Raining Money On Promise Neighborhoods

Hasshan Batts won the lottery when he started the local Promise Neighborhoods. The politically correct are always looking for a cause to support, and combating gun violence is the current fashion. Years ago, Alan Jennings was in the right place at the right time, with combating poverty, now it's Batts' turn. After Pawlowski's departure, Cynthia Mota nominated Batts for mayor, without revealing that she worked for him. That was a story that this blog broke, but it was appropriated by the Morning Call, without attribution. Local virtue signalers started flocking around Batts, adding credence to his self promotion.

Just in the last couple weeks alone, he has received $Millions of $dollars... Fed money from Susan Wild, state money from Governor Shapiro and local money from Lehigh Valley Health Network. Corporate America, and LVHN is corporate, love enhancing their profile by making community contributions. The Allentown School District has partnered with Batts to operate a food pantry.

Some of the people who know the local Promise organization best are starting to protest. The commotion at last week's city council meeting touched on that irony. Some of the people arguing at the meeting were Promise workers. These same people are supposed to be conciliators.

Activist Jessica Lee Ortiz was largely responsible for the huge turnout shown in the photo above. While the Morning Call decided not to report on the meeting, LehighValleyNews.Com covered the controversy. 

Mayor Tuerk told the crowd that's he working with an organization of mayors for gun control. That won't help Allentown anytime this century. Likewise, neither will Promise Neighborhoods.  An excellent suggestion was to allow police to moonlight as security in private clubs... that was a common practice many years ago in Allentown. 

photocredit:Jay Bradley/LehighValleyNews.com

Rumble At City Council

From what I understand, Wednesday's council meeting was a real popcorn event. I say understand, because readers of this blog know that I no longer attend meetings. 

These are second hand observations gleaned mostly from WFMZ. The Morning Call never covers courtesy of the floor topics, or other issues not on the agenda. That journalistic restriction is probably proscribed by their editor/publisher, who was previously their long time local news editor.  Apparently the peanut gallery at the meeting, there to complain about violence, got rowdy themselves, and some were ejected from the meeting. 

Tim Ramos would be surprised to learn that he was a Democratic candidate in the last mayoral election cycle. Of course, in fairness to WFMZ, who would think that a surname Ramos in Allentown would be Republican?

Mayor Tuerk made lemonade out of the discontent, by saying that citizen concern is the first step toward solutions.

artwork by Mark Beyer

ADDENDUM: This prohibition against reporting anything not on the official agenda, seemingly directed by Mike Miorelli, goes a long way in explaining the Call's long term failure in corruption reportage.  In a more perfect government, perhaps city council would be a check and balance against a mayor, but that was never the case in Allentown. 

In this blog's history, one former reporter would routinely call me and other concerned citizens...He now covers the White House for a national news agency.

The Devil Of Ocean Paradise

The resort town's boardwalk is partially open during the cold winter months for the hardy of spirit.  The stores that remain open were purchased mostly by middle eastern immigrants, who overpaid for their piece of the American dream in the dying resort.  Their mortgage demands every nickel they can muster,  and their large families are eager to practice their broken English on the few customers willing to brave the boardwalk's cold winter wind.

All their stores sell the same things...  brightly colored candy, souvenirs and small toys designed to make children nag and beg.  Along with the stores there is a strip of game stands, where during the warm summer breezes,  fathers and boyfriends hope to win a stuffed animal.  During the winter, the steel garage doors are closed on all these stands, except for one.  The immigrants with their broken English cannot lure in players, but the Devil can.

Oversized brightly colored stuffed animals adorn the stand. Music from the 70's pulses from one loud speaker,  while the Devil commands the occasional passing man to "show her that you care by winning a bear."  Please don't misunderstand me, he is not Satan himself, but a minor devil.  He can give you a cold, or ruin a first date,  but he has no power over life and death.  Even those he afflicts can purchase redemption.... Inside the stores there are chocolate wafers for sale,  covered with white candy sprinkles.  For a mere $26 a pound, the bad omen can be eaten away.

This minor devil came from Coney Island a decade ago.  Brooklyn's Brighton Beach area started gentrifying in the late 90's, and the dress up spread to adjoining Coney.  Doc, the minor devil, thrived on hearty spirits, but not heady minds.  His move to Ocean Paradise was a win-win.  While the owning immigrant gets to keep almost all the money the stand takes in,  Doc gets to dispense a headache or two each weekend.  He has a room at a nearby old motel owned by the same family, and enjoys the middle eastern food that he has eaten since time immemorial.

If you walk on the boardwalk during the winter, you better dress warm, and not be tempted to show her that you care.

reprinted from November of 2018

Blogging And The Lone Ranger

I fancy myself as the aging Lone Ranger of local blogging, because I'm beyond caring about what or who I offend.  At this point in time, for my name to appear in the Morning Call, I would either have to get arrested or die ... For now, I'm trying to stave off both those options. Likewise, public officials have no use for me. I've been informed that Matt Tuerk loathed me, even before he was a candidate.

I do have one regret about my abrasiveness. Perhaps, if I was more diplomatic, I might have prevailed upon city officials to have more appreciation for the WPA structures throughout the park system.

Several years ago I started a facebook group, Allentown Chronicles. I billed it as mostly for local history, with a side of local non-partisan politics. Most of such local groups concentrated on who made the best chili sauce, cheesesteak or pizza. The history posts on them are cut and pasted from wikipedia, or just pictures scanned from a book. I aspired to see original material and personal memories. While I still keep those guidelines for my own posts, I'm learning to be more lenient with what other people present. 

The takeaway from all these facebook groups is that people want to remember a gentler Allentown from their youth, as opposed to the current harsher reality. 

I spend much more time on the sofa now than on the streets of Allentown. I no longer attend meetings. Nevertheless, with so few venues willing to be candid, I still get tips and requests for help. I still wake up early and eager to sprinkle a little frankness on Allentown.

Paul Muschick Might Become A Columnist

Since Muschick is already the Morning Call's columnist, this post's title alone probably offends him...Offending people is never an issue for me. I do fancy myself a Lone Ranger in blogging. The Morning Call hasn't had a columnist since Paul Carpenter retired.... Bill White squandered his bully pulpit with Christmas Light Tours and chocolate cake contests. He's still judging chocolate cakes.  

The reason I see hope in Muschick is that his recent column takes Ray O'Connell to task for considering running for reelection, after he pledged not to. I don't have an opinion on that topic at this point, but appreciate that Muschick does, and that he expressed it. Muschick's new boldness goes somewhat awry criticizing the voters for reelecting an indicted mayor Pawlowski. A search of the paper's archives shows no one at the paper writing against Pawlowski, including Muschick, at the time. Furthermore, the paper gave the indicted Pawlowski space for column after column during the election. 

For a current columnist at the Morning Call the bar is very low. If I were Muschick, especially with the deteriorating corporate profile for the paper, I would be going all out against the local establishment.

above reprinted from February 4, 2020
 

ADDENDUM JANUARY 31, 2023: For a bastard like me, over the last several years I have been very complimentary toward Paul Muschick.  However, Muschick never has gone after the local establishment hard, and never against the paper, as Paul Carpenter occasionally did. I bumped into Muschick last spring, when he and cohorts were protesting Alden Holdings purchasing Tribune Papers....They're apparently willing to speak out for their salaries.  I was bitching about the Wehr's Dam article, which omitted my mention, even through it was me who advocated for the article, and provided most of the background questions. Muschick gave the stock answer that no one tells them what to write. Of course the real issue is that they know the whats and whos they dare not write about... I'm one of them.

Years ago, when I was out and about more, people would tell me how much they liked Bill White's theme columns. Likewise,  I'm sure Paul Muschick has a current fan base.  When I ran the post in 2020, I got a note from Bernie O'Hare that said, "You save dams and burn bridges." 

Rumble At Secret Lounge

Last night while Mayor Tuerk was attending a solidarity service for the brutal death in Memphis, discontent was fermenting in Allentown.  While police were out of  control in Memphis, some think there's not enough policing in Allentown.

The Puerto Rican inspired protest logo shown above was created by Jessica Lee Ortiz. She's very upset about the fight at an east side club...A video shows people getting hit by thrown tables.

I met Jessica years ago when she was first becoming involved in civic activity. She is now director of the Ortiz Ark Foundation.

As a native Allentonian and local political commentator, I've taken Tuerk to task for what I consider pandering to the Hispanic community, at the expense of older Allentown and public safety.  If a major player in the Hispanic community also finds his performance lacking, he might want to reevaluate the game plan.

The Neuweiler Story

Allentown's NIZ was a boutique legislation that allows private property to be publicly financed.  On the up side, for the most part, the beneficiaries have been local boys. That is about to change. 

The Morning Call had an excellent report on a New Jersey firm muscling in on our tax dollar giveaway. They learned their lesson well from the first interloper, Ruckus Brewery.  Ruckus was set up with the Neuweiler Brewery by Mike Fleck, before he went to the pokey with Pawlowski.  Ruckus managed to raise money from their NIZ approval and get possession of the brewery without actually spending any of their own money. For that fund raising, they changed their name to Brewers Hill.  Previously they never even had experience with actual brewing or real estate...Never underestimate the value of a political connection.

Like Ruckus/Brewers Hill, the new player promises to relocate their office here to Allentown. Sprinkle in a promise of affordable housing, and the Allentown welcome mat is out.  They have agreements now with Brewers Hill, and options on neighborhood properties. 

Personally, I preferred my tax dollars benefiting the local boys, like Reilly and Jaindl.

photocredit: Robert Walker

above reprinted from February of 2021

UPDATE MAY 18, 2022: With the recent news about Neuweilers, I decided to revisit the brewery posts. The post above is just one of dozens I have written on the brewery since 2008. I may have somewhat more knowledge about the topic than the Morning Call's changing cast of reporters, because I had actually sat down with the last private owner. In 2007 Pawlowski said that "We have to get it out of the hands of this guy," It was also the last time that any property taxes were paid on the property. While the city took procession supposedly because no improvements were made, likewise nothing has been done since, fifteen years later. Actually, the property now is in considerably worse condition. But in addition to no taxes being paid in all these years, we have been paying the salaries of the bureaucrats in the various controlling agencies since the property was confiscated.

Whether demolished or restored, or a combination of both, we all want to see change at the property. But understand that we as taxpayers will be paying for that change with our diverted state income taxes. Understand that although the project will be publicly financed, it will be privately owned.

Those interested in an account of the situation from 2007 until now, can use the search engine of this blog's sidebar... simply type in Neuweiler brewery.

UPDATE SEPTEMBER 15, 2022: A recent headline in the Morning Call put this money pit back on this blog's front burner. It referred to investment coming to the river. It all these years of NIZ promoting, the Morning Call has never clarified that the investment is our money, our diverted state taxes. Perhaps the new crop of young reporters don't fully understand that. I can appreciate that it's hard to understand how privately owned buildings can be completely publicly paid for....Credit outgoing state senator Pat Browne for that grab of the century. As for Neuweilers, before the recent owners signed over to the current owners, they were given a couple $mil in seed money by the public authority. An enterprising reporter or investigator, might want to track where those dollars went.

Down the road, when some local cheerleader strolls up to the new bar at Neuweilers, and orders the first brewski,  he'll have no idea how many $millions and $millions it really cost the taxpayers.

UPDATE JANUARY 27, 2023: Demolition has begun on the brewery, only the iconic front tower portion will remain.  That portion has been so structurally compromised from neglect, that its preservation is only possible because of our unaccounted for tax dollars. I'm amused how people are so excited about the project, but so oblivious to the true story about it, outlined above. There are a few civic notables relieved that scrutiny, so far, has been limited to this blog.

Allentown Administration Disconnect

As I read about the shooting last weekend on Allentown's east side, I couldn't help but be bewildered by Facebook posts by both Mayor Tuerk and Police Chef Roca. Tuerk was smiling in his gold laced sneakers in Washington D.C., and Roca was celebrating his 21st year on the force. Neither seemed concerned with the ongoing carnage in Allentown.

Nor do the commonplace shootings seem to diminish Tuerk's and Roca's popularity with their constituents.  Allentown has fallen so far that the current public accepts the violence as part of everyday life.  I still haven't recovered from Tuerk's field trip to the Dominican Republic. I'm still suffering from Congresswoman Susan Wild bragging about giving Hasshan Batts $1.5 million for his Promise approach to crime. 

Tuerk certainly is a populist... He's everywhere, and the public appreciates his energy. While I've grown longer in the tooth, and no longer snarl at the bureaucrats in person, I can still peck away on this typewriter...I understand that I won't be invited to any city functions.  In recent years, I was already considered a naysayer.  That description now actually seems too positive for my current perception of Allentown.