Allentown's Vanishing History

A reader sent me the above image last night. It looks down the hill from 7th and Hamilton, north, toward Linden Street. He has been attempting to locate the old Lafayette Radio store on 7th street, because of a pleasant memory from his childhood. By my day, the store had moved onto the southern side of the 700 block of Hamilton Street. History is quickly succumbing to the wreaking ball in Allentown. All the buildings shown above, on the left or west side of 7th Street, have been knocked down for the arena. Most of the buildings on the photo's right side are also gone. I suspect the few remaining ones will be gone soon, as they have been recently purchased in speculation of the Transformation Phrase 2, the Event Center. With the departure of Salomon Jewelry, Tucker Yarn remains Hamilton Street's last remaining business from the glory days. It's first store, on 7th Street, can be seen on the left side of the above photo.

The above image can be found in Doug Peters' Lehigh Valley Transit

Pat Browne's NIZ Shell Game

Back in the fall, when it was discovered that J.B. Reilly was loaned $20 million under the same terms as the arena, and that taxes would be used for his debt service, and before the rules to apply were formulated and publicly announced, Pat Browne said "I'm not sure why anyone is confused. The law is very clear." Yes, this is the same Pat Browne whose campaign brochure touts reducing the size of government, and sponsored the Taxpayer Transparency Act. Scott Kraus and Matt Assad, of The Morning Call, have reported* that various professional fiscal managers in the surrounding townships, have been caught off-guard by the NIZ wrinkles. Bethlehem's business administrator said, "What? That's crazy....we're not getting money we already included in this year's budget." Upper Milford's manager said "Our bread and butter is that Earned Income Tax. Any amount we lose is significant to us." Pat Browne's reply to the beleaguered administrators: "I'm not sure why anyone is confused. The law is very clear." This blogger has maintained, contrary to the patter coming out of the mouths of Pawlowski and Browne, that every dollar going toward these NIZ projects will have to be made up by the taxpayers, somewhere, somehow. Pat Browne says, "There is naturally going to be some adjustment, But we're talking about rebuilding the urban core of Lehigh County. The benefits to everyone, including the suburban municipalities, are going to be well worth the adjustments we have to go through to get there."

Senator Browne, those benefits remain to be seen. For someone who sponsored The Taxpayer Transparency Act, you sure can move those shells around fast.

*Taxing question:Arena tab extends beyond Allentown/by Scott Kraus and Matt Assad/The Morning Call/January 22, 2012

Misguided Park Priorities

The plan to turn one lane of both Linden and Turner Streets into bike paths, through center city, casts a spot light on current Park Department thinking. If ever there was an idea that was devoid of reality, and which ignores the welfare of the vast majority of citizens, that may well be it. In addition to affecting the two sides of Allen High School, Central Elementary School would also be adversely impacted. Those familiar with center city know that double parkers already have largely reduced traffic to one lane, never mind the pending Arena traffic. This bike plan is a component of the Trail Network Plan, which has dominated the park agenda for the last several years. It caters exclusively to the cycling enthusiasts, paving the existing paths and connecting the parks with more bike paths. This past fall a group of concerned citizens surveyed the iconic WPA stone Structures within our park system. The cyclists may be peddling too fast to notice the state of disrepair that has overcome these monuments. Last summer, a City Councilman agreed to vote for the Trail Network Plan, with the understanding that a set of stone steps on Jerome Street, at Irving Park, would be fixed. The Park Department then removed the steps; I suppose that's a fix of sorts. One of the stone pillars on the Union Terrace Amphitheater stage is being undermined by the stream. The grand stairwell at Fountain Park has numerous missing steps. While millions of dollars have been sought for the cycling plan, the stone structures are approaching the point of no return. While I wish the cyclists enjoyable use of the parks, the Park Director and Mayor must realize that the young and the old, and other passive users, are also entitled to enjoy the parks. They are entitled to sit a bench and enjoy the view . They are entitled to explore the stone structures with their grandchildren, safely, on maintained steps and walls. These structures defined our park system long before the current Administration. We have too many plans for new venues in this city, while our history is literally crumbling. We don't just need more new ribbons to cut, we also need to maintain those things which made us unique.

The above piece, under a different title, appeared January 21, 2012, on The Morning Call opinion page.

A Park Protester From The Past

`Green' Curtain Blocks Sledding And The View
January 09, 1992|The Morning Call
To the Editor:
Hold your sleds girls and boys! Others, too, on the alert! With the planting of a dense cluster of 60 evergreen trees and the erection of a "No Sledding" sign, creating a veritable iron curtain, the park and watershed people have once again undertaken their repetitive effort of the past 45 years to eliminate a most popular sledding slope in Lehigh Parkway. The motive -- crass self-interest in defiance of public good. The effect -- an impassable barrier and concealment of a magnificent vista of "one of the finest valleys in Eastern Pennsylvania."
Children and adults from the 400 homes with longtime and easy access to the slope and others arriving in cars have enjoyed sledding here after school and into the night and throughout the day and night on weekends. Yet sledding is but one of the attractions of this enduring slope. In summer children and teachers from Lehigh Parkway Elementary School have enjoyed a walk down the slope and into the park for a break from book and blackboard. Birders, joggers, hikers and others on a leisurely stroll engrossed in their particular interest have found the slope irresistible.
For a host of others, this opening into the park after a long stretch of woods presents a charming vista and urge to descend. Interest is immediately evoked by the sight of a mid-19th century log house (now tenanted by a city employee whose privacy is further enhanced by the closure of the slope) and a historic wagon trail leading past the site of a lime kiln to tillable lands of earlier times.
The view takes in an expanse of meadowlands, now groomed, to the Little Lehigh River and up the western slope to Lehigh Parkway North. Indeed, a pleasant view to be esteemed and preserved for generations to come. It was distressing on New Year's Day to see a family and their guests intent upon a walk down the slope suddenly stop in amazement and shock as the closure became evident.
The cost in dollars through the years of the park peoples' fixation on destroying the Parkway slope must be staggering indeed without dwelling on other deliberate depletions. Typically, the placement of the 1991 "No Sledding" sign employed a team of four men with three vehicles -- a backhoe, a panel truck, and a super cab pickup truck, the latter furnishing radio music.
BERT A. LUCKENBACH
ALLENTOWN The Morning Call, January 9, 1992
reprinted from May 25, 2010

I grew up in the same neighborhood and spent my childhood winters sledding on the same hill. Mr. Luckenbach would also be saddened that the historic Wagon Trail is now also blocked off, near it's exit halfway on the hill. I suppose children, mittens and sledding is too passive a recreation for this Administration's taste.

Scrapping Allentown's History

The following communication is from a center city homeowner, irate over a recent theft from his property.
The fleecing of our city.
Copper and brass hardware has been disappearing from homes all over the region for a few years now.Gutters, flashing, pipes and wiring are all subject to a new form of recycling.There is a cadre of crack heads and thieves daily casing our streets and alleyways looking for anything of value not tied down and watched. They drive around in old junk trucks and beat up vans searching back yards for booty.This behavior has ratcheted up over the last several months to stealing iron and steel goods.
I have had three cellar window sidewalk grates stolen in the past two months. These grates have been in place for at least the twenty five years I have lived here in Allentown.The grates weigh maybe fifteen pounds each - worth five dollars? BUT more like five hundred dollars to replace.The local salvage yards talk the talk about recovering materials stolen from many properties.
The truth is that these scrap yards are fences.They happily pay for stolen goods.I went to three scrap yards here in town looking for my property.All three yards were totally acquainted with the fact that a new bunch of criminals are stealing metal items and disposing of them for cash at their businesses.One asked for my name, but the other two just feigned concern while rolling their eyes. They all asked if I had reported the theft to the police. I did.The yard that asked for my name allowed me to look at the scrap steel they purchased that day, but the other yards refused to let me look for my property.
This should be a criminal offense called "receiving stolen property".The truth is that the thieves working our streets are not mining a legal claim.The yards buying the scrap crush and dispose of it daily - rendering any stolen property untraceable.
Materials located on any property, private or public, belong to some one.It is illegal to enter onto any property and take anything without asking, or without purchasing said materials.Anyone doing business, especially daily business, with these establishments should be showing proof of ownership for all the goods and materials they intend to sell.
The scrap yards accepting and buying metals are complicit with the robbers.

Over the years I photographed some of the scrap yards and know a few of the owners. They are, for the most part, fairly large businesses, with regular clients. I'm sure occasionally, all of them get snookered into buying something stolen, but I do not believe it's fair to characterize them as fences. I also have known some pickers, who are incredibly hard working, honest men. Recently, someone was arrested for stealing the copper downspouts from at least 73 houses in the west end. When someone steals something from your house it's very unpleasant. If it's an older house, with essentially irreplaceable features, it seems even more crass.

Behind The News, rental inspections

Devon Lash of The Morning Call reports on the landlords suing Allentown over last year's 600% increase in the rental inspection fee. As a target and scapegoat, landlords have always been low hanging fruit. Here's some background not known to the public and press. When the Administration first approached City Council, I was told that it was their intention to raise the fee to thirty five dollars. Because Council did not blink or question that figure, the Mayor's office then realized that they had a ticket to ride. Without hesitation, Council agreed to more than double the initial figure, to $75.00 per each apartment unit annually. Rental units are on a five year inspection cycle, making the actual fee $375.00 per inspection. Of course, the public wouldn't care if the landlords were charged $750.00 a year, or even $7,500.00.* This stigmatization of landlords has allowed the Administration to even have a Landlord Hall of Shame on it's official website. Could you imagine a page dedicated to another class of property owners? Homeowners of Shame. Taxpayers of Shame. Citizens of Shame.

disclaimer: I'm a landlord, but not part of the lawsuit.

first comment on The Morning Call website about this article, but it won't be the last: where in the constitution does it say that a slum lord in Allentown cant be expected to pay more on his rental property? I guess when RCN raises their fees its unconstitutional, or when PPL raises fees for basic living needs its unconstitutional? 90% Of landlords are scum, drivin by greed, why else would you own 46 places, Greed American greed!

A Giant Among Midgets

Here's a story you will not read about on any official City of Allentown website. It's a story of private gumption, instead of the usual public subsidy. It's the late 1990's, and I stop in and visit infamous Allentown landlord Joe Clark. He's sitting at a desk in the middle of a large empty storefront at 7th and Turner, surrounded by landlord supplies and building materials. The phone rings and it's Mayor William Heydt. Heydt just learned that Clark purchased the vacant Eastern Light Building on Hamilton Street, and wants to know Clark's intentions. Clark tells him he's going to build the best nightclub Allentown has ever seen. Heydt doesn't offer any help, but tells him that he'll be under close scrutiny. Clark does go on to build the club, without a nickel of help from Allentown. Years later, when the BrewWorks would open with unlimited city subsidy, a public parking lot on 8th Street was given exclusively to the BrewWorks. A few weeks ago Clark asked if he could rent the Parking Authority lot behind the nightclub; Request Denied. This week, based on ticket sales, Crocodile Rock was rated the 60th most successful nightclub in the world for 2011. The midgets at City Hall pay for consultants, when there's a genius half a block away.

Whine and Cheese

Decades ago I could be found at an Allentown Art Museum opening. As the years passed and I became more cynical, I started referring to those events as Whine and Cheese. Now of course, I call those people yuppies, and have long since been removed from their mailing lists. In the last several months my regard for them, and the Old Allentown Preservation Association, has grown even lower. Both groups sat silently by, while the architectural and historical gems of Allentown were destroyed. Allentown only had a few significant facades. I captured the above image this summer. We need not speculate if the new arena will last 80 years, or if people in the year 3000 will consider it's architecture significant; It will be long gone.

destruction image from the Rebellious Evil Brothers Film