Allentown's Hole

Allentown doesn't have much of a political memory. The Morning Call changes out its reporters about every 6 months, and most political activists eventually have lobotomies out of frustration. Never the less, some of you may remember Heydt's hole. After he torn down Hess's, the hole sat there for 18 months while a group of investors failed to find financing for a amateur hockey arena. (The one built later in Bethlehem folded and now is for sale) Now, eight years later, Pawlowski has a hole. Announced with great fanfare, a local developer would build the Cosmopolitan on the site of Sal's Spaghetti House. It makes me nervous when they name a restaurant before they built it. Anyway, Pawlowski bought Sal's, and the city paid for the demolition.(Through one of its Authorities) Then the city gave the Cosmopolitan a $50,000 restaurant grant. Yes, we gave a brick-less name $50,000. I think some of the city puff bloggers were even making reservations for dinner. Back to the hole; as a sidewalk supervisor I was surprised to see the excavators dig under the adjoining Sovereign Building and pour pylons under its footers. Perhaps they were mining, mining for grants. Those pylons have enabled the developer to remove his equipment. and let that hole sit there now for over two months, with no danger to the adjoining building. I'd say about $50,000 worth of work has been done. Last month the city applied for a low cost Liquor License for the Cosmopolitan. Last week, after the Pawlowski Administration had an embarrassing "no comment" in regard to Johnny Manana's, a backhoe was moved back to outside the Cosmopolitan site. Is that backhoe a Pawlowski Prop? Does the developer sense the time is ripe for renewed grants? Does Pawlowski need a new ribbon to cut? *

* There could be legitimate reasons why construction has halted on the Cosmopolitan. However, last month the developer's attorney declined to comment on an explanation.

reprinted from August of 2008 

UPDATE March 7, 2017 The developer(s) would go on to build the high end restaurant with their own capital. It was built pre-NIZ, and represented more faith in Allentown than many others shared at that time, including this blogger.

ADDENDUM OCTOBER 24, 2019: This will be my final post of a three part series about the former short lived Cosmopolitan Restaurant.  In 2008 and 2017 this post was titled Pawlowski's Hole.  I have changed the title to address a downside of the NIZ...modern buildings, such as the PPL Plaza and the Cosmopolitan,  cannot compete against the tax subsidized NIZ and are vacant.  Of course the real problem is that the NIZ is not just tax subsidized, but rather paid for completely with our state taxes.  So, while the NIZ has created a real estate empire for one man,  despite a $billion dollars of new buildings,  Allentown residents still had a 27% tax increase.... That is one bad joke on the taxpayers.

photo/molovinsky

Molovinsky, The Morning Call, and News

The article about Hooks Seafood restaurant closing states that this type of failure isn't unusual in an urban renewal area, according to experts. So says the Morning Call.  The article also states that The $6 million renovation of the long-closed Sal's Spaghetti House included a crystal chandelier from Hess's department store.... As you can see from my photograph above, Sal's wasn't renovated. The long closed former spaghetti house was demolished, and a new building was constructed in its place.  Now, I can understand the paper not knowing this, after all, the building is over a quarter block away from the newspaper building.  Assuming that people at the Morning Call read the paper, apparently nobody caught the error, twice. This was the second time in about a week that this misinformation was printed. However, this post is about the important part of the story, not covered by the paper.

The restaurant was built pre-NIZ. Save for a $50,000 city grant, the entire cost was borne by the owner. It happens that the owner and his wife were retired from a very lucrative business, and always wanted to own a high end restaurant. Opened as the Cosmopolitan, it was high end indeed.  When that failed to attract enough well heeled, it was transformed into the more price friendly Hook Seafood. However, with the NIZ and Reilly's hospitality group of eateries, the market was now over-saturated.

The owner of the restaurant when asked about lack of foot traffic downtown stated, "I'm not going to get judgmental or say anything negative." Those are traits that nobody accuses this blogger of having.

photocredit:molovinsky- site of the former Sal's Spaghetti House being prepared for new foundation

reprinted from March of 2017

ADDENDUM DECEMBER 5, 2022: My photo above is from August of 2008. Today's reprint is based on correcting the historical record. The Morning Call's premise of Sal's being rebuilt was used on Wikipedia, and yesterday that misinformation was recycled on Allentown Chronicles, a facebook group that I administer...There was nothing rebuilt about the Cosmopolitan, it was a completely new building, including the foundation.

Morning Call Fog

Those of us who still subscribe to the Morning Call are used to seeing the same stories, over and over. They even use the same opinion writers, over and over.  While I think that it would be fair to call me a critic of the paper, even I was surprised by a recent article on a restaurant closing.

The article went into what the menu had been, and where they had sourced the ingredients. They clearly took the article about the opening, and did some reverse writing, like reverse engineering on some electronic product. 

Defenders of the paper, if there are any, might say but you too use reprinted posts. But please remember that this blog is the very early morning musings of an aging troublemaker. And, last time I checked my mailbox, nobody is being charged for a subscription here.

My addendum on yesterday's reprinted post, about the abuse the former merchants suffered under the Pawlowski administration, takes us back to the recycled Opinion Writers at the Morning Call. Alan Jennings took great exception to my description of his recent editorial, opening and closing his comment by calling me a liar. He insisted that he wants market priced housing, not affordable housing (he used the term low-cost housing in his editorial), after sections of Allentown are cleared of the current obsolete substandard housing.  He doesn't detail who would pay for the acquisition of those buildings and their demolition. Currently, converted row houses are selling for about $125K per apartment, so a three unit row costs $375k...A block of them would easily cost $5million dollars. 

In addition to Alan Jennings, the Morning Call Opinion stable includes Don Cunningham. Although Cunningham himself was a former General Services Director in Harrisburg, he hasn't said or written one word about the State Hospital outrage. That is where the state spent $20million to tear down buildings, so that Reilly could purchase the parcel for $5.5million.  I suppose in Jennings' world, the taxpayer would pay untold $millions to clear away the downtown Allentown tenements, so that ?market rate/low-cost? housing could be built.

Hailstorm At City Hall

Sara Hailstone, Allentown's Director of Community Development, was expecting to meet with several business owners concerned about being relocated by the hockey arena. Instead, she was confronted by a conference room full of merchants and several of their representatives. She started the meeting by questioning the presence of the Morning Call reporter, Matt Assad. Several merchants said they requested his presence. Hailstone got an earful from merchant after merchant, complaining of everything from poor communication by the city, to alleged outright intimidation by the strawbuyer, Summit Reality. She conceded that the City is the undisclosed buyer, and agreed to proceed with more respect for the merchants. I'll leave more details of the meeting to Assad's coverage, presumedly tomorrow. I'd like to mention an irony that only an old timer, like myself, can appreciate. Over the years we have invested untold $millions on Hamilton Street. We put up the canopies, we took them down. We have reconfigured the parking spaces endless times. We have created a Parking Authority that charges meter rates as if we were a destination. We burdened the merchants with endless regulations concerning their signs and their security gates. At the end of all this, what we essentially have, are those that were in the room today. Save for them, we would have no downtown. We have rewarded their lifetime of work, loyalty and investment with deceit and threats. UPDATE: Matt Assad's article in today's paper pretty much tells the story of the meeting, but softens the tone present. Assad must maintain some working relationship with Hailstone, I do not. The merchants were very annoyed by tactics utilized by the city agent. A Korean daughter spoke of the pressure inserted on her father, and the effect on his blood pressure and health. A hispanic woman told of her 11 year old sister being harassed on the phone by the strawbuyer. She even wondered aloud if their minority status encouraged the disrespectful attitude. As the merchants revealed their resentment, Hailstone's body language and replies stiffened. Sam Hong, of New York Fashion, would like the Mayor to visit his store. Although two stores wide, and a major merchandizer on Hamilton Street, Pawlowski has never visited. Considering that he has been Mayor for 5.5 years, and Community Development Director for 3 years before that, perhaps he's not coming.

above reprinted from April of 2011

ADDENDUM DECEMBER 1, 2022: Alan Jennings recently retired from his leadership at Community Action Lehigh Valley. His career was largely based on influencing and connecting with large donors to fund his social agency. On his facebook page, he's currently complaining that the Lehigh Valley isn't represented on Shapiro's transition team. On his recent Morning Call editorial, he's complaining that Allentown lacks affordable housing, despite all the new construction. It's obvious that J.B. Reilly, the NIZ Czar, had the ultimate connection in Harrisburg. Perhaps connections and influence don't always serve the highest public interest?

I fought against the NIZ since it was first announced over a decade ago. I defended displaced merchants and others against its inequities. I still see it as a private bonanza for a few, and a future case study in the lack of government ethics. Occasionally, I get a call from a student studying the local WPA. On that topic, most of their searches come down to this blog. I expect future students studying the NIZ, will also be calling me.

photocredit:molovinsky

7th Street As The Combat Zone

Years ago, in addition to being a blogger, I was also an activist.  I fought against the dislocation of the former Hamilton Street merchants, as their properties were being assembled for the coming NIZ.  They were threatened with eminent domain and other heavy handed tactics by City Hall.  Those interested can find the stories here in this blog's archives, but not in the Morning Call, which was part and parcel of the NIZ from the get-go.

While those merchants were considered a "cancer" on Hamilton Street, the same merchants are now called a "success story" on 7th Street. On a recent post, someone comments that they will no longer patronize 7th Street,  which they now consider rude, crude and dangerous. 

In the 1970's, downtown Boston had a section called the combat zone.  There, the riff-raff could enjoy themselves, and not despoil the upscale shops elsewhere in the city. We have created a combat zone in Allentown, called 7th Street. Credit a street manager with doing a great job dressing up the buildings, but the double parking attitude remains. 

Unfortunately for Allentown, no upscale shopping has taken hold on Hamilton Street. But, actually, the Hamilton Street NIZ wasn't really meant as an urban renewal project, but rather a privately owned, publicly financed, real estate bonanza for a few connected individuals. Again, it's a story you'll only find in this blog's archives.

photocredit:Boston Combat Zone/molovinsky

Allentown Police Believe This Is An Isolated Incident

Early Sunday morning there was a shooting at the VIP Lounge in Allentown.  Police issued what has become their standard disclaimer... Police believe this is an isolated incident and there is no threat to the community. 

In reality, this was neither an isolated incident nor not a threat to the community. As these shootings become more commonplace, we need an administration which does not attempt to normalize them. Mayor Tuerk has been flirting with the Hispanic community... They have been in turn very flattered. The current chief, Charles Roca, is both of Guatemalan descent and a native Allentonian...Politically, that is as good as it gets from Tuerk's POV.  However, Roca became chief by default. Those ahead of him in rank became Chief For The Day, and then left Dodge while their reputation was still intact. If Roca isn't really up to the position, Tuerk will have to man-up and replace him, politics aside. 

What I just wrote above is of course heresy in Latino Allentown...but that's why I'm a blogger.

photocredit:WFMZ69

UPDATE: The first version of this post misindentified Roca as Puerto Rican 

A Bastard Blogger and Lights In The Parkway

As dusk falls, cars start entering Lehigh Parkway to enjoy the annual Christmas light display.  In the darkness they drive past the top of the Double Stairwell, built by the WPA in 1935. It was designed as the signature structure in the park. In daylight they would see that the top landing is breaking up, and the subsequent landings down the double stairs are even in worse condition. These cracked landings allow seeping water to undermine the steps below them,  jeopardizing the entire structure.  I have been reporting these deteriorating conditions to the Park Department for six years. While nothing has been done to rehab this irreplaceable structure, the department is actively seeking grants to build another new park, near the old incinerator plant off Basin Street.

As a long time public critic of the former Pawlowski administration,  his park directors may have dismissed my criticism of park policy as political discontent. However, with the current mayor and park director I have a long time rapport, but to no apparent avail.

When I drive through the park I don't see the pretty lights, but a sad situation. I see crumbling WPA structures. I see neglect and misplaced priorities.

reprinted from December of 2019 

UPDATE DECEMBER 2020: The Park Department did repair the vertical surfaces on the stairwell structure this past summer through a Trexler Trust grant, but not the landings. Because the landing surfaces are essential to maintain the structural integrity, I will keep up my campaign for such repair.

UPDATE DECEMBER 2021: In a few weeks we'll have a new mayor, but this old blogger will to continue to focus on the same shortcomings to our park system. Rather than seeking outside grants for the WPA structures, they must become main park budget items. They must be given the priority their place in our history deserves.

UPDATE NOVEMBER 28, 2022: Another year has passed, and the landings on the Double Stairwell  have still not been repaired. The city has announced that this will be the last year for the Christmas Light display. While at this point it has almost become a tradition, I remember when the attraction was new and controversial. Electrifying the park didn't sit well with park traditionalists, myself included. Long traffic lines, wrapping back and over the stone arch bridge, didn't sit well with neighbors. However, things become old, including the lights and bastard bloggers.

Covid Corruption

I'm not qualified to opine on the value of the Covid-19 vaccine, but the stimulus money which followed the pandemic has been squandered in wholesale fashion.  Even so, there is still more to dispense than they know what to do with. The most recent plan in Pennsylvania, to fund homeowner repairs up to $50,000 each, is a testament to the weak minds of our elected officials.

The decision to allow chosen, so called non-profits, to pick who the lucky homeowners will be, is a testament to our embrace of corruption.

Before they realized that they had more funds than they could find uses for, even the infrastructure projects were compromised. For instance, here in Lehigh Valley, rather than widen traffic-logged Rt. 22, we're building a special exit, to create a new warehouse complex for a connected developer.

While the virus stubbornly continues on, hopefully Washington will be cured of the ill-advised spending.