The Morning Call As Justice Warrior

As is my style, yesterday's post on the Century Fund was brief. In however brief a style I care to post on this blog,  the topics are nevertheless extensively researched.  While others may have chosen to list all the beneficiaries of the fund and the amounts received, I preferred to present a condensed version, hopefully distilling the essence. While that post concerned Donald P. Miller's legacy,  today we dissect the remains of his Morning Call.

In Miller's era, reporters stayed on a beat for decades, and knew the back stories; they had institutional knowledge of Allentown.  We are now two media conglomerates away from Miller's family owned paper. The current editor in the front office assigns politically correct topics to the reporters, for a dwindling audience who could care less.

In yesterday's paper, we learn that people who live in center city own fewer houses than those in the suburbs. The article concludes that hispanics must have less opportunity here in the valley.

“It is absolutely systemic racism. Whatever the power in control decides what they want to do, they can exert their power onto others,” said Becky Bradley, executive director of the commission.

I will not comment on the article or the organizations quoted in it, or those who work in what I refer to as the poverty industry, but I will throw an insight on the fire they try to ignite.

From working in center city real estate, I can tell you that these oppressed victims are very glad to be here. They consider both the housing and quality of life immensely better than from where they came. 

Lengthwise this blog post exceeds my preferred template by far. In conclusion, I ask the paper for whom they are writing? The victims referred to in the article don't read the paper, and the suburban home owners who do, are tired of hearing endless renditions of the same drumbeat.

photocredit:Stacy Wescoe

End Of A Century

When Donald P. Miller owned and operated the Morning Call, he and a few associates more or less ran Allentown.  Fortunately, they were a benevolent oligarchy.

When he passed away, his fortune funded a trust, which has been one of the wizards behind Allentown's curtain. There are several such trusts or foundations in the valley.  They are very much a closed society.

Miller's trust, The Century Fund,  was specified to end in 25 years, which will be reached this coming year.

The Fund is contributing about a third of its remaining assets  ($20mil) to established local cultural institutions,  such as the symphony, library, art museum, theaters and colleges.  A third will be contributed to the Allentown School System, and the remaining third to another fund, the Lehigh Valley Community Foundation.

A Crime By The Wildlands Conservancy

photo by Tami Quigley

REPRINTED FROM JULY 2018

The top photo shows the Robin Hood Bridge, before the Wildlands Conservancy demolished the little  Robin Hood Dam, just downstream beyond the bridge. The dam was only about 10 inches high, and was built as a visual effect to accompany the bridge in 1941. It was the last WPA project in Allentown, and considered the final touch for Lehigh Parkway. Several years ago, the Wildlands told the Allentown Park Director and City Council that it wanted to demolish the dam. The only thing that stood between their bulldozer and the dam was yours truly. I managed to hold up the demolition for a couple weeks, during which time I tried to educate city council about the park, but to no avail. If demolishing the dam wasn't bad enough, The Wildlands Conservancy piled the broken dam rubble around the stone bridge piers, as seen in the bottom photo. I'm sad to report that the situation is now even worse. All that rubble collected silt, and now weeds and brush is growing around the stone bridge piers. I suppose the Wildlands Conservancy considers it an extension of its riparian buffer.

The Wildlands Conservancy should be made to remove, piece by piece, all the rubble that they piled around the bridge piers, despoiling the bridge's beauty. City Council should refrain from ever again permitting The Wildlands Conservancy to alter our park designs.

JULY 9, 2018: It has been five years since the dam's destruction in 2013, and the bridge piers look more disgusting than ever.

UPDATE AUGUST 11, 2020: Last week's storm Isaias caused unprecedented damage to the iconic bridge. The top of one of the stone piers was battered off, and now lies on the bridge deck. The rubble placed around the piers in 2013 narrows the channel between the piers, and raised the water level... neither of which helps the bridge in high water events.

Lehigh Parkway Bridge Decimated In Storm

The crowning glory of Lehigh Parkway was completed in 1941, the Robin Hood Bridge. Its curved stone end piers, and its two oval middle piers, were designed to compliment and mirror the long stone entrance wall into the park.

As a boy in 1955, living in the housing development above the park, I remember marveling about how high the water arose the morning after Hurricane Diane.

As an advocate for the WPA in 2020, I'm saddened to see the damage that Isaias inflicted upon the bridge last week. The stone top of one the stone piers, which serves as a wall and railing anchor, was smashed off and lies on the bridge, which itself is full of debris. With perhaps record high water, I speculate that a tree trunk or limb battered the stone buttress loose.

The main park entrance wall is in the process of a long overdue stone repointing. We now have an extra, unexpected repair which must be made.  I am optimistic that both the city and Trexler Trust will meet the challenge.

The Soliloquies Of City Council

At the end of Wednesday's City Council meeting, when the city clerk bought up a counter resolution submitted by the public, the opportunity arose for soliloquies by both Ce-Ce Gerlach and Joshua Siegel.

Although Gerlach claimed that she was abandoning her notes, it was apparent that many of the phrases were already committed to memory.  Gerlach wondered why a city mired in evictions, revenue losses and the pandemic could concern itself with her personal support of BLM.  She couldn't understand why a public censure was contemplated, instead of private calls to her by her council colleagues. She wanted to protest publicly, but be reprimanded privately.

Siegel's soliloquy was about the Moment of Moral Reckoning. He spoke of mental health. He spoke in admiration of the speed of the mobilizing, and the new energy of the protesters.  When questioned about f.ck the police,  he claimed that while raising his clenched fist in solidarity, under his mask he was only saying defund the police.

Siegel's soliloquy was even more rehearsed than Gerlach's.  It's almost a tragedy that such a performance is hard to see on the council camera system. Perhaps he can repeat the performance sometime in the future?

Night Of The Censure

Wednesday was a night of dueling censures at City Council. Although the resolution against Gerlach and Siegel was dropped,  there was a motion likewise against Zucal, Hendricks and Affa, for attempting to suppress freedom of speech.

At the end of the tag team match, it was up to referee Julio Guridy to restore order to the arena.

The merits of the resolutions has been discussed in length here on this blog, and elsewhere...What concerns me is the future of council and the city.

Although I just wrote the other day that Siegel and Gerlach miscalculated, perhaps the misread lies with me. While I have no doubt that they would be tarred and feathered in a Lehigh County vote, this is Allentown. This is the city where a indicted mayor cobbled together his fourth victory with assorted fringe groups by attending birthday parties.

There are those who feel that a Hyman candidacy can be a saving grace for the Little Apple, a back to business for a fragmented city. Regardless of who gets the top office in the next election, I see city council becoming even more progressive. In my vocabulary that's not a compliment.

screen-grab from Imantrek's Red Bokeh Society

Yellow Journalism

I was informed yesterday that this and O'Hare's blog practice yellow journalism. This description is supposedly circulating among the social media sites frequented by the progressive elements in our community.

Although I cannot speak for O'Hare, I can tell you that in my opinion both of us have often been called much worse.

What is circulating from these groups is an air of intimidation. People who know that these new leaders are not what they claim to be, or what the Morning Call reports that they are, don't want to become their victims. There's plenty of information out there, but nobody to quote.

The new leaders are saying that their political power got city council to drop the resolution against Gerlach and Siegel. I think that they're confusing pitchforks and torches with democracy. I think that they're confusing a woke editor at the Morning Call with Democracy.

Normally, I attribute credit for the photograph or illustration that I use at the top of a blog post. However its creator, and many other people in this community, do not want their identity revealed in this climate.

ADDENDUM: In the Morning Call's  recent report that the censure resolution against Gerlach and Siegel was dropped,  Hendricks and Affa state that the paper treated the resolution as if it was against Black Lives Matter. The local BLM movement and its minions on social media certainly did portray the censure as such, but not the paper. BLM said outright that if you're for the Blue, you're against BLM, it's one or the other! While the local BLM did succeed in getting Daryl Hendricks and Candida Affa to back down, they haven't intimidated the general public.  A petition is circulating that Gerlach and Siegel should resign.

Gerlach and Siegel's Miscalulation

The resolution to censure Ce-Ce Gerlach and Josh Siegel would not have passed Allentown City Council. That would have required four votes, meaning that either Cynthia Mota or Julio Guridy would have had to go along with the resolution. Current news from the grapevine is that council's enthusiasm for the resolution has waned.

After Pawlowski resigned, and Cynthia Mota nominated Hassan Batts for appointed mayor, this blog was the first to report that she worked for him at Promise Neighborhood. Batts is a mentor for the local BLM efforts. Julio would have delivered a long speech about how difficult the decision is, but in the end he would have voted against the resolution.

As private citizens, of course, there would be nothing wrong with Gerlach and Siegel marching with BLM. But, since they chose to run for city council, which has oversight over the police department, they have an obligation not to participate in any such public controversies. They are expected to be honest brokers in all police matters, including contracts, hiring and personnel.

Josh Siegel's mentor is Mark Pinsley. When a drug-crazed Dorney Park menacer was shot after terrorizing women drivers on Hamilton Blvd, Pinsley stood with the protestors, even though he was just elected as a South Whitehall Commissioner. That election also didn't stop him from running for state senator and then county controller. Siegel likewise has political ambitions beyond city council. 

Although apparently a censure is not coming their way, both Gerlach and Siegel miscalculated public sentiment about law and order. In the march up Hamilton Street they may have received adulation and high fives, but they garnered no appreciation beyond the marchers, quite the contrary.

ADDENDUM:Censor advocate Ed Zucal was forced to drop the resolution, as he ended up standing alone.  Bernie O'Hare elaborates on Siegel's far left positions.