Lehigh Parkway's Forgotten Island

Director Harms Lehigh Parkway
February 04, 1993|The Morning Call
To the Editor:

The WPA in the 1930s created a three-acre island by diverting water from the Little Lehigh Creek. The island had remained a source of joy for birders, naturalists, and nondescript strollers. No one foresaw Marushak arriving on the scene with wrecking tools to rip up the bridge, terminating public access to the island. Three masonry piers remain in place. Also remaining are 12 discarded auto tires gathering silt in the small stream.

BERT LUCKENBACH
ALLENTOWN (February 4, 1993)

20 years later......
Most people have long ago forgotten that there was a bridge to the island, although the stone piers still remain, obscured by overgrowth. The curved wall and landing of the Boat Landing, shown in the lower right of the photograph, are buried. In 2009, with help from others who appreciate our treasured parks, I had the privilege to rescue the steps which lead to the landing.  Over the decades, the debris and silt mentioned above has enlarged the island, almost to the boat landing.  This Saturday, April 6, in conjunction with Friends of The Parks, I will conduct a tour of current and former WPA sites remaining in Lehigh Parkway. 

Michael Molovinsky

 reprinted from April of 2013

Hurricane Diane, 1955

Hurricane Diane hit the Lehigh Valley in August of 1955. Living in Little Lehigh Manor, I remember huddling in the house, while the metal garbage cans of the era flew around the neighborhood. My father, whose meat market was on Union Street by the Lehigh River, worked throughout the night. Fortunately for him, his market had an second floor backup cooler, and a small freight elevator. While the retail business district on Hamilton Street is elevated enough to be unaffected from flooding, center city Easton was devastated by the Delaware. The next morning was rather surreal for a nine year old boy. A large willow tree on the corner of Lehigh Parkway South and Catalina Ave. was lying on it's side. Although the Little Lehigh receded quickly, the park road and basin had been flooded. Diane remains a record in flooding and damage. Let us hope it remains that way.

reprinted from August 2011

photo from August 1955. Delaware rising up Northampton Street in Easton.

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.