Watchmen For Jerusalem

Isaiah 62:6-7
Upon your walls, O Jerusalem, I have set watchmen; all the day and all the night they shall never be silent. You who put the LORD in remembrance, take no rest,  and give him no rest until he establishes Jerusalem and makes it a praise in the earth.

There is no shortage to the international sentiment always aligned against Israel. Yesterday we were told that Trump's intention to move our embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem could disrupt the peace process, and incite a violent pushback from the Arab world. As for the peace process, understand that Hamas controlled Gaza still calls for Israel's destruction. Understand that the Palestinian Authority on the West Bank financially rewards the families of their martyrs, when they kill Israelis. Violence in, and from the Arab world is a fact of everyday life, not tied to the peace process or our embassy's location.

Trump said in his statement on Jerusalem that he was acknowledging a reality. Another reality is that for 70 years Israel has been only tolerated, but never really accepted on the world stage. It survives in this harsh climate only because of courage.

Allentown's Growth Industry

Yesterday I went to the Social Security Office, across from the prison, to discuss my retirement options. I was given number 199. In addition to retirement, Social Security also dispenses money for disability. I would say from the gray hair, there were about three of us contemplating retirement, all the others were there for disability. A few middle age men were carrying their fake canes. The canes aren't fake, it's the disabilities. I saw one such gentleman walk in from the parking lot, clearly the cane bore no weight, and was merely a prop. Most of the people waiting were quite young, in their twenties. Disability has been expanded to include mental conditions such as depression, anxiety, additive personality and anger management. I will say many of them did look angry to me. It was hard finding a parking space. Business also looked good at the prison. If Johnny Manana's had gotten these crowds....

reprinted since 2008 using various titles

One Bedroom Apartment For Rent In Allentown

Someone commented on Friday, The post is about the decline of Allentown and complaints that the poor (and public housing) have basically ruined it...Sadly, this website's commentary often encapsulates the ignorance.... that has marked the worst of Allentown for decades, long before Mack left. While that reader is very politically correct, he is also very mistaken.

I ran an ad in The Morning Call seven days a week, for 35 years. While the ad stayed the same, the people responding to it changed drastically. Up until about 1995, virtually everybody calling already lived and worked in the valley.

When a prospective tenant called,  my first question was always inquiring as to where they worked?  Starting in the mid 1990's, more and more callers replied that they didn't work, but received disability. For most of these people,  that answer didn't reflect the economy, but was a lifestyle choice made years earlier. The transformation of Allentown was very real, and not a figment of a biased mind. Those looking to really find solutions to current problems in Allentown must not be so quick to assume prejudice by those who speak plainly about the issues.  The total population of Allentown hasn't changed significantly in 90 years,  but the crime rate, especially homicides, has skyrocketed.   It's too easy in our society to dismiss these problems by labeling such discussions as biased.  While such labeling generally curtails any dialogue,  the quality of life keeps declining.

Recently, when I referred to a person's endless praise of the NIZ as cheerleading,  he replied that the term was sexist and mysogynistic.  He was attempting to intimidate me with a socially unacceptable tag.  Likewise, there are those who will desire to tag and dismiss these observations as targeting one ethnicity or another. i reject the notion that negative changes in allentown's quality of life cannot be discussed, because some people might think that they are being associated with one group or another. Everybody here, regardless of where they came from, is a share holder in wanting a better city.

The Late Chronicle

Starting in early 2018, The Morning Call will be printed in Jersey City, N.J.. Although publisher Robert York states that plans are being made to assure quality of delivery, he cannot change the physics of the 90 minutes it takes to get the paper from A to B. In order to maintain their morning distribution schedule, the deadline for reporters will have to be 90 minutes earlier, or about 8:30. This change will preclude hardcopy subscribers from reading about last night's council meetings, and other evening activities. Most of the suburban meetings are covered by stringers, if at all, and they normally don't publish until a day later anyway. While the digital paper will be able to maintain its current schedule, there will be far greater time lag between it and the hard copy version,  in regard to local news.

As a disclosure, this blog is now produced from Panama City, Panama.

file photo from The Morning Call

ADDENDUM: I received the following message from The Morning Call;

 #1) While it is 90 minutes to Allentown from Jersey City, it’s a fair bit shorter to our distribution centers in Phillipsburg, Bethlehem and others supporting eastern region of our coverage area. It makes no sense for us to bring the morning papers to Allentown and then traverse the same route back to those locations so we will be transporting directly. Distribution of the morning paper is not as simple as adding 90 minutes to the equation. DC drop off times and a number of other factors including the size of routes are being rebuilt to ensure delivery next year is the same as today. #3) On several days of the week, the paper currently has one of the latest close times (when the paper goes to press) of any on the east coast. Next year once these changes take place, late council meetings, high school sports including football and basketball scores and stories will still be in the next morning’s paper. We may even sneak in a score from a Saturday night Penn State game – something we can’t do now.

They Shoot Landlords, Don't They?

When I ran as a long-shot independent for mayor in 2005, against Ed Pawlowski and Bill Heydt,  the first thing I did was take The  Morning Call reporter on a tour of the properties that I managed.  As an intercity landlord, operating apartments between 4th and 12th, Walnut and Tilghman Streets,  I knew that  downtown apartments could  become problematic for Allentown.  After the WW2,  it became fashionable to live in a twin or small ranch, and Allentown's row houses began being divided into apartments.  Those apartments were mostly occupied by singles or childless couples, and helped keep downtown and Hamilton Street vital, long past many of it's sister cities.  In the 1960's, despite the thousands of converted apartments,  center city was clean, and Allentown was the All American City.  Both the tenants and landlords were hard working and conscientious.  As the urban poor from New York and New Jersey discovered the clean streets of Allentown, and it's moderately priced apartments,  a steady influx of new residents arrived daily.  These changes were not encouraged by the landlords.  Nobody ever purchased a building hoping to replace their conscientious middle class occupants, with a poorer, more problematic tenant base.  Various social agencies staked many of these newcomers to the first month rent and security deposits.  Although politically incorrect, I said at the time that Allentown was creating a poverty magnet.  My phrase and analysis back then is now recognized as an unintended consequence of such programs.  During Heydt's administration, Allentown passed a Rental Inspection Law.  Some viewed  this as the solution to the rental problem, I didn't fully agree;  You cannot legislate pride of ownership. Bad operators could, and easily did, cross the T's and dot the i's.  Pawlowski's solution has been to tag buildings as unfit for habitation, so many,  that the process itself has created blight.  Halls of Shame, either by the city or private groups, only stigmatize both the property and owner, but don't produce a solution.  The programs in place, if applied with more flexibility, can work.  The school district is starting to show concern about the consequences of more apartments and students.  Recent zoning changes allowing the conversion of commercial space by right, rather than by variance, will be an additional challenge.  At the end of the day,  all landlords want to see their investment appreciate.  The city must learn to work with that basic incentive as a vehicle for change.

UPDATE:  The post above is reprinted from my archives.  I believe that my background enabled me to write a  concise, accurate synopsis of Allentown's downtown housing situation. Today (June 2015), we learn that Reilly's City Center and other employers and stakeholders in the NIZ are offering $10,000 incentives for their employees to buy houses in center city. I believe that if the plan is properly administered, it can be a useful tool for Allentown.

reprinted from June of 2015

A Baby Boomer Allentown

molovinsky on allentown is meant to intersect local politics and history. I grew up during a very prosperous era in Allentown's history. The post war (WW2) factories couldn't produce enough goods, despite some having three shifts. Local government was small, concerned mostly with infrastructure and public safety.  There was little concern with affordable housing and other social programs. Then, as now, there were always poor people. Eleanor Roosevelt visited Allentown for the opening of Hanover Acres, the public housing above the east side of the Lehigh River. For many residents of that project and Cumberland Gardens, the public housing was a stepping stone, not a lifestyle.

Hamilton Street was a thriving shopping district.  No subsidies needed there.  Those successful merchants handled their own parking system, no Parking Authority needed.  There might have been some nepotism and cronyism in city hall, but no need for FBI investigations.  Information and news came from your television screen and newspapers, but without agendas and misdirection.

A reader asked me why I made commenting more difficult.  Question.......isn't one of the purposes of your blog to foster discussion of the matters you raise? Purposely seeking to curb comment responses and possibly readership, seems counterintuitive to me.  Topics are not chosen in regard to expanding readership, nor do I count comments as a gauge of success. This blog is not monetized, directly or indirectly. I address those topics which are either under-reported, or misrepresented by the local main stream media. Consequently, I want the comments to be as relevant and responsible as possible.

When Walter Cronkite gave the news in the early 1960's,  he signed out each program by saying, "And that's the way it is."  

reprinted from July of 2016

Only The Best For Public Housing

For an Allentown historian with an interest in photography, the photo above is as good as it gets; Eleanor Roosevelt visiting Allentown's new public housing project in 1942, Hanover Acres. I snatched the photo off The Morning Call this morning; Paul Carpenter has a column where he brooded about public housing recipients complaining that they can't smoke, while living on our dime. I'll do him one better. They're now griping about it in new housing, Overlook Park. Hanover Acres and the newer project, Riverview Terrace, were both torn down several years ago to construct new townhouses. It's supposedly a mixed income project, with homes both for sale, and Section 8 rentals.

Over the years Hanover Acres became a "terrible" place to live, a crime-ridden eyesore. Overlook Park, the $88 million development that's sprung up in its place, however, is "beautiful." Daniel R. Farrell, executive director of the Allentown Housing Authority, described turning Hanover Acres into Overlook Park as "an amazing transformation."The development features 269 rental apartments and room for 53 single-family homes.

It was built by Pennrose Properties, which specializes in politically correct and politically connected housing for profit. They have done well in Allentown with Mayor Ed. Not long before Hanover and Riverview were demolished, they were completely remodeled, with high end kitchen cabinets and counters. Shown below is yours truly, in Little Lehigh Manor, built in 1944. Those brick houses of the same vintage are still new enough for home buyers today. Most of Allentown's existing row houses were built between 1895 and 1930. If Carpenter is upset about smoking, he should drive over to Overlook Park and see what they're smoking in.

reprinted from July of 2012

News From Mars In Allentown

Sometimes when I read The Morning Call, it's like I'm getting news from Mars. In an article about Small Business Day, the paper featured a store downtown that pays no rent, and sells donated women's fashion to lower income women, who are dressing for a job interview. I commend the store, its landlord and the concept, but it certainly says something unsaid about the state of small retail in center city. I suppose for the article's purpose, the reuse boutique is more prestigious than the pawn shops.

An article in today's paper refers to a developer downtown who received permission from the zoning board to build apartments on the former Croc Rock site. In the real world here on earth,  there is nothing new about J.B. Reilly being given permission from Allentown.  Real news would have been if he wasn't given the green light.  Furthermore, he isn't a developer, but The Developer.

Yesterday on social media, a rabid cheerleader for the NIZ referred to me as an 85 year old, who should fade away with my outdated incorrect assertions, and extremly underwhelming blog. As long as the news from Mars has to be translated into Earth language, this blog will continue.