Saving Wehr's Dam

In today's Morning Call article, the reporter states that he was gobsmacked that the dam was saved. Perhaps if he wasn't the fifth reporter to be assigned to the story in the last nine months, he would have been less surprised. Perhaps if he had attended more meetings he would have credited more people in the effort, notably myself, Bob Schantz and Leroy Schmidt. While that's water over the proverbial dam, there are consequential issues which still need to be addressed. While the dam certainly received a temporary stay from execution, I doubt that the Wildlands Conservancy will stand down. The reporter kept mentioning the KCI report, as if its conclusions were gospel. In reality, it was generalized current dam removal patter, not even applicable to the Jordan Creek and Wehr's Dam. The projected cost to repair the dam was based on conservation methods usually reserved for the Washington Monument and the Statue of Liberty. In the real world, the DEP said two years ago that the dam is in overall good condition. The report by the Wildlands Conservancy, done by KCI, and paid for by a Pennsylvania grant, cost $239,000.00. As a taxpayer, I'm concerned with the channel between the Wildlands Conservancy and Harrisburg, which allowed a quarter of a $million dollars to be spent on virtual propaganda. I'm also concerned with the channel between the Wildlands Conservancy and South Whitehall Commissioner Christina Morgan, which encouraged one of the most significant features of Covered Bridge Park to be threatened. If the Wildlands Conservancy has its way, that picnic table shown in the picture above would replaced with a riparian buffer, which is actually a wall of weeds. It's necessary to realize that our parks were intended for recreation, not the Wildlands Conservancy grant harvesting agenda. The dam must receive some protective status, so that the citizens need not again defend such an iconic place of beauty.
photograph by K Mary Hess

The Dam Video

Not too many campaign promises are kept, especially by a candidate who lost the election. Although I'm delighted that the dam was saved, in the upcoming posts I will divulge the money wasted and the lies told, in the attempt to demolish the dam.

Panto and O'Hare

Social media, blogs and Facebook, have become an unattributed source for main stream media. The recent article and editorial in the Express Times on Easton's new code director came from both these sources.  When blogger Bernie O'Hare questioned both the job history and salary of Sal Panto's recent hire, Mayor Panto went ballistic on Facebook against O'Hare's disclosures.  Hundreds of Panto's Facebook friends lined up to bash O'Hare and praise Panto, including Ed Pawlowski's wife. O'Hare's disclosures became the substance of both an article and editorial in the Express Times. Although the article mentioned Panto's Facebook page and O'Hare's Blog,  the attribution was missing from the editorial .

A Slice Of No Class

The Allentown Municipal Golf Course, aka Benner Fairways, always had a classy look. The entrance off Tilghman Street could have been taken for a country club. No more, enter Pawlowski and an oversized sign for Jack's Pizza. This monstrosity of a sign ends another long term Allentown tradition. Benner was Harry Trexler's secretary. Besides Pawlowski, who approved of this dominating illuminated sign? The Benner Fairways will now be known as Jack's Pizza, how crass can we get?

The Morning Call's Favor To Pawlowski's PAC

The Morning Call accepted the following letter from Scott Armstrong in early February for publication.  Then, after sitting on it for six weeks until petitions were due,  they told Armstrong that they couldn't run it because he now was a candidate for school board. 
The wrong answer to a real problem

It should come as no surprise that Allentown mayor Ed Pawlowski is creating a Political Action Committee to take control of the Allentown School Board when one considers his demonstrated propensity for dictatorial power and demand of total allegiance of those in his service. Until now, the Allentown School Board has escaped his notice and managed to operate with autonomy to act in the best interests of the district, the students, and the taxpayers.  This will end unless the voters intervene and prevent the mayor from using the PAC to purchase school board seats.

  Those with and without children in the school district may wonder what harm could come if Ed Pawlowski’s yes men/women win control of the school board.  First off, the board will reflect the mayor’s will rather than the residents’ interests. One only needs to look at Allentown’s other governing bodies (city council, zoning, planning etc) as evidence. None of these exhibit any independence; rather, they dutifully fulfill the mayor’s wishes. This acquiescence is the result of the mayor packing these entities with people whose main quality is loyalty to him. Those who have dared express an alternative point of view have failed to be reappointed. Clearly, the mayor’s slate will follow this same governing principle and he will use the school board to build on his already substantial political power base here in the city. The mayor’s political allies, i.e. the teachers’ union, will be given carte blanche on district issues such as their own salaries and benefits as well as appointments, staffing, policies, procedures and curriculum. The fox will be ruling the hen house, and the justifying spin will be “who knows more about education than teachers?”.  

 As a sitting director I take umbrage at the mayor’s statement concerning “the quality of the education provided by city schools.”  The main problem with the Allentown School District is that it is located in a municipality that is by all standards dysfunctional. This lack of proper municipal management has allowed poverty to explode in the city in recent years.  Any school district can provide a quality education to a percentage of low-income students, but no district can do the same when the student poverty rate climbs to well over 80%.  The mayor who came to town as an advocate for low-income housing has turned his back on the neighborhoods. His attempts to improve the city are limited to building shiny new buildings and silencing dissenting voices. We are told the NIZ (Neighborhood Improvement Zone) activity will spur the process of bringing “people back to the city.” Is this anything other than gentrification?  Clearly, it is the rich and powerful who are Ed Pawlowski’s main concern. 

 If Ed Pawlowski’s concern about the quality of education in the city were sincere, he would not attempt to solve the problem by packing the school board with cronies. Instead, he would develop a real plan to improve Allentown’s struggling neighborhoods.
Scott Armstrong

Editor's Note: I found it necessary to shorten this letter for use on the blog. Please contact Scott Armstrong for full version.

Saving The Queen City Airport From Pawlowski

The Old
When I grew up on Liberator Ave., I would walk up Catalina Ave. toward school, which was at the end of Coronado. The streets were named for the Vultee-Consolidated WW2 planes, and the neighborhood was next to the airport built as part of the war effort. Vultee Street was built to connect the hangers with the Mack 5C plant, which was given over to Vultee-Consolidated for plane part manufacturing. Today this small airport is known as Queen City, and is threatened by Mayor Ed Pawlowski.

1944 was the first full year of the operation for the company's Allentown, Pennsylvania factory. Consolidated Vultee handled over $100M in wartime contracts at their Allentown plant where they produced TBY-2 Sea Wolves, components parts for B-24 Liberator bombers and other essential armaments and products for the war effort.

Pawlowski covets this unique part of our history to expand the tax base. What he doesn't understand is that more housing or commercial space is not in Allentown's best long term interest. Unfortunately, long term interest is not a term understood by our current leadership. There is a whole development of started houses off S. 12th St. and Mack Blvd. which were never completed. There are filled in foundations on 8th Street, also never completed. More housing is the last thing both the real estate market and school system need. Likewise, the existing commercial sector has been struggling to maintain an acceptable occupancy rate. Queen City airport is a unique asset to Allentown. If LVIA does successfully expand, a separate airport for small planes is very desirable for safety. Considering Pawlowski's predetermined objective, I question whether he should have been appointed to the LVIA Board.
The New
I wrote the above several years ago. Last week The FAA has reiterated their requirements for selling Queen City, and such a sale remains totally unfeasible. Pawlowski says that he won't give up; He never meet an Allentown asset that he didn't want to sell. Although Airport Board Chairman Tony Iannelli conceded that it's time to move on, his quote is disturbing. "I totally understand the mayor's goal here, but unfortunately the hurdles are too high and too many." Tony, if you agree that the mayor's short sighted goals are in the best interest of the Airport Authority, and that it's unfortunate that you can't sell Queen City, then it's unfortunate that you're Chairman of the Authority. The recent FAA letter also prohibits Pawlowski's planned sale of the fire training tower to Lehigh Valley Health Network. Pawlowski claims that if the Hospital cannot expand their lab on Lehigh Street, that they will relocate to the suburbs and that Allentown will lose hundreds of jobs. He hasn't expressed the same concern about suburban offices relocating to Hamilton Street's NIZ.
reprinted from July 2012

UPDATE: I'm rather amazed about today's Morning Call article questioning whether Pawlowski should be reappointed to the Airport Authority, and the news therein that he was found free from conflict. Pawlowski should have never been appointed to the Authority in the first place, and his agenda since 2006 has been for Allentown to obtain the Queen City and develop the property to expand the city's tax base.

UPDATE 7:00pm: I have been informed back channel that the conflict evaluation referred to a financial conflict of interest.  I never meant to imply that Pawlowski had that type of conflict, but rather a predetermined agenda for the future of Queen City.

Framing The News In The Lehigh Valley

To quote Superboy's parents, With great power comes great responsibility. Here in the valley, I can't say that The Morning Call has always shouldered that responsibility in an admirable fashion. In fairness to them, most of my criticism is based on lack of coverage of issues in which I have been involved, or on myself. I suppose if you factor in my annoying manner, and my aspersions toward them, nobody will hire me as a media consultant. Last year, when I ran as an independent for state representative, I missed out on the primary election news cycle. I requested, with no success, that the paper run a candidate announcement or profile in August to balance coverage previously given to my opponents.

Currently, the paper keeps reporting that the Wildlands Conservancy position on Wehr's Dam is based on science, while the defenders are mere history buffs. They would rather keep repeating confused conclusions from past articles, rather than update and report new aspects of the situation. So far, that story has been written by four different reporters, none of which has investigated or reported the Wildlands distortion and generalization of science for their own agenda.

Yesterday, the article on City Council candidates reported that Julian Kern was not listed on the primary ballot. Julian says otherwise on his Facebook page, and includes an election office printout. When will the paper correct the oversight, or will his campaign also suffer unequal coverage?

UPDATE: Julian states that he handed in his petition at the last minute, resulting in the paper's oversight.  The issue is how and when will the paper report that he is indeed a candidate.  Today's paper contained no correction.

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