When Beauty Ruled Allentown Parks

When I grew up, beauty was the hallmark of the Allentown Park System. The parks were featured by picture postcard makers, and were sent out across the country by visitors who came to marvel at our unique park system. This is not to say that they weren't played in and enjoyed by the residents. Kids passed footballs while their fathers fished along the willow lined creek edges. As I grew up living above Lehigh Parkway in Little Lehigh Manor, I can testify that hundreds of kids played in the parks all day. The parks were designed for both beauty and enjoyment.

Last weekend hundreds of tree saplings were densely planned along the creek at the rose garden. This was done to permanentize the Phony Riparian Buffer. I call it phony because in Allentown the storm water is piped directly into the streams, bypassing the buffers anyway. All that the buffers do is deny both access and visual beauty of the creeks to the public. This access and beauty was the main design feature of the Allentown Park System, and it is why the parks were placed along the streams.

The buffers are promoted by the Wildland Conservancy,  a local sacred cow which I stand alone against when defending our traditional park system.  On Friday I had my first talk with the park director since the man who hired her got convicted.  I realize that I will never succeed in having the stream banks fully restored as they were designed to be.  It is my revised mission to get sections of the banks kept mowed,  where a father might show his daughter the beauty of the creek on a spring day.

Annual NIZ Sleight Of Hand

Yesterday The Morning Call came out with their annual NIZ sleight of hand report.  It states that the NIZ is a success, because in addition to generating the taxes that center city paid previously to the state,  it earned an additional $53 million, which was used to pay $20 million for the arena and $33 million to J.B. Reilly's privately owned, but publicly financed real estate empire.

This year's report is written by a different reporter,  because the previous one spun so well he is now working for the tax funded county development agency.

What the report doesn't tell you is astounding.  Not one job or tax dollar is new to Pennsylvania.  All the businesses were poached from elsewhere in the state, many from South Whitehall.  A large percentage of that money isn't from jobs at all, but actually from the cigarette tax, which previously was used for  CHIP,  the children's health insurance program.

Understand that the sleight of hand report was written in the Morning Call building,  now owned by Reilly,  by a reporter whose own states taxes now go to Reilly.  Finding truth in this valley is becoming more challenging.  Don't assume it's in the newspaper,  or even elsewhere in the local blogosphere.

Allentown As The All American City

To we who are native Allentonians, the recent announcement of Allentown being nominated as an All American City once again is amusing. Last time we received that designation(in 1975) there were real things to hang that hat on, but now there are just facades embellished by press agents.

The requirement states that To apply, municipalities must show that they include all segments of their population in community decision-making, including diverse ethnic, racial, socio-economic and age groups, according to the National Civic League. The city must also be able to show “demonstrable, significant and measurable” achievements from the last five years.  Needless to say the city is offering the rebuilt Hamilton Street (NIZ) as its entry for the contest.  I can tell you that the public, and certainly any ethnic public, had no input what- so- ever in the NIZ. I met with the former merchants of Hamilton Street when they were being bullied by strawbuyers to sell their lifetime of work in short order,  while being threatened with eminent domain.

Our local politicians are beaming about Allentown again being nominated. They will send a delegation to Denver when the winners are announced in June.  I suspect that they won't pick me to represent the city.

A Tale Of Two Bridges

In the mid 50's, it was a big deal to us southsiders when they opened the new 15th Street Bridge. Prior to that, we had to either go over the 8th Street Bridge, or use the old stone arch bridge by the fertilizer plant. The fertilizer plant is long gone, but the old stone bridge is still there. Schreibers Bridge was built in 1828, and rehabilitated in 1920. The new 15th Street bridge was built in 1957, and is now restricted to south bound only, until which time it can be completely replaced. So the new bridge lasted 54 years, while the old stone bridge is still in use, 182 years later.

Recently, I urged Donny Cunningham not to replace the stone arch bridge on Reading Road. His project manager, Glenn Solt, insists that the historic bridge must be replaced. He stated that stone arch bridges look nice on the outside, but inside, they're filled with "crap." Thankfully, Don and Glenn didn't target Schreibers Bridge, because we're really going to need it with the new 15th Street Bridge out of commission. Hopefully, they will reconsider about stealing our history on Reading Road.

above reprinted from November of 2010  

ADDENDUM APRIL 25, 2018:   The 15th Street Bridge has been replaced.  Historic Schreiber's Bridge will now be closed to repair the north side entrance wing, which was damaged by a truck during the new, new bridge replacement.  I did manage to save the Reading Road Bridge.  Hopefully, I can now prevail upon  the new mayor, Ray O'Connell, to save the endangered Monumental Double Stairway in Lehigh Parkway.

Congressional Candidates Night In Bethlehem

Brith Sholom, the largest Jewish congregation in Bethlehem, is holding a conversation with the 7th District Congressional candidates tomorrow evening at 7:00 p.m..  Although all Democrats and the Libertarian are expected to attend, both the Republican candidates had prior commitments.  Marty Nothstein will be at the Lehigh County Commissioner meeting. The candidate's views, especially in regard to Middle East affairs, will be a topic of special interest.   Members of the general public are welcome to attend.
                                                 
                         WEDNESDAY, APRIL 25, 2018, 7:00p.m.
                                    Congregation Brith Sholom
                          1190 West Macada Road, Bethlehem, Pa.

Morning Call Editorials

In his column yesterday, Lehigh Valley congressional candidate Marty Nothstein owes League of Women Voters an apology, Bill White took Marty Nothstein to task for dodging the League Of Women Voters debate. This is the League's debate focused on the new 7th Congressional District primary, which invited all the candidates. White's complaint against Nothstein's decision is fair in its own right. However, Bill White's column is now the de facto political editorials for the paper, and the paper's record is questionable, at best.

For example, in 2005, although I was the first independent to run for mayor in two decades at the time, the Morning Call excluded me from their sponsored debate with Muhlenberg College, televised by Channel 39. Every day for two weeks they promoted the debate, running a quarter page photograph of both Pawlowski and Heydt in the paper. The paper's circulation was considerably larger back then, and those debate advertisements essentially told the public that there were only two candidates running for office, not three. They justified that action by claiming a poll by Mulhenberg showed my support below their threshold for inclusion. At the time the paper's other columnist, Paul Carpenter, ran a column about the inequality of that decision.  I can appreciate that my complaint sounds egocentric, but I assure you that over the years the paper has marginalized many other  candidates as well.

I can accept that Bill White now writes the editorials for the paper, but he should know that at least one local blogger will scrutinize them.

Spongebaths For The Homeless At Starbucks

Starbucks, in their yearning to be politically correct,  has probably irrevocably degraded their brand, at least in the urban markets.   The policy of restricting restroom use to paying customers is standard procedure in large urban areas.  A white middle class woman told me that she was denied use of the restroom for not being a paying patron at the same Philadelphia Starbucks at the center of the controversy.

Apparently, it is a Starbucks CEO tradition to let PC race ahead of common sense.  Last year they promised to hire 8,000 immigrants.  While nobody is waiting for the immigrants before they buy their latte,  the homeless will start availing themselves of the restrooms.  While my liberal readers, all six of them, will welcome the better restroom facilities for the homeless,  their tune may change next time they use the bathroom in a Philadelphia Starbucks.

If Starbucks' corporate reaction to the incident wasn't enough,  now the Philadelphia Police Commissioner is walking back his previous support of the arresting officers.  He has apologized to the two men arrested, who refused to leave as instructed by the responding officers.  While only reinforcing victim mentality,  I don't see anything productive in these reactions.

photocredit: Bryant/Philadelphia Inquirer

Dent Turbocharges Congressional Election

With Charlie Dent announcing that he is resigning within weeks,  chances are that a short term incumbent will be running in the November election for the new 7th Congressional District.  With the primary elections coming up in about a month,  the winners will most likely be chosen to compete in  the special election which Governor Wolf will call for after Dent's formal resignation.  The winner of the special election will complete Dent's current term in the 15th District.

Pundits of the cynical nature will assume that Dent is resigning to enhance the chances of his chosen successor to win the November general election.  As it stands right now, I believe that Nothstein and Morganelli are their respective party favorites.

Dent's resignation, for whatever reason,  will not be popular locally in the short term.  However,  he has served his constituents on both the state and federal level for many years,  and he will be appreciated for that long service.