecessors, all appointed by former mayor Pawlowski, had an identical background...All three were from out of town, and had a masters in recreation. None of them had any appreciation of the iconic WPA structures, or Allentown's traditional park system. That system was a destination in Pennsylvania, and over the years the subject of many picture postcards.

After advocating for the WPA for over a decade,  finally a park director is in place who has an understanding of the significance of these structures in our park system.  As the former long term director of Allentown Friends Of The Parks,  Karen El-Chaar is schooled in both the traditional park system and the current recreational expectations of the public.  Mayor Ray O'Connell made an excellent choice.

UPDATE FEBRUARY 5, 2021: Karen El-Chaar has been delivering results in regard to the WPA. The double stairway in Lehigh Parkway was repointed last summer, although the landings on that structure remain to be done.  If we end up with a new mayor come November, I hope that there is the foresight to retain El-Chaar.

Barbarians Sack Allentown

As Mayor Pawlowski stood last week across Hamilton Street from the former buildings, now reduced to rubble, I thought of the barbarians sacking Rome. The Knerr Building, constructed in 1892 at 707 Hamilton Street, had withstood many changes in the last 120 years. Built for John Knerr to sell groceries and confections, it's four floors served various businesses over the century. Although this past New Year's eve, the Mayor spoke of Allentown's 250th anniversary, it's a history for which he has limited knowledge and less appreciation. As a student of Allentown's architecture and past, I was offended to hear him and the other mayors boast about the 40 temporary demolition jobs. The wrecking contractor was astute enough to remove the monumental and historic Knerr facade ornamentation, before knocking the building down. He will sell it in some other city, where history is respected and valued.

reprinted from February of 2012

ADDENDUM: The above post is reprinted from 2012. Although I accept the arena and NIZ as the new reality, there are uninformed progressives who believe  the demolition of that square block of Allentown was of no consequence. I know better; We lost some significant architecture and much history. One must wonder if the new structures will last 120 years.

Allentown, All Future No Present

Except for the 800 block of Hamilton Street, the merchants of center city are on their own about snow and litter. After the snow finally melted, the parking spaces and sidewalks were back to the accumulated litter and left over leafs from the fall. Although disruption of service can be expected with so much construction, what we're seeing is total disregard for the existing, taxpaying businesses of downtown. Although their state taxes are being funneled to the beneficiaries of the NIZ, they are not receiving even basic service. Although Pawlowski and Company may think that they can deter service until the arena project is complete, do a cleanup, and people will come, the locals don't roll that way. Perceptions and patterns are made over time, and a few new shiny buildings won't change that.

above reprinted from December of 2013

UPDATE FEBRUARY 3, 2021: Seven years since I wrote the post above, so I suppose the future is here now.  The arena has been built, there are many new shiny buildings, and Pawlowski has been removed. The former merchants of Hamilton Street are all gone now, and there's no longer even a pretense of Hamilton as a shopping venue. While there's many new office workers, real revitalization only exists in the developer's brochures.

Growing Up Allentown

Life in Allentown during the 1950's was pretty easy, compared to nowadays. Whether you were an office worker or factory worker,  there were plenty of jobs. Whether you lived in the west end or center city, all the neighborhoods were clean, well maintained and relatively crime free. The school system was the envy of the county, and people finagled to get their children enrolled in it. Allentown High School had championship teams in multiple sports, and the football stadium was one of the most lavish high school stadiums in the country. The park system was the subject of numerous picture postcards. Likewise, downtown was widely known, with Hess's being a destination. All the above attributes would stay in place throughout the 1960's, into the early 70's.

I bill this blog as the intersection of politics and history in Allentown, and the greater Lehigh Valley. Although I will continue to speak out on current events of concern, I suspect that this page will turn more and more to history. Perhaps nostalgia is so appealing because the current reality is so disillusioning. 

Although my archive of older Allentown pictures is extensive, I invited Ozzie and Harriet Nelson to illustrate this post.

reprinted from July of 2016