Ce-Ce Goes Through The Tunnel

When Ce-Ce started her involvement in Allentown years ago, I was a more than a supporter, I was a booster. I blogged about her several times.  Likewise, when she decided to run for city council, I supported her.  Recently, with her support of the Maingate Noise Exemption Zone, I became somewhat disillusioned.

I watched Ce-Ce's youtube before she marched with the local BLM that Saturday, when Allentown had just seen the Sacred Heart video taken by the passerby, which was somewhat out of context.  As both a council person and a woman of color, she was conflicted. Her conflict was understandable, her course of action is the problem.  Even when the full video became available, and the policeman was exonerated,  she remained entrenched with those challenging the city's police.

Others members of Allentown City Council are not conflicted. A resolution of censure was drafted toward her and Josh Siegel, because of things said and done while they actively participated in that protest march.  This weekend she participated in additional BLM protests, in Palmerton and Emmaus, even though there have been no incidents in either one of those communities.  A member of city council should understand that she represents the city,  especially with our neighboring municipalities.

In  facebook posts by the local BLM activists, we are told that if you support the Blue, you're against the BLM, it's one or the other.  I would hope that our city council members who are supporting the local BLM  are not against Allentown's Blue.  At any rate,  when Cc-Ce went through the tunnel this weekend to Palmerton, she left my support behind.

photo: Make The Road congratulates Ce-Ce last November

Police Support In Allentown

Since the BLM became active in Allentown with calls to defund the police,  there has been a demonstration outside city hall at each council meeting, never mind that the council meetings are closed to the public because of Covid-19.  Wednesday night, for the first time, there was a demonstration in support of the police.

With first hand knowledge of how much Allentown Police have helped in complex situations, psychiatric nurse Danielle Scott organized the Back The Blue demonstration.  Also joining the group in support of the police was a motorcycle club.

I'm a psych nurse and rely pretty heavily on law enforcement to take custody of our residents for 302 petitions when they are at their very worst- angry, paranoid, psychotic, decompensated, violent, and a danger to themselves or others. These officers respond with care and compassion.... Danielle Scott

These are trying times. The virus has reduced the earned income and other revenue streams for the city.  Allentown is borrowing $16 million to cover the revenue shortfall.  The police force is down from the recommended and previous staffing levels. While I'm sure the police department appreciated the show of support, hopefully it also reminded city council that most city residents do not want to see the police department further depleted.

photo courtesy of Janet Keshl

Enid Santiago and Emma Tropiano

Readers of this blog know that for the last two days I posted about Enid Santiago, and her loss in the June 2nd primary election to Peter Schweyer.  Although Santiago lost by 55 votes, she has been claiming election fraud and corruption. The county election board granted her a hearing yesterday to consider her complaints.  Center stage, as mentioned in previous posts, was Ev Bickford darkening some ovals that were too faint for the scanner to read. Santiago was also complaining of several people, including her mother, who were turned away from voting. Santiago explained that Puerto Ricans use hyphenated and/or double names and/or multiple surnames, and that the poll workers should allow for every possible combination. It appeared as if the board entertained every possible irregularity that she could throw at the wall, and with each subsequent complaint becoming more frivolous, they allowed her lawyer to drone on for five hours.

In 1997 Emma Tropiano lost the Democratic primary by one vote. Although she was very upset, and pursued appropriate challenges, she made no allegations of stealing an election by systematic rigging, fraud, and corruption.  Worse yet for Allentown's future, is the cast of so called leaders who support Santiago's failure to accept that she lost the election.  Even the local Republican party, ever trying to ingratiate themselves closer with the hispanic community,  petitioned the DA to investigate irregularities on her behalf.

At the end of the hearing Ev Bickford was sacrificed on the alter of wokeness by the Election Board,  with their recommendation that she be investigated by the District Attorney and the Penna. Attorney General for violations of the election code.

If Chief Election Clerk Tim Benyo thought he had a problem getting people to work the polls for the primary, wait until November.
 
The future of local politics in Allentown looks indeed bleak.

Bernie O'Hare also posts on the hearing

Enid Santiago's Continuing Campaign

Although the annual Puerto Rican Day Parade in Allentown was cancelled this year because of the coronavirus, a short notice, alternative event was organized for this past Sunday.  Billed as Puerto Rican Day March and Gathering, it started at 10th and Hamilton and proceeded to center square.

Among the event's co-hosts was Enid Santiago, pictured above wearing the black tee-shirt in the center.  She was featured in yesterday's post on the contested state representative race.  While I was initially disturbed to see nobody wearing a mask for the group photo,  promotion for the event did encourage masks.

While the Lehigh County Election Board formally considers her complaint about election fraud this morning, Santiago has organized a corresponding demonstration in front of the government center.  She is not going gently away.

The photograph above was taken by the photographer/videographer Director Hitman VSF,  and shared on several facebook pages.

Blogger Bernie O'Hare also has a related post this morning.

Republicans Ask DA To Investigate Santiago-Schweyer Primary

Say what you will about Everett Bickford, but no one can deny he's colorful. Years ago his alter ego was Apples The Clown. He also was a nondenominational wedding minister whose "Sapphire" package cost $100. In recent years, he or she often wears a dress and prefers to be called Erika. Occasionally, when the mood strikes him, he wears pants and becomes Everett again. Everett, or if you prefer, Erika, is also an election judge. During the June 2 primary, he was caught darkening some pale circles on the recent paper primary ballots. Bickford contended that he was only darkening those circles already inadequately filled in by voters. But some say he was darkening them for just one of the candidates, incumbent State Rep. Pete Schweyer. Enid Santiago, his opponent, lost the race by 55 votes and wants a new election. And now, the county Republican party wants Lehigh County DA Jim Martin to investigate.

I have known Everett (Erika) a long time. He was one of those who stood up for minority merchants on Hamilton Street in 2007 when LANTA summarily eliminated several stops that essentially ruined their businesses.

Republicans claim their sole motivation is to insure voter integrity, regardless of who the candidates are, or even to what party they belong. I suppose a cynic might wonder if they feel that Santiago would be a weaker opponent against their candidate come November, except that there is none.

No Republican is running in the race.

It is my impression that Election Chief Clerk Tim Benyo runs a tight office in Lehigh County. However, I suppose that the process can never suffer from too much scrutiny.

But be careful what you wish for. I've been hearing ugly rumors about this race. The parties spreading these stories are unwilling to speak on the record, so I am unwilling to repeat them. But they have nothing to do with Everett or Erika. If the rumors are true, this story will continue. 

Blogger's Note: This story was a co-written by fellow blogger Bernie O'Hare.

photo: Ev Bickford performing wedding ceremony

The Meek Fail To Speak At Fairgrounds

Although I spoke out against the Noise Exemption Zone for the Maingate nightclub at city council,  I decided not to attend the LCB hearing at the club itself. That decision was based on the fact that I would be again speaking for people who were still too meek to do so for themselves.

Candida Affa lobbied the 19th Street Civic Theater not to oppose. The West End Alliance also didn't say one word about the noise exemption zone. When two such groups won't speak out, let them endure the consequence of their timidness.... and there will be consequences. I do however feel bad for the numerous elderly living in the neighborhood. The city failed to inform the neighborhood, and the Morning Call's reach is less and less.

If the zone is put into effect, the Maingate will become one loud place. For those elderly living nearby with hearing impairments, they'll be able to feel the beat.

The livability of the neighborhood still has a couple of chances. The LCB must approve the zone. Although almost no opposers showed up, perhaps the LCB saw through the charade. Furthermore, the Maingate license is still under review, because of its previous history of noise complaints.

For the city to have lobbied for a Disruption And Noise Zone is almost beyond belief.  Candida herself previously advocated for a nuisance ordinance, after the shootings on lower Hamilton Street.
If everything goes the Maingate's way, they will no longer be under the LCB noise levels. Although the city says that they will use the same noise level, it's naive to believe that the same politics which sponsored a special exemption zone for them, won't likewise turn a deaf ear to any complaints.

Hootchy Nights At The Allentown Fair

Morning Call columnist Bill White had a piece earlier in the week where he lamented that  Bobo the dunking clown was no longer at the fair. Although that's about as funky as it got for Bill in his era,  we older Allentonians remember much hotter nights at the fairgrounds. Up to the late sixties the fair had girly shows. I'm going back to the era of Gooding's Million Dollar Midway and Benny's Bingo. I'm going back to three midways packed between the Farmer's Market and Chew Street. I'm going back to when the fair only started after Labor Day.

I mentioned in one of my previous fair posts that Fred Schoenk and I made and sold printed t-shirts at the fairs during high School. At the Kutztown Fair we were hired by the burlesque show owner to letter a new banner for his show tent...as high school boys we would have paid him for the experience.

reprinted from September of 2018

photocredit:molovinsky...Black rock and roll review with strippers, 1969 Allentown Fair

Wildlands Conservancy Responsible For Fish Kill

reprinted from July of 2014

In their indiscriminate haste to remove all dams in the Lehigh Valley, the Wildlands Conservancy is responsible for the massive fish kill this week at the Fish Hatchery. When General Trexler had the trout nursery expanded, they also revised, just upstream,  a small dam, to insure and regulate a water supply for the nursery. Last fall the Wildlands gleefully demolished that dam, removing an important component of the trout nursery. Although the heavy storm Monday night occurred hundreds of times in the last century, this time the dam wasn't there to regulate the fast moving water. Over 1,400 fish were flooded out of the holding pools and died. Last summer, I watched the Wildlands Conservancy give a power point presentation to Allentown City Council on dam removals. When I invited City Council to Lehigh Parkway to defend the Robin Hood Dam, the Conservancy crashed my event, and asked the council members instead to come with them to the trout nursery dam, to see their wonderful plans. I hope yesterday that the Conservancy had the decency to help pick up the dead fish.

The lesson here is that not all dams are without purpose.

The Morning Call article on mcall, Tuesday afternoon, contained a paragraph describing how the fish hatchery workers believe that the dam removal factored into the fish kill. That paragraph was edited out of both the hard and soft copy editions Tuesday evening.  I have no doubt that that the deletion was done to shield The Wildlands Conservancy.

Reggie Rickard an Allentown resident who has been volunteering at the hatchery for 45 years said the fish kill is probably the worst in the hatchery's recent history. Initially, he estimated as many as 2,000 may have been killed, but the final tally was about 1,400.

Fish have been lost in other heavy rains storms, but Rickard said this was a major fish kill. He and other volunteers who joined city workers in collecting and counting the corpses Tuesday believe the death rate may have been exacerbated by recent upstream dam removals on small streams.

photo:April Bartholomew/The Morning Call/July15,2014

ADDENDUM: Above I have combined and reprinted two posts from July of 2014. The fish hatchery again experienced a massive fish kill in this recent storm of August 2018. The former fish hatchery dam, and its removal in connection to the fish kills, has been removed from the Morning Call archives and the memory of its news' reporters. However, this blog knows the truth, and so will my readers.

reprint from July of 2014

UPDATE JULY 23, 2020: The Morning Call continues to protect the Wildlands Conservancy, and will not report about the Conservancy's back-channel with Pa. DEP to demolish Wehr's Dam, nor will allow any opinion pieces about it.