O'Connell Sells The Myth

O'Connell's editorial in the paper starts out with usual political patter. He credits himself with increasing public safety by hiring more policemen and fireman, fair enough. However, as his sermon drones on, it becomes less credible. He associates his mayorship with Reilly's construction. He concludes by completely buying into the deception that the Allentown Myth is reality.

To quote City Center President and CEO J.B Reilly from a story in this newspaper, over the past five years, no other city in the nation has “experienced this amount of development or seen this kind of transformation.”

What Reilly, The Morning Call and now O'Connell don't reveal is the reason for all this development; The construction is being financed by diverted state tax dollars, in a one of a kind state program called the NIZ. It allows a developer (J.B. Reilly) to use all the state taxes generated by payroll, sales or whatever, to pay the debt service on the new buildings. With this unique arrangement, of course he continues to build.

Unfortunately for every other community in the valley and the state, all these new businesses are simply poached from surrounding communities...There has not been one actual new employer brought into this mix. With no new employers, and the taxes from the relocated ones being used for Reilly's new construction, the citizens of Pennsylvania are on the hook for the diverted taxes.

Pawlowski's Popularity

My recent post about the Morning Call and Ed Pawlowski, while not receiving comments here on the blog,* had a large response on facebook. Several group members expressed sympathy for the former mayor. They each thought that his sentence was too harsh, and some even believed that he was a great mayor. In each case they cited personal favors that he had done for them or their family. While they appreciated those favors, they ignored the fact that Pawlowski cheated the taxpayers by choosing vendors by their contribution to him, rather than on the merit of their bids and proposals.

When Pawlowski was reelected for the fourth time in November of 2017, after being indicted on 47 counts of corruption, I attributed his victory mostly to Hispanics, the demographic he aggressively courted during the campaign. None of the Pawlowski supporters referred to in the above paragraph are Hispanic. In 2017 I attributed his victory to low information voters. It seems he was also elected by low expectation voters. If you combine these two subgroups, Allentown's political future is discouraging. 

The glitter of the new buildings, and a few concerts at the arena are apparently enough for current Allentown. The time may be approaching when molovinsky on allentown may need to find a new primary topic....Even a cynic like me needs to see some future to write about.

* most people seem to prefer commenting anonymously,  an option not offered on this blog.

photocredit:The Morning Call/Pawlowski, lawyer and supporters.

The Barbershops of Allentown's Past

I was never a frequent patron, but one of my reoccurring photographic interests was barbershops. Although Allentown now has more barbershops than ever, mine are from a different era. Some of the shops still exist, although the name and clientele has changed. Shown above is the former K&K, on S. 6th Street.*

All photos on this blog will enlarge when clicked.

ADDENDUM: This post first appeared on this blog in 2013. With the proliferation of many local history facebook groups, including my own Allentown Chronicles, I see much subject matter I covered years ago now being repeated by others.  So, even at the risk of seeming less than original, I still repost older images for the benefit of new readers. Best Wishes for the new year.
* my photograph is from 1996.  The building no longer exists.

Myths From The Morning Call

For a few years I was a regular contributor to the Morning Call editorial page. People often tell me that they miss readings my pieces. I reply that they will only see my name now when I die, or if I get arrested. Beyond the loss to my ego, my banning from the paper has some consequence to the public knowing the full story on several topics.

The public is certainly never told about the sacred cows that the paper protects. They're not told about the Wildlands Conservancy subverting the Wehr's Dam Referendum. They're not told about the relationship between Reilly, the hospital and the NIZ. And they continue the myth that Pawlowski had something to do with the Hamilton Street revitalization.

Ed Pawlowksi’s story was, by the dictionary definition, a Greek tragedy. The essential element was there: A protagonist reaches for the heights but is undone by a fatal flaw. In the former Allentown mayor’s case, the flaw, by all accounts, was hubris. Having ruled city hall as the long-struggling city finally mounted a comeback, Pawlowski wanted to move on to bigger things — a U.S. Senate seat or the governor’s office. The necessity of paying for those ambitions led him into crooked dealings that ended with conviction on scores of corruption charges and a 15-year federal prison sentence. The Morning Call

Pawlowski had nothing, what so ever, to do with Allentown's comeback. The new construction is a result of the NIZ, a very special state law which only applied to Allentown, which allows a developer to use state taxes for his mortgage debt service. The law was crafted by local powerful state senator Pat Browne, and has benefitted his life-long friend J.B. Reilly. Pawlowski, knowing that he no involvement with the NIZ, but realizing that the paper wasn't spelling out the story, decided to ride the misconception out of Allentown, to either Harrisburg or Washington.

Reilly now owns the Morning Call building. The paper is written by a skeleton staff and printed in Jersey City. An aging blogger tells the true story to a select internet audience, hoping that his name in the paper's obituary column isn't forthcoming too soon.

A Supremo Christmas

While I've never shown much enthusiasm for J.B. Reilly's attempt to revitalize downtown through his high end shops, neither has the marketplace. Christmas day, I visited the new Supremo Market on 7th Street, occupying the former Levine's Fabric store. The market was attractive, large, well stocked and mobbed.

There is an old saying that there are more nickels than quarters. I suppose that it should be no surprise that in a city populated by a large percentage of low income people, a well run store geared for that demographic can prosper. What's interesting is that while the taxpayer ponied up a $Billion dollars, so far, for the NIZ, the thriving Supremo costs us nothing. While the Morning Call writes one promotion after another for Reilly's portfolio, there is nothing said about this real success story in Allentown.

Let me provide some history.  Once upon a time,  that was the busiest block on 7th Street. The building was built as a Sears and Roebucks in the early 1950's, using a plan duplicated in other cities. The store did well competing with the three local department stores, and was first to go suburban.

Talking of history, some may notice a new item on this blog's sidebar. It's a picture of a Mack Truck Magazine cover, which was printed each month. I have titled the new insertion, LOCAL HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE.  Hopefully, the local political shenanigans will slow down, so I can devote more posts to our rich history.

stock photo from Supremo website

above post reprinted every December since 2015 

Faith Baptist Church (Allentown)

There is a small church on the 200 block of N. 12th Street, which is served by a humble man, Pastor Robert Hargrove. Pastor Hargrove has been ministering to his flock at Faith Baptist Church for over 40 years. Years ago, when I managed buildings in the neighborhood, I had the privilege of meeting the pastor and seeing his concern for others. While his congregation was small, his outreach in the neighborhood was large. In addition to running a summer program for local kids, his church door was always open for those in distress.

While his formal congregation was mostly black, it seemed that most of his outreach helped the poorer whites in the surrounding blocks.

Over the years he kindly allowed me to conduct a few community meetings at the church, on topics such as Fairview Cemetery and the removal of bus stops.

While the large churches with the politically astute leaders get most our attention,  many people in need often turn to the small neighborhood churches, such as Faith Baptist.

The Coptic Church Of Alexandria

The Church and Theology School in Alexandria was established by the Apostle Mark in 60AD. Most of the early converts were common Egyptians who spoke Coptic. Although Christians became the majority before the Arab invasion in 636, by the 12th century they were the minority. The concept of monasteries in Christianity was started by the Coptics in the deserts of Egypt. Currently, the Coptics are threatened by transitions in Egypt, let us pray for their safety.

photograph of St. Marks Coptic Church in Alexandria, Egypt.

reprinted from previous years

A Jewish Christmas Card

Many Jews experience some conflict during the Christmas Season. This is essentially a Christian nation, and to totally ignore that reality could be perceived as rude. Although Abe Simon proudly wore the Star of David on his boxing trunks in NYC, he also sent out Christmas cards to his non-Jewish associates. Simon, in 1942, was the last Jew to fight for the Heavyweight Championship of the World.

reprinted from previous years

molovinsky on allentown is produced every weekday, year-round.