Rapper Fabolous, The Aftermath

Sometimes a blogpost has an afterlife, and yesterday's post on the Fabolous concert seems to fit that bill. Feedback on facebook was extensive, and Fabulous himself used his page to explain his short appearance. Seems as if he was restricted to about a 20 minute show, in order to prevent the venue from charging the promoter a surcharge.  He showed grace about his show being shorted, and appreciation for his fans.

My post yesterday was criticized for repeating things reported in The Morning Call,  which referred to the audience as unruly, both inside and outside the arena.  Others found my post racially insensitive, for repeating what they referred to as stereotypes. There was pushback against me using the word riot in my blog title.

Needless to say, I do not determine booking criteria for the PPL Arena. While the Morning Call article might have that effect, this blog does not,  despite my illusions of grandeur.  However, what does occur to me is that those who defend the crowd behavior as normative are doing this genre of music no favor.

photo of Fabulous performing at PPL Arena

Allentown's Hip Hop Rap Riot

According to news sources the hip hop rap concert at PPL arena over the weekend was quite a raucous event.  Audience members were supposedly climbing over the seats to get pricer seats than they paid for.  The headliner was Fabolous.  After the event a street brawl erupted outside at 7th and Hamilton, which resulted in eight arrests, after the Allentown Police called for backup from surrounding police departments.

For a city which wants to make that area a dining destination, perhaps such street theater should be avoided?

The Morning Call actually reviewed the concert as if it was a cultural event.  That's like reviewing the clothing fashions worn by gang shooters.  Anybody who buys and reads newspapers could care less about what the reviewer thought about the performance. The arena is financed with our state taxes, taxes which have to be made up with more taxes.  Why would management rent to an outside promoter and allow such a high risk act?  Were they kowtowing to political correctness?  The paper then ran a subsequent article, outlining five things that went wrong with the show.  There was actually a sixth problem,  they should have never allowed the show in the first place.

photocredit: WFMZ/Channel69

Post Pawlowski Allentown

Living here in Post Pawlowski Allentown, with the drama over,  is more relaxing.  Although Ed Pawlowski was entitled to the best defense his former campaign fund turned defense fund could afford, there was a little too much Jack McMahon for my taste.  McMahon was here previously to defend Pawlowski's police chief's son.

Pawlowski is scheduled to be sentenced in late June.  While I certainly agree that he should be on unsecured bail and is no flight risk,  he is a home risk.  It's a burden to the public to be submitted to his continuing social media presence, where the only remorse expressed is that he cannot continue to lead Allentown forward.

While forced to surrender his fifth floor office at City Hall, Pawlowski continues to hold office on facebook, where both he and his uninformed followers still proclaim that he loves Allentown, and that he revitalized it. They both ignore the facts that the NIZ happen because of others, and that he wanted to ride that confusion out of town, either to Harrisburg or Washington.  The only thing that he can hope now to get from those places is a pardon.

The Rise And Fall Of Ed Pawlowski

I may know a little more about Ed Pawlowski than others, because in 2005 as an independent, I ran against him as the third person on the ticket.  Before working for Afflerbach,  Pawlowski worked at the Alliance For Building Communities,  which is dedicated to low income housing.

As Pawlowski gave the same speech to every city group during that campaign,  he didn't seem terribly insightful to me.  His campaign power point presentation, night after night, actually became painful to endure.  I also noticed that he injected that little half laugh into his replies,  intended to connote sincerity.

After being elected, he practiced cronyism to a level not previously seen in Allentown.  Jobs and positions became anything but merit-based at City Hall.  During a candidate night at the NAACP, he pointed out into the audience and told certain people that they would be hired if he was elected.  Helping him succeed with this pandering was the Morning Call reporter assigned to the election, who never reported on these incidences.  Every article was written to make Pawlowski shine.

Although City Council earlier in 2005 had rejected the concept of a managing director in favor of keeping a strong mayor form of government,  they allowed Pawlowski to hire his own managing director soon after being elected.  This person,  like Pawlowski, was not from Allentown.  They combined the Park and Recreation Departments,  and hired someone with a recreation background from Penn State. The next three park directors all had the identical background.

Pawlowski's resignation speech delivered yesterday afternoon repeated all the misconceptions fostered unto his supporters by both himself and The Morning Call;  It is the notion that Allentown is better off now than before he became mayor.  Certainly there are new buildings on Hamilton Street.  Certainly J.B. Reilly is much better off than before the NIZ, which Pawlowski had nothing do to with, but is Allentown really better off?  I think not.   In yesterday's speech, Pawlowski mentioned that he rejuvenated the parks.  Although he purchased a catalog of plastic playground equipment, the parks are much worse off now. One pool has closed since he became mayor, and another is slated to close. The iconic WPA structures are barely hanging on. Truth be told, the little work done on them is because of my efforts. Besides neglecting our traditional park system, he abused the former small merchants of Hamilton Street. He concentrated all his efforts in center city, ignoring both south and east Allentown. Although he and The Morning Call may like to think that his administration was accomplished, I think that he was one of the worst mayors in Allentown's history.

Students of this blog may realize that although I criticized his park and other policies from the beginning, I never accused him of pay to play. However, after following the trial, there was no doubt that he was guilty as charged. His resignation becomes official at 5:00pm today. Although I don't drink, I'm almost tempted to go to happy hour tonight.

Park Follies And Misappropriations

Over the years this blog and myself have established credibility and expertise on Allentown's traditional park system and the WPA. I must report what I consider to be a major shenanigan by the mayor. $1.3 million dollars was taken to purchase two heavy industrial areas, to supposedly add to the park system. This $million plus dollars was taken from the water/sewage lease, which is being used as the mayor's discretionary fund, instead of the dedicated pension relief,  promised at the time. $950,000.00 was used to buy the parcel at Union and Basin Streets, near the city sewage plant. This is one of the oldest industrial areas in the city, and certainly not needed for more park land. Allentown has not been able to maintain the existing park land, or the features within it. The Fountain Park Pool has been abandoned, and the WPA structures are crumbling. The other just purchased parcel is the old fertilizer plant location,  along Martin Luther King Dr., west of the crumbling Schreibers Bridge. We have an administration with no memory or knowledge of Allentown's past. Anybody who knew what went on at the fertilizer/rendering plant, would not want their grandchildren playing there. The city's rationale for these purchases is to expand the biking paths and connect the parks. That's the folly, and now the misappropriations. Allentown has supposedly allocated money to engineer the repair of the leaning WPA wall in Lehigh Parkway. I know why the wall leans. Years ago, the stone shoulder between the park entrance and wall was blacktoped. As cars and city trucks drive around the curve, pressure is exerted against the wall. That strip of asphalt needs to be removed, and the stone buffer restored. The problem with the engineering study is that it's the third time it has been appropriated. In the last two budgets money was actually budgeted to repair the wall, now the process begins again. What happen to the previous appropriations? Must molovinsky on allentown now also establish expertise in forensic accounting?

reprinted from June 26, 2014

UPDATE JULY2015. The wall collapsed in Lehigh Parkway, closing the traditional entrance to the park.. Over the past several years I had met with two park directors and the city engineer, to no avail, trying to save the wall. Recently, I have reported a problem to the current park director about the Union Terrace WPA structure, that needs immediate attention. The new parcels, rather than connecting the parks,  are connecting the neglect.

UPDATE MARCH 8, 2018: Local news sources are reporting that Mayor Pawlowski is expected to resign today.  If this welcome news will have a positive effect on the park system remains to be seen. A potential mayoral contender told me that if he were in charge, I'd be working for the park department, planning WPA renovations.  I never asked for a job, nor do I want one.  However, when I did ask City Council to appoint me as a volunteer liaison on WPA matters,  I was met with silence.  A park employee told me that there is significant money in the new budget for WPA repairs.  Again, that is nothing new. How it will be appropriated remains to be seen.  There is one thing for sure;  Whoever the new mayor might be,  whatever the park budget might be,  my advocacy for the WPA structures will continue.

Storm Over Allentown

With the pending heavy snow today,  City Council has postponed tonight's meeting which might have approved Tom Muller as Managing Director.  More importantly,  Pawlowski's appearance in front of the judge on Friday has also been called off.  There was speculation that Pawlowski might have resigned as mayor at that appearance,  depending on what demands were imposed by the court.

After speaking to several city employees in the last couple days,  I can tell you that these storm related postponements are salt on the city's wounds.  Morale has bottomed out and is only going lower.  The word paralysis was used.   I do not mean to imply that the snow will be not be plowed, or other essential services not performed.  Rather, strategic planning is on hold, with no one at the top to give the go ahead.

While Pawlowski may still receive some personal empathy from a few former supporters,  everybody has requested that he resign from office.   HIs continued refusal to do so illustrates how truly superficial is his regard for Allentown.  

1983 record snow storm in Allentown, Morning Call photo

Pawlowski As A Charlatan

Since Pawlowski's conviction last Thursday I have read numerous articles where people,  even a juror, think that his only fault and mistake was running for Governor and Senator.  If not for needing huge sums of contributions for those campaigns,  he would have remained the savior of Allentown.  While some of these people are under-informed, others are misinformed, and some are actually part of Allentown's ethical problem. Worse, even an article by a Morning Call reporter repeats this nonsense; Allentown residents thought so highly of Pawlowski that last year,... They re-elected him to a fourth term. He only won because it was a three way race, with his support coming from the most uninformed of the voters.

The extensive new construction in Allentown is the result a unique state incentive plan called the NIZ.  While it is occurring in Allentown because of State Senator Pat Browne,  Pawlowski had little more to do with it than you or me.  Because he is mayor,  he was allowed to cut the ribbons,  and claim credit for the new construction,  but it was a gross distortion of the truth.  He did however  hope to capitalize on that distortion and get elected to higher office as a result of the confusion.

Using distortion and confusion comes naturally to Pawlowski.  He never had respect for a level playing field,  and always was willing to step on people to achieve his objectives.  Those who think that his faith based work was sincere,  should remember Jim and Tammy Baker.  Before he had bigger targets to leverage,  he played the small fries off each other.  Over his first few years he took the Hamilton Street cleaning contract away from one small fry to give it to a bigger small fry, who could influence more potential voters. Over the years his fries got bigger, but he remained a small time charlatan. Perhaps the saddest part of the trial was seeing people humiliate themselves by saying that they contributed to Pawlowski because they thought that he would make a good governor or senator.  They didn't have much choice, either humiliate themselves or confess to bribery.

The Pawlowski Aftermath

It was interesting reading the comments on facebook and elsewhere Friday morning. Proclamations of a new day and fresh start, especially by local current politicians, are amusing. I don't know one who wasn't in bed with Pawlowski at one time or another over the years. I don't know one who didn't benefit by those ties. Pawlowski specialized in developing the ties that bind. I was also amused by his sycophants who expressed sympathy to his wife; Lisa Pawlowski was very much part of the insider loop, and exerted herself against his opponents throughout his reign.

Gotta love State Representatives Schlossberg and Schweyer chiming in about moving forward from this painful chapter. They must have forgotten all the yes votes they gave Pawlowski when they served on city council.

Although I appreciated blogger Bernie O'Hare's acknowledgment that this blog first educated him about Pawlowski, I  disagree with him about Bill White occasionally questioning the mayor's motives. Bill White was silent until the FBI raided city hall in 2015.  As a columnist, he had the leeway to question the administration throughout the years. The paper's blatant promotion of the NIZ has been a journalistic compromise. The Morning Call building was included in the NIZ, even though it stood alone across the street from the district. Not only does the paper turn a blind eye toward their obvious  conflict of interest,  but Bill White actually referred to me as misguided in my criticism of the district.

Now that Pawlowski's resignation is inevitable, former supporters are climbing over each other, purporting to be reformers. Ironically, the charter rules may preclude the two most eager candidates, O'Connell and MacLean, from being eligible.  Although Nat Hyman is interested in gauging the temperature, I know back-channel that certain council members have no appetite for that idea. Charlie Thiel may well end up the default candidate, if O'Connell and MacLean are indeed blocked by the city charter.

I would hope that whoever is appointed will come to somewhat resent this blog.  Otherwise, I may not be properly fulfilling its mission.

Welcome to Molovinsky On Allentown. This blog is produced every weekday to illuminate local politics and history.  I am an independent monitor and an occasional activist.  The blog is loyal only to issues, not elected officials. Your comments are welcome and your readership is appreciated.

above photo from The Morning Call