A Primary For Allentown City Council

The race for City Council has gotten interesting, by Allentown standards. By that I mean the suspense will be the May primary, when Pawlowski's minions are challenged by the outsiders. There is even one Republican who will be on the ballot in November, a political species not seen in Allentown in decades. As I posted previously, Pawlowski has created a PAC to finance and publicize his intended yes men. To their dishonor, this PAC is also endorsed by state representatives Mike Schlossberg and Pete Schweyer. The yes people include Candida Afif, who sits on many of Pawlowski's appointed boards. See someone on many boards, and you're looking at a yes person. The most viable contender in the outside Democrats is former Police Chief Roger MacLean. Roger has the right stuff to be the first independent in the Pawlowski era, the question is do the voters still have any discretion? MacLean is viable because he realized that in Allentown only the Democratic ticket can win in November. The lone Republican is the old warhorse Lou Hershman. Nobody knows Allentown and the issues any better than Lou. Unfortunately, those criterion mean little to the sorry voters of Allentown.

This post is an analysis of an article by Emily Opilo in The Morning Call 

The warhorse Lou Hershman, a molovinsky photo

Facebook Madness

When I first joined Facebook a few years ago, I limited my friends to those people that I had worked with on community projects. I had about 60 friends, and I enjoyed the occasional visit to the site. Last year, when I decided to run for office, it seemed logical to expand my social networking. Although it's not my nature to ask for friends, I did accept most invitations that came my way. My network increased to about 250. Not only hadn't I worked with the additional 200 people, with some I had very little in common. Although I generally tolerate differences in belief, with Facebook its pretty much in your face. I have never been a big fan of the dogmatic placards people share on Facebook, not much originality there. I sparred with a few friends, especially over Israel. One guy actually cursed me. Yesterday, some guy put up a chart comparing ISIS with Right Wing Christians and the Tea Party. Now personally, I don't belong to a political party, but I know that even Tea Party members do not behead people. It's time to decrease my network.

Visiting Easton

Being one of the last warm days of the year, I thought we would visit Easton. I thought perhaps it would be more interesting to do the trip circa 1948. Lehigh Valley Transit had a trolley that went from 8th and Hamilton, through Bethlehem, to the circle in Easton. In the photo above, we're coming down Northampton Street, just entering the Circle. The Transit Company was using both trolleys and buses, until they discontinued trolleys completely, in 1953. At this time, Hamilton, Broad and Northampton Streets were the shopping malls of the era, and public transportation serviced the customers. The Transit Company, now Lanta, currently serves the Allentown population from a prison like facility at 6th and Linden Streets; It just needs a fence. Easton mayor Sal Panto is now also abandoning the merchants for a remote transportation/correction facility, which will entertain the inmates with the Al Bundy High School Dropout Museum. Hope you enjoyed the trip.
reprinted from November of 2011

UPDATE: The above post was written in 2011, but it's taken Sal Panto longer than expected to build the Lanta Transfer/Parking Deck. The planned Al Bundy Museum is now being replaced instead by Easton City Hall, where Sal is expected to wear his high school football uniform. As it turns out, Sal and I have something in common, we both worked at our fathers' meat markets in Easton. My father's market was called Melbern, and was on S. 4th Street, catty corner the Mohican Market. During the early 1960's, on my way to lunch in the circle, I would stop and visit a friend who worked at Iannelli's chicken and coldcut counter in the 5&10 on Northampton Street. The meat markets and commerce on Northampton Street are long gone, but Easton's Center Square is having a revival as the place to dine.

The Mohican Markets

Once, before the malls, there were three thriving cities in the Lehigh Valley, and some merchants would have a store in each of the downtowns. Some of the buildings still exist, and have been reused; The Allentown Farr (shoe) Building is now loft apartments. Two of three Mohican Market buildings, famous for baked goods, no longer exist. The Easton location, on S. 4th St., was victim to fire. The Allentown store is now the parking lot behind the new Butz office building. The Mohican Markets were owned and operated by Bernard Molovinsky, who purchased the three Lehigh Valley stores from a small chain located in New York and Pennsylvania.

revised and reprinted from September of 2007

Lehigh Valley's Winters Of Discontent

We are clearly in another winter of discontent. Some winters we have a lot of snow, some a lot of cold, this winter we seem to be having both. I clearly remember the winters of 1983 and 1994. As a property manager, I would drive the alleys of Allentown, between one sidewalk to clear, and another, in an never ending cycle. My station wagon, loaded with shovels, ice breakers and salt, would steer itself in the ice ruts, as if on a children's amusement ride at Dorney Park. Let's hope for a warmer tomorrow.

Center City Allentown 1983

The Incredible Shrinking President

I believe that Obama was incredibly small about Netanyahu's speech. Although I understand that Obama would have preferred Netanyahu to stay home, once the speech was arranged, a bigger president would have invited the prime minister to visit the White House while in Washington. Instead, we saw accusations about a violation of the Logan Act, and statements about disrespect. For Netanyahu, this wasn't about lyrics to a Aretha Franklin Song, but survival for his country. For Joe Biden to hide, and congressmen to boycott, was just juvenile pouting. There were indeed many aspects to this situation, for both Netanyahu and Congress. But, at the very least, a well informed person offered to brief them on a major issue of our time.

A Spokesman For Israel

In my post yesterday I engaged a gentleman critical of Israel and its leadership. In the comment section he accused Israel of nazi like behavior, for a unproven  allegation that some Ethiopian women where injected with the three month contraceptive Depo-Provera, while staying in a transition camp in Ethiopia awaiting transfer to Israel decades ago. If some women were given a temporary contraceptive without their full understanding, it's certainly not of no consequence. However, to compare that alleged occurrence to torturous medical experiments by Dr. Mengele in the concentration camps takes a jaded eye toward Israel and its people. Critics of Israel take delight in accusing Israel of nazi behavior.

Although I write about Israel here on my blog, I'm not qualified in anyway to be a spokesman for that country. However, today at 11:00 a.m. on C-Span, you can hear a qualified spokesman. Prime Minister Netanyahu will be speaking on what he believes is a matter of Israel's very survival.

Netanyahu's Speech And The Black Caucus

My associate over at The African American Clarion Call is not happy about Netanyahu's upcoming address to Congress, he finds it disrespectful to Obama. He resents the Democrats who are not boycotting the speech, and specifically any that belong to the Black Caucus. He has particular scorn for a group of African American Pastors who have urged the caucus members to attend. He writes, This is not just embarrassing for Obama, but for the entire country that a foreign leader, particularly one like Netanyahu, can hold that sort of sway over our elected officials. It's like Netanyahu is the president rather than Obama. It's certainly the case that the congress fears Netanyahu more than the Obama. Basically, the Israeli lobby has purchased the entire congress. In regard to the pastors, he goes on to say, Just goes to show that everyone can be bought.

I  totally disagree with the writer about  the appropriateness of Netanyahu's speech, and who should attend. However,  this post is not about that disagreement, but about an engrained stereotype about the Jews and Israel. The writer assumes that anybody who supports Netanyahu's right to speak must have been bought and paid for by the Jews.  Fortunately for Israel, not everybody shares that prejudice.