Bridge To Nothing But Higher Taxes

Mayor Pawlowski was preening on his facebook page that the new American Parkway bridge is #4 in the country, so I clicked on the link. I still don't know exactly what that refers to. Allow me to quote the author of the article in LV Business, When it opens, drivers will be able to travel on one road from the east side of Allentown near Coca-Cola Park and go over the Lehigh River to the city’s bustling downtown. I have a confession, I never understood the American Parkway, it's the road to nowhere. The new bridge, while being planned for 60 years, is of cookie cutter design, devoid of any uniqueness. All that it accomplishes is bypassing Union Blvd, and taking commerce away from the businesses there.  The Morning Call writes, At last, a link between Route 22 and downtown Allentown. I though that 7th Street already did that,  both quicker and shorter.  The photograph of Pawlowski and city council cutting the ribbon refer to them as dignitaries, which is better than defendants. That $36 million spent on the new bridge would have been better spend maintaining existing bridges. Both Pennsylvania and Allentown neglect their bridges until the point of no return, then build a new one.

Elsewhere in the news,  the midgets, aka state representatives and senators, voted down eliminating school property taxes, but will go ahead increasing your income and sales tax, what a surprise. The voters richly deserve this,  for voting for the same incumbents, election after election.

ADDENDUM/EMAIL TO CITY COUNCIL BY DENNIS PEARSON
;Mike Molovinsky states in his blog about the new American Parkway Bridge : "The new bridge, while being  planned for 60 years, is of cookie cutter design, devoid of any uniqueness. All that it accomplishes is bypassing 
Union Blvd, and taking commerce away from the businesses there. "
What does City Council and the Mayor say about that?
I tend to think that the Bridge may be a benefit to commerce in Hanover Township(Lehigh County) and it does provide an easier way for South Siders to get to 22 if they are going east and north in their travels. 
But It doesn't aid the South side in their travels if they are going west.
But as far as the East Side is concerned we have become bypassed as usual .... And maybe isolated .. The Bridge has no benefit or utility for us getting to downtown Allentown. We have to go out of our way to 
get on it. And as of January 2016 we won't have any resident on Council either and how many of us are selected to server on the cities various boards, commissions and authorities. Very few if any do serve .. Some of our best people are boycotted by the Administration because of their independence of thought. And soon the Tilghman Street Bridge will be closed ... When that happens we will be more connected to Bethlehem then 
Allentown.

photocredit:Emily Opilo/The Morning Call/November24,2015

Time Travel In Upside Allentown

A promotion group has released a new video showing the nightlife in Allentown. Those wanting to partake in the party will have to manage a little time travel, to either the opening night or best night of each venue shown. For the rest of us, we can get a small taste, but it's pricey, and sometimes not so good. I've received another bad report about dining at the Dime, now 0/5 in the Molovinsky Guide To Fine Dining. 

Between hockey season and more concert dates being announced, hopefully, this winter will have some real buzz downtown. However, that will require the city to step up the snow removal game. Climbing over dirty snow and ice mounds to plug overpriced meters, isn't so chic.

Allentown's Posturing and Reality About Refugees

Occasionally, Bill White thinks so much of his column, he has it placed on the front page, such was the case yesterday. White's headline was that fear about the Syrian refugees dims America's beacon of hope. White writes about a Iraqi refugee he met almost ten years ago. Last night,  Pawlowski told an interfaith gathering that as long as he's here, he'll do everything he can to support the refugees.  Six months ago, he wouldn't allow the Syrian community to raise their flag.  An article, which never made it to the Morning Call's hard copy edition, refers to the fears and doubts of current Syrian Americans, about the new arrivals. Also, according to Philadelphia news accounts, again never reported in the Morning Call,  over two hundred new  refugees arrived this weekend in Allentown.

While White and Pawlowski posture on about hope,  there was some news that should help reassure the local fearful. The local mosques, both Sunni and Shia, demonstrated against the terror in Paris this week. While the local Syrians of Christian background may be less involved with new Muslim arrivals than anticipated, the local mosques are well established, and very sensitive about perceptions from the greater community.

ADDENDUM:  The missing Syrian Christian refugees, according to Jonathan Witt, in The Stream

Will Trexler Trust Honor General's Memory?

As a defender of the traditional park system in Allentown, there are some realities that I have to deal with. The Trexler Trust, as a contributor to over half the park department budget, has enormous influence. The second influential group is the Wildlands Conservancy. After battling them over two dams, I know that their hubris is not above manipulating, distorting and outright lying to further their agenda.  Currently, the park department is hiring a consultant to make a recommendation about the pond dam in Trexler Park. This of course is nonsense, let me translate; The Wildlands wants the dam gone, and the park department is cooperating to justify it's demolition.

Years ago, a park director wanted to demolish the Trexler greenhouse, supposedly to save money.  But, he then turned around and spend $750,000 to plant a native species wet lands along a section of the park's creek. Last year, the park department completely cut down all those plantings. We truly lost the greenhouse for nothing. The Trexler Trust had to sign off on the greenhouse's demolition, because it was specifically mentioned in the General's will. Although, perhaps not mentioned, the pond never the less was very important to the General, and is the heart of the park. Having seen the same deception while fighting for Wehr's Dam, I know that nothing need be done to the Trexler Park Dam, except that the Trexler Trust must step forward, and respect their benefactor's memory.

ADDENDUM:  After a sit down with the park director, a phone conversation with the parks supervisor and an on site inspection,  an update is in order. The pond and dam supposedly under study is not the main pond shown in the old post card above, but rather the smaller adjoining pond. However, with that smaller pond virtually empty from a supposed sinkhole,  the dam wall of the main pond above is completely visible, and it shows decades of neglect.  I hope that they take the opportunity from the smaller pond being empty, to repair the main dam wall.

Agenda Journalism By The Morning Call

Regular readers of this blog know that I often complain about the Morning Call. If it's an infomercial for the NIZ, or regularly giving some serial Israel basher space in Letters To The Editor, I'm not shy about complaining. I think that the paper again took some liberties with yesterday's article titled, Allentown teacher: Schools are in chaos. In the web version it was titled, Allentown Teachers Speak Out: Disruptive Students Run The Schools. The reporter tells us that she sat down with 20 teachers from all the grade levels, from schools across the city. One must wonder how she coordinated the meeting. From the title, we know that the school administration didn't set it up, that would leave only the union, which is currently negotiating it's contract. One school board member, Scott Armstrong, confirmed that it was believed that the meeting with the reporter was set up by the union. Consequently, one reader of my post yesterday suggested that teachers should receive combat pay. Another solution suggested by yesterday's Morning Call article would be more teachers. What we appear to have is the newspaper, inadvertently or not, promoting the teacher's positions in the contract deliberation.

A number of years ago The Morning Call did away it's editorial page. Although readers may assume that there would be a firewall between news and outright opinion, perhaps that's an assumption that should no longer be made about the Allentown paper.

Allentown Goes To The Sweathogs

I describe myself as a Fonz type delinquent in high school. However, when I didn't respond respectfully enough, I was at the vice-principal's office within a minute. After being sent there more than twice, I was suspended. After the second suspension, you were expelled. Welcome Back Kotter was a fictional TV show, about school in the urban jungle, where delinquents were managed, and education was an afterthought. Who would have imagined that forty years later, Allentown would be making national news for student fights, and assaults on the police.

We just experienced an incredibly spirited school board race with candidates promising solutions. We have both the teachers and police exasperated by the violence. Truth is everybody will just trudge on, we have become the urban jungle, we have gone to the sweathogs.

Allentown and The Syrian Refugee Issue

When my grandfather first arrived in Allentown he lived in the Ward, on 2nd. Street. It was around 1895 and the neighborhood was full of immigrants. Some groups came from the same area in the old country, most noticeably the Syrians, from the village of Amar*. They were Antiochian Orthodox, a minority in a Muslim country. The congregation of St. George's Church on Catasauqua Ave., largely is descended from those immigrants. Well known names in Allentown, such as Atiyeh, Haddad, Hanna, Makoul, Koury and Joseph are among their members. They were among one of the first groups to organize, and those organizations still exist. The photo above was organized by the Syrian American Organization in 1944. Note that Jewish, on the left, is treated as a nationality.

reprinted from previous posts

ADDENDUM: As a result of the Paris attack, a backlash seems to have developed against accepting refugees from Syria. The governor of Michigan, which has a large Arab-American population, rescinded his previous invitation, along with other governors. Allentown has one of larger Syrian American populations in the country, going back over 100 years. While most of the Syrians here are Christian, most of the refugees are Muslim, as are the victims in the current Syrian civil war. With both Pawlowski and Wolf extending an invitation, Allentown may see a significant number of the new refugees.

A WPA Monday

A month ago Mondays, I climbed the steps at Fountain Park to speak to the stone masons repairing that iconic structure. The steps were built in 1936, and would soon serve thousands of men walking down from center city to the Mack factory, to produce trucks for the war effort. It took me ten years to get the masons there, but by now I had another pressing objective. In the last couple of years, the top of the wall at the double stairwell at Union Terrace had become open, threatening that structure with potential catastrophic damage. After learning that the masons had no assignment beyond the Fountain Park steps, I drove over to the Park and Recreation Office.

Lindsay Taylor, the new park director, has been fairly cordial to me, considering my reputation as a mauler of city bureaucrats. I explained that the top of the Union Terrace wall was open, and that I had serious doubts about it surviving another winter of freeze and thaw cycles.  I requested that the masons make an emergency repair on top of the wall, while other repairs needed there could be delayed. Taylor agreed to consult her park supervisor, Rick Holtzman, about my request. Later that morning, I spoke with Holtzman, who agreed that it would indeed be appropriate to reassign the masons.  The masons were replacing missing steps and repointing the Fountain Park stairwell,  through a grant from the Trexler Trust. The grant had been written and requested by Karen El-Chaar, from Allentown Friends of the Parks. El-Chaar had attended my meetings years earlier on the WPA structures, and I had since  conducted tours of Lehigh Parkway in conjunction with her organization. Holtzman requested that El-Chaar clear the repair at Union Terrace with the Trexler Trust, since their funds were designated to be spent at Fountain Park. The Trust gave their permission for the masons to be temporally reassigned.

By the weeks end the masons spend a day at the Terrace, and repaired the top of the wall. I'm grateful that Lindsay Taylor and the Trexler Trust responded to stabilize that structure, and optimistic that their commitment to  our WPA history will continue.  I will  in turn  continue on,  when necessary, mauling the bureaucrats.

The photograph above shows the WPA steps being built in Seattle. I'm sure an identical sight could be seen on Lawrence Street in 1936.