Allentown, What a revoltin' development

There are two articles in the paper that have me shaking my head.  One is that the mayor may escape prosecution,  because of the recent supreme court case outlining what the new legal threshold is for corruption. I personally don't have much attitude about Pawlowski's situation, one way or the other. But, when we think about how much time and effort was taken, not counting the collateral charges filed against others, we can just see our taxdollars sucking up in the vortex of government.

Talking about evaporating taxdollars, we learn that it will cost us a $quarter million to have the school superintendent not work. I noticed the news reports that the school board approved Mayo's sabbatical. The reporters know full well that Mayo didn't request this situation, it was forced upon him by the school board. I enjoy being a blogger, and not having to mince my words.

The photograph shown above, and the post title,  are inside jokes for the older baby boomers.

Forsaking General Harry Trexler

In 1928, Harry Trexler hired  Philadelphia's prestigious landscape firm Meehan and Company to design the park system for Allentown. When the depression struck the next year, the plans were put on hold. However, when Roosevelt announced the WPA in mid 1930's, because of those plans, Allentown was shovel ready. Thousands of men worked throughout Allentown's new parks, creating masterpieces that normally would have taken fifty years to build, and cost untold millions of dollars. Allentown ended up with an iconic park system, virtual picture postcards, which lured tourists here for the next 75 years.

In 2006, Ed Pawlowski became major, combined the park and recreation departments, and started hiring directors from out of town with a background in recreation. Although, not one thing was done for the traditional park system, we started buying whole catalogs of playground equipment. We have been named Play City of the country by the playground equipment manufactures association. Through my advocating, Karen El-Chaar from Friends Of the Parks, was able to secure a grant from the Trexler Trust to restore the steps at Fountain Park. I was able to prevail upon the current park director, Lindsay Taylor, to allow the masons to also repair the stairwell at Union Terrace. The Parkway wall in now being repaired, but only because it's necessary in able to open the road.

Park strategy, aside from recreation, is now being decided by the Wildlands Conservancy. The Conservancy has been instituting current environmental fashion, even if it's not site specific to Allentown. Consequently, the park streams have become riparian buffer zones, even though the storm runoff is piped directly into the streams, and bypasses the buffers. The WPA ornamental dam has have been demolished, even though the streams are stocked from General Trexler's fish hatchery. Even the fish hatchery dam, which regulated the amount of water entering the fish ponds, was demolished, resulting in a massive fish kill.

What is most discouraging in my battle to preserve the icons of our traditional park system is that the Wildlands Conservancy is being funded by the Trexler Trust.  Although,  sacred cows and good old boy networks working together is nothing new, how ironic that the Trust is funding the main reason that Harry Trexler's park designs are now being ignored and neglected.

For decades the park system was a favorite scene on souvenir postcards from Allentown.

Banner Year For The Wildlands Conservancy Park System

The Wildlands Conservancy now effectively runs both the Allentown and South Whitehall Park systems.  While Allentown's official director is reduced to placing new park signs throughout her park system,  in the township, their boy shows outdoor movies.

The rains have been good for the Wildlands specified riparian buffers along the creeks in Allentown. Although they serve no environmental purpose, because the storm sewers are piped directly into the streams,  they do succeed in keeping both pets and children away from the water.  Although, still only June, in many places the creeks have been completely obscured. The other day I saw an elderly woman and her old dog trying to access the creek. Her frustration would have brought smiles to the Wildlands and their lackey park directors.

With both the Robin Hood and Fish Hatchery Dam demolished,  the bulldozer now turns to Wehr's Dam.  South Whitehall says "Who needs history and beauty, when we can soon show children's movies by the former dam."

photo of Cedar Creek by Allentown Rose Gardens

Lehigh County's Twisted Priorities

Lehigh County isn't sure how much it should commit to the historic cement kilns in Coplay. The Saylor Kilns are some of the oldest of their type still existing in the world. The county is currently restoring one of the nine kilns. Meanwhile, the retiring farmland preservation official regrets only preserving 22,000 acres of farmland. There is nothing unique about farmland in Lehigh County, but its preservation is the current  ecology fad.  Little details, like who will farm this land, is not considered. These organic types confuse going to a farmers market once a month with the daily hard work of farm life. Perhaps, Lehigh County can start a share cropper program? I'm not joking, they actually want to do such a thing. Meanwhile, things unique to the county are discarded. My plea for Wehr's Dam fell on deaf ears.

photograph by Mexx69

The Puppets of South Whitehall

If anyone doubts that the South Whitehall Commissioners are merely puppets, serving one special interest or another, just read this article about the Jordan Trail, being supervised by the Wildlands Conservancy. Close to a $Million dollars will be spent on this project to appease the Wildlands, while the same commissioners felt the voters should decide about Wehr's Dam. The referendum on Wehr's is as disingenuous as local government gets. They know that the voters will reject a tax increase to keep the dam, while for a Wildlands pet project, the public gets no say. The Wildlands has its own agent in the township, who is paid as park director by South Whitehall.  He hopes to have all the funding in place by year's end for the Wildlands trail. While tens of thousands of people visit the historic dam every year, how many will walk the Wildlands trail?

The Misconception of Hamilton Street

There's not many mid size cities that can boast having two national chain stores within one center city block, Allentown could. Not too many cities could say that one of those stores was one of the biggest producers in a chain of over 7000 stores, Allentown could. There's not many cities that are ignorant enough to tear down their most successful block, a virtual tax machine, Allentown is. This horrible mistake took a combination of political arrogance and public misconception. The arrogance is well known, so let me concentrate on the misconception. The perception was a few undesirable people, buying cheap things. The reality is Family Dollar sells the same merchandize in their suburban and rural stores. Rite Aid fills the same prescriptions and sells their standard merchandize. The new upscale stores, visioned for the arena front, will never produce the sales tax produced by Family Dollar and Rite Aid. The arena will never have that amount of employees, nor produce that much earned income.* The traffic congestion and lack of parking for arena events will destroy the new restaurants. Welcome to the white elephant, welcome to the ghost town.
Shown above and below is the early morning delivery to Family Dollar, every week of the year.
*sales tax and earned income currently going to city and state will now go to debt service for arena
reprinted from December 5, 2011

ADDENDUM: While The Morning Call promotes Allentown's new NIZ zone, only this blogger documented the reality of the former Hamilton Street. While the Moravian Book Store could be restocked from a small hand basket once a month, the previous Family Dollar Store needed a full tractor trailer every Sunday.

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.