LVHN Doctors To Reilly's Wallet

If you're in the hospital, you would like to think that the head honcho for your malady, the chief of staff, is near by. Well, he or she is not, instead they're above the arena entrance, in Reilly's portion of the building. Floors 6 through 9 of the PPL Center is the official address for the LVHN administrators, and chiefs of staff. This maneuver allows J.B. Reilly to harvest the state income taxes from the highest paid employees of the hospital. Although this is a ruse to funnel even more money Reilly's way, I only hope that these doctors do in fact spend their time at the hospital, and not above the arena.

The owners of the PPL Plaza office building, now occupied by Talen Energy, have filed a federal lawsuit. They claim that the NIZ makes the playing field so uneven, that the NIZ is unconstitutional. Although I'll defer opinion on the constitutionality issue, it certainly can spawn corruption. It appears that the NIZ is so lucrative, that it can even subvert the integrity of a large tax-free, such as LVHN.

As I often say, Pennsylvania is a corrupt state, and you are represented in Harrisburg by nobody but moral midgets. Although, I have exposed many shenanigans on this blog, today's revelation even surprised a jaded blogger like myself.

An Independent Lady

Although Allentown City Council is currently composed of all Democrats, there is an independent voice. On the vote for approving Eminent Domain, the only dissenting vote came from Jeanette Eichenwald. Whenever a group is being disenfranchised, they have an ally in Eichenwald. Her passion for prejudice reduction is well known in the community, and always supercedes any party affiliation or loyalty. Eichenwald's campaign budget for this coming election is $0.00. She feels that it's inappropriate for financial support to be a factor in City Council Elections. The moral compass in the Council Chamber has always pointed to her seat on the dais.

reprinted from October of 2011

ADDENDUM: I published the above endorsement of Ms. Eichenwald for the November 2011 election.  In looking back for this post, my archives revealed no less than thirty posts noting her independent stances on council. As an advocate for many issues over the decades, I can tell you that invariably council members know how they're going to vote before the meeting. Jeanette Eichenwald took her responsibility to a higher level, and rendered each decision based on the merits of the issue, not political alliances.  Jeanette attended her last meeting as a council-person last night.  Let us hope that somebody chooses to emulate her integrity.

Arena No Benefit For Allentown Taxpayers

There is fundamentally something wrong with a town that bestows a $Billion Dollars worth of real estate on one or two people, but gives everyone else a tax increase. While $34 million of our state taxes pay for Reilly's debt service this year, residents of Allentown will see a 24% increase in their city income tax. Mayor Pawlowski claims that the increase is necessary because of pension obligations, but that's why we supposedly leased the water system. In short, there has been no benefit to the public from the revitalization. We know that Reilly was revitalized, and that Pawlowski would have been, except for a pesky FBI investigator. While I  called for tar and feathers yesterday, where is the Morning Call? Save for Jeanette Eichenwald, where is city council?

This coming June, Allentown will host a convention of Pennsylvania bureaucrats, who will study the success of Allentown's inner-city revival. Ed Pawlowski, if not yet incarcerated, will be a speaker. State taxpayers will pay for these fakers to stay at the new hotel, eat at the new restaurants, and hear how we're benefitting from it.  If they're interested, I'm available as a speaker.

Molovinsky Holiday Cheer

I suppose that tar and feathering sounds a bit harsh, but a hundred years ago, a thousand miles to the west, Ed Pawlowski would have been coated already. I would prescribe the treatment not for his alleged abuses at city hall, but for his recent facebook posts, which have been insufferable. In a recent post, he's pictured with immigrants from Liberia. Tonight I welcomed members of the Liberian community in Allentown as they form a new organization to help bring reconciliation to their homeland which has been torn apart over the years by civil war. Picture after picture, Ed is with people who probably don't know about the FBI scandal. To them, and to Ed, he's still mayor.

While I'm spreading holiday cheer, allow me to address the recent Morning Call special on J.B. Reilly's investment in the NIZ. The report said that he's putting 5% down on the projects, which are approved by the NIZ board. The article omits the fact that he was loaned $20 million before any construction began, and before any specific project was announced. According to Mike Fleck, as reported in the Morning Call, J.B. had pledged $50 thousand dollars to Ed's campaign fund.

I think that local politicians, developers and reporters must have accidentally misplaced my address,  I have yet to receive any greeting cards this year.

Real LIfe In Allentown

Putting aside the endless NIZ promotion by The Morning Call,  real life in Allentown hasn't gotten any better. Stabbing and shootings have become so commonplace,  that they're relegated to the middle of the paper. The reputation of the school system is so dismal, that people choose charter schools, not because of their merit, but just hoping for something a little better.  A school system that once had a national reputation for theater and art, is now known for fights and beating up policewomen. Add  a scandal ridden mayor and city hall, and we owe Billy Joel an apology. We accused him of maligning Allentown, we can't blame him this time. While the paper can't contain its joy over the arena, the city can't contain its crime.

There was a recent drive-by shooting in the small residential area wedged between Target shopping center and route 22, within sight of Cedar Crest Boulevard. Early Sunday morning, close to the municipal golf course and again within sight of Cedar Crest Boulevard, a car was left sitting on the owner's driveway, missing all four wheels.

Office workers may now drive downtown to work, but come five o'clock, all but a few childless millennials will drive back to suburbia, where more often the woes of Allentown now follow them.

Allentown And Its Newspaper

When I was a kid, the paper was printed twice a day, The Morning Call and The Evening Chronicle. Many subscribers, like my parents, received both editions. The paper was locally owned, as were the businesses that advertised within. The owner/publisher, the Miller family, were part of an oligarchy that ran Allentown. Donald Miller was also a partner in Park&Shop, predecessor to today's parking authority.

Today, the paper is owned by the Tribune Company, and has virtually no institutional memory of the town. To my knowledge, there is nobody on the staff born in Allentown. The most senior writers arrived in Allentown no earlier than the early 1970's. When the paper asks for memories or photographs of the heydays, what they receive is all new to them. Yesterday, a columnist recommended a history written by somebody who left Allentown as a 15 year old in 1962, and never returned, except for a visit in 2010.

The newspaper situation in Allentown mirrors a national trend. Many communities, like Bethlehem, no longer have a local paper. I just think that each article they write should have a disclaimer.

The Morning Call and Xanax

For those of us who know and care about Allentown, they should deliver the Morning Call with a xanax, because the paper's that frustrating. Just when I thought that Bill White was about as deluded as he could be, he doubles down.  In his column today, he praises a story about Allentown, by someone who hadn't lived or visited here since 1962.

I will tell you that he believes the city's two biggest challenges are drugs and jobs, and that although he told me the same book 10 years ago might have concluded that Allentown was a lost cause, that's not the feeling he gets today, even though he recognizes the divisions and challenges that remain.  

The author's hope about Allentown is because of the arena and surrounding revitalization,  a misconception right up Bill's alleyway. I understand that this writer doesn't know squat about Allentown, having left 53 years ago, but how about Bill White, who has been here since the 70's?  Bill should be wondering  why an outsider's uninformed impressions,  resonate with him so much?  Although the FBI has discovered a cesspool of corruption, Bill can't seem to see beyond his seats at the arena. We, who have lived through the changes in Allentown, don't care about the impressions of a former resident, who wrote his book reading Morning Call clippings. We only wish that Bill White and the Morning Call would have the reported on the damage inflicted upon this city as it was occurring.  However, those that spoke out were more often called naysayers, and some put into a hall of shame.

Allentown City Council Awoke (For Five Minutes)

On Wednesday evening, City Council, for the first time in six years that Ed Pawlowski has been mayor, didn't approve one of his proposals. The proposal wasn't actually rejected, but the 3 to 3 tie vote doesn't allow his scheme to proceed. Who voted which way, is the topic of this post. Although the Pawlowski promoted Trash to Energy company was going to charge the city twice as much, for twice as long as a competitor, the RubberStamp Trio once again sang the Yes Song. Worse yet, all three singers, Schweyer, Schlossberg, and Guridy, would like to be State Representatives. Rejecting the non- competitive offer was Jeanette Eichenwald, Ray O'Connell and Cynthia Mota. Jeanette has emerged as an independent voice on Council, but until Wednesday, usually stood alone. Many people had expectations when Ray O'Connell was elected, but it took over two years for him to stand on his own. The great surprise of the evening was new councilwoman Cynthia Mota, who asserted herself at only her second council meeting. I did not attend the meeting. This analysis is from the benefit of phone calls, and two excellent articles by Devon Lash in The Morning Call.
reprinted from February of 2012
ADDENDUM: Within a month of writing the post above in February of 2012, Delta Thermos would wine and dine Cynthia Mota,  she would change her vote, and never again vote against the mayor.  The night of the vote change, the Pawlowski and Groen scheme had the council chamber packed with over 400 union workers, most of them from out of the area. Furthermore, they had bikers outside, trying to intimidate normal citizens from entering. The FBI has requested documents pertaining to this sorry chapter in the Pawlowski story. Schlossberg and Schweyer did go on to become midgets in the State House.  Had Delta built the plant, right now truckloads of New Jersey garbage would be using the new American Parkway Bridge, to deliver additional trash to the plant.