Allentown Taxpayers Pay A Premium

For years under Mayor Pawlowski, Allentown taxpayers paid a premium for services rendered to the city. Rather than best value, contracts were given on the basis of contributions to the mayor's campaign chest.  

Allentown has now passed a new ordinance giving minority businesses a special scorecard in awarding contracts. While no previous discrimination was alleged,  the new ordinance is a fix to a problem which didn't exist. However, a crystal ball isn't necessary to see what problems such latitude and exceptions may foster in bid evaluations.

Pawlowski is now incarcerated for his cost to the taxpayers.  This new contract system will legally short-change the taxpayers.

ADDENDUM: Bill 72 was presented simply as one line on the Agenda, with a link to a stock disparity study, which was not Allentown centric. As it was passed, it allows the city Contract Preferences for identified Business Enterprises. Council members stated that they will fine tune it with amendments after its passage.                                                                                                                                

UPDATE 11:00AM: The above addendum earlier erroneously stated that there was no previous notice that the item was on the agenda.

Rising and Falling Stars in the Tuerk Administration

Lucinda Wright occupies Karen El-Chaar's former office space in the Park Department building.  El Chaar was asked to relinquish the space already a couple of months ago, and moved into another space in the building. She has since been terminated. 

Wright, currently Marketing and Special Events Manager, graduated Muhlenberg College this past weekend. Attending the ceremony was Mayor Matt Tuerk. 

Wright is heading up the Halloween festivities scheduled for October 29th, including sponsorship opportunities.

These festivities replace the traditional parade, which was considered one of the oldest in the country, starting in 1905. Although tradition doesn't seem to have much cachet with the new administration, it is on this blog a highly valued commodity.  I write for a dwindling population, which both remembers and appreciated those parades.  While I note the changes taking place in Allentown, it is not apparent to me that they are improvements.  Regardless, I hope that they provide memories for today's kids that are as fond as those provided by the parades of the past.

photocredit:Glenn Koch Collection

Reconvening The WPA Group

Karen El-Chaar, new director of the Allentown Park System, has asked if I would reconvene the WPA group I started in 2011. She is interested in cataloging an inventory of all structures built by the WPA, something which Allentown apparently doesn't have.

In yesterday's post, which was written in 2015, I concluded by saying that I was optimistic that Allentown would continue repairing the iconic structures. Actually, that optimism turned out to be unfounded, as nothing more was done. However, I am now again encouraged about the future. Karen El-Chaar does have an appreciation of the structures and their importance in the parks, something which all her predecessors lacked.

I invite my former committee members to contact me, and anyone else interested in this important endeavor.

In the photo above,  El-Chaar and I are standing in front of the double stairwell in Lehigh Parkway.  That structure is in need of repair.  Director El-Chaar will attend our upcoming meeting when scheduled.

above reprinted from October of 2018
 

ADDENDUM OCTOBER 19, 2022: Karen El-Chaar was terminated from the park directorship last Thursday. While I knew about this action by Mayor Tuerk over the weekend, I preferred not to address it yet here on the blog. However, an associate blogger also heard of the story, so now my opinion is becoming overdue. Although I like to limit my commentary to policy rather than personnel, El-Chaar was the only park director in twenty years to care about the park system's WPA legacy. 

I have a hunch who her replacement might be, and that the park emphasis will shift exclusively to recreation and events. I will remain an advocate for the traditional park system and the WPA structures, and remain available to the administration if my advice is ever sought.

Tuerk's First Budget

Back in 2005, I actually studied Allentown's budget, line by line. Since then I have been nicer to myself about such details. Yesterday, Lindsay Weber of The Morning Call reported that Mayor Tuerk announced that there would be no tax increase for 2023, but warned that one would be necessary for 2024.

Although we could use another 80 policemen by FBI standards, the new budget only provides for four new officers. Tuerk did mention that finding qualified candidates is difficult. 

In addition to studying the budget years ago, I would also attend the Community Block Grant meetings, where the city decides which $organizations$ will receive what $federal dollars$.  I recall seeing the administrators from these supposedly non-profit organizations as feeding vultures, competing for roadkill.

These grants are distributed to a growing number of non-profits, which use our money to make instant business people, instant home owners and of course support dozens and dozens of jobs administering the funds. These organizations and foundations have become a growth industry in the Lehigh Valley. Admittedly, some of these programs have social value, such as emergency shelters. Besides the questionable mission of many of these programs ( i.e.,making a business owner), another problem is the  duplication of these organizations. The money spent on offices, utilities, overhead and administrators using these grants could be put to so much better use. Allentown, because of our economic demographics, would be allowed to apply much of this money directly to infrastructure. This approach would benefit the tax payers in multiple ways. More capital projects could be completed with less millage.

Tuerk foresees a 2024 tax increase necessary for infrastructure. Although I don't see it in Tuerk's MO, letting some of these young vultures fend for themselves would make for a better city.

Allentown Flood Of 1936

In 1936, northeast United States was decimated by extensive flooding. While Johnstown, Pa. and Nashua, N.H. made national news, Allentown certainly wasn't spared. While locally flooding of the Lehigh and Delaware received the most attention, the Jordan and Little Lehigh Creeks also caused widespread damage. Shown above is Lehigh Street, in the vicinity of the Acorn Hotel, south of the Little Lehigh. The building on the far left would become the Sherman Hotel, which operated for about twenty years, from 1942 to 1961. None of the buildings pictured still stand.

The low lying areas between the Jordan Creek and Lehigh River were flooded.  Numerous people were rescued by rowboat from porch roofs. At that time there was still many houses on the lower section of Hamilton and nearby Streets.

photo courtesy of the Schoenk family.

reprinted from April of 2020

Hurricane Diane, 1955

Hurricane Diane hit the Lehigh Valley in August of 1955. Living in Little Lehigh Manor, I remember huddling in the house, while the metal garbage cans of the era flew around the neighborhood. My father, whose meat market was on Union Street by the Lehigh River, worked throughout the night. Fortunately for him, his market had an second floor backup cooler, and a small freight elevator. While the retail business district on Hamilton Street is elevated enough to be unaffected from flooding, center city Easton was devastated by the Delaware. The next morning was rather surreal for a nine year old boy. A large willow tree on the corner of Lehigh Parkway South and Catalina Ave. was lying on its side. Although the Little Lehigh receded quickly, the park road and basin had been flooded. Diane remains a record in flooding and damage. Let us hope it remains that way.

photo from August 1955. Lehigh River rising by former A&B Meats. The row of houses shown were demolished to make way for a new bridge approach several years later.

reprinted from previous years

Icon Of Allentown's 10th Ward

While the pulpit section of the Protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary Orthodox Church is adorned with murals and icons of Mary, parishioners may notice that there is no such imagery on the beautiful stained glass windows. More careful inspection reveals that while there are no graven images in the glass, Stars of David and scrolls can be seen. As the ancestors of the current members came from eastern Europe and the Czarist Russian Empire, so did the building's original congregation. The gothic edifice was built as a synagogue in 1909 by Allentown's Russian Jews. The Orthodox Jewish congregation, Sons Of Israel, utilized the structure for 50 years before it was repurposed by the current American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox congregation.

This was the synagogue I attended as a boy with my father, as he did with my grandfather, growing up on the corner of Chew and Jordan Streets. In the front, under those golden domes with the crosses, are Stars of David. I rekindled my memory of those times when I visited the church last year. The stained glass windows are surely among the most beautiful in Allentown.  The synagogue turned church is located on the northeast corner of 6th and Tilghman Streets in Allentown.  The area, Allentown's 10th Ward,  has a strong neighborhood group. The exterior photograph of the church is from their facebook page.  The large round window shown in the top photograph is behind the balcony,  in the front of the church. Inside, the congregation faces east,  toward Jerusalem.

reprinted from 2016

Morning Call Headlines

It's no secret nowadays that headlines are clickbait... I confess to occasionally succumbing to the temptation here on this blog. I've noticed that most of the election headlines in the Morning Call are more often than not favorable to Democratic candidates. In the Morning Call the consequences of the clickbait are more severe than elsewhere, because they have a dwindling subscriber base and such a strong paywall...So very often the headline ends up being the message.

With that in mind, when the paper recently asked Dean Browning for clarification of the gay black man tweet*, he should have seen what was coming.  I have known Dean for many years... He's very white and ungay.  He may however be a little naive concerning media, especially the Morning Call.

* In the article Browning does explain the controversial tweet...who actually said it (a gay black man from Philadelphia), and how it became associated with Browning's twitter feed.

ADDENDUM 9:30AM: I was contacted this morning by the Morning Call  wanting to know why I reprinted their article from 2020 without revealing that it was a reprint?  I didn't notice that the story was dated 2020 when I read it YESTERDAY on MCALL.   THE REAL QUESTION NOW BECOMES WHY DID THEY REPRODUCE A TWO YEAR OLD STORY NOW, RIGHT BEFORE THE ELECTION?

ADDENDUM 4:00PM: The Morning Call states that [they] didn't reprint or repost that article. It appeared on the home page because it was trending yesterday in Google Search for some reason and those stories get pulled automatically into the collection where it appeared. No one posted that purposely and if [they] had known it was there, [they] would have had it taken down.

I would think that they wouldn't want their MCALL homepage dictated by Google.