A Baby Boomer Allentown

molovinsky on allentown is meant to intersect local politics and history. I grew up during a very prosperous era in Allentown's history. The post war (WW2) factories couldn't produce enough goods, despite some having three shifts. Local government was small, concerned mostly with infrastructure and public safety.  There was little concern with affordable housing and other social programs. Then, as now, there were always poor people. Eleanor Roosevelt visited Allentown for the opening of Hanover Acres, the public housing above the east side of the Lehigh River. For many residents of that project and Cumberland Gardens, the public housing was a stepping stone, not a lifestyle.

Hamilton Street was a thriving shopping district.  No subsidies needed there.  Those successful merchants handled their own parking system, no Parking Authority needed.  There might have been some nepotism and cronyism in city hall, but no need for FBI investigations.  Information and news came from your television screen and newspapers, but without agendas and misdirection.

A reader asked me why I made commenting more difficult.  Question.......isn't one of the purposes of your blog to foster discussion of the matters you raise? Purposely seeking to curb comment responses and possibly readership, seems counterintuitive to me.  Topics are not chosen in regard to expanding readership, nor do I count comments as a gauge of success. This blog is not monetized, directly or indirectly. I address those topics which are either under-reported, or misrepresented by the local main stream media. Consequently, I want the comments to be as relevant and responsible as possible.

When Walter Cronkite gave the news in the early 1960's,  he signed out each program by saying, "And that's the way it is."  

reprinted from July of 2016

ADDENDUM JULY 25, 2022:Not much has changed since I wrote the above piece six years ago. The downtown subsidy program, the NIZ, is on steroids, having pumped so far over a $billion in real estate to one private owner.

During this current heat wave the city is concerned with New York and New Jersey using our parks for recreation. Maybe for the last twenty years they should have been more concerned about New York and New Jersey using our housing and schools? However, such awkward questions have only come mostly from me, on this blog.

I still don't fish for comments...I don't ask readers what they think about some controversial topic. While I still reject comments which don't add to the post, your readership is nevertheless appreciated.

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

Pennsylvania's Old Tax Joke

There's an article in today's Morning Call about how some of our elected officials are surprised that the long promised property tax relief didn't make it into the final budget. How Shocking!!!

Pennsylvania absorbed the Casino revenues, without ever providing property owners with meaningful tax relief. Not only didn't the casinos bring relief, neither did its gambling predecessor, the lottery... That false promise hasn't delivered in over forty years.

Neither did hydraulic fracking, or even pot, when they legalized it for medical use. I don't know if marijuana will make you insane, but voting for the same candidates and parties, with the same false promises, election after election, is nuts. 

Pennsylvania's problem was never lack of revenue, it's always been a lack of priorities and ethics.

The Trexler Greenhouse

The former greenhouse at the current Trexler Park was the pride of Harry and Mary Trexler. The General was very specific in his will about its future;

I, Harry C. Trexler declare this to be my last Will and Testament: ......into the Treasury of the City of Allentown, for the perpetual maintenance of said Park, (Trexler) as well as the Greenhouse thereon located. This bequest shall include all the plants and other contents of said Greenhouse (1929)

Although nobody in charge of Allentown remembers, the greenhouse was a thing of wonder... Full of banana trees and other tropical plants, it was a true escape from winter for all visitors. The park director at the time touted all the money in maintenance to be saved if it was demolished. A couple years later the same director replanted the creek banks by the intersection of Cedar Crest Blvd. and Cetronia Rd.. That planting cost $750,000. I recall the price, because Longwood Gardens built a new greenhouse for that same amount, we had just lost our greenhouse, and only had a new creek weedwall to show in its place.  

Several years ago Allentown Park Department cut down all those plantings, and we now have nothing to show for our loss of the greenhouse. Even back then, I was an advocate for the traditional park system. Current visitors to Trexler Park don't notice that the weed wall has been cut down, and certainly don't know that they lost a beautiful greenhouse in the backstory.

reprinted from 2014. Postcard of Trexler duckpond from the glory days of the Allentown Park System

A Fitting Birthday Present

In a recent puff piece in The Morning Call about Allentown's 250th birthday, Mayor Ed Pawlowski used the phrase, "City Without Limits," no less than three times. What does that slogan mean? First, let me tell you that it is just a slogan, created by a paid image consultant. How ironic that the current leadership in Allentown, which was the sanctuary of the Liberty Bell and a bastion of industrial America, can only describe our city in paid-for, meaningless slogans. Truth be told, the current leadership has no institutional memory of Allentown. They didn't live here when Allentown was the All-American City. The proposed hockey arena is referred to as "transformational." Allentown was transformational in creating the American dream. "Built like a Mack truck" was a meaningful slogan. It meant the people of Allentown had the work ethic and skill to produce the best. The Western Electric plant on Union Boulevard first produced transistors and then silicon chips as Lucent. A hundred factories required several train lines to haul raw material and finished products in and out of Allentown. Hess Brothers taught store owners all over the country how to merchandise their products. Before somebody reminds me that there is no more strawberry pie at the Patio Restaurant in Hess's basement, let me get back to 2011. 

If we are to celebrate our 250th birthday, let us honor some historic icons that still exist. In the mid-1930s our park system benefited from magnificent stone structures built by the Works Progress Administration during Roosevelt's New Deal program. These icons of our nationally known park system are in need of major restoration, if they are to remain standing. Such a restoration would be a most fitting tribute to our upcoming birthday.

reprinted from November of 2010

ADDENDUM JULY 19, 2022: It has been over a decade since I started my campaign for Allentown to maintain our WPA treasures. The steps at Fountain Park have been renovated due to the generosity of the Trexler Trust. The Parkway entrance wall has been rebuilt by necessity, after it partially collapsed. Unfortunately, maintenance of the icons is still not a priority of the park department. 

However, the durable stone structures mostly still stand despite the neglect, and there are still those among us who appreciate their value.

The Little Bridge Of Lehigh Parkway

A few years ago, new and young visitors to the park would have no idea that a magnificent miniature bridge crossed a spring run to the Little Lehigh. Certainly, such a stone construction wasn't necessary to cross the 24 inch waterway. It was built in a era of masonry art, fueled by the Great Depression, and funded by Roosevelt's WPA. Over the last decade, budgetary cutbacks and environmentalists demanding riparian zones, justified allowing it to be consumed by brush and saplings. In 2010, I persuaded Mike Gilbert, park department manager, to partially clear around the bridge. Although a tree now blocks it's southern approach, the bridge has been given a reprieve on its destruction.

reprinted from previous years

ADDENDUM JULY 18, 2022: While it has been another decade since I had the miniature bridge uncovered, I'm sorry to report that the WPA structures still remain a low priority with the city. While the wall into Lehigh Parkway has been restored out of necessity to retain entrance to the park, neglect for the other structures continues. I will continue to publicly complain about this shortcoming in the city's vision.

Weighing In On 1948

1948 was a good year for Allentown and the Lehigh Valley. Mack Trucks, Lehigh Structural Steel, General Electric and almost all factories were going full steam. President Truman stopped by to give a speech. The Allentown Cardinals played the first game in their new ballpark, Breadon Field. The baby boom was going full tilt:



The school district unveiled Lehigh Parkway and Midway Manor Elementary Schools and the new professional style football stadium. Donald Hock was Mayor, and although the last beer was being brewed on Lawrence Street at Daeufer Brewery, the Paddock joined many new restaurants opening that year. Photo's from Dorney Park in 1948.

reprinted from 2009


ADDENDUM MAY 2016: Assuming a photograph on the Morning Call website is color balanced correctly, the wooden coaster at Dorney is no longer Dorney Coaster Yellow. Painting the coaster the same shade of yellow was an important tradition at the park, even when ownership changed hands. They don't make Lehigh Valley traditions like they used to.

Spongebaths For The Homeless At Starbucks

Starbucks, in their yearning to be politically correct,  has probably irrevocably degraded their brand, at least in the urban markets.   The policy of restricting restroom use to paying customers is standard procedure in large urban areas.  A white middle class woman told me that she was denied use of the restroom for not being a paying patron at the same Philadelphia Starbucks at the center of the controversy.

Apparently, it is a Starbucks CEO tradition to let PC race ahead of common sense.  Last year they promised to hire 8,000 immigrants.  While nobody is waiting for the immigrants before they buy their latte,  the homeless will start availing themselves of the restrooms.  While my liberal readers, all six of them, will welcome the better restroom facilities for the homeless,  their tune may change next time they use the bathroom in a Philadelphia Starbucks.

If Starbucks' corporate reaction to the incident wasn't enough,  now the Philadelphia Police Commissioner is walking back his previous support of the arresting officers.  He has apologized to the two men arrested, who refused to leave as instructed by the responding officers.  While only reinforcing victim mentality,  I don't see anything productive in these reactions.

photocredit: Bryant/Philadelphia Inquirer

above reprinted from April of 2018

ADDENDUM JULY 14, 2022: Starbucks has announced the closure of numerous inner-city shops, including a Philadelphia location.  My prediction that their political correctness would come back to bite them was apparently accurate.