NIZ Return On Tax Dollar

Call it Allentown's NIZ, or J.B. Reilly's City Center Real Estate, by either name it's subsidized by the tax payers of Pennsylvania. That $70 plus Million Dollars a year would be going into education or infrastructure, instead of into the arena and Reilly's debt service.

On Saturday, I visited our business district both in the afternoon and evening. For the afternoon excursion, I can report that there was absolutely more foot traffic and activity before the revitalization. Although, there is some more activity during the weekend evenings, the return on the taxpayer investment is meager by any standard. I guess my best image on Saturday night was Don Saylor standing in front of Roar, explaining to some street person that the restaurant has valet parking. That's a sight you would have never seen when he operated the Shanty on 19th Street.

If we already spent a $Billion for the little we got, what would it cost to duplicate all those people walking around in the artist renderings approved by the ANIZDA, and promoted by the Morning Call?

Shown above waa a time when people came to Hamilton Street on their own,  without our taxes subsidizing private business interests.

City Council Votes NO

In a action that was unthinkable for the past 10 years, Allentown City Council voted NO on an administration proposal. The park department wanted to commission a study on their parcel behind the Hamilton Family Diner, to see if it was feasible to again reuse that area for their trucks and machinery. The buildings were flooded in Hurricane Sandy in 2012, and a number of trucks were destroyed. Some council members, rejecting the study proposal, claimed that because the facility was in a flood plain, nothing there should be renovated. I disagree. Until the early part of the 20th century, almost every industrial building was built in a flood plain, both for power and transportation. Hurricane Sandy did not ruin those buildings, they were ruined by neglect. The roof singles on the older brick building were in a terrible condition, with large bare patches. I posted about this neglect years before the flood. The mold contamination came from normal rains, not the flood. Just as the city allowed the former 15th Street Bridge to decay from neglect, it was the same with that park building.  Likewise, the trucks should have been moved prior to the storm, as they had been for years before.  Although, I agree that they can save the $3,950  consultant study, my vote would be to replace the roof, and rehabilitate the building.

On a side note,  the sentencing for those that Pawlowski led astray, has now been postponed from July until November.  That would suggest that the mayor may be charged later than sooner. Maybe the no vote was city council rehearsing for the long haul.

ADDENDUM:  The blogger at  LVCI disagrees with my take on the issue.  Yes, although it is in what is now referred to as a flood plain,  at one time the brick building was the Pepsi Cola bottler, and serviced by the Barber Quarry rail spur.  The location is near both Cedar and Trexler Parks, and proved an ideal location for decades.  The issue isn't whether to locate a facility there, but rather to take advantage of an existing facility.  Currently, the heavy park trucks are stored in Lehigh Parkway,  and it is believed that their weight  may have contributed to the WPA wall collapse.

The Lehigh Valley, From Factory To Warehouse

I was born in late 1946. Growing up in the 1950's, the Lehigh Valley was teeming with factories. Near my home in South Allentown was Mack Trucks and General Electric. Lehigh Structural Steel was along the river, and just beyond was Western Electric. Dozens of sewing factories employed thousands of women. Up to 30,000 people once worked at Bethlehem Steel, which stretched from the Hill To Hill Bridge down to Hellertown.


The next generation of business, like Kraft Food, was less industrial, and located here because of location and the ethic of the residual work force. Yesterday, we learned of a proposal to tear down Kraft, and replace it with warehouses. If not for our central location in the dense northeast, I fear we would be in dire straights. We are now becoming a major distribution center. Too bad that almost of the products being distributed are made in China.

Lehigh Valley Sold Down The River

While Nestlé Water is finding resistance all across America, one locality sold it's residents out, and we be it. When Don Cunningham was County Executive, he welcomed this siphon of natural resources with open arms. Although Donny and his easy smile remains popular, he's the ultimate go to boy for corporate interests. He has been rewarded, being appointed executive of the regional development authority. Nestlé has been further legitimized in this locality by the Wildlands Conservancy. This bastion of hypocrisy hosts children education days, sponsored by Nestlé, where children are taught by the good environmentalists of the water corporation. Nothing says nature like water bottled in plastic.

You won't read these truths elsewhere in the local media.  While you have to be both independent, and a bastard, to tell it like it really is, truth is most people don't care.  Give them a free bottle of water and they're OK with it.  Give them some free music, BBQ, and beer, they'll dance in the street.

The NIZ and Affordable Housing

Ce-Ce Gerlach has been trying to wrestle some concessions from the ANIZDA concerning affordable housing, more less as a community benefit for the little people. After all, big bucks are piling up in Reilly's account. So far, she has gotten a little lip service, but I'm afraid that's all that's coming her way. As Sy Traub likes to point out, Allentown has a lot more gentrifying to do before it need concern itself with the little people. She should have have been at the Business Matters NIZ debate, when a NIZ spokesman called the former merchants and their customers a cancer. Sy Traub was on the show and didn't object. The only objector at the time was this blogger, and i don't even agree with Ce-Ce on the affordable housing. Allentown has an abundance of affordable housing, that's why poor people keep moving here. Besides, the little people will be living in Strata 1 and 2 soon enough. It's one thing to induce companies to locate downtown, but it's another thing for those office workers to want to live there. Ce-Ce need not worry about gentrification forcing lower income people out of center city. Reilly did dislocate some tenants with his failed attempt to build a mega project along Walnut Street, but even he knows that the revitalization has peaked.

NIZ Debate: l to r;  Tony Iannelli, Steve Thode, Sy Traub, Michael Molovinsky, Mike Fleck

Anti-Gun Rally At Allentown Gay Bar

Last night I went to what I thought would be a vigil for the Orlando shooting victims at Candida's. It turned out to be a anti-gun rally, and political speech opportunity for the valley politicians. Perhaps none took more advantage of the event than Ed Pawlowski. He kept asking if the crowd was with him and when is enough, enough? He hasn't been cheered like that lately. He was also one of the most ill-informed about firearms, referring to the AR-15 as an automatic weapon. I could tell that he thinks that the gun functions like a machine gun. However, needless to say, he was speaking to the choir. While every speaker addressed gun control, not one called the shooting what it actually was, Islamic terror at a gay club. I believe that if the gay club door was locked, the terrorist would have gone somewhere else,  and killed non-gay people.

Now, I understand that homophobia is a very real thing. I also understand that there has been mass shootings, unrelated to Islamic terrorism.  I even believe that gun regulations should be tightened,  and that it would not be a slippery slope against the 2nd Amendment.  However, we jeopardize our security without acknowledging that Islamic terrorism was the main factor in this mass shooting.

Among those in attendance and speaking last evening were Ed Pawlowski, Peter Schweyer, Mike Schlossberg, Pat Brown and Charlie Dent.

Allentown Begging For Startup Failures

After announcing the loan contest last fall, Allentown is now begging for applicants for the Shark-Tank type business loan program. As you can tell from the sponsors, this is essentially geared for minority applicants, although such a thing would never be actually printed in our politically correct era. Ed Pawlowski titled his facebook post, City Seeks Retail Entrepreneurs. Real entrepreneurs don't have to be sought. The next step will be actively recruiting people to apply. No non-profit bureaucrat worth his salt would ever let a gift horse get away unused. In the molovinsky world, if someone doesn't have the volition to get funding on their own, who needs them. Imagine a contest where nobody comes forward even for free money. Rather than say, OK, no worthwhile applicants, you now try and create them. Mayor Ed calls this program a fanastic use of CDBG funds. Actually, it's a colossal waste of our federal taxdollars. Welcome to Allentown. Welcome to Pennsylvania's premiere poverty magnet. Welcome to the place where even a $Billion dollars of taxpayer money hasn't really kick-started the town.

Toast Your Worms In Harrisburg

Our elected officials in Harrisburg are patting themselves on the back because they passed some legislation making it easier to buy beer and wine in Pennsylvania. While buying beer in Pennsylvania has never been difficult, expanding the sale of wine to select licensed grocery stores is new. The switch is expected to yield about $150million yearly in taxes.

It was difficult seeing the state house midgets not pass a budget for 18 months. It is difficult seeing useless commissions cost taxpayers $millions of dollars, decade after decade, administration after administration. It is difficult seeing the degree of cronyism is a state which can only be called corrupt, anything less is mincing words. Where else than Pennsylvania can you have an Attorney General's sister suing the state for equal pay from her sister's office. How is that for nepotism gone wild?

Although,  the new liquor bill seems to be win/win for both the state and residents, in Pennsylvania, the devil is always in the details.