Changing Justice In Allentown

My recent post, Losses For Allentown, mentioned incumbent District Justice Patti Engler losing her bench. The district magistrate system is our first line of defense against Allentown's growing criminality. It is before these district judges that defendants are brought to arraignment by the police department. 

In Allentown's past, district judges were often former policemen. I believe that it would be fair to label Engler's replacement, Linda Vega Sirop, as a social activist. During the campaign she promoted that she would be both the first Latina and first gay if elected.

Philadelphia is no longer the City Of Brotherly Love, unless you're Cain and Abel. The crime and murder rate is horrendous. Social progressives there in both the police and DA's office last year suspended arresting people for shoplifting, until the merchants were almost cleaned out. Philly's latest obsurdity is not enforcing minor traffic violators, because they target people of color too much. Let us hope that down Allentown's road our new district judges won't subvert the efforts of our police department.

ADDENDUM: Although my original premise for this post was that Vega Sirop might be too progressive for Allentown's good, in fairness, that may not be the case.  She's a strong woman, who was laser focused on obtaining this position. I suspect that she will take the judgeship as a sacred mission.

The Devil Of Ocean Paradise

The resort town's boardwalk is partially open during the cold winter months for the hardy of spirit.  The stores that remain open were purchased mostly by middle eastern immigrants, who overpaid for their piece of the American dream in the dying resort.  Their mortgage demands every nickel they can muster,  and their large families are eager to practice their broken English on the few customers willing to brave the boardwalk's cold winter wind.

All their stores sell the same things...  brightly colored candy, souvenirs and small toys designed to make children nag and beg.  Along with the stores there is a strip of game stands, where during the warm summer breezes,  fathers and boyfriends hope to win a stuffed animal.  During the winter, the steel garage doors are closed on all these stands, except for one.  The immigrants with their broken English cannot lure in players, but the Devil can.

Oversized brightly colored stuffed animals adorn the stand. Music from the 70's pulses from one loud speaker,  while the Devil commands the occasional passing man to "show her that you care by winning a bear."  Please don't misunderstand me, he is not Satan himself, but a minor devil.  He can give you a cold, or ruin a first date,  but he has no power over life and death.  Even those he afflicts can purchase redemption.... Inside the stores there are chocolate wafers for sale,  covered with white candy sprinkles.  For a mere $26 a pound, the bad omen can be eaten away.

This minor devil came from Coney Island a decade ago.  Brooklyn's Brighton Beach area started gentrifying in the late 90's, and the dress up spread to adjoining Coney.  Doc, the minor devil, thrived on hearty spirits, but not heady minds.  His move to Ocean Paradise was a win-win.  While the owning immigrant gets to keep almost all the money the stand takes in,  Doc gets to dispense a headache or two each weekend.  He has a room at a nearby old motel owned by the same family, and enjoys the middle eastern food that he has eaten since time immemorial.

If you walk on the boardwalk during the winter, you better dress warm, and not be tempted to show her that you care.

reprinted from November of 2018

Losses For Allentown

Years ago there was always a group of regulars who would attend city council meetings.  Many of them were advocates for their section of Allentown.  Among them was Bob Smith Jr.,  concerned with the East Side, and Patti Engler, watching out for center city. Years later, when they ran respectively for school board and district justice, they already possessed a wealth of civic knowledge. 

Both these incredibly qualified people lost in last week's election.  Local voters are preoccupied with diversity and electing candidates who look like themselves.  Although those motivations are understandable, in doing so they sacrificed the service of two great public servants.

Both Smith and Engler will still be visible in their neighborhoods, improving the quality of life for their neighbors...That's the type of people they are.

Growing Up Parkway

I'm a baby boomer. I was born in December of 1946. As soon as my mother climbed out of the hospital bed, another woman climbed in. I grew up in the neighborhood now called Little Lehigh Manor, wedged between Lehigh Street and the top of the ravine above Lehigh Parkway. That's me on our lawn at the intersection of Catalina and Liberator Avenues, named after airplanes made by Vultee Corporation for the War. We had our own elementary school, our own grocery store, and the park to play in. On Saturdays, older kids would take us along on the trolley, and later the bus, over the 8TH Street Bridge to Hamilton Street. There were far too many stores to see everything. After a matinee of cartoons or Flash Gordon, and a banana split at one of the five and dimes, we would take the bus back over the bridge to Lehigh Street.




Not that many people know where Lehigh Parkway Elementary School is. It's tucked up at the back of the development of twin homes on a dead end street, but I won't say exactly where. I do want to talk about the photograph. It's May Day, around 1952-53. May Day was big then, so were the unions; Most of the fathers worked at the Steel, Mack, Black and Decker, and a hundred other factories going full tilt after the war. The houses were about 8 years old, and there were no fences yet. Hundreds of kids would migrate from one yard to another, and every mother would assume some responsibility for the herd when it was in her yard. Laundry was hung out to dry. If you notice, most of the "audience" are mothers, dads mostly were at work. I'm at the front, right of center, with a light shirt and long belt tail. Don't remember the girl, but see the boy in front of me with the big head? His father had the whole basement setup year round with a huge model train layout. There were so many kid's, the school only went up to second grade. We would then be bused to Jefferson School for third through sixth grade. The neighborhood had its own Halloween Parade and Easter egg hunt. We all walked to school, no one being more than four blocks away.

reprinted from June of 2008

In memory of Clifford "Bobby" Edwards, 1946-2021

Allentown Chronicles Going Private

Several years ago, I started a new local Facebook group titled Allentown Chronicles.  My goal was for a group somewhat more historically oriented than the existing nostalgia groups, where members keep asking which shop had the best pizza or chili sauce. There's nothing wrong with nostalgia, and those groups are very popular, but there was no need for an additional one.

As administrator I have rejected countless people, from mostly the third world, who would like to sell the members a sweatshirt with Allentown printed on it.  While this was burdensome, I preferred  keeping the group public so that any current or former Allentonian had easy access.  The ever changing Facebook is now changing the guidelines, and anybody can join a public group without approval. 

On November 8th the group will become private. If you have been visiting the page but haven't yet joined, you may want to do so in the next few days. 

Shown above was a father promoting the Easter Egg Hunt in Little Lehigh Manor in the 1950's. Allentown has changed a lot since then, and the group-- through posts and personal anecdotes-- tries to provide a place for these recollections. 

photo courtesy of the Williams' family

The Island Of Allentown

While Allentown remains an island of Democratic votes,  the greater Lehigh County veered to the right on Tuesday.  The Republican judge sweep* showed that voters valued their experience in criminal justice, i.e. their awareness of the growing criminal reality we face.  Glenn Eckhart appeared to have scored an upset against incumbent Armstrong, until the write-in count was completed early Wednesday morning.

I expect that Susan Wild didn't sleep well last night. While the progressives in Allentown can't stop worrying about social justice issues,  elsewhere in the county people are apparently getting tired of subsidizing and pandering to the protestors.  

Allentown's new Democratic mayor, Matt Tuerk (there hasn't been a Republican elected Mayor since 1998) has his work cut out for him.  A young man moving from one of the new apartments out to the suburbs said that there isn't anything to do downtown at night except get mugged.  With the voter base in Allentown Tuerk may not have to address the young man's concerns politically... only if he really wants to make a worthwhile difference in Allentown.**

*vote for third judge very close, provisional votes need to be counted

**postcard shown above from Allentown's glory days, which aren't coming back. Tuerk will find no shortage of people playing up for advantage from a new administration, instead, this blog will offer blunt reality checks before day one. 

Old Project With New Mayor

I recently met Matt Tuerk for the first time in a city park. During our brief encounter he mentioned that he knew about my work on the WPA, and indicated that he would like to learn more about park history. 

During his years on city council, Ray O'Connell and I became acquainted from my then frequent visits to council chambers. When he became mayor he invited me to his office discuss the park system, especially my concerns about the WPA structures.  

Although Mayor elect Tuerk also indicated he would be interested in my opinion about the parks and WPA,  I'd be reluctant to make any more visits to city hall.  For several years now, to no avail, I have been actively campaigning to have the long neglected landings on the Parkway's Double Stairwell repaired. Until which time as that important repair is finally made, I'll confine my park recommendations to this blog.

photo: Karen El-Chaar and Molovinsky after his 2013 Parkway WPA tour

The Slandering Of Louis Hershman

Years ago, in a building that no longer exists,  an assorted group of early risers would meet for coffee.  By 6:30, most of us had arrived at Jerry's for the early morning sessions.  Included in this group of civil critics was Lou Hershman.  Lou's rants were almost exclusively centered on the city budget,  year after year, rant after rant.

What takes me back to that coffee shop is a current post on facebook.  A local Black Lives Matter advocate is supporting a local gays rights advocate, who is offended by the adoration being given Lou Hershman, who passed away last week. She claims that Lou was a bigot against gays.  In all the years and all the conversations that I had with Lou, he never once mentioned gays.  As for the young BLM activist,  I'm sure that he never met Lou, and probably never even heard of him before last week.

Back then, fifteen years ago, when I would drive to the coffee shop at 7th and Hamilton at six in the morning, I would always think about how calm town seemed at that time of day.  I knew that as the day progressed, so would the commotion.  Unfortunately,  the streets are considerably more violent now than they were then.  Allentown would be better off if the young BLM leader concerned himself with making the streets safer.  In fifty years, if he contributes as much as Lou Hershman did to Allentown, let's hope nobody slanders his good deeds.  

photocredit: Bernie O'Hare 

reprinted from October of 2020