Lanta's Snow Hysteria

Yesterday's snow wasn't expected to slow down the earth's rotation.  Never the less,  Lanta put in effect their Snow Emergency Routes.  Standing outside in the cold for a bus isn't the picnic Lanta thinks.  On their website they state that you can access information free of charge on your iPhone.   Nice of them to make the information free,  and of of course we must assume that everybody has an iPhone,  even those low income bus riders.

What would motivate them to implement snow detour routes for less than 2" of snow? Perhaps they have a special position for such decisions,  and he/she feels less useless by declaring the emergency routing.

At the end of the day, or I should say the beginning, it's quite a kick in the teeth to wait for a bus not coming. 

Pushing Pawlowski Back

I grew on Liberator Avenue. Liberator and Catalina Avenues, and Coronado Street, were named for Vultee-Consolidated WW2 planes, and are next to the airport built as part of the war effort. Vultee Street was built to connect the hangers with the Mack 5C plant, which was given over to Vultee-Consolidated for plane part manufacturing during the war. Vultee Street was the runway, and Lehigh Street would be closed off if a plane was landing. Today, this small airport now known as Queen City, has been under relentless threat by Mayor Ed Pawlowski, now a member of the Lehigh Valley Airport Authority. This past Tuesday, fellow board members started pushing back against Pawlowski.

"You're not the mayor of the Lehigh Valley International Airport." board member Frank Kovacs to Pawlowski

The board voted to build a new taxiway, indicating there's not much consensus to sell the airport, which has been Pawlowski's objective. Pawlowski wants to add to Allentown's real estate glut, for a short sighted tax gain. Matt Assad, from The Morning Call, wrote an excellent article explaining the arguments to both sell and keep Queen City. He also provides quotes of the tense discussion between board members and Pawlowski. This blogger is not surprised by Pawlowski's position, but questions Don Cunningham's judgement in appointing him to the Authority.

 reprinted from April of 2012

ADDENDUM FEBRUARY 7, 2018: My pushback against Pawlowski started in 2006. In 2007 when I started this blog, he and his enablers were still being defended as good for Allentown, even by fellow bloggers. This blog is fact based. I have no politicians whom I support. I am loyal only to issues, not elected officials.

Under Pawlowski's Bus

Although it's reprehensible, one can understand Pawlowski's Philadelphia mouthpiece throwing the mayor's former associates under the bus. But apparently that's not enough for Mayor Ed, he reprints that line on facebook himself.

 Now here's the problem, Pawlowki is still mayor of Allentown.

He is in essence telling all city employees that they could also become a sacrificial lamb when needed.  He is apparently more concerned with his reputation on facebook than the operation of the city.  Although   his supporters are limited to the uninformed,  the contrary and the unethical,  and the election is over, he is still more concerned with them than the operation of the city.

Credit city managers and workers for anything being done right in Allentown.  The mayor's office is worse than empty, it's actually working against morale.

Allentown's Lost Innocence

A posting like above appeared on an Allentown facebook discussion group this past weekend.  Forty two people liked the message, among them a newly elected member of the Allentown School Board. I suppose that these people belong to several groups, none of which is good for Allentown. In the first group you have the totally uninformed. They are probably the least destructive grouping, and likely do not even vote. Secondly, you have the contrarians. There will always be people like them,  and they seem to love facebook groups.  The last group is what scares me the most for Allentown. They know that he abused the system, yet still admire him for it. They know that in order to profess his innocence, he is impugning the reputation of his subordinates, who only followed his directions. Although a few of the nine who pleaded guilty are indeed co-conspirators to his plots, most were sucked in by a greedy and ambitious boss.

Although Pawlowski might be found not guilty because the prosecution cannot reach the current burden of proof, he surely is not innocent. Although I do not care about Pawlowski's future, I do hope that those members of the third group come to realize that government shouldn't be about what you can get out of it for yourself. My hope is probably naive. Greed has become part of large urban politics, and Allentown seems to have lost its innocence.

Fly In Allentown's Soup

If I saw a shrink for my frustration about Allentown, I would have to be in therapy all day. If I took sedatives, I wouldn't be able to stand up, instead I run for office and blog. Pawlowski announced his plan to restore the city on Friday; continuously inspect every inanimate object in Allentown. This professional advise came from a former Philadelphia housing guru, of course a fly in the soup is that Philadelphia is the corruption and murder capital of the world. Allentown's Rental Inspection Law failed to upgrade the city; while you end up legitimizing slumlords with certificates of occupation, you cannot legislate pride of ownership. Many local conscientious owners sold out rather than submit to the bureaucracy, increasing the frequency of inspections will again backfire. Although Pawlowski (and Cunningham) campaigned about their grand plans and communication skills, neither even knew the Allentown School System was going to demand reassessment; It's time for the taxpayers and citizens to reassess who they elected.

reprinted from November of 2007

UPDATE FEBRUARY 2, 2018:  Apparently when it comes to corruption, Philadelphia didn't have anything over us after all.  During the course of the trial this week, it was reported that Pawlowski used some Allentown inspectors as his personal goon squad,  rewarding donors and penalizing those that didn't pony up.  A number of years ago several landlords complained on this blog that they were indeed mistreated by the inspection program.  In my limited exposure to inspectors they have been professional.  I'm sure the testimony this week is not pleasant for that department's personnel.  They will however continue doing their job,  and move beyond the stigma of the Pawlowski scandal.

A Salty Tale In Allentown

The prediction of light snow early Tuesday morning proved to be correct.  By Wednesday morning the streets were white, however it wasn't snow, but salt.   For a city which just enacted a stormwater fee, largely because of salt runoff,  you would think that a more prudent use of salt would be in order.

Despite the federal mandate to clean stormwater running into the streams,  I have doubt that anything significant will be changed for many years.  Understand that the city was under federal mandate for over a decade to correct the leaking sanitary sewers which actually contaminate the Little Lehigh with feces during storms.  The city didn't do anything, and now the Lehigh County Authority has inherited that mandate.  Those who complained that the Stormwater Fee was actually a backdoor tax increase were correct.

photocredit:Rich Schultz/The Morning Call

If Pawlowski Is Acquitted

If Pawlowski is acquitted,  Allentown will be the outlander for the next four years.  While the prosecutor could fail to convince a jury, beyond a reasonable doubt, that his exploitation of the city bid system rose to a level necessary for conviction,  everybody now knows that city hall was essentially corrupt.  Regardless of the trial outcome, neither he or Allentown would be considered innocent.

Although Pawlowski would be personally insufferable,  his effectiveness as a leader would be completely neutralized. Nobody on City Council, or other local governments, would want to be seen as his ally.  He would spend the next four years preaching to his small congregation of deniers about his innocence.  Those invested here could only hope that the current caretakers in place are left to run the city with little interference by him.  The mayoral campaigning for 2021 would begin in earnest immediately.

Ce-Ce Rocks The Block

Ce-Ce Gerlach rocked South 16th Street this afternoon with a block party to raise funds for school uniforms. The block was packed with people enjoying several carnival attractions, music and food. From all reports, the new Allentown school uniform policy seems to have gotten off to a good start, but one issue is the cost of the  clothes.  With a large, low income student body, this can become a family hardship.  I'm sure Ce-Ce's organizing abilities  will help with this problem.  I've had a couple of conservations with Ce-Ce this past month, and I believe she will be a factor in Allentown's future.

To donate to the school uniform fund, make check payable to RCDC, 144 N. 9th St. Allentown, Pa. 18101.   Write Uniforms on memo line.

above reprinted from September 7, 2013

UPDATE January 30,2018: Last evening I attended an early kickoff for Ce-Ce's campaign for Allentown City Council in 2019.  I've known Ce-Ce for years, and am glad to see her again offering her time and energy to Allentown.  In this sorry time we need people with her sincerity and integrity.

In regards to this sorry time,  it's my understanding that the prosecution against Pawlowski had a strong showing in court yesterday. Numerous witnesses, including former city employees, described bid rigging and a pay to play culture. Supposedly, the defense attorney seemed exasperated, and Pawlowski himself somewhat forlorn.