Rite Aid to Close

Hamilton Street's Rite Aid will close it's door July 10th. Although it was against their corporate policy to join me and the merchants protesting the Pawlowski endorsed Lanta Bus changes*, it is also against their corporate policy to tolerate a 40% reduction in revenue. Hamilton Street is on it's knee's. This week three long term businesses announced their closing. Pawlowski was hoping his house of cards would stand until the next mayoral election, it doesn't look like it. All grant money is being funneled into keeping the Brew Pub open. No work has occurred at the former Sal's site for over three weeks. Pawlowski's lack of business experience is beginning to be very costly to Allentown. Many investors, some capable of investing much more, are being abused** by his bureaucracy, while a few select properties are being promoted. These tactics may well result in lawsuits, costing the city even more.

* At the time of the Lanta protest, I respected Rite Aid's corporate position, and didn't dwell on the fact that a national chain was being driven off of Hamilton Street. The Mayor and Lanta board were too self absorbed with their "vision", to understand they were depriving the merchants of the cash flow necessary to remain in business.

** Apartment owners are having their buildings declared unfit for habitation because of some external peeling paint. Commercial owners are likewise being threatened and bullied with inappropriate demands. I will refrain from citing addresses at this time to spare these hapless owners from more harassment.

UPDATE: Channel 69 news reports that Rite Aid is closing because of it's merger with Eckerd, which has a store"several blocks away on 7th St". The Eckerd is almost 10 blocks away. CVS has a store at 12th and Liberty and another at 16th and Liberty. The Hamilton Street store is closing because they lost the prescription and other business from transferring bus passengers. At some point in the future, we will pay a consultant who will make the recommendation to restore the transfer stops back to Hamilton Street.

Department of Misrepresentation

Pawlowski and his Administration routinely serve half truths on their menu of city services. Last December, when the Home Inspection Law was snuck through City Council at the end of the last meeting of the year, three officers from the Realtors Association endorsed the legislation. What they omitted to say, was that they hadn't surveyed their membership, and that the three took it upon themselves to support the proposal. Earlier this week, The Morning Call was provided with information that homeowners spent an average of $353.47 complying with the inspections. What the City omitted to say, was that this was the cost of materials only, with the presumption the homeowner could do the work himself. Misrepresentations, omissions and presumptions should preclude the City from intervening between a homeowner and his buyer.

AutoZone Political Victim

To any observer of Allentown Government, it was no surprise that the Zoning Board denied AutoZone's request for larger signs. With a room full of opponents, including the Mayor, the Board went through the motions of due process, but a witch in Salem had a better chance. I wasn't looking forward to an autoparts store replacing a charming dining spot, but I am concerned with property rights in Allentown. When zoning rights, or routinely normal variances are compromised to appease public opinion, the slippery slope is justified for more ominous abuses. Should the city building inspection system and permit system also be subject to a political agenda? Sometimes we must tolerate the unpopular and inappropriate, or we give the system a pass to violate everybody's rights.

Bridge Over Denial

Friday's Allentown edition of The Morning Call had two stories which caught my attention. The first*, was an excellent detailed account of the administration's vision for the future, by Jarrett Renshaw, a new reporter to the Allentown beat. My only issue with the vision, is that the components are anywhere from twenty-five to forty years old; it's actually more like a drug induced flashback. Now there are advantages to repackaging old plans. Mayor Pawlowski already has a power point presentation on these "visions" from when he was Director of Community Development under Afflerbach. In reality most these idea's go back to Dadonna's first term, when both the current Director of Planning and the Chief Planner where hired, forty years ago.

The second interesting article was about replacing the 124 year old Linden Street Bridge**. Readers may recall Candidate Don Cunningham campaigning about restoring the bridge. Immediately after being elected, he restricted the bridge to one lane. Now, two and half years later, we learn he will now rebid the project. The bridge in the picture is called Ponte Vecchio, in Florence, it was built in the 1300's. Europe is full of bridges which are hundreds of years old. They employ this high technology called maintenance. Weeds and plants are not allowed to grow on the bridges. The surfaces are kept as waterproof as possible, and bricks and stones are re-pointed as needed. Here in Allentown bushes grow out the 8th Street Bridge, and reinforcing rods are left exposed. The 15th Street Bridge rails were just painted last week, after being allowed to rust for years.

Allentown and Lehigh County would be better off with less planning, less campaigning and more elbow grease.

* http://www.mcall.com/news/local/allentown/all-b1_5plan.6468433jun20,0,4594474.story

** http://www.mcall.com/news/local/allentown/all-b1_5linden

Where's the Beef

Yesterday I asked Bill White and John Micek where's the local news? This question, was asked in the same vein, as the elderly lady wondering where the beef was in the hamburger commercial. Bill and John were too busy complimenting each other to answer. This evening I found an explanation buried in the Queen City Blog*:
" Jarrett Renshaw, Atown's new City Hall reporter, who arrived fresh from Easton's City Hall last week, is planning to do more with this in the next few days. Oh, and expect to see Jarrett here at the QCD as soon as he settles in, posting exclusive city news right here."
Hi Jarrett, let me introduce myself. I'm one of the nay-sayers who are responsible for Allentown not moving as far forward as it could because of our criticism. My very words alone, although seldom seen in the Morning Call, produce a negative energy with impedes the good intentions from City Hall from being fully realized. But, more important, let me explain who you are. You are the fourth reporter assigned to this administration since it began. Don't sign a long term apartment lease, because by the time you realize this Mayors' main accomplishment is producing power point presentations on his accomplishments, you will be reassigned to Shamokin to report on parallel vs. perpendicular parking.

*Queen City Blog about joke call Vision Meetings

Lehigh Parkway Elementary School

Not that many people know where Lehigh Parkway Elementary School is. It's tucked up at the back of the development of twin homes on a dead end street, but I won't say exactly where. I do want to talk about the photograph. It's May Day, around 1952-53. May Day was big then, so were the unions; at Steel, Mack, Black and Decker, and a hundred other factories going full tilt after the war. The houses were about 8 years old, and there were no fences yet. Hundreds of kids would migrate from one yard to another, and every mother would assume some responsibility for the herd when it was in her yard. Laundry was hung out to dry. If you notice most of the "audience" are mothers, dads mostly were at work. I'm at the front, right of center, with a light shirt and long belt tail. Don't remember the girl, but see the boy in front of me with the big head? His father had the whole basement setup year round with a hugh model train layout. There were so many kid's, the school only went up to second grade. The neighborhood had its own Halloween Parade and Easter egg hunt. We all walked to school, no one being more than four blocks away. Years ago when I met my significant other, she told me she taught at an elementary school on the south side, but I would have no idea where it was.

click on photo to enlarge

Allentown on my Mind

I'm a baby boomer. I was born December 21, 1946. As soon as my mother climbed out of the hospital bed, another woman climbed in. I grew up in Lehigh Parkway. Not Lehigh Parkway North where the cyclists were last week, but the other side of the park, where the Mack and Steel workers lived. That's me on our lawn at the intersection of Catalina and Liberator Avenues, named after airplanes made by Vultee Corporation for the War. We had our own elementary school, or own grocery store, and the park to play in. On Saturdays my older brother would take me on the trolley, and later the bus, over the 8TH Street Bridge to Hamilton Street. There were far too many stores to see everything. After a matinee of cartoons or Flash Gordon, a banana split at one of the five and dimes, we would take the bus back over the bridge to Lehigh Street.

As I drive through town at night I'm constantly fearful of a small child darting out between parked cars. Their parents must be constantly afraid of gunshots and random violence. I wish these children, and their parents could enjoy a bit of serenity, they deserve it.

Profile of Pawlowski Sycophant

I first realized Peter had a political future when I saw him ignore the testimony and plight of the Hamilton Street merchants at the Lanta Meeting. As a staff member for a State Representative, he's a trained talking puppet. Now also doing Pawlowski's bidding at City Council, Peter has introduced important legislation*; residents would be limited to conducting four yard sales a year. Michael Hefele pointed out since the city doesn't have inspectors working on weekends, it would be used to target "selected" offenders. Schweyer based his ordinance after a law in Coaldale, violators would face $500 fines. Pawlowski and Schweyer, moving Allentown forward!

* http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-b3_5yardsale.6458993jun14,0,7163030.story