The Morning Call Delivery

I've been a continuous Morning Call subscriber for 34 years, every day, seven days a week. I think that might well be some sort of record. Even other dinosaurs, occasionally, have let their subscriptions expire, to take advantage of some promotion. Not me, full ticket, paid by the year. The last couple of years, as their delivery system broke down, I have taken to pay semi annually. Quarterly will now be the prudent choice. I no longer attempt to complain about a missing paper. Waiting to speak to somebody in India is detrimental to my blood pressure. molovinsky on allentown opens early, but the paper keeps coming later; Even mcall doesn't refresh itself until about 5:45 a.m. I no longer get the paper in time for my morning coffee, the pot is long empty by the time it arrives. I suppose soon I'll have to get my news from the City Web Site.

reprinted from December of 2011

Allentown 1950

Sixty years ago downtown Allentown hummed. It was fueled by the vision of people who developed empires, not cookie cutter ideas from the National Magazines for Bureaucrats, like the arena. Shown here is the Transit Office and depot at the side of 8th and Hamilton. General Trexler had been a principle in the Trolley Company, which also built the 8th Street Bridge, to connect Allentown with points south, all the way to Philadelphia. In addition to being the terminal for the Philadelphia bound Liberty Bell, it also fed the merchants of Allentown with thousands of shoppers from its many Allentown routes. The shoppers now sit on the cold steel benches at the Lanta Detention Center on 7th Street, as the non-visionaries prepare to demolish the center of town, to build a monstrosity. 

The light and shadows reveal that this is an early morning photo. In a few hours 8th and Hamilton (behind the trolley) would be clogged with shoppers

above reprinted from December of 2011

ADDENDUM DECEMBER 24, 2021: In the decade since the above was written, downtown Allentown turned into an urban office park. While there are a few stores, it no longer aspires to be a shopping destination. The first floor retail space in the new apartment buildings are to justify the NIZ financing requirement, not to meet any market demand for storefronts. Criticism of the new center city is limited mostly to this blog. Other voices, such as the newspaper, have either profitted from the NIZ, or are indifferent.

The Clown And The Landlord

Yesterday's Morning Call had an article by Dan Hartzell on Sunday's Halloween Parade. Dan wrote "Last minute financial donations from community activists saved the 2005 parade..." Hartzell goes on to write about the candidates present and the weather conditions, but who were the community activists? He then writes "City Parks and Recreation Director Greg Weitzel said the parade is no longer under threat of extinction- a good thing, since the event dates to 1905 and could be the oldest Halloween parade in the country." But who were the community activists? As a boy growing up in the 50's, the Halloween Parade was one of the biggest events of the year. My family would watch from around 15th and Hamilton, avoiding the packed crowds further down in the teeming shopping area. I remember Hopalong Cassidy riding his horse in the parade. In 2006, another TV icon from that era, cowgirl Sally Starr, participated in the parade at age 83. I don't know how many people in 2006 had any idea who Sally Starr was? Now in 2010, not only is Sally Starr forgotten, so are the community activists who saved the Oldest Halloween Parade in America(Inc.)*. Saving the parade was organized by Everett Bickford, aka Apples the Clown, and Heidi Unterberg. The parade was able to occur because of a donation from John Chapkovich, at the time a 23 year old landlord. Thanks Everett, thanks Heidi, thanks John, for keeping a 105 year old tradition going.

*Oldest Halloween Parade in America Inc. is copyrighted by Everett Bickford

reprinted from November of 2010

Branding Candidate Molovinsky

An article on Wehr's Dam referred to me as a blogger running for State Representative. Before that label sticks,  please allow me to identify myself. I'm a long time community advocate, who in recent years has used a blog to help shine light on issues. Long before I had a blog, or even a computer, I was a contributor to the community dialogue. Although a life long proponent of historical preservation, in the late 90's I organized homeowners who felt an unnecessary proposed historic district infringed upon their property rights. Among many other issues in recent years, I turned my attention to the preservation of the WPA structures gracing our communities. Although the article referred to me as a member of the group defending Wehr's Dam, I actually started that effort. Even though Allentown is not part of the 183rd District, I continue to publish molovinsky on allentown, because it is an archive on my activism during the last decade. However, that activism started long before the blog. 

above reprinted from September of 2014 

ADDENDUM DECEMBER 22, 2021: I have always considered state government in Pennsylvania dysfunctional, and self serving for those incumbents elected here for life. With that conviction, I ran as an independent in 2014 against eleven term incumbent Julie Harhart, even though the Northampton area dominated the little sliver of South Whitehall in the 183th District. It is my understanding that the proposed new map places the township in one district. I wonder if South Whitehall would now be ready to be represented by a trouble maker like myself?

The New Bloggers

One thing about the blogosphere, with the cost of operation, free, it's always expanding. There are several new blogs I would like to bring to the attention of both my readers. By now, both of you have probably noticed that I added a blog link list last month. Blogspot, which hosts this blog, offers several options for the list. I settled on the most simple, arranged in alphabetical order. Although this post will mention a couple others, I will not be updating my list at this time. Send In The Clowns is published anonymously, as most blogs are, and has been taking some of our elected officials to task. Allentown Parking Authority has a bone to pick with the Allentown Parking Authority. Clancularius Introspective has been in business for about a year now, publishing over 53 posts alone in October. IronPigPen is a sport's buff smorgasbord, with an attitude. Unfortunately, the blog is for sale; Personally, I hope the deal falls through, and the current owners stay stuck with the chore. For those of you who prefer less controversy, Lehigh Valley Transplant spotlights the valley with fresh, innocent eyes. The logo used at the top of this post has no affiliation to the mentioned Clown blog, I simply like the image.

reprinted from November of 2009

ADDENDUM DECEMBER 21, 2021: Although twelve years have passed since I wrote the above piece, not much has happened in the local blogosphere. Both Bernie O'Hare and I continue to offend daily. Reillyville, formally downtown Allentown, continues to build bland buildings. Today the paper published their Road To Nowhere article about the new unnecessary road connecting Jaindl's good fortune with the less fortunate to their north. Quoted in the article were Morning Call experts Hasshan Batts and Ce-Ce Gerlach. When the experts are done squandering our share of the Infrastructure Money, let's hope they at least widen Route 22.

Was Guridy First Latino Council Member?

A Morning Call article on Saturday described Julio Guridy as Allentown's first Latino council member. Recently, Matt Tuerk was described as our first Latino mayor by the paper. If Tuerk's Cuban grandmother qualified him as a first, then certainly Martin Velazquez's Puerto Rican father made him the first Hispanic council member in 1994.  

In fairness to the paper, Velazquez's terms were many years ago, and the "First Latino" was missing from both the headline and article by Sunday. Guridy and Velazquez were both motivated to run in opposition to Emma Tropiano, especially her sponsored ordinance on English as the official language. Marty also became a candidate for mayor, and beat Emma Tropiano in the primary by one vote. 

I do agree with the article about Julio's contributions to Allentown. Although he and I over the years had some heated discussions, both in the council chamber and on the street, Allentown has certainly benefitted from his devotion to the city.

A Supremo Christmas

While I've never shown much enthusiasm for J.B. Reilly's attempt to revitalize downtown through his high end shops, neither has the marketplace. Christmas day, I visited the new Supremo Market on 7th Street, occupying the former Levine's Fabric store. The market was attractive, large, well stocked and mobbed.

There is an old saying that there are more nickels than quarters. I suppose that it should be no surprise that in a city populated by a large percentage of low income people, a well run store geared for that demographic can prosper. What's interesting is that while the taxpayer ponied up a $Billion dollars, so far, for the NIZ, the thriving Supremo costs us nothing. While the Morning Call writes one promotion after another for Reilly's portfolio, there is nothing said about this real success story in Allentown.

Let me provide some history.  Once upon a time,  that was the busiest block on 7th Street. The building was built as a Sears and Roebucks in the early 1950's, using a plan duplicated in other cities. The store did well competing with the three local department stores, and was first to go suburban.

Talking of history, some may notice a new item on this blog's sidebar. It's a picture of a Mack Truck Magazine cover, which was printed each month. I have titled the new insertion, LOCAL HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE.  Hopefully, the local political shenanigans will slow down, so I can devote more posts to our rich history.

stock photo from Supremo website

above post reprinted every December since 2015 

Allentown School District

One of the most amazing things about Allentown is that the population, despite the problems, has remained about the same since 1928. That was the year Allentown celebrated reaching 100,000. Today, we are about 106.000. Although the numbers stayed the same, the demographics have changed drastically. We are now officially a minority city. When I grew up, there was a saying, If you ain't Dutch, you ain't much. How's that for political correctness? Today, if you want to see a Pennsylvania Dutchman, you have to look at the picture on a bag of pretzels. During my school years, a delinquent was a kid smoking a cigarette in the alley. Today, we have machete attacks, and parents beating someone else's kid in a classroom. In this environment, should we be concerned about math scores in Singapore? There is a disconnect between the discipline problems and the preoccupation for better scores on the standardized tests; Increasing civility is much more important. If we could get that math score up, will the public overlook the machete attack? We'll build a new school next to Jackson Elementary, move the students, and put the machete attackers in the old Jackson. Then, we'll take the real achievers and put them in an academy of excellence. Let's hope not too many parents insist that their child belongs in the academy. Let's hope that the prison school works out. We all agree that all the students are a precious commodity. What we really need is safe classrooms, conducive to learning. We need supervised streets, conducive for getting to and from school safely. Isn't it interesting that a child can leave Central Catholic at 4th and Chew, and be safer than a child leaving William Allen at 17th and Chew? The photograph, from the late 1940's, shows a kindergarden class before Lehigh Parkway Elementary School was completed. One of the twin houses served both as the neighborhood school and church. 

above reprinted from December of 2010 

UPDATE DECEMBER 16, 2021: Much has happen, and much hasn't, since I wrote this piece a decade ago. We have some new school buildings, with a middle school finally on the drawing board for the east side. We have been through a series of superintendents. We now have an unwritten requirement that he/she must be a person of color. Recent progress in our system, along with the rest of the nation, has been stymied by the pandemic. I remain blunt and devoid of PC.