Hanukkah At 7th & Hamilton

As the Allentown Fire Truck lifted Mayor Pawlowski and Rabbi Halperin up to light the oversized Hanukkah Menorah, the ritual was being repeated in 1,000 cities. Although Jews have always lit a small menorah in the privacy of their homes, community menorahs are the handiwork of a relatively small Jewish group. The Chabad Lubavitch Hasidic Dynasty started 250 years ago, in Russia and eastern Europe. Their last Rebbe*, Menachen M. Schneerson, transformed the sect into an outreach mission to Jews everywhere. The Rebbe, their 7th leader, passed away in 1994. Rabbi Halperin is one of 4,000 emissaries he sent throughout the world.
* A Rebbe is a rabbi and leader held in exalted esteem

Urban Safari

Exclusive to molovinsky on allentown; this blogger has learned that along with the golf course concession, the Allentown BrewWorks has received the first franchise to conduct urban safari's in Allentown. The evening excursions will begin and end from the safety of the municipal golf course parking lot, in the deep west end. Although still in the planning stages, sites on the tour will include 9th and Chew, gunfire epicenter of the new Allentown, and a drive-by of Trinkles Cafe. Within the safety of the armored Hummer, guests will visit an actual forensic site, and watch police officers search for shell casings. The guides will tastefully point out probable ladies of the night and merchants of recreational pharmaceuticals. The tour will include stopping in front of the home of an urban pioneer, where actual members of OAPA will wave from behind their windows. With special permission from Lanta, the excursion will drive through the bus yard, showing real passengers waiting on cold steel benches, eating stale donuts. For a VIP tour, actually driven by Mayor Pawlowski himself, contact the special events coordinator at Allentown City Hall or the Allentown BrewWorks. Scott Kraus and Matt Assad of The Morning Call did not contribute to this story.

reprinted from December 28, 2008, updated with the names of the current MC reporters.

Iannelli's Chamber of Compromise

Say whatever you want about the Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce, but it has nothing to do with businesses in the Three Cities. It is simply a cult of personality; Tony Iannelli, and an occasional social organization for suburban corporations. Perhaps nothing illustrates my point as much as the Vision Meetings held on Hamilton Mall a couple years ago. At the time this blog scoffed, and wrote that Pawlowski could care less about any vision the merchants had. Years ago, when the former director of the Parking Authority misled City Council that the merchants wanted the meter rates to double, Iannelli sent someone to verify the deception. Several years ago when the Hamilton merchants lamented the loss of bus stops, Iannelli couldn't be concerned. Now, as 34 businesses are discarded for the Transformation, Iannelli, sitting in his office in the Butz Building, cannot hear their screams. Pawlowski has just appointed Tony Co-Chair for Allentown's 250th Birthday Celebration; Complicity has it's reward.

The Historical Hypocrisy of Jennings

From The Archives
Tomorrow as the merchants in the 700 block of Hamilton Street struggle for another day under the new handicap inflicted upon them, the movers and shakers of the Lehigh Valley will gather at the Brewpub to honor Alan Jennings and The Community Action Committee of the Lehigh Valley. Air Products and Chemicals is sponsoring the luncheon, which will include testimonials on the wide spectrum of CACLV, including The Community Action Development Corp. of Allentown, 443 N 7th St., which endeavors to assist start-up business from low-income and minority populations. I invite Mr. Jennings and the Air Product executives to attend a meeting at 7:00pm thursday evening at Faith Baptist Church, 219 N. 12th St., to honor small business owners, from mostly an minority population, who want or need nothing more than a bus stop.
reproduced from Oct. 16, 2007

UPDATE Dec. 18, 2011. Mr. Jennings never attended the meetings I conducted at Faith Baptist on the Lanta issue, nor did The Morning Call cover the meetings. The bus stop removal has become a moot point, because recently, the merchants themselves were removed. Although Mr. Jennings has since received $millions in grants to aid small business owners, he never did defend the small merchants of Hamilton Street against Lanta or the Arena.

The Dinosaurs of Sumner Avenue

Up to the early 1950's, Allentown was heated by coal, and much of it came from Sumner Avenue. Sumner was a unique street, because it was served by the West End Branch of the Lehigh Valley Railroad. The spur route ran along Sumner, until it crossed Tilghman at 17th Street, and then looped back East along Liberty Street, ending at 12th. Coal trucks would elevate up, and the coal would be pushed down chutes into the basement coal bins, usually under the front porches of the row houses. Several times a day coal would need to be shoveled into the boiler or furnace. By the early 1970's, although most of the coal yards were closed for over a decade, the machines of that industry still stood on Sumner Avenue. Eventually, they took a short trip to one of the scrap yards which are still on the avenue, but not before I photographed them.

photocredit: molovinsky

The Capitulation of Alan Jennings

Believe it or not, I haven't always been the statesman I am today. Years ago, this post would have probably been titled The Hypocrisy of a Poverty Pimp. Anyway, putting aside my growing diplomacy, Rite Aid had a surprising ally at the zoning hearing Monday evening. According to The Morning Call's Devon Lash, Alan Jennings, executive director of The community Action Committee of the Lehigh Valley, spoke on behalf of Rite Aid's plan; "... (it) will transform a blighted building...bringing jobs downtown, especially with the clock ticking down to demolition for the arena.. There's too much at stake downtown."
Bear in mind this is the same Alan Jennings who turns people into small business owners. He doesn't teach them to fish, he buys them a fish market. He brags that those gifted by his start up business division have a 97% success rate. He even has a division office at 7th and Liberty. Although Jenning's supported Rite Aid (and the Arena) moving forward, this supposed advocate for small business was nowhere to be seen when the former Hamilton Street merchants pleaded to City Council. Where was Alan? Alan was placing his bets. He knows from where the butter on his bread cometh. It doesn't come from the small displaced merchants of Hamilton Street, but from grants distributed by Pawlowski and gifts from large corporations which back his vision for Allentown. So while 34 merchants, who never received a grant or startup from the likes of Jennings, were displaced, their and our tax dollars will be dispensed by Jennings, to make startup Successes, from those who don't have the gumption to do it on their own. How's my diplomacy coming?

The Morning Call Peeps

Encouraged by the local page editor, Mike Miorelli, The Morning Call reporters continue to lift articles from the blogosphere, and not credit the blogger. The paper's website is featuring the video of the Dieruff High taser incident, as originally reported by Bernie O'Hare on Ramblings. Manny Gomiz says that the paper obtained the video. Actually, they got the story and video from O'Hare, who had obtained it through proper police surveillance channels. Bernie is not upset about the use of his intellectual property, but I'm offended. When material was lifted from my blog last year without proper attribution, Bill White defended the paper's practice. Last fall I inadvertently received an inter-office Morning Call email which described me as "disdainful", I suppose this post will not alter that perception.
UPDATE: NBC Philadelphia has picked up the story. Although they (erroneously) cite The Morning Call with the story, they credit the video to Lehigh Valley Ramblings (Bernie O'Hare)

Allentown's Transformation Myth

Like the midget on Fantasy Island saying De Plane, De Plane, Pawlowski keeps saying The Plan, The Plan. He even calls The Plan transformational. It's time to inject some reality into this myth. Although a local developer has been buying buildings, he is doing so with a $20million loan from ACIDA, which he can repay using taxes from those buildings. So far, despite projections of thousands of jobs and hundreds of new apartments, one company with one hundred jobs will occupy a slightly remodeled building. As one knowledgeable about the apartment business, let us hope those new apartments never come to be. The City of
Reading, with the same shift in demographics in the last decade, has just been declared the Poorest City in America. This designation occurred despite the Sovereign Event Center, which failed to halt that city's deterioration. Here in Allentown, a local auctioneer is offering one of the new 3 bedroom, 3.5 bathroom townhouses at 8th and Walnut Street starting at $65,000. Just a few years ago those new townhouses, built with subsidies and KOZ, were hyped by Pawlowski to be transformational.

The plane arrives