Mapping Allentown's Past And Future

The map, partially shown above, was produced by the Nathan Nirenstein Company of Springfield, Massachusetts in 1929. His firm specialized in engineering maps of various center cities on the eastern seacoast. The map is 22X30, and expands out from 7th and Hamilton for 2 1/2 blocks east and west,  2 blocks north and south. The map includes names of both the owner of the building, and the merchant/tenant occupying the space, if different.

While numerous small banks are shown on both Hamilton and the side streets, the coming Depression surely culled that herd. Allentown City Hall and police station are still on Linden Street, while the post office is at 6th and Turner. Two large hardware stores, Young and Hersh, are on Hamilton Street.

The buildings are owned by hundreds of different people.  What will future generations think when they see a 2029 map, and all the buildings are owned by just a few people?

Smelling Roses In Allentown

When Allentown built the Rose Garden in 1929, it wasn't a good year for numerous citizens of the west end. In addition to the stock market crash, the city had condemned their land for Cedar Park and the gardens. Among the prominent families affected were Sofranscy, Laudenslager, Minnich, Oswald, Nearhaus, Heist, Wagner and the Ottos.

However, the construction served future families well... The garden and park provided one of the premier street views in Allentown.

The gardens have enchanted Allentown and its residents for ninety years. While the Allentown Park Department now puts in emphasis and budget mostly toward recreation, let us remember the value of what Harry Trexler referred to as beauty and serenity.

Disappearing Park Features

Long time readers of this blog know that one of my missions is to try and preserve the irreplaceable WPA structures, and what I consider the traditional park system infrastructure. That infrastructure suffered another loss recently, the removal of the small Cedar Beach pedestrian bridge.

The little bridge connected the picnic area with the pool for well over 70 years. Furthermore, with high weeds choking the creek bank most of the summer, it provided a glimpse of the creek for children and adults, who still value such a view.

The Allentown park system continues to put its emphasis on recreation, at the expense of charm and beauty. The future doesn't bode well for the park system of my youth, the park system of picture postcards,  the park system that was a regional destination.

park pavilion behind Cedar Beach Pool

Gag Me With A Spoon

For those who don't realize it, J.B. Reilly literally owns the Morning Call building, and the paper is his tenant. Yesterday's paper featured Reilly's new Artswalk food court on the front page.

Some of the nuggets from the article,  by the reporter....No matter what your taste buds are craving, there’s a good chance they’ll be satisfied at the Downtown Allentown Market...

From Reilly's leasing agent.... “We hope we’ve created a really fun environment where people can come and enjoy the food, their friends and family, and then stay downtown, visit some of the stores and just really enjoy all of what downtown Allentown has to offer,”  What stores would that be?

 From a food vendor ... “I was born and raised in south Allentown, so when this opportunity arose, I immediately jumped at the chance to give back to my community,”  Give back, is your food free?

From another vendor...   “My husband and I really enjoy coming to downtown Allentown because we love trying new restaurants and attending events at the PPL Center, so it just seemed like a no-brainer to add to that evolving food scene,"   Hope  there are more events scheduled at the arena in the future, than there has been so far.

My father operated a small meat market downtown on Union Street.  Each Thursday he would pay for a 4X5 inch advertisement in the Morning Call,  hoping that his ad would appear somewhere in the paper that people would see it.  Needless to say, it was never a free article on the front page.

I do wish the vendors success. Although I don't know how much Reilly made them pony up, they will be working long hours.

Morning Call photo, front page

The Poverty Banquet

Once a year CACLV celebrates local poverty with a festive banquet. Poverty has been very successful in Allentown, reaching an impressive 30% by 2017. Allentown can now boast that 100% of its student body qualify for a free lunch.

In addition to the growth in poverty, we are now spawning a crime industry. As Hasshan Batts surveys the success of CACLV, he can only be encouraged about his potential at Promise Neighborhood.... Perhaps $multi $million dollars budgets are also in his future.

While the changing socioeconomics have been bad for almost all the remaining middle class, there have been winners. Certainly the poverty has been growth for the staff at CACLV.  The void in real economic growth has provided cover for the NIZ... J. B. Reilly's real estate portfolio has blossomed.

For the remaining middle class, you have no future.  While our elected officials are chastised for such candidness, this blog remains dedicated to bluntness.

Allentown's Poverty Industry

Yesterday, a division of Allentown's poverty industry had its annual meeting, they call it Upside Allentown.  Most of the poverty business is run by Alan Jennings' Community Action Committee of Lehigh Valley. Six local institutions pony up and write off about a $million a year for Upside. The cast of characters and beneficiaries has remained the same for over two decades.

Although CACLV* provides its cast of administrators a steady job, by what yardstick do we measure its accomplishments? I would certainly hope not litter, double parking or crime!

What sustains the business is political correctness. Besides this blog, nobody would ask such questions.

Upside Allentown is administered by a division of CACLV called CADC.  Next week the mothership, CACLV, has its annual toast to poverty.

Dead At The Water

Dead in the water is an old expression. Allentown's waterfront NIZ project is dead at the water. This past week the local media reported that Jaindl has tenants lined up, but is waiting for all the pieces to be in place, before starting construction. Whoever those commercial tenants are, they sure must be flexible.

This weekend our overpaid, underworked, ghost voting state representative Mike Schlossberg was in Washington, begging for a grant for project's piece of the rail trail. He is getting better at fibbing. He actually claimed that they need the grant, so that the residents of the 1st and 6th Wards can mingle with the future tenants of Waterfront. I believe that Jaindl wants the grant, but he sure doesn't want those ward citizens mingling with his future millennials.

Talking about dead liquid, the Neuweiler building is in worse shape than ever. Even the plywood covering some of the broken windows is rotting away. If the AEDC allows one cent of tax money to be used by Ruckus to rehab that building, Scott Unger should be put in jail. That building is now beyond saving.

brewery circa 1950

I Watched The Debate

For most of my life I have been registered as an independent. Recently, Rick Santorum stated that he agrees with 90% of what Trump does, and 20% of what he says. I would change those figures to about 50% and 5%. While I think that Bill Weld has traits to support, his chances of getting on the Republican ticket aren't much better than mine.

With the above options in mind, last night I stayed up to watch the Democratic Debate. I was hoping to maybe find someone to reluctantly support.  Soon I fantasized about trap doors, so that I could pull a lever and drop some of the contestants off the stage. Then I started thinking about a dart gun, so I could tranquilize Bernie, and energize some of the others.

Toward the end of the long evening, I put on my record player and fell asleep.