Stairway To Shame

In the mid 1930's, Allentown, and especially it's park system, was endowed with magnificent stone edifices, courtesy of the WPA; Works Progress Administration. This was a New Deal program designed to provide employment during the aftermath of the depression. Stone masons from all over the country converged on this city and built structures which are irreplaceable. The walls and step structures in Lehigh Parkway, as the Union Terrace amphitheater, are legacies which must be protected. Pictured above is the grand stairway from Lawrence Street (Martin Luther King Drive) up to Union Street, built in 1936. The steps are in a state of disrepair. They lead to the great Union Street Retaining Wall, twenty five feet high and two blocks long, which was completed in 1937. I call upon the Trexler Trust and Allentonians of memory, to insist that these steps are re-pointed and preserved. The current Administration knows nothing of our past, and really has no commitment to our future. Save the things in Allentown that matter.
REPRINTED FROM 2008

UPDATE JUNE 2015:It's seven years later, and I'd like to say there has been some progress, but it hasn't happen. While Pawlowski is on his third term as mayor, we're on our third park director, and not one $dollar has been spent on one WPA project, in all these years. Actually, the state of our historic structures has significantly declined. An indifferent administration allowed The Wildlands Conservancy to demolish the scenic Robin Hood Dam, which was only ten inches high, and was the companion piece to the Robin Hood Bridge. Built in 1941, it was the last WPA structure completed in Allentown. Union Terrace, which was the last large scale WPA project, built in 1937, is rapidly deteriorating. While the park department concentrates on playgrounds and parking lots, it's losing the stone structures which make the park system iconic. They will never be able to be replaced.

UPDATE JULY 2017: Over the years I was able to influence Karen El-Chaar,  Director of Allentown Friends Of The Parks, about the WPA structures.  She in turn prevailed in obtaining a grant from the Trexler Trust to repair the steps at Fountain Park in 2016.  Most of the structures throughout the park system remain in dire need of attention.

Allentown's Urban Woes

Allentown has been waking up to a new shooting or stabbing practically every day. We're now talking about trying neighborhood policing.  It is nothing new,  going back to the Heydt and Afflerbach administrations, with officers assigned to different districts in the city.  At one point they actually had neighborhood offices from which the officers worked, when not out talking with members of the community.

One thing is apparent, something new needs to be tried, even if it has been done before.  We know from recent experience that having a police chief of color, in itself, makes no difference.

As someone who visits Hamilton Street several times each week,  despite the arena and all the new buildings, there is less activity there than ever.  Unless, and until Allentown can appear safe there will be no meaningful revitalization.  This is the urban dilemma of our times, not unique to Allentown.

Pawlowski's Paper Problem

Up until recent years, The Morning Call wrote editorials and endorsed candidates for Mayor. They endorsed Ed Pawlowski for mayor in 2005. They certainly will not be endorsing him in 2017. As a matter of fact, it's becoming increasingly difficult for him to find a friendly word about himself in the paper. Bill White, the Call's remaining columnist, has written that it is time for Ed to go. An article in today's paper , by one of their sports writers, takes him to task for his decision to remove the basketball rims in Andre Reed Park.

As a local political blogger, I find this new attitude by the paper interesting. Although,  Bill White has criticized the Ray O'Connell write-in effort, no one at the paper has yet to directly endorse Nat Hyman. In the days of the editorials, the paper claimed a firewall between the editorials and the news. Now, there are no editorials, but the firewall seems to be lowered.

In the primary election with a crowded field, Pawlowski cobbled together a coalition of mostly minority voters.  Ray O'Connell doesn't see Pawlowski garnering much more than those 1,700 votes in the general.  How the other 5,000 or so votes will divide is the question.  Will the plurality go to O'Connell or Hyman,  or will the divided vote allow Pawlowski to win once again?

Injury To Allentown's West End

After the "improvement"

For almost a hundred years the western stretch of Chew Street beyond Muhlenberg College had a quiet elegance to it. This was by no accident, as the neighborhood was developed by General Harry Trexler, also father of the park system.

Regular readers of this blog remember that recently I lamented the decision to blacktop the cement streets.  Little did I know that the macadam would only be the first assault on the neighborhood.

Despite the fact that virtually no cars park on Chew Street in that area, parking lanes have been painted. Although, there is little traffic or even walkers, cross walks have been painted on four sides of each corner. Add the double yellow lines and bike logos, and you have a blinding smorgasbord of paint.

There's something wrong when an improvement depreciates the value of a neighborhood.

Before the "improvement"

The Politics Of Local Basketball

Mayor Pawlowski had three of the four basketball nets removed from Andre Reed Park after neighbors complained of rowdy late night playing. According to The Morning Call, a youth coach has accused Pawlowski of accommodating a few neighbors over the need for youth basketball, to curry political favor in the neighborhood.  Cynthia Mota is crying foul because of the deprived youth.  Dennis Pearson is threatening to move back to Allentown and run as a write-in candidate, unless the courts are restored.

When contacted by phone,  the founder of this blog and park activist Michael Molovinsky, said that the trouble started when Pawlowski renamed the park from Irving to Andre Reed.  Furthermore,  they removed one set of WPA steps, rather than repair them.  When you have a park department that forsakes it's history and iconic structures for recreation,  then suspends the recreation for politics, what do you have left?

photocredit: The Morning Call

ADDENDUM:This story attracted the attention of both myself and blogger Bernie O'Hare. Both of us paid homage to Dennis Pearson, an east Allentown activist for many decades, who recently married and is in the process of moving.

Pawlowski Forsakes Iconic Park Structures

Despite my efforts for the last six years, the city has given no maintenance to the WPA structures except by necessity of circumstance. I began my campaign to save the WPA structures on this blog in 2010, and conducted public meetings at the Allentown Library. Fortunately, the director of the Friends Of Allentown Parks, Karen El-Chaar, attended a meeting and developed an interest in the mission. I subsequently gave her a private tour of the structures, and she invited me to conduct two public tours of the structures for her organization.

Although, I was told for years that money was in the park budget for renovation of the wall in Lehigh Parkway, no maintenance was ever performed. After a portion of the wall collapsed several years ago, it was only rebuilt because it was actually a retaining wall for the park entrance road.

Karen El-Chaar then secured a grant for the steps at Fountain Park from the Trexler Trust. At that time, I prevailed on the city to have the stone masons do an emergency repair on the steps at Union Terrace.

So, besides a collapse necessitating a repair, and a modest grant from the Trexler Trust,  nothing has been done by this administration to preserve this unique legacy bestowed upon the Allentown Park System.  Next week, I will reprint several posts on the structures with appropriate updates.

photo: El-Chaar and Molovinsky in Lehigh Parkway

Allentown's Treasures Deteriorate

The Allentown Park Department just completed installing 18 concrete pads throughout Lehigh Parkway for the Disc Golf Course. While the starting pads were unnecessary and unsightly, not one $dollar or ounce of cement was applied to the deteriorating WPA structures. Shown above is the top of the double stairway in Lehigh Parkway. While the top landing seen in the photo is in poor condition, the stair landings below are completely crumbling. Water is seeping down through the flagstone landings and undermining the steps themselves.

Unfortunately, it is clear that the current park director has no appreciation for these irreplaceable structures. Her background is completely in recreation, hence the new frisbee launch pads.
One would think that after the adjoining wall collapsed from neglect,  the administration would have realized that some preventative maintenance was long overdue.

These structures were designed in 1928 by a nationally recognized landscape architect hired by Harry Trexler himself.  Although, the Great Depression delayed construction,  they were then built by the WPA in 1935.  They are part of Trexler's legacy, and their neglect is becoming inexcusable.

A Letter From The Mayor

Office of the Mayor of Allentown

Dear Ce-Ce, Mike, and Robert, 

I wanted to take time away from my busy schedule as mayor to thank you for all your efforts on my behalf. After the primary I was very concerned about my chances to be re-elected in the fall, but your efforts to mount a 3rd party write-in campaign for my good friend Ray is just the shot in the arm my campaign needs to guarantee success again in November. I couldn't do it without your support.

Together we can keep Allentown Moving Forward. 

Your truly, 

Mayor Ed Pawlowski

 July 3, 2017 at 1:40 PM

The above comment, meant as a parody, was submitted by Scott Armstrong.  Scott is a partisan,  and in his view my recent posts recognizing  Ray O'Connell's write-in campaign is heresy.   My intent here is not to once again analyze whom such a write-in campaign would benefit, but rather my position as a blogger.


I separate my personal political preferences from my blogging. I will not color my words to promote one candidate over another.  I will not refrain from observations, even if they contribute to an undesirable  candidate's victory. In the campaign there will be many mailings and promotions from the candidates and their surrogates, but this blog isn't one of them.