O'Hare To Be Flogged

Taking a lead from Saudi Arabia, Northampton County Executive is planning on having Blogger Bernard O'Hare publicly flogged in Nazareth. Preliminary reports indicate that the local police chief has volunteered to administer the lashes. Full details to follow as they become available.

The Butchers Of Allentown

Those coming here today looking for a story about sloppy civic leadership will be disappointed. This post is literally about butchers, more specifically, some butchers at Allentown Meat Packing Company. A few days ago, while at the Fairground's Farmers Market, I learned that Bobby had passed away. Bobby was the "kid" who worked at my father's meat market on Union Street. Bobby grew up in an orphanage, a hardship which my father respected. One meat cutter that I knew nothing about was Lamont, other than he lived at the WestEnd Hotel. He was a bear of a man, who could carry a beef quarter from the cooler with no effort. I never saw Lamont in the market portion of the shop, he always remained in the back, either in the large cooler or the adjoining cutting room. While my father insisted that people working on the counter change their meat coat and apron several times during the day, no such rule was imposed upon Lamont. Although he would look over the trays of meat before being taken out to the display cases, he never spoke. Last time I spoke to Bobby, he told me that he appreciated that my father had taught him a trade, which he used throughout his life.

reprinted from February of 2014

Jordan Heights

In 1903, the 600 block of 2nd Street housed one Russian Jewish family after another. They built a small synagogue there, which was kept open till about ten years ago. My grandfather, who then worked at a cigar factory, had just saved enough to bring his parents over from the old country. They lived in an old house at 617 N. 2nd. The current house at that location was built in 1920. By the time my father was born in 1917, the youngest of five children, they had moved to the suburbs just across the Jordan Creek.

My grandfather lived on the corner of Chew and Jordan Streets. He butchered in a barn behind the house. The house is still there, 301 Jordan, the barn is gone. He would deliver the meat with a horse and wagon. On the weekends, when the family wanted to visit friends, the horse insisted on doing the meat market route first. Only after he stopped in front of the last market on the route, would he permit my grandfather to direct him. excerpt from My grandfather's Horse, May 13, 2008

Allentown has just designated the neighborhood west of the Jordan to 7th Street, and between Linden and Tilghman Streets, as Jordan Heights. The area encompasses the Old Fairgrounds Historic District. Allentown's old fairground, in the years between 1852-1888, was in the vicinity of 6th and Liberty. It was an open space, as is the current fairground at 17th and Chew Streets. When my grandparents moved to Jordan Street it was a modern house, just built in 1895. Many of the Jewish families moved to the suburbs between Jordan and 7th. The Jewish Community Center was built on the corner of 6th and Chew, today known as Alliance Hall.
I wish the Jordan Heights initiative well. There's a lot of history in those 24 square blocks, and hopefully much future.

reprinted from June of 2010

Allentown Rubber Stamping Even Stuns Local Newspaper

Nobody has ever accused The Morning Call of being analytical about the NIZ. To the contrary, I've accused them of blind cheerleading and outright promotion in their articles about the Renaissance. However, even they found the recent Allentown Planning Commission meeting lacking in scrutiny. The meeting pertained to maintaining a warehouse on the waterfront parcel, to take advantage of the  cigarette tax loophole.

Planning commissioners asked developers almost no questions before unanimously approving the proposal, but Chairman Oldrich Foucek III questioned whether the operation, which would have one to two tractor trailer deliveries daily, would have any impact on the health and safety of the community.

Jaindl's attorney answered "No, it won't adversely effect anybody's health or safety, and here's a puppy biscuit for your good question."

Fading Park Postcards Of Allentown

While Allentown continues it's efforts to establish a dog park, the parks themselves are going to the dogs. Take an aging park system, combine it with an administration composed of people from out of town with no institutional memory of the city, and the the famous images of Allentown are disappearing . This year the dogs got more time in Cedar Beach Pool than the residents. Cedar Beach is closed for the season; Of course, that's what they said when Fountain Pool first closed. The stone stairwell, going down into Union Terrace off St. Elmo Street, is crumbling. The park is now called Joseph S. Daddona Lake and Terrace. With Cedar Pool closed, Irving Park, with the first pool in the city, will be renamed Andre Reed Park. One stone staircase in that park was removed several years ago, rather than repaired. It won't be too long before people look at an old park postcard, and wonder where that picture was taken.

Allentown's Success Based On Smoke And Dummies

J.B. Reilly and Joe Topper have purchased a cigarette distributorship and moved the business address to their 702 Hamilton Street address. This maneuver allows their company, City Center Own Allentown, to use the $1.60 per pack Pennsylvania cigarette tax toward the debt service on their growing empire. Perhaps this was the conflict of interest which propelled Reilly to resign his position on the hospital board. One would like to think that tobacco taxes are used for health care, not private enrichment.

UPDATE: The above is reprinted from February of 2012. The cigarette loophole proved enormously lucrative.  Instead of relying on employee taxes poached from other places in Lehigh Valley, the NIZ barons could now build more and more buildings, funded by smokers everywhere.  While originally building just for the poached businesses, it allowed the barons to start building on speculation.  The Jaindl Company,  now following that successful game plan, is also purchasing a cigarette wholesaler.  This means that instead of tenants waiting for completion,  we will have new empty buildings waiting for tenants.  It gets much worse if we use a moral compass.  The cigarette taxes had been used to fund CHIP,  children's health insurance, and other health related programs. A large portion of those funds now go to finance these privately owned real estate empires.  HOW DID THIS HAPPEN? In the last election for state representatives, seven of the eleven incumbents were unopposed.  They are, to a person, inept and complacent.  Of course, the dirt dumb voters also deserve credit.

Blogging Lite

I saw this picture this morning on the page of a facebook friend. In real life we don't even know each other. The strawberries were meant to be nothing more than strawberries. Another friend asked where he got them, and the poster gave the address of the fruit stand. I thought how much more relaxing that would be, instead of writing that the mayor should fire the police chief, for being involved in unnecessary tension between different police agencies. I also think that it would be more relaxing to just give directions to farm stands, rather than receiving antagonistic anonymous comments all day. I probably won't turn into a food or puff blogger, it's not my nature, but here's one portion anyway.

Pawlowski Double Downs On Fitzgerald

Pawlowski has put on the happy face by linking on facebook to articles proclaiming Junior Fitzgeralds' not guilty decision, but he knows the situation is far from innocent. Even the most avid supporters I know were disappointed when they found out that the Fitzgerald family turned down the ARD offered by Martin. They believed that the family was defending Juniors' future, so he would  be able to follow his parents footsteps in law enforcement. The Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition program would have allowed that, by expunging the arrest record. The Fitzgeralds declined, because Junior would have to admit that he pointed a gun and apologize to the detectives. Supposedly, he was a model suspect because he did apologize while in custody. Handcuffed to a wall in the Whitehall Township police station, Christopher Fitzgerald apologized for pulling a gun on two detectives and insisted he only did so because he was scared. The Morning Call, May 29, 2015. Another condition of the ARD was that their attorney, Jack McMahon, would have to retract his assertion of racial profiling. Even though McMahon was willing to do that, and recommended accepting the ARD program, the Fitzgeralds declined on principle. So, the chief and his family had an opportunity to avoid the trial, avoid the insinuation of racial profiling, and most importantly, avoid the tension with fellow law enforcement, but chose not to. Pawlowski can double down with facebook, but lets hope he's not really proud. The credibility of law enforcement was eroded by a man that we brought here, and are paying to defend it. Although those who defended the Fitgeralds,  before knowledge of the ARD offer became public, are privately disappointed, you won't hear them admit it. It's too politically incorrect, they would rather double down.