King Of The Gypsies

According to my mother, a Gypsy prince was buried in Allentown in around 1970, she knew about such things. She was born in Galgo, Hungary, an area of Transylvania, now part of Romania, near present day Gilgau. In Galgo, the Jews and Gypsies lived on the edge of town. In the early 20's, my grandparents, along with their Gypsy neighbors, came to Bethlehem to work at the Steel. On weekends, to make extra money, my grandparents would open their house and show Hungarian movies. None of their relatives, Jew or Gypsy, save one cousin, survived the nazi's; even the cemeteries were desecrated. As you can see from the document above, my grandfather earned his citizenship the hard way.

REPRINTED FROM DEC. 23, 2007

UPDATE: The Morning Call has the story about the Gypsies coming to Allentown.

Not Feeling Allentown's Renaissance.

Every couple of years, as a fund raiser, the Allentown Art Museum features a renovated house tour. A headline on Sunday's society page read, SOTA 2016 Show House reflects Allentown renaissance. I understand that the word renaissance should be in play with a $billion dollars of new development, but you know what, I don't feel it. Understand, that I'm downtown every week. I've been in all the new buildings, I even ate at most of the new restaurants, but I still don't feel it. Actually, nobody does, except the headline editor at The Morning Call, and I'm not sure that he feels it either, but perhaps if it's repeated enough? The Morning Call building is for sale, and although it's across the street from the rest of the NIZ, it's included in the beneficial zone. The Morning Call, despite all the articles promoting the NIZ, has never justified why their building was included. Besides the second zone area by the waterfront, the only other outside parcel included was the Sacred Heart Hospital. Considering all the community benefit that institution has provided the poor of center city, its inclusion was well justified. How about some self-reflection by the paper on their inclusion, now that would be a worthwhile column for Bill White.

No Humility in Allentown

When Pawlowski gave the State Of The City address last month, he was very gentle on both himself and John Felch, Director of The Lehigh  Conference of Churches.  That's the organization that cast the homeless out into the storm.  Felch placed an editorial in the paper on Friday, and painted  the incident as a learning experience.  Mr. Felch, allow me to expand your lesson plan.  Mrs. Pawlowski started a Commission On The  Homeless in 2006.  In 2014, they were still sleeping on the basement floor of St. Paul's Church. Last year,  they moved to the floor at Alliance Hall. This winter, nine years later, they started the warming station at the Fountain Park Pool House.

From the City Website: In January of 2006, representatives of the City of Allentown and the Lehigh County Conference of Churches met to discuss the city’s unsheltered homeless. During this meeting the homeless persons living underneath the city’s Eighth Street Bridge where of particular concern due to the unsanitary conditions found in this location. In order to address these concerns, Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski appointed a Commission to End Chronic Homelessness charged with developing a ten-year plan to end chronic homelessness in the City.

In the ten years the Pawlowski's certainly didn't end homelessness in Allentown, but it appears that they did manage to add to the corruption in the city.

If the Pope can wash the feet of the homeless, you would think that Felch, after endangering their lives, could be a little more contrite.

Nestlé and The Wildlands Conservancy

In the Nestlé corporate office they must snicker about the Lehigh Valley. While communities across America fight to defend their water, Don Cunningham actually wooed them when he was County Executive. If that wasn't enough, the Wildlands Conservancy legitimizes them with contrived Nestlé children's days and other acts of prostitution. Nestlé returns the favor with substantial contributions to that corrupted organization.

Elsewhere, from Monroe County in the Poconos, to Casade Lords in Oregon, communities are fighting back against Nestlé, the biggest producer of bottled water in the world. Understand,  that the water they extract is free, and they sell it for over a buck a bottle. Their business is worth hundreds of millions in Pennsylvania alone, billions across the country. With the corrupt Pennsylvania Department of Environment Protection's blessings, they are sucking Pennsylvania dry from seven different sites across the state, taking over 200,000 gallons from each location each day. They, like their local shill and student, The Wildlands Conservancy, feign concern for the environment.

Steering Allentown's Titanic

I was told that Pawlowski mentioned the demolition of the two Parkway Dams and the repair of the WPA wall as an accomplishment of his administration, at yesterdays meeting on sustainability. The reality of course is that he depreciated the iconic park system, along with Allentown's reputation. The administration has been compared to the Titanic recently by a number of people. But, imagine boarding the Titanic in England, with the foreknowledge that it's going to sink. That's the tough position new hires face at City Hall. There has been some speculation that Pawlowski is a powerless lame duck. Unfortunately, that's not entirely true. He still has the power to hire and fire. City Council has decided to re-evaluate the tax collection contract that it readily previously approved, along with dozens of other yes votes.

Pawlowski will be indicted by the FBI at some point in the future. They could do Allentown a large favor, and expedite the charges.

The Re-use of Allentown's Factories

A few years ago, Allentown changed its zoning to allow the adaptive re-use of its factories for apartments, with less variances required. One gentleman converted a number of former industrial buildings along the Jordan Creek. Of course, all these specific proposals used words like loft and upscale to help persuade city planning and zoning. For the most part, those new units are not high end, nor do they attract a different clientele than the thousands of other intercity apartments. I have mixed feelings about the conversions. One on end, I tend to be a property rights guy, who supports the owner's decision regarding best use of his property. On the other side, I realize that these units are adding to the density issues in Allentown, and problems facing the school district.

Planners are concerned about the lack of available parking for a current proposal to convert the building at 10th and Turner (shown above) into apartments. Ironically, to help facilitate the NIZ, Allentown Parking Authority was willing to sell off many its surface lots to connected developers. Nothing is applied very evenly in Allentown, if it's parking, zoning or any other right.

Sacred Cows

Yesterday's post(in 2008) questioning the expanded mission of a popular local charity drew only one reaction from a indignant reader, I thought there would be more. Alfonso Todd, local activist, actually complimented the concept of applying diligence to our giving. About twenty years ago I formally opposed a Habitat For Humanity Project. Their plan for three new houses would have blocked the side window in a property I managed, denying my dwelling both light and air. Habitat's plan was endorsed by the City, The Redevelopment Authority and defended by the city solicitor. After the hearing, at which I prevailed, Habitats Regional Director came up to apologize to me. Seems they went with their standard straight wall plan to save time and money, even though everyone knew blocking a neighbors window was improper. He told me they were such a sacred cow that nobody had ever opposed them before.
reprinted from May of 2008 

ADDENDUM February 2016: People and corporations love sacred cows and united funds, it makes our charity giving so much easier, and makes us feel better about ourselves. Three recipients of the United Way of Lehigh Valley are CACLV, Lehigh Council of Churches and Wildlands Conservancy. All three are well established sacred cows in their own right, and receive many direct contributions. So, if you're inclined to tear down a picturesque dam, or put a homeless person out into a snowstorm, now you know how to fund it.

The Lehigh Parkway Entrance Wall

When the Lehigh Parkway wall collapsed last summer, it was no surprise to me. The city already had barricades along the leaning wall for three years. During that time the city had two chief engineers and three park directors, none of whom made the wall a priority. During those years I spoke with all five of them, and got five different stories. We are now informed that the missing section will be replaced by May. The new wall section is to be poured concrete, faced in stone along the Parkway entrance. I have received several inquires as to my opinion of this plan. As the main advocate for the WPA, I have no problem with this method of replacement construction. In addition to being a barrier along the road, the wall is primarily a retaining wall, holding up the roadway. Concrete will satisfy the engineering requirements, and the visible portion will be faced in the original stone. This method was utilized at Union Terrace, when the Union Street bridge was replaced last year. So, while I approve of the planned method, some other observations and criticism are also in order.

The wall was a victim of neglect, as is most of the WPA structures throughout the park system. The wall was in dire need of mortar repointing, especially on the top. That particular entrance was built with a concrete drainage swale along the road, to keep rainwater from pushing against the wall itself. At some point the swale was paved over, extending the macadam right to the wall. I suspect that vehicle weight exerted enormous pressure through the macadam now against the wall, especially being on a curve. For a number of years now, since the closing of the park depot by the stadium, heavy trucks  have added to the exerted pressure. Last, but not least, in heavy storms, the manhole covers blow off at the top of the hill, resulting in enormous amounts of water rushing against the wall. I hope that the city addresses these issues, so that more sections of the original wall are not endangered.

In addition to replacing the missing section of the wall, they will also repoint just a small portion of the remaining wall. For a city that just spent $1.4 Million dollars to buy unneeded, distressed land from a Pawlowski campaign contributor, it is a crime to have neglected these WPA structures. 

surveying the fallen wall day of collapse