Union Terrace Gets Shaft

Timber lined shaft dug to water main in Union Terrace

Allentown City Council recently approved two park items funded by the Trexler Trust; Improvements to both the Franklin Playground and the Fish Hatchery. Both involved payments to vendors repeatedly used by the departed park director. Meanwhile, the iconic WPA structures continue to crumble throughout the park system. Although this blog, through the recently formed Allentown WPA Association, informed the Park Department of the conditions at Union Terrace, nothing has been done or scheduled. This summer, Shakespeare will be performed on the Terrace Stage. Last year, I documented the WPA condition there in a post entitled Tragedy Play At Theater.

Shown above is a project by the city water department. A cast-iron water main runs under the Terrace, feeding the West End from the water plant on Martin Luther King Drive. A private company will reline the existing 30" main, dating back to 1905, with a new plastic liner. The Terrace was built over the main in 1937, and was the last WPA project completed in Allentown. 

above reprinted from June of 2012 

UPDATE MARCH 24, 2022:In a couple months it will be a decade since I wrote the post above, and the WPA is still getting the shaft in Allentown. I still remain its main advocate, and still annoy those in city hall who make decisions affecting the structures. It still remains my hope that this year I can give a tour of Lehigh Parkway with Mayor Tuerk and Park Director Karen El-Chaar, and show new landings on the Stairwell and bridge piers freed of rubble.

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 Junction Street, built in 1936. The steps are in a state of disrepair. They lead to the great Junction/Union Street Retaining Wall, thirty 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 little of our past.  It's important to save the things in Allentown that matter.

The City of Allentown is embarking upon a $3.8 million dollar capital plan to change the nature of our parks, funded in large part by the Trexler Trust. Although a number of fads will be accommodated, not one dollar is earmarked to preserve the existing WPA treasures. General Trexler envisioned the parks as a reserve for the passive enjoyment of nature. Among the new Disney-World type plans are a wedding pavilion in the Rose Garden, and the largest playground in eastern Pennsylvania to be built in Cedar Park. The trail through Cedar Creek Park will have lights installed, and the picnic areas will be expanded. Anybody driving past Cedar Beach on a Monday morning sees the trash generated currently by only a few picnic tables. How many more park workers will be required to deal with the consequences of these new plans? The playground is being billed as a "Destination Playground", who will pay to keep that clean? Allentown should build and monitor numerous playgrounds throughout center city, within walking distance for children and parents. The Trexler Trust and The City of Allentown have a responsibility to first repair and maintain these iconic stone edifices which are unique to Allentown.

photo info: the dedication stone is on the Union Street wall. The steps shown in the photo here go through a tunnel in the wall and climb up to Spring Garden Street. They are in total disrepair. This posting is a combination of two previous posts, which appeared on this blog last September.

above reprinted from May of 2009

UPDATE APRIL 10, 2018: My campaign to save the WPA structures has been on going  for over a decade. About 10 years ago, I organized meetings at the library to bring attention to the neglect inflicted upon these structures. In the process I tutored Karen El-Chaar, from Friends Of The Parks, on the issues. She then was able to obtain a grant from the Trexler Trust,  and repoint the Fountain Park Steps. I opposed the more outlandish proposals cited above for Rose Garden area, and plans were scaled back.  I organized efforts to dig out and reveal the WPA Spring Pond and Boat Landing, both of which were discarded decades earlier. Because of the neglect, the Lehigh Parkway wall collapsed, but has since been partially rebuilt, to allow use of the entrance road into the park. In cooperation with Friends Of The Parks,  I conducted tours of Lehigh Parkway, featuring its history and WPA structures. During the Pawlowski regime I offered my advice to City Council on the traditional park system and WPA, but it was rejected.  I again make the same offer to Mayor O'Connell and the new administration.

UPDATE MARCH 3, 2020: Although O'Connell did invite me to a meeting about the parks, I am once again a persona non grata.  Karen El-Chaar is now director of parks.  It is my understanding that the Trexler Trust has commissioned a study of the Parkway Structures,  but declined to share any information with me.  It is my informed opinion that the immediate services of a stone mason are much more needed than that of their consultants. Time is the enemy of these structures.

above reprinted from March 3, 2020 

UPDATE MARCH 23, 2022: Recently, I have been asked by several people if I will be conducing  another tour of the WPA structures in Lehigh Parkway? My current mission is to prevail upon the city to repair the landings on the Parkway's double stairway, and to remove the rubble around the Robin Hood Bridge piers. If the city does these most worthwhile projects, it would be my honor to lead another tour.

History Of Union Terrace

The area now known as Joseph S Daddona Lake and Terrace has a rich history. The stone arch bridge dates back to 1828.  If Lehigh County had its way, the bridge would be gone now. I'm proud to have played a large part in saving it.  The park consists of the former city ice skating pond, and the WPA amphitheater.

This blog previously featured the train of Union Terrace, which was near the end of the former Barber Quarry Branch line... Talking of tracks, shown above is the freight station of the Allentown and Reading Traction Company.  Their trolley would go under the Dorney Park roller coaster on its way to Kutztown.  Many of you would know the freight building many years later, as the store and home of Joe and Ann Daddona.

reprinted from April of 2013

Lehigh Valley As Slow Learner

The Lehigh Valley, and Allentown in particular, could only be described as slow learners. 

Zac Cohen And Company still refuses to accept his loss in the election last November. Although they babble that voters will be disenfranchised if the Election Board certifies his opponent's victory,  the board is disenfranchising the public from a full judicial bench.  It is becoming very apparent that the board is less than non-partisan, while it waits for Zac to find more pebbles to toss.

Allentown complains that not enough contractors bid on improvements to Valania Park, but also wants to further restrict which contractors can bid on projects?  However, that contradiction is fitting for that park, which is being over-improved, considering both the amount, and type of activity that occurs there. 

A victim over the weekend from multiple stab wounds doesn't have any information to give police.....They never do.

The Morning Call keeps featuring letters bashing the Republican candidates...Is that their reader base, or their editor's bias? One would think from a marketing standpoint, that they would want a more balanced opinion page.

Park Follies And Misappropriations

Over the years this blog and myself have established credibility and expertise on Allentown's traditional park system and the WPA. I must report what I consider to be a major shenanigan by the mayor. $1.3 million dollars was taken to purchase two heavy industrial areas, to supposedly add to the park system. This $million plus dollars was taken from the water/sewage lease, which is being used as the mayor's discretionary fund, instead of the dedicated pension relief,  promised at the time. $950,000.00 was used to buy the parcel at Union and Basin Streets, near the city sewage plant. This is one of the oldest industrial areas in the city, and certainly not needed for more park land. Allentown has not been able to maintain the existing park land, or the features within it. The Fountain Park Pool has been abandoned, and the WPA structures are crumbling. The other just purchased parcel is the old fertilizer plant location,  along Martin Luther King Dr., west of the crumbling Schreibers Bridge. We have an administration with no memory or knowledge of Allentown's past. Anybody who knew what went on at the fertilizer/rendering plant, would not want their grandchildren playing there. The city's rationale for these purchases is to expand the biking paths and connect the parks. That's the folly, and now the misappropriations. Allentown has supposedly allocated money to engineer the repair of the leaning WPA wall in Lehigh Parkway. I know why the wall leans. Years ago, the stone shoulder between the park entrance and wall was blacktoped. As cars and city trucks drive around the curve, pressure is exerted against the wall. That strip of asphalt needs to be removed, and the stone buffer restored. The problem with the engineering study is that it's the third time it has been appropriated. In the last two budgets money was actually budgeted to repair the wall, now the process begins again. What happen to the previous appropriations? Must molovinsky on allentown now also establish expertise in forensic accounting?

reprinted from June 26, 2014

UPDATE JULY2015. The wall collapsed in Lehigh Parkway, closing the traditional entrance to the park.. Over the past several years I had met with two park directors and the city engineer, to no avail, trying to save the wall. Recently, I have reported a problem to the current park director about the Union Terrace WPA structure, that needs immediate attention. The new parcels, rather than connecting the parks,  are connecting the neglect.

UPDATE MARCH 8, 2018: Local news sources are reporting that Mayor Pawlowski is expected to resign today.  If this welcome news will have a positive effect on the park system remains to be seen. A potential mayoral contender told me that if he were in charge, I'd be working for the park department, planning WPA renovations.  I never asked for a job, nor do I want one.  However, when I did ask City Council to appoint me as a volunteer liaison on WPA matters,  I was met with silence.  A park employee told me that there is significant money in the new budget for WPA repairs.  Again, that is nothing new. How it will be appropriated remains to be seen.  There is one thing for sure;  Whoever the new mayor might be,  whatever the park budget might be,  my advocacy for the WPA structures will continue.

above reprinted from March of 2018

UPDATE MARCH 18, 2022: Four years have passed, and the follies and misappropriations continue. Although there are numerous issues of neglect in the existing park system, Allentown continues with its plan to make the Pawlowski purchases into new parks....They should be sold. Allentown is investing close to a $million dollars into Valania Park,  a nighttime  trouble spot at 6th & Union, but never repaired the stair landings on the WPA double stairwell shown above. Bogert's Bridge still cries for paint. The roadway in Canal Park is still crumbling. Although I remain an outcast with the local press and city government, I continue to speak out.

Duck Paté Once Again At Cedar Park

In yesterday's post, I wrote about the Poison Hemlock and other invasive species taking over the creek banks in the Allentown Park System. This is a result of the ill-advised riparian buffers, promoted by the Wildlands Conservancy.

Yesterday morning the park department started to clear cut the stream banks in Cedar Park, the only way to get rid of the invasives. Removing them by hand would require the labor of the whole department, for the whole summer.

The buffers serve no ecological purpose in Allentown, because the storm water is piped directly into the streams, under the buffers.  However, the Wildlands Conservancy never lets specific realities get in the way of their generalized science.

These faux buffers have numerous victims. Yesterday this year's batch of ducklings were turned into paté  and mulch, when the mower went over their nests. For the rest of the summer, the city will allow the faux buffer to grow,  blocking both view and access to the creek.  It's not a good plan for the ducks or the children.

Allentown should defer to General Trexler's landscape architect, and again allow its citizens to enjoy the parks, as designed.

above reprinted from May of 2020

ADDENDUM MARCH 15, 2021: Hopefully this post can save some ducklings this year. I humbly suggest that the park department change mowing policy for the hatching season. Certain sections of the creek and lake banks could be kept mowed, which would discourage nesting.  Other sections could remain growing, until which time the ducks have left the nests. 

ADDENDUM MARCH 17, 2022: Despite my best efforts, the ducklings were mowed once again last season. As spring surges the ducks are pairing up. Saving them requires more effort from  the park department. Those areas they deem as must be mowed, must first be thoroughly inspected for nests. The best policy would be to suspend mowing from mid-March to mid-June.

Allentown's Quality Of Life Border

A reader recently commented that he lives Allentown, and is sticking it out, as opposed to those who moved out to Parkland.  This is easy to say when you live in Allentown's west end, because the quality of life border isn't at Cedar Crest Blvd., but rather at about 12th Street. 

As the weather gets warmer, the streets get louder and more marred by litter.  Between Front and 7th Streets you're likely to encounter junior motorbike gangs, which ignore both stop lights and one way destinations.

With Tuerk and Roca there's a new sheriff in town, and it's a new town indeed.  We who remember when Dodge was quiet, remember a different Allentown. 

I suspect that in coming years this may seem like the good old days. Despite historically low mortgage rates, the current grossly inflated real estate frenzy will result in buyer's remorse and abandoned properties.

I can appreciate that my predictions will not be used for the city's public relations...For that kind of spin I recommend the Morning Call.

Business As Usual At The Morning Call

This blog promotes itself as a chronicle of local history and politics. Politically, besides for my park and WPA advocacy, my sole recommendation has been for more officers on the police force.  It's not that I don't have a wish list for other changes, but realistically in this one party town, only the police force is critical for the town's survival. 

It was gratifying to see in the Morning Call that both Chief Roca and Mayor Tuerk are pitching to beef up the force.  Interesting that councilman Josh Siegel, now interested in a state rep seat, supports the increase.  Not that long ago he was marching with the Defund crowd. 

The Morning Call's new city beat reporter, Lindsay Weber, included Hasshan Batts in her article, who would be the chief benefactor of the Defund movement.

The paper continues its tradition of its Go To people for quotes, who include Ce-Ce Gerlach, in addition to Batts.  As a long time inner-city landlord, I can tell you what is wrong with the Gerlach/Batts recommendation to fight poverty in order to fight crime. Allentown is very much a transient town. When the shooter just arrived from NYC or New Jersey three weeks ago, we need more police, not more social workers. The shooter had social workers in New York, and they didn't help him much anyway.

The irony of the paper reporting on Batts' formula is that none of its paid subscribers subscribe to Batts' nonsense. Send the police first, and protect the bystanders.