Ezekiel's Tomb

Ezekiel's Tomb is south of Baghdad, in Al Kifl. The tomb dates back to the 6th Century B.C., during the Babylonian exile. Prior to creation of Israel in 1948, 100,000 Jews still remained in Iraq; Today, there are eight.

Last year Hebrew lettering was covered over in fresh plaster, in a process to turn the ancient Jewish shrine into a mosque. Fortunately, word leaked back to Israel and to the Jews of Iraqi descent. That community's history in Iraq spanned 2,700 years, 1,000 years before the birth of Islam. The renovation is now under international scrutiny, and hopefully the Jewish elements will remain. The photo shows Iraqi Jews in front of the tomb in 1932.

Conflicting reports: There are conflicting reports, both about the condition and intentions for the shrine. Here is an article from The Jerusalem Post, dated May 2010, which claims that there has been no damage (recent) to Jewish inscriptions.
NY Times recent article, Oct. 19, 2010

reprinted from previous years

this post was pre-programmed to post on September 16

In The Public's Best Interest

I always snicker when I read that J. B. Reilly's latest proposal has to go in front of this commission or that committee. None of those appointed puppies have ever turned down one of Reilly's NIZ projects.  Shown above is the frame and plywood construction of the Strata Flats building #1. Many years ago when I built a very small four unit building in center city, I was told it had to be all masonry to meet fire codes.

The other day Matt Tuerk praised Reilly's City Center Development Company's completion of the Lanta Terminal. The terminal was reconfigured so that City Center itself could build yet another apartment complex. The compliment bothered me, because Matt may be Allentown's next mayor.  Councilperson Candida Affa followed suit with a comment that City Center gets it done right and fast. Our public officials and the people that they appoint are supposed to scrutinize development and construction in our city.  It is inappropriate for them to hold preconceived ideas that someone always does the job correctly.

Candida Affa was Ed Pawlowski's biggest fan on council, and the last member to concede that he violated the city's trust.  City Center construction may indeed do good work, but taking that for granted is not good policy.

This post is not meant to imply that plywood plaza shown above does not meet current codes. However, in this era of public/private partnerships, it is not in the public's interest to make assumptions that everything will done properly.

photo of Plywood Plaza aka Strata Flats

The Misconception Of Hamilton Street

There's not many mid size cities that can boast having two national chain stores within one center city block, Allentown could. Not too many cities could say that one of those stores was one of the biggest producers in a chain of over 7000 stores, Allentown could. There's not many cities that are ignorant enough to tear down their most successful block, a virtual tax machine, Allentown is. This horrible mistake took a combination of political arrogance and public misconception. The arrogance is well known, so let me concentrate on the misconception. The perception was a few undesirable people, buying cheap things. The reality is Family Dollar sells the same merchandise in their suburban and rural stores. Rite Aid fills the same prescriptions and sells their standard merchandise. The new upscale stores, visioned for the arena front, will never produce the sales tax produced by Family Dollar and Rite Aid. The arena will never have that amount of employees, nor produce that much earned income.* The traffic congestion and lack of parking for arena events will destroy the new restaurants. Welcome to the white elephant, welcome to the ghost town.
Shown above and below is the early morning delivery to Family Dollar, every week of the year.
*sales tax and earned income currently going to city and state will now go to debt service for arena
reprinted from December 5, 2011

ADDENDUM OCTOBER 8, 2019: While The Morning Call promotes Allentown's new NIZ zone, only this blogger documented the reality of the former Hamilton Street. While the Moravian Book Store could have been restocked from a small hand basket once a month, the previous Family Dollar Store needed a full tractor trailer every Sunday.  Retail is virtually destroyed on Hamilton Street. Over seven years later, and the Morning Call is still deceiving about Hamilton Street, and this blog is still delivering the truth.

City Hall Insults The Neighborhood

This is a post which I spend a week trying not to write. It is a story of favoritism and abuse of power. About four years ago a homeowner, in a quiet south side neighborhood, moved out and rented the house to his brother. Under Allentown regulations this property hence became a rental property, and subject to license and inspection procedures. As it turns out, these brothers are childhood friends with an Allentown inspector. The second brother, the tenant, has been disruptive in the neighborhood by every criterion relevant to code enforcement. The property became unkempt and subject of numerous police calls, including the SWAT team. All calls for relief from surrounding properties seemed to end up with the family's inspector friend, and brought no relief from the problems. Allentown has been very pro-active with problem properties. In the first eight months of 2010, 342 properties received orange tags, forcing the property to be vacated. Most tags were issued for problems significantly more minor than those occurring in the subject of this post. This past October, the bank foreclosed on the property. The tenant legally became a squatter. A neighbor's complaint resulted in another inspector discovering that the bank owned property was an unregistered rental, and he issued a 30 day to vacate tag for illegal occupancy. It appeared that finally the neighbors would get relief from the trash, noise and police calls. The childhood friend inspector intervened, and the 30 day notice was never enforced. My efforts with the inspector on behalf of the other property owners (including myself) were to no avail. I have spent the week documenting the problem up the chain of command, right to the Mayor's office. Although the property is in gross violation of code, the illegal tenant is allowed to remain. Although in the last eight months police have surrounded the property several times in complete violation of the disruptive tenant ordinance, the occupant remains. In typical City Hall fashion, they have circled the wagons around the inspector, around their own. They are now actually trying to work with the bank and make him the homeowner. The top photo is the back yard on May 9, 2011, with years worth of garbage. You will be happy to know that a city contractor has now been hired to clean the property and cut the grass, at your expense. The City's course of action is a total insult to the neighbors. I did see some inspectors today, they were walking around my property. 

UPDATE: I understand that the occupant is a disabled US Veteran so that may have played into the equation. City Official June 16, 2:02pm Mr. XXXX, I understand that he is a disabled veteran. I don't know if you have received all my emails, first to the inspector, then XXXX, then XXXX. Two years ago I had to treat his unattended green swimming pool with bleach, (because the city complaint was repressed) last year I had to paint his totally peeled porch.... He has no legal basis in that house whatsoever..... Frankly, the situation is an outrage. You may want to check the police reports. Twice police have surrounded the house in the last 8 months alone... Is this social work or code enforcement? Michael Molovinsky p.s.. he is not physically disabled, and I don't know if his mental health issues are military related, nor is it relevant to code enforcement. I do know that he is family friends with an inspector who has put myself and other neighbors off for years. He is the same inspector who has issued hundreds of orange tags to other properties in the same period for much less problems. Being a disabled veteran is not the reason for this favoritism, but the excuse now being used. I have no doubt that at least some of the hundreds and hundreds of units vacated by the same inspector, also housed a few disabled veterans.

above reprinted from June of 2011

UPDATE SEPTEMBER 13, 2021: During the Pawlowski regime, city code enforcement was weaponized.  As both a landlord and blogger, I took on substantial personal risk to expose the Pawlowski regime for its corruption.  While the Morning Call borrowed some my other blog posts without attribution, they never once used ones about city hall shenanigans...That's why Pawlowski got away with things for so long. 

I'd like to tell you that city hall is completely cleaned up, but it isn't. Just two years ago I had to defend an east side woman from code abuse. While things are certainly better at city hall, it's still filled with people who were appointed and promoted during Pawlowski's three terms. While there's still a residual arrogance of power there, I'm hopeful for a more accountable city hall as time passes.  

Although the years have slowed this blog down somewhat, I'm still on patrol.

Morning Call Pushing Pinsley

The Morning Call editors continue to publicize Mark Pinsley, trying to help him fulfill his current quest to become a state senator.  They are currently using bold type for Pinsley's name on his letter to the editor, featuring it on their digital version. Normally those blocks do not contain a letter writer's name, much less in bold type, normally reserved only for a reporter's by-line.   

There's only two constants at the Morning Call anymore...A local political agenda, and the silence of the former and remaining staff. While a recently departed reporter told me that she was free to write what she chose,  she still put out the company line, even through she was being shown the door. I suppose even those recommendation letters have a price.

A Good Vote For The Wrong Reason

On Wednesday night Cynthia Mota made a good vote for the wrong reason. When voting for Charles Roca as the new police chief she said “We need our leaders to look like the people they’re serving and Chief Roca reflects that..." When a city puts color or ethnicity first before competence, it's compromising the best results for the citizens. 

This time for Cynthia Mota the result was good, which is more than can be said for many of her votes. During the Pawlowski corruption rampage, her first vote as a council person was for a private company to import garbage to Allentown, which they wanted to mix with sewage and burn for energy. Fortunately, that plant was never built because of funding shortages. She also nominated Hasshan Batts for replacement mayor after Pawlowski's resignation, without revealing that she worked for him. That conflict of interest story was first broken on this blog, and used by the Morning Call without attribution.

Roca appears to be an excellent choice for new chief. A Dieruff graduate, he rose through the department ranks. He's taking the top post for a very hardscrabble job. It burnt out his predecessor, who moved away to Mayberry. I for one will be giving the new chief latitude. I won't be looking at short term crime reports, but instead for long term trends.

photocredit:Wanda Genao de Salas

Violence And Tooth Fairies

When this blog first began in 2007, I would write about the poverty magnet.  Those bureaucrats and agencies set up to assist the poor managed to attract a lot of clients to Allentown. They offered free move in money and were very successful in their mission.... Allentown is now officially impoverished.  In addition to the poverty industry, we now have graduated into the violence industry.

We are told that if we redirect some of our policing funds to those agencies set up to combat violence, we will reduce crime in the community.  I will leave details of the program to those woke enough to believe in such notions.  However,  they might want to consider that despite spending $155 million dollars on such programs, Philadelphia had 500 killed from its 2,200 shootings last year.

Although I write about things which are thought about by many but left unsaid by most, I have no delusions about effecting change.  However, I will note that many who care about quality of life issues have already moved out of Dodge. 

artwork by Mark Beyer

The World Of Mirth

Allentown at one time had two very productive railroad branch lines; The West End, and the Barber Quarry. The Barber Quarry, for the most part, ran along the Little Lehigh Creek. It serviced the Mack Truck plant and Traylor Engineering on South 10th, and continued west until it turned north toward Union Terrace, last ending at Wenz's tombstone at 20th and Hamilton Streets. (years earlier it crossed Hamilton St. to the former bottling plant in the park dept. garage) The West End, for the most part, ran along Sumner Avenue, turning south and looping past 17th and Liberty Streets, ending near 12th St.

The wonderful photograph above shows the World of Mirth train at 17th and Liberty. World of Mirth was the midway operator at the Allentown Fair during the 40's and 50's. In the background is Trexler Lumber Yard, which burnt down in the early 1970's. The B'nai B'rith Apartment houses now occupy the location. 

reprinted from 2010

photograph from the collection of Mark Rabenold