Stairway To Shame

In the mid 1930's, Allentown, and especially its park system, was endowed with magnificent stone edifices, courtesy of the WPA; Works Progress Administration.  This was a new deal program designed to provide employment during the aftermath of the depression.  Stone masons from all over the country converged on this city and built structures which are irreplaceable.  The walls and  step structures in Lehigh Parkway, as the Union Terrace amphitheater, are legacies which must be protected.  Pictured above is the grand stairway from Lawrence Street (Martin Luther King Drive) up to Union Street, built in 1936.  The steps are in a state of disrepair.  They lead to the great Union Street Retaining Wall, fifty feet high and two blocks long, which was completed in 1937.  I call upon the Trexler Trust and Allentonians of memory,  to insist these steps are re-pointed and preserved.  The current Administration knows nothing of our past, and really has no commitment to our future.  Save the things in Allentown that matter. 

above reprinted from September 18, 2008 

UPDATE JANUARY 5, 2021:Although it would take me many years, and along the way I inadvertently offended many people,  eventually I got the steps at Fountain Park and other structures repointed.  While my efforts were never acknowledged, and my calls are still never returned,  I will through this blog continue to advocate for the traditional park system.

Lehigh Valley Railroad Piers

In this era of class warfare, while we worry that the rich are only paying 35% income tax, instead of 39%, let us be grateful that once upon a time we had the Robber Barons. In this era when we have to give a grant for some woman to open a small cookie shop on Hamilton Street, let us be grateful that men built railroads with private money. Let us be grateful that incredible feats of private enterprise built piers, bridges and trestles. Trains allowed us to move vast amounts of raw and finished materials across America. This network allowed us to protect ourselves during two World Wars, and provided the prosperity upon which we now rest. The Lehigh Valley Railroad tracks extended from their piers in New Jersey to the shores of Lake Erie. The Mile Long Pier in Jersey City was the scene of German sabotage in 1916. A train full of munitions, awaiting shipment to Europe, was blown up on July 30th of that year. In 1914, the railroad built the longest ore pier in the world, in Bayonne. The ore would come from Chile, through the new Panama Canal, for shipment to Bethlehem. 

  reprinted from February of 2011

Blogging, The Last Watchtower

Anybody who buys The Morning Call on a Monday knows what slim pickings are. The paper is produced on Friday, with a one man weekend crew, to cover the police blotter. There's hardly enough paper to cover the bottom of a bird cage. That leaves the news junkies forced to read the likes of me.

 I'm fascinated with how much Allentown has changed within the last 50 years, and find the railroads  a good metaphor. In my youth the city was serviced by several rail branch lines with dozens of sidings, supplying many industries with raw materials to produce products distributed all over the country. Those industries fostered a large middle class, and a high standard of living. We were the truck capital of the world, we were home to the first transistors, and a retail legend. The tower shown above in 1963, and the gas tank in the background, were on Union Street. Although they are both now gone, this blogger will continue to combine history, news and commentary for those of us who still remember a different era.

reprinted from November of 2013

UPDATE JANUARY 1, 2021: This post is over seven years old, from a time when I still followed local politics more closely. Although I will still occasionally cover a current event,  often I now feel more comfortable with our local past than our future. The remaining Morning Call staff is upset because it seems that the paper may once again change hands, from Tribune to MediaNews. While MediaNews sheds real estate, Tribune already gave up the 6th Street headquarters. If the acquisition happens, the Morning Call would be the biggest paper in that company's Pennsylvania portfolio. While a threat to those smaller papers, it might actually be an opportunity for the Morning Call.

The Diminishing Tracks Of Allentown

I have been intrigued with the trolley freight, although I have no personal memory of the service. This photo from March of 1952 shows the end of that era, with a freight trolley being loaded on a flatbed rail car, for a short run to Bethlehem Steel to be scrapped. Within a year there would be no more trolley service of any kind in Allentown. Within two decades many of the businesses serviced by the trolley freight would be gone. In another decade most of the railroad tracks would also have vanished.

reprinted from December of 2013

The Morning Call Incident

The Morning Call, after not paying rent for many months, finally had to give up its space in their former building this fall. Management left behind years of their archives in storage drawers, mostly in microfilm format. 

A young man working for a cleanout company recognized the historical significance of the material, and rescued several of the films from their landfill fate. When he outlined the situation on Allentown Chronicles,  the paper's management became embarrassed, and in turn pressured the contractor to retrieve the material from its rescuer.

Although the posts have been removed from the facebook page,  the comments were interesting.  Some people thought the material should be donated to the local historical society, while others thought that it should go to the reporters/photographers who created it.  Any indignation should have been directed to the Morning Call management, who had discarded the archives in the first place.

UPDATE 9:00am:  I have been contacted backchannel by the Morning Call management, who take offense at this post.  They state that they have met with the local historical society numerous times,  and have given that society archival material for a future show.  

They question my integrity and accuse me of dealing in half truths.  In reality they are a former tenant who discarded storage furniture and its contents.  As for integrity, they will not publish material submitted by myself and others for years,  on topics which they routinely suppress and cover up.

UPDATE 7:00pm: Although the Morning Call had no problem with archival material being hauled to the landfill,  they could not tolerate me being in procession of any of it.  The young man who rescued the material was told not to report to work unless he could bring back that material with him. For the sake of his employment, we arranged for the material to be returned this afternoon. 

Browne Power

Yesterday, the state senate passed Pat Browne's proposal to demolish the state hospital by a 49 to 0 vote. This is in spite of a local petition effort to save the historic campus of buildings.

Although the original portion of the plan to sell the property to a Doylestown developer has been set aside, which developer ends up with the cleared parcel remains to be seen. Considering Browne's influence, it may well be the Doylestown guy, or some proxy for him.

Although different locals are offended by almost every element of this screenplay, my attention is focused on the power of Pat Browne.  He is the same senator who created the J.B. Reilly empire called the NIZ.

But as amazing as Browne's power is, we must also marvel at the ineptitude of state government in Pennsylvania. Since the reformer governor Wolf was elected, we haven't seen one reform in this state. We still have the highest gas tax. We still have the largest number of representatives in a state house. We still have dozens of overpaid commissions who do nothing but collect a salary.

I snickered at the news about exploring doing away with school taxes. They have been saying that since 1975. First it was going to be the lottery, You gotta play to win. Then it was the casinos.

What we have in Harrisburg is nothing but a club of mutual back scratchers. How else could anybody explain a 49 to 0 vote.

Morning Call file photo 

reprinted from June of 2019

UPDATE DECEMBER 29, 2020: Nothing pictured above still exists. The last portion of the main building with the cupola was demolished yesterday. Although local developer Nat Hyman offered to purchase the campus and preserve the most iconic buildings, the state plowed ahead with its scheme.

A Trip Around Allentown

The other day on a trip around town,  I drove past the current house on 2nd Street where my grandfather first lived when he came to Allentown in 1895.  A couple minutes later,  I drove by my grandparents house that I remember, near Sacred Heart Hospital.  It's the house where my father and his four siblings grew up.  Earlier that morning I was on the south side, where my parents lived when I grew up.  Allentown is a small place, I even drove past a couple of houses that I lived in as an adult.

In the course of writing the political aspect of this blog, I sometimes clash with the millennials and X'ers,  who think that my observations are so historically based that they're no longer relevant.  Perhaps they think that I'm frozen in time,  still eating strawberry pie at the Patio restaurant in Hess's.  It is true that I remember an Allentown very different than the current one,  but I was here and present, for the transition.

Yesterday, we learned that one NIZ baron got $28 million,  out of a total of $29 million, of state tax money toward his portfolio of buildings.  Years ago, there were so many business leaders in Allentown that they had a special club for lunch, named the Livingston.  In today's Allentown, the barons could all met at one table for four, and there would still be empty seats.

photo:  I'm on the front lawn in Little Lehigh Manor, around 1949.  

ABOVE REPRINTED FROM APRIL OF 2016

UPDATE DECEMBER 28, 2020: Since May of 2007, molovinsky on allentown has been writing inconvenient truths about this former All American City.  I provide no favor to any institution or politician, and have become a rather unpopular person in the process. I like to think that those on a quest for historical local truth will find this blog's search engine and archives useful.  In March of 2018,  I started Allentown Chronicles, a facebook group to enhance Allentown centric content on that venue. 

A Snowy Morning In Jerusalem

Snow is a rare occurrence in Jerusalem, but on January 10th (2013) it snowed 6 inches, the biggest storm since 1992.  Although this blog concentrates on local political commentary, I do indulge in a few distractions. Among those are local history, boxing from the Joe Louis era, and stories from the Holy Land.  With all topics, the quality of the visual image presented here is paramount to me.

reprinted from February of 2013