Allentown's Monuments Of Time

While Allentown City Council has been imploring the feds to rescue the town from our political turmoil, I have been surveying our timeless icons. Although, I cannot predict when Mr. Pawlowski will get a knock on his door, I can report on some needed emergency repairs.

Unlike Pawlowski who is responsible for his dilemma, the WPA structures continue standing despite the neglect. However, unlike people whose integrity is an internal trait, the structural integrity of these stone icons does require some outside attention.

A landing on the double stairway show above is starting to cave in. The seeping water in turn will damage the steps below it.

The bottom of the wall at the Union Terrace double stairway has some missing stones. These need to be replaced ASAP.

Unlike people who can be rehabilitated in prison, once these structures are gone, they're not coming back. In 25 years nobody will remember who Pawlowski was, but hopefully the stone icons of our park system will still be there.

Photos of the WPA structures and the campaign to save them by Molovinsky

New Superintendent Reaching Out

The new Allentown School Superintendent is reaching out to the parents. He is offering free dinner, baby sitting and a raffle for $20 gift cards to attend one of five open houses in the next two weeks; It's an opportunity to meet him and become a better parent. (Implied, but not stated) In my day parents didn't need to be bribed, but only invited to attend PTA meetings and teacher conferences. I have heard back-channel that he also wants to install free laundromats in the schools, so parents might become more involved.

Perhaps these incentives are necessary to get Allentown's low-income parents into the school buildings. If this is the case, I doubt that their interest will extend to more than the free door prizes. If this is the case, I doubt that Allentown will have any more success with these gimmicks than the other large urban areas.

While the student's parents are being invited for a free meal and gift,  the taxpaying homeowners will be receiving their school tax increase.

The school board chose this superintendent for this new route, good luck with that.

No Thirst For Local News

In a recent post,  I noted that The Morning Call seems to be lowering their firewall  between news and opinion in regard to Mayor Ed Pawlowski.  On what planet have I been stranded?  Firewall is a historic term from the dinosaur age.  It no longer exists in news, whether print or broadcast.  Quite to the contrary,  the media seems to wear their bias as a badge of conviction.

Here at the molovinsky on allentown blog,  being a completely unmonetized endeavor,  I can afford to strive for objectivity.  I even proclaim myself as non-partisan.  Truth be told, it would be very difficult to monetize the blog.  There is less than a thirst for news in this community.

Another truth be told,  I'm interacting with less and less people.  I now only attend meetings to advocate for something or other.  Since our esteemed elected officials actually do very little deliberating at the public meetings,  attendance is becoming less and less productive.

However,  I do survey people at the diners and grocery markets.  Their knowledge or interest in local decisions is minimal. Acutally,  they're  perplexed why people even concern themselves with such matters.

Lower Macungie's Draconian Policy

Farmland preservation is the yuppie myth of our time.  While liberals love their organic farmer's market, they know nothing of the realities involved.  Don't misunderstand,  I also love rides in the country and photographs of pretty pastures,  but I know where our bread and butter really comes from.

Those farms are of a different era.  While the yuppies, my pejorative term for uninformed liberal idealists, lament coal mines,  they love those farms of yesteryear.  They only still exist not because there is a shortage of open land, but because of an almost endless supply.  The only shortage involved is that of farmers,  those who are still willing to work like horses to eke out a living.  The yuppies even now want to train farmers as props for their delusion.

Farmland preservation funds are now being mostly used by gentleman farmers, with taxpayers essentially paying for privately owned country estates.  

Enter Lower Macgunie Township, which has decreed that future  home owners on previous farmland developments must pay to maintain the roads in their new neighborhoods.  The roads must still be built to township specification, but be privately maintained.  Of course these new homeowners must still pay township taxes, even though they will not be receiving the same service as residents elsewhere in the township. 

Short Notice WPA Tour

Occasionally, a student calls me about the local WPA. Apparently, my name comes up when doing research on that topic. I have volunteered to take a young woman on a quick one hour tour this coming week. It occurred to me that a few others might be interested in joining us. We will meet in front of the Allentown Art Museum on Tuesday(7/18/17) afternoon, at 1:00,  and depart promptly.

Beyond Allentown City Council's Purview

Next week Allentown will past an ordinance banning gay conversion therapy, and there were no objections at a widely attended and publicized committee meeting. Let me be the first.  While the intent of the ordinance may be commendable,  it is clearly outside of the purview of City Council.

What motivates this post is council's historical failure to properly regulate things that are in its purview. While there are many such topics,  I will mention some recent examples concerning the park system.

Allentown City Council gave permission to demolish the Robin Hood Dam in Lehigh Parkway, just to solely accommodate the Wildlands Conservancy.  Council approved spending $1.5 million dollars to purchase two parcels for additional parks, while the existing park system is in deteriorating condition.

While much of my activism has centered on the park system, there are others who could cite numerous examples where council has rubber stamped one initiative after another. Some were done to accommodate the mayor, before he lost favor.   The better interests of Allentown's general public should be the only criterion used on council decisions.

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.