A Window On Pawlowski

By now most followers of Allentown politics know that Ed Pawlowski was found guilty of almost all charges late Thursday afternoon.  Although I'm very mindful of my privacy,  today I will reveal a personal experience with Ed Pawlowski. I make this revelation not to dwell on my reputation, but as a window on his character. Although his sycophants and others may think that his only fault was his political  ambition,  they are mistaken.  Over the years numerous people were bullied by Pawlowski.  Most of them didn't have the voice to speak out.

In 2005, as an independent and the third candidate on the ballot for mayor, I debated Pawlowski and Heydt at the WFMZ studio. After the debate,  an audience member told me that Lisa Pawlowski was telling audience members that I was a slumlord.  Not hearing it myself, I let it drop.  In the beginning of 2008, I conducted a series of SPEAK OUT meetings at an intercity church.  A Morning Call reporter told me after the meeting that when she called Pawlowski for comment,  he told her that I was just a slumlord.  The reality was that I operated buildings between 4th and 12th Streets for decades, without one code violation or tenant complaint. There was absolutely no basis for the untrue slander by Pawlowski, other than a flaw in his character.  At the end of 2008 he repeated the falsehood, but this time in front of me and others outside the city council chamber.  I asked him how he would feel if I told people that he was a corrupt politician?

Over the years this blog has not concerned itself explicitly with the  contributions and corresponding favors which convicted Pawlowski yesterday.  My concern has been the consequences and policies, which have compromised our assets, such as the park system.  My concern is with the unlevel playing field for small business owners.  A comment last night stated that Bernie(O'Hare) and I have been vindicated.  Pawlowski will be gone soon,  but many people who cooperated with him remain, along with the policies they implemented.

The Transfiguration Of Ed Pawlowski

After I read in the paper that Ed Pawlowski's defense attorney asked the jury to send him(Ed) back to the people who so love him and the city he has saved, I realized that Pawlowski must be holy, because he surely didn't save Allentown in a civic sense. Although Jack McMahon tried to convince the jury that Ed was responsible for the NIZ and its new construction, in reality that was a arrangement between Pat Browne and J.B. Reilly. Although it happen on Ed's watch, his only part was to cut a few ribbons. However, both the out-of towners and low information types do think that Pawlowski was responsible, because the true NIZ story is hard to grasp.

Pawlowski was hoping to use this confusion as his ticket to ride out of town, either to Harrisburg or Washington. As it turns out, he will probably get his ticket, but not to where he had hoped.

deity image from Bernie O'Hare's Ramblings

The Corruption Of Allentown Pennsylvania

Whether Mayor Edwin Pswlowski is convicted or not, nobody can have any doubt about the corruption this city has experienced over the last decade. Every contract was negotiated not for the taxpayer's sake, but rather the position of the mayor. These distorted criterion infected every department. Those who follow this blog realize that while both local politics and history are my topics of choice, the park system is my passion.

Although the Cedar Beach Pool contract was investigated as corrupt, it was not the only questionable decision made by the park department under Pawlowski. First and foremost,  two new parcels should have never been purchased; This is the land by Basin Street, and the former fertilizer plant land along Martin Luther King Drive. The existing park system has been neglected since Pawlowski was elected in 2005, with the iconic WPA Stone Structures literally crumbling.

If the administration and city council had taken suggestions made on this blog to heart, the entrance wall of Lehigh Parkway would have never collapsed. I do not possess unique insight, but rather the simple understanding that Allentown has a magnificent park system which needs only to be maintained.

blogger surveying  entrance road wall after it collapsed in Lehigh Parkway

From Homeless To School Director

This is my second post on Ce-Ce Gerlach; The first was this summer, when I covered her block party fundraiser to buy uniforms for the students. Yesterday, I decided to sit down with Ce-Ce and learn more about someone in Allentown's future. She has been instrumental in attempting to share Allentown's good fortune from the arena's NIZ, with the city's less fortunate inter-city residents. Ce-Ce talks their language; She lived in her car for six months, about five years ago. Only 27 years old, she has emerged as a spokeswoman and advocate for Allentown's silent majority. Coming from the poor side of the tracks in Washington D.C., she knows first hand how little of opportunity can spill over from affluence, to a nearby population mired in the poverty cycle. In addition to being a leader on the coalition for community benefit from the NIZ, and the school board, she is on the city's Human Relations Board. She's open to more responsibilities, and even elected offices, in her mission to improve lives in downtown Allentown.
photocredit:Harry Fisher/The Morning Call

above reprinted from December of 2013


UPDATE: February 27,2018   Ed Pawlowski has blocked Ce-Ce's appointment to the Park and Recreation Commission.  In doing so he has further insured that she will be recognized as a reform candidate, and succeed in her quest for City Council in 2019.

Grasping For The Peanut Gallery

When I was a boy the audience at the Howdy Doody Show, comprised of children, was called the Peanut Gallery.  Later that phrase became a metaphor for an unsophisticated group. Wikipedia states that A peanut gallery was, in the days of vaudeville, a nickname for the cheapest and ostensibly rowdiest seats in the theater, the occupants of which were often known to heckle the performers.  Although the defense for Mayor Ed Pawlowski has rested,  Ed keeps reaching out to the local social media groups. Even this past weekend he was putting up links to headlines by his defense attorney that professed his innocence. He is still trying to campaign to his sycophants and assorted sickos.

 I am conscious of the fact that I have written about this phenomena several times already, but I find it fascinating. It reminds me of the disgraced television pastors who suddenly find G-d again.  I believe that Ed may become such a preacher upon his release from prison.

Pawlowski A Trained Liar

I didn't attend the mayor's testimony, but I can hear his lies.  I can hear the little insincere laugh that he injects to punuate his fibs. I can hear him saying that he had no idea about all the the corruption occurring on his behalf, behind his innocent back.

I can imagine the hours that he was coached by McMahon for this performance.  Although he needed McMahon's coaching for the specific legal defense,  he already had the lying down to a science.  In 2005 I attended 31 campaign performances by his liarship; He is good at it.  Credit McMahon for knowing a natural born liar when he meets one.  It was for this reason that McMahon was so anxious to get Pawlowski on the stand.  It was for this reason that one reporter even described Pawlowski's testimony as jovial.  He actually enjoys lying.

Early Thursday morning Pawlowski posted the link shown above that he was horrified by play to pay claims to his facebook page.  Next week we'll probably learn if the jury believes him.

Wrong Decision, Wrong Reporter At Allentown City Council

In a council vote headed  by Daryl Hendricks,  Tom Muller was rejected to start serving as Managing Director.  He correctly told council, “The mayor is across the street all the time right now and someone needs to be tending the shop,”  Although Hendricks stated that he would favor the appointment after the trial, Muller stated that he would have to re-evaluate his offer to serve. I know that Hendricks' dissenting vote wasn't unexpected, but Muller thought that he would be appointed by a 6 to 1 margin. I believe that Allentown may have lost the option of an experienced administrator for a political reason, nothing unusual for this city.

This meeting was covered by Daryl Nerl, now a freelancer for the Morning Call.  Nerl was Pawlowski's first and last supporter. As the full time Allentown beat reporter for the paper in 2005, his coverage of that election was notably biased for Pawlowski. When Mike Fleck closed his office and fled Allentown, Nerl was in his employ promoting Pawlowski.  His assignment to cover Pawlowski related news is ill-advised, nothing unusual for this paper.

photocredit: WFMZ-TV/ 69 News

Rumble In South Whitehall

In real estate no good deed goes unpunished. The farm on the corner of Cedar Crest Blvd. and Walbert Avenue watched the surrounding area develop into houses, a shopping plaza and office park. Now that the owners finally want to develop their parcel, the neighbors are in an uproar. When the municipal building was too small to hold a public meeting on the topic, it was switched to a school auditorium. The protestors have the usual complaints about traffic congestion and overcrowded schools. As a property rights advocate, I believe that the owners have the same rights to develop their land as did all the adjoining complainers. The topic of proper local government is what brings us to this post.

According to The Morning Call, an elected township commissioner told the large crowd that he agrees with them that the project, as designed, would be too much of an imposition on the township. I believe that his crowd pandering had a political motivation, and he was acting improperly as a legislator. Furthermore, as a political gesture he stated that the entire township should have been invited,  rather than just the adjoining neighbors. Understand that he appoints the planning commission and the zoners, who have jurisdiction over such matters. That public meeting was not the place for his opinion, although in South Whitehall the commissioners do have the final say.

There is however another topic on which he could properly express himself. The voters of South Whitehall voted to preserve Wehr's Dam. He and his fellow commissioners have been absolutely silent on their intentions and plans about the dam, and are allowing the Wildlands Conservancy to lobby the state for condemnation.

Small local government at its worse.

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