Stand Up To Iran

Stealing Businesses Is Now Our Industry

When I was a kid growing up in the 1950's, I couldn't begin to tell you everything that was manufactured in Allentown. If it was telephones at Western Electric, toasters at General Electric, or thousands of shirts and pants at dozens of textile mills, Allentown produced product. We now call distributing all the products Made In China an industry. Commercial Development in 2015 is reduced to stealing existing businesses from another state, or even a neighboring town. We pay people to direct Development Authorities, which orchestrate these musical chair jobs. The tax incentives given to facilitate the musical chairs do nothing for the residents but increase their tax burden. Although having no new product, these Authorities and incentives have become an industry in themselves. They have become the talking points for our politicians. Maybe not as a region or a state, but as a country, we would be much better off producing more, and playing musical chairs less.

photo shows toaster ovens being manufactured on S. 12th St. in Allentown

Allentown City Hall For Sale

I should clarify that I'm not talking about Allentown's current City Hall, some people think that it already has been bought and sold. I'm talking about the canopy over the main  entrance on Linden Street, and the  CITY HALL sign,  shown in the photograph above. Stored all this time, these Allentown artifacts are now available for the first time in over half a century. Send serious inquires as a confidential comment to this post.

Click on photograph to enlarge image.

The Sorry Streets Of Allentown

While Mayor Pawlowski boasts of one NIZ success after another, the quality of life for center city residents is dismal this winter. While merchants and property owners cleared their sidewalks, the city and Parking Authority has failed to provide cleared parking spaces, even on Hamilton Street. Quality of life must be for more than a few NIZ barons. In prior administrations, the parking lanes were cleared, curb to curb. Although losing the water department personnel and equipment may have complicated the effort to properly clear the snow and ice, there is no excuse for the state of Allentown's Streets.

Watchmen For Jerusalem

Isaiah 62:6-7
Upon your walls, O Jerusalem, I have set watchmen; all the day and all the night they shall never be silent. You who put the LORD in remembrance, take no rest, 7 and give him no rest until he establishes Jerusalem and makes it a praise in the earth.

Christian Zionism is appreciated by Israel

Today, Christians by the thousands, by the tens of thousands, by the hundreds of thousands, by the millions, by the tens of millions – today they have heard this call, and they stand with Israel. I salute you, the people of Israel salute you, the Jewish people salute you.                                                                                                 Benjamin Netanyahu

From a Christian Zionist radio station operated in Israel by Stan Goodenough, to the mega ministries of John Hagee  and Joel Olsteen, Christian appreciation of the Jewish State continues to grow.       Christians United for Israel

On May 28, 1948 the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem fell to the Arab Legion; They immediately destroyed the Hurva Synagogue (in anticipation of the arrival of King Abdullah) and began burning and looting Jewish shops. No Jew would again pray at the Western Wall until 1967. Photo from 1948 Life Magazine shows residents of the Jewish Quarter on the shortest exile in modern Jewish history; 500 yards, through the Zion Gate to the New City.

reprinted from June of 2013

The Truth Of Wehr's Dam

Recent articles in The Morning Call on Wehr's Dam painted an environmentally motivated Wildlands Conservancy, against a few history buffs, who are without much merit. The reality of the iconic site is just the opposite. The Wildlands has been generalizing the science, and minimizing the rich history. Although strong currents and danger did exist at Allentown's Jordan Park Dam, those things were never a factor at  Wehr's in South Whitehall. The water at Wehr's flows over the dam, not through a pipe, as it did at Jordan Park. Although dams can be a barrier for fish migration, the real factor in that section of the Jordan is the disappearing creek phenomena, where the water dries up into the porous stone stream bed during the summer. Numerous local environmentalist have publicly stated that in the case of Wehr's, the history and beauty trump the Wildlands' generalizations. To create the fabricated cost assigned to repair the dam by the Wildlands, one would have to restore it to brand new condition, for which there is absolutely no need. Although the dam isn't registered as an official historic site, its history has been well appreciated in the Lehigh Valley for generations. Last, but most important,  the reports have not included the scenic beauty of the dam site. The park itself was created because of the majestic view and popularity as a destination.

Lehigh Valley History, A Thing Of Wonder Gone

The former greenhouse at the current Trexler Park was the pride of Harry and Mary Trexler. The General was very specific in his will about its future;

I, Harry C. Trexler declare this to be my last Will and Testament: ......into the Treasury of the City of Allentown, for the perpetual maintenance of said Park, (Trexler) as well as the Greenhouse thereon located. This bequest shall include all the plants and other contents of said Greenhouse (1929)

Although nobody in charge of Allentown remembers, the greenhouse was a thing of wonder. Full of banana trees and other tropical plants, it was a true escape from winter for all visitors. Its demolition was a project that the Wildlands Conservancy would have loved. The park director at the time touted all the money in maintenance to be saved. He then took that projected money and planted the southeast section of the park along Cedar Creek in natural species. Last year Allentown Park Department cut down all those trees planted at the time, and we now have nothing to show for our loss of the greenhouse.

Flash ahead twenty years, and South Whitehall Township will demolish another thing of wonder, if not stopped. The Wildlands Conservancy paid an engineering firm to compromise their credibility with an absurd report, on how expensive it would be to keep Wehr's Dam. I will not let the dam go quietly.

South Whitehall's Scandal

Although the massive concrete Wehr's Dam has stood for 110 years, a hired consulting firm just told the South Whitehall Commissioners that it would take almost a $million dollars to repair it. By luck, the group that hired them to reach that conclusion, will save the day and remove the dam at no expense to the taxpayer, how convenient. To accept that paid for conclusion, the commissioners will have to ignore the state's assessment that the dam is in remarkably good condition. Only the narrowest portion of the dam is visible. The dam is actually a wide wedge, which sits firmly on a large concrete platform. If nothing was done to the dam, it would sit there another century. The commissioners have hired an independent engineer to review the study, but how independent he truly is remains to be seen. In Pennsylvania, the bread seems to be buttered on the dam removal side of the equation. It's not that we're environmentally progressive, hydraulic fracking proves otherwise, but Harrisburg is pliable to influence. The Wildlands Conservancy has made harvesting dam removal grants their business. The engineering firm hired by the Conservancy was paid almost $250,000 in taxpayer grants to reach their conclusion. The dilemma facing the South Whitehall Commissioners is nothing less than truth and justice. Over 7,000 people have signed petitions at the dam itself, to save the historic icon. These people know that the dam is solid, how about their leadership?