The Reality Of Revitalization In Allentown

The Morning Call reported that the proprietor of Sage is closing his two stores on the ArtsWalk to concentrate  on internet sales. Although it's true that online sales have deeply affected brick and mortar retail,  that is not a new revelation.  What is not discussed in the article is the reality of downtown's demographic; It's the same poor crowd walking among the new buildings.  Just as Shula's couldn't serve enough $50 steaks in that environment, nor can Sage sell $75 designer jeans.  Although J.B. Reilly induced his upscale merchants with discount rents,  he can't  upgrade the shoppers;  He can't put money in the their pockets.

Reilly is hoping that his Strata Loft buildings eventually house enough millennials to support upscale commerce.  However, until and unless that happens,  both the stores and restaurants will have to adapt to market realities to survive.  The new Rite-Aid is doing well,  as it did on Hamilton Street, before the revitalization.  Just as Shula's was replaced with a lower price point eatery,  we will see Sage replaced with a downgrade.

I don't have faith that Reilly's millennial migration will succeed. I don't have faith that Allentown is a candidate for gentrification. I think that all too soon he will be renting to the same demographic that lived there before his new buildings.  At that point,  the Morning Call will be promoting that reality as diversity.  Now don't feel bad for Reilly,  either way, he has a new real estate portfolio, paid for by the taxpayers.

Pawlowski's Budget Victory

Although the budget compromise is being portrayed as a win/win,  it is anything but that.

I know Pawlowski.  Although independent candidates don't fare well in elections,  they learn a lot about their opponents during a campaign.  As an independent candidate for mayor in 2005,  I suffered through 28 campaign events with Ed.  In my informed opinion,  he prevailed in the current budget compromise.  The salary increases were mostly restored, and as for council having more voice in choosing the Community Development Director,  they always had the final say.  But, here's what the public doesn't know.

Pawlowski's guy,  Michael Walker, is still retained as Operations Manager.  Although the mayor's friend, Candida Affa, says that there is a side agreement that he will eventually leave,  this is currently unconfirmed. More so, what she and nobody else disclosed, is that Walker is mostly a no-show employee.  I have been told by several reliable sources that nobody sees him,  and some key employees in city hall have never even met him.  We taxpayers have been paying a substantial salary ($90,000+) for nothing,  and will continue to do so under the new budget.  Pawlowski has beaten council and his distractors down so much, for so long,  that they consider anything less than his complete victory a winning compromise.

Obama's Pogrom Against Israel

Yesterday, Obama told Israel,  through his spokesman John Kerry, that Israel must decide if it's going to be Jewish or a democracy, and that it can't be both in its current  one state solution. Could you imagine him saying that to one of the Arab countries,  that they either have to be Muslim or democratic, but they can't be both.  This man has outright contempt for Israel.  Israel is concerned with survival.  Perhaps Obama needs to spend a few nights in Chicago's hood,  and learn what it's like to live in danger.

Kerry spent an agonizing seventy four minutes trying to justify throwing Israel under the bus at the UN.  In his drawn out speech, he inadvertently touched on some of the harsh realities of life in Israel.  While praising the United States for providing the Iron Dome, he mentioned that it saved countless Israeli lives.  Later in the speech, he said that a Palestinian state on the West Bank must not be hostile, like Gaza.  What a leap of faith that would take.  What words ever came out of Palestinian mouths to reassure Israel?  He even stated that a two state solution would stabilize a volatile region.  Does he know a place in the middle east that is calm.  Does he think that the carnage in Allepo has anything to do with Israel?  A Secretary of State who has accomplished nothing in the middle east, now in his last three weeks in office, knows the solution for Israel and the middle east.

While Kerry said that peace cannot be imposed,  he had no trouble  imposing a rebut of Israel.  He stated that his plan was approved by the world stakeholders.  In truth, the only real stakeholders are Israel and the Palestinians.  Kerry must know more than Netanyahu and Abbas.

I will not list and discuss his six point plan.  He started his speech by stating that the United States would be derelict if it didn't tell its friend the hard truth.  An hour and fourteen minutes later, he concluded the long speech by saying that in good conscience, the United States cannot do nothing. He  and Obama are neither a good friend, nor have a conscience about Israel.

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Jews In Jerusalem

Except when barred by one conqueror or another, Jews had lived in Jerusalem since King David. Prior to Jordanian rule in 1948, there was a Jewish majority for 150 years. In 1864, eight thousand of the fifteen thousand population was Jewish. By 1914, two thirds of the sixty five thousand residents were Jewish. In 1948 the United Nations Partition Plan divided the British Mandate of Palestine into two states, one Jewish and one Arab. Jerusalem was to be initially an international city, with access guaranteed for all. This plan was rejected by the surrounding Arab nations, which attacked Israel in concert immediately upon the UN vote. When the truce was declared, Israel had survived, but East Jerusalem(walled Old City) was in procession of TransJordan. The Jordanians subsequently destroyed over 50 synagogues in the Jewish Quarter, which dated back to the 1400's. For hundreds of years both Christians and Jews were prohibited from building higher than Muslim structures. The few synagogues which survived were the ones built mostly below street level. The oldest surviving synagogue, The Jerusalem Synagogue, was built by the Karaite Jews in around 900. Shown above is the Ben Kakai, a Sephardic Synagogue built in the 16th Century.

Perhaps the most famous synagogue destroyed by the Jordanians was the Ashkenazi Hurva Synagogue built in 1720, it's dome visible in the top center of this photograph from the 1920's. It's replacement was completed in 2010.

This post was first printed in April of 2010, and titled The Synagogues of Jerusalem

A Family Story

This post is unusually personal for this blog.  My grandfather came to Allentown from Russian Lithuania  in 1891.  In the next few years he was joined by his parents, and five siblings.   The family settled on 2nd Street, along with many other Jewish immigrants of that period.  He worked in various jobs, including a cigar factory, until he could establish himself as a butcher, as in the old country.  Because we were here for over a hundred years,  I consider myself somewhat of a local historian.

As a boy growing up in Lehigh Lehigh Manor, on the ridge above Lehigh Parkway, I explored the WPA structures when they were still comparatively new.  Because of that background, I was able to uncover the Boat Landing, and advocate for our  traditional park system.  One of my father's uncles worked for the park system, caring for Lehigh Parkway.

What brought me to this post is my great grandmother's tombstone in Fountain Hill, which I recently visited.  She is buried in an old Jewish cemetery that is no longer in use. Although, her tombstone is very old, it replaced an even older one , that then laid behind the former Wentz's tombstone factory at 20th and Hamilton, for many decades.  I am the last Molovinsky in Allentown.

photo taken behind Wentz's before recent demolition of that facility.

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Obama's Parting Shot At Israel

For those who support Israel,  Obama's parting shot of not vetoing the UN resolution against the little country, was not a surprise. He has demonstrated indifference to outright hostility, since his first term in office. Ironically, his middle eastern sympathies  provide little comfort to our citizens as we brace for possible attacks during this holiday season.  Support for Israel is a controversial issue, even among some Jews.  It is not my intention to debate the general topic here, but to note Obama's departure from the historical American position, of not imposing pre-conditions on a country surrounded by sworn enemies.

As a Jew, I'm perplexed as to why he garnered so much Jewish support, in both 08 and 012.  Jews, like other minorities, were nursed on the belief that the Democrats better represent them. Despite outright hostility to Netanyahu for four years, he loss only 8 points of Jewish support for his second term.

This post should not be misconstrued as a partisan indictment of Democrats.  Rather,  it is my contention that voters should mature beyond preconceived notions about one party or the other.

ALLENTOWN SPEAK OUT

                                    REPRINTED FROM 2012

In the best use, molovinsky on allentown chronicles my efforts in the community, in addition to being an alternative news source for local issues. Last week a small victory resulted from such efforts. Our local dignitaries broke ground for a new garage at Lanta. Several years ago, when the garage plans were first announced, it was to be built on the parking lot of Bicentennial Park. Allentown needed money, and Lanta had a grant to build a new garage. Lanta claimed that the ball park property was the only feasible location, and the City claimed that Bicentennial Park had outlived it's usefulness.

Bicentennial Park is virtually the history of baseball in Allentown. First opened in 1939 as Fairview Field, it was home to the minor league team of the Boston Braves; The Allentown Dukes played there through 1948, when Breadon Field was built in Whitehall, site now of the Lehigh Valley Mall. Over the years thousands of Allentown kids had the yearly thrill of playing "Under The Lights". In addition to hosting the Allentown Ambassadors, it currently serves women's fast pitch softball. In addition to the outrage in our park system, I will be adding the ballfield as a topic in my upcoming SPEAK OUT ALLENTOWN MEETING. from Lanta Mugs City, May 14,2009  

I conducted a meeting at a small local church, which attracted a couple members of City Council and the Hunsicker Family, who led the drive to build the park, decades ago. City Council went on to pass a resolution recommending that the park not be sold, and Lanta did eventually figure out an alternative space for the garage. Needless to say, I wasn't one of the dignitaries invited to the ground breaking, nor were my efforts even mentioned in the newspaper article, but a small victory, never the less.

Baseball Memoirs, June 3, 2009

above reprinted from 2012
UPDATE DECEMBER 2016: The meetings mentioned above, in 2008 and 2009, I conducted at Faith Baptist Church on N.12th St.  Among the topics were parking meter increases, Lanta,  Bicentennial Park, and Fairview Cemetery.  They provided an informal public venue for citizens and council to interact.  Years later, I would conduct more meetings at the library on preserving the WPA structures.  Unfortunately,  Allentown and South Whitehall have demonstrated little regard for our historic structures.  The mission continues.

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Rumble Over Wehr's Dam

This striking photograph of Wehr's Dam was taken recently by local professional photographer Hub Willson, and featured on his facebook page. Among the many who complimented the photograph was Randy Cope, Park and Recreation Director of South Whitehall. Randy cooperated with efforts by the Wildlands Conservancy to demolish the dam, and still calls for its demolition in his Parks Master Plan. After I spent the last 30 months defending the dam against the Wildlands and South Whitehall, I couldn't refrain from reminding Randy that if he had his way, the dam wouldn't have been there last week for Hub to photograph.

When the former Allentown Park Director allowed The Wildlands Conservancy to demolish the quaint Robin Hood Dam in Lehigh Parkway,  he told me that the dam could be replaced with a nice sign and picture of the former dam.

Just as the Democrats were surprised that Trump won in November,  Randy Cope, The Wildlands Conservancy and the South Whitehall Commissioners never expected the Wehr's Dam Referendum to pass. They expected the residents to vote the dam away, when threatened with a tax increase for restoration. They thought that they could accommodate the Wildlands Conservancy with no political consequence. They still hope to demolish the dam.

Hub has understandably deleted the posting and controversy from his page, and I apologize for my intrusion there.  Sometimes, in the course of fighting for our history,  I must cross some boundaries; For that I make no apology.

photograph of Wehr's Dam by Hub Willson


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