Allentown's New Political Era

In his column on Sunday, Bill White uses a Winnie The Pooh analogy,  that he hopes that Pawlowski supporters start wising up, and realize that he is not the leader that he purports to be.

Ed's supporters know exactly what he is.  They're not voting for integrity,  instead they're betting on someone who might share the honey with them.  They're not voting for a better Allentown,  they're voting for bigger piece of the pie for themselves.

The new constituency which Pswlowski cobbled together for his primary victory will continue on past November's election,  regardless of who wins.  Rather than looking forward to a more ethical Allentown,  I think that we have seen the beginning of a Tammany Hall.  Even if we luck out with someone other than Pawlowski for the next mayor,  he created a blueprint for a new era of self-interest politics.

I can appreciate that some of my readers may find this post less than optimistic in outlook.  Thst's good,  because we are going to need all the idealists available to counter the coming opportunists.

Allentown's Predicament

Pawlowski says that he isn't resigning because he did nothing wrong. I certainly believe the first part of his statement, that he won't resign.  Although, his support is limited almost exclusively to minority owned beauty and barber shops, that was enough to get him on November's ballot. The established business community and local government officials have made it clear to him that he is a liability, and that he should put the city ahead of his need for a paycheck. Perhaps these two segments should put their efforts together, and see if Pawlowski could be induced to resign with a payout. He is essentially totally ineffective now as a mayor, making the entire city hall payroll non-productive.

photocredit:The Morning Call

Schism In Lehigh Valley Democratic Party

The Lehigh Valley Democratic Party Committee has thrown Chairman (for now) Walter Felton and the new minority party members shown above under the bus.  Yesterday afternoon one of the committee members forwarded their statement to blogger Bernie O'Hare, stating that Walter Felton was speaking for himself, and not the local party. We are seeing a schism between the county suburban, mostly white establishment and the city urban core, which they had formally embraced to mint new voters.

When Ed Pawlowski was campaigning to win the Democratic primary,  I reported that he was courting the minority beauty and barber shop owners.  I called it the Marion Barry vote.  A Black Democratic political consultant accused me of being racially insensitive on facebook,  because of my bluntness.  A Black woman who moved here from Washington DC told me outright that she supported Barry in spite of his criminal wrongdoings.  She is now very comfortable supporting Pawlowski.

Now that Pawlowski's indictment has become very real,  Felton and the folks pictured above apparently spoke out of turn. They apparently were not authorized to endorse Pawlowski, who now is a full blown liability.

I believe that we're witnessing the beginning of a split between the city and county Democrats.  The County party wanted those urban votes,  but the white suburban voters aren't ready for Marion Barry moments.  Don't expect any committee members to verify my observations,  but the people shown above don't appreciate being dissed.

A local Democratic activist on the molovinsky on allentown sounding board contributed to this post.

Allentown, Pawlowski and Molovinsky

When I started this blog over ten years ago, one of the things that motivated me was the direction Allentown would be going in under Pawlowski.  The Morning Call writes today that Pawlowski began his political career defeating William Heydt in 2005 for mayor.  There was actually a third candidate, an independent,  also on the ballot that year.

Although, The Morning Call denied me equal coverage,  I held underreported and unreported news conferences on what would become Allentown's most pressing problems in the coming years.  While the paper held interviews and debates with seven Democratic primary candidates this year, they claimed that three was too many when they excluded me from their sponsored debate in 2005.

Back in this blog's earliest beginnings,  I was a chorus of one.  Even bloggers Bernie O'Hare and Chris Casey assumed that the issues I was raising were just sour grapes on my part.

I will not be reporting on the nuts and bolts of the indictment.  To me it's already old news.  I will be reprinting some of my early posts.   Despite the tone of this post,  I take no satisfaction with the current events.  Despite all these new buildings, Allentown has been depreciated over the last ten years.  Our center city streets have become danger zones.  Our schools are failing.  Even our famous parks are falling apart.

Below is a reprinted post from June of 2007.

June 23, 2007

Certainly Maxwell Davison and Robert Wood had Allentown's best interest in mind when they recommended a raise for Mayor Pawlowski. The same gentleman also recommended a manager style city government. There are those complainers who say Pawlowski should be paid less ,because although the manager style was not adopted, he hired one anyway, effectively reducing his own job description. But his supporters, and there are many, feel the mayor is reorganizing the ship of city government to lead us to better times. Here's an idea, why not let these cheerleaders form a collection to show their gratitude to the Mayor. Pawlowski will receive the compensation they feel he deserves, and us malcontents will feel less exploited.

REPRINTED FROM JUNE 23, 2007

The Pawlowski Predicament.

Blogger Bernie O'Hare has reported that a lawyer associated with Ed Pawlowski expects to be indicted soon, perhaps even today.  Others speculated that this new round of indictments would include Ed Pawlowski.

A New York State Legislator had his bribery/public corruption conviction overturned by the 2nd Court of Appeals, because under the Supreme Court's recent McDonnell decision,  a public official engaging in generalized support for a patron or a contributor is no longer enough to establish a conviction.  Bernie further speculated that perhaps dropping out of the mayoral race might be a condition of bail.  I would think that regardless of what happens in regard to Pawlowski being indicted,  he will be on the ballot come November.   Furthermore, I doubt that an indictment will significantly change his chances of being elected, whatever those happen to be.  His pending indictment has already been baked into the odds.  His constituents, mostly Allentown's minority communities, won't blink over these charges.

In other ballot news, based on a conversation with Ray O'Connell last month,  I expect a decision from him this week about waging a write-in campaign.

In conclusion, I don't see an indictment of Pawlowski changing the election results.  I suspect that a trial won't occur before 2018.

ADDENDUM: Ray O'Connell is making an announcement on August 3th.  Apparently, he is joining the mayoral race as a write-in candidate.

The Left's Dilemma

My liberal and Democratic friends are still foaming at the mouth about Trump, six months after the inauguration.  While world leaders like France's Macron have come to terms with our election,  half the voters here have not.  Of course what Macron realizes is that the world is potentially a dangerous place, and what North Korea is up to is much more important than who is Trump's press secretary.  It's even much more important than who Donald Jr. met with before the election.

Unfortunately, the ratings driven media would rather profit than inform.  Thus, cable news is still reporting on SNL sketches, rather than threats to our security.  In their mind Trump and his administration is both the enemy and their bread and butter.

I suppose what really astonishes me is the superficiality of this obsession.  Trump has become the news, instead of current events.   While I'll concede that Obama was cool, and Trump is not,  what does that have to do with our economy or security?

Allentown Is A Roller Coaster

Last night I attended an art opening at the Baum School of Art. It is a continuation of the art show at Muhlenberg College, featuring artists who worked in Allentown during the 1980's. While the show at Muhlenberg exhibits their older work, the show at Baum features their current work.

Some of the artists have passed away, those remaining are now in their sixties and seventies. I knew most of them at the time, through one association or another. Some would frequent Allentown Photographic, a business I operated on 8th Street.

Although, the show was well attended, I cannot say the same for center city. Despite all the current new construction,  even though there were vacant buildings and empty lots in the 1980's, the town was more vibrant back then. Despite Billy Joel's song,  there was even more pride in the town back then.

I do believe that all this new construction will revitalize Allentown, but it hasn't happen yet.

The art shows at Muhlenberg and Baum will run through August 2nd.  Shown above is Life Is A Rollercoaster by Jessica Lenard,  Mixed media, 30X22 inches.