Say Now

Say now, do you remember when Neuweilers was a brewery on Front Street, not a redevelopment project? Say now, do you remember when Park and Shop validated your ticket for free parking, not a Parking Authority that fined you for coming downtown? Say now, do you remember when Hamilton Street was filled with neon signs and shoppers, not ordinances and vision plans? Say now, do you remember when City Hall didn't have all the managers, planners and directors we have now? Say now, we must have been stupider then or something.

reprinted from December 20, 2010

Allentown School District

One of the most amazing things about Allentown is that the population, despite the problems, has remained about the same since 1928. That was the year Allentown celebrated reaching 100,000. Today, we are about 106.000. Although the numbers stayed the same, the demographics have changed drastically. We are now officially a minority city. When I grew up, there was a saying, If you ain't Dutch, you ain't much. How's that for political correctness? Today, if you want to see a Pennsylvania Dutchman, you have to look at the picture on a bag of pretzels.

During my school years, a delinquent was a kid smoking a cigarette in the alley. Today, we have machete attacks, and parents beating someone else's kid in a classroom. In this environment, should we be concerned about math scores in Singapore? There is a disconnect between the discipline problems and the preoccupation for better scores on the standardized tests; Increasing civility is much more important. If we could get that math score up, will the public overlook the machete attack? We'll build a new school next to Jackson Elementary, move the students, and put the machete attackers in the old Jackson. Then, we'll take the real achievers and put them in an academy of excellence. Let's hope not too many parents insist that their child belongs in the academy. Let's hope that the prison school works out. We all agree that all the students are a precious commodity. What we really need is safe classrooms, conducive to learning. We need supervised streets, conducive for getting to and from school safely. Isn't it interesting that a child can leave Central Catholic at 4th and Chew, and be safer than a child leaving William Allen at 17th and Chew?

The photograph, from the late 1940's, shows a kindergarden class before Lehigh Parkway Elementary School was completed. One of the twin houses served both as the neighborhood school and church.

above reprinted from December 22, 2010

ADDENDUM APRIL 4, 2023: Over a decade has passed since I wrote the above post.  We been through half a dozen new superintendents, still thinking that somehow that change will make the magic difference. We still have many dedicated teachers, and those students motivated to learn will do so, despite the distractions.

The Tracks Of Allentown

Up to the early 1950's, you pretty much drove over tracks wherever you went in Allentown. While the trolleys moved the people, the Lehigh Valley Railroad freight cars moved the materials in and out of our factories. Shown above, the Lehigh Valley Transit trolley moves across the former steel Hamilton Street Bridge. The huge UGI gas tank can be seen on Union Street. While the trolleys gave way to buses by 1953, the freight rail spurs would tarry on for two more decades.

reprinted from December 29. 2010

Allentown Memorabilia

The time and market for Allentown memorabilia has come and gone. With a changing population, and the graying of the older town folks, objects of our history are destined for the landfill. Even the local historic society concentrates on shows of general interest, such as Abraham Lincoln. In addition to having been a retail mecca, Allentown manufactured a large assortment of products. Allentown was stamped on tools, knifes, and metal products of all kinds, distributed nationwide. A local regional food product was the hard pretzel, a variation of the traditional German soft pretzel. Allentown had several pretzel companies. Miller's operated out of their factory at 732 Tilghman Street, between 1944 and 1978. In the coming months this blog will profile some of these Made In Allentown products, before litter and meaningless slogans became our legacy.

reprinted from July of 2013

Made In The Lehigh Valley

The other day I was self checking out of the grocery store, and across the aisle was Bethlehem Steel T-Shirts.  They were made to look retro, with pre-faded logo and copy, which said MADE IN USA.  Although, I knew the phrase referred to the steel,  I couldn't resist looking at the shirt's label.  Needless to say, it was made in China. Ironically, Bethlehem Steel was a self sufficient company, which even  produced ships with its own steel.

When I was a boy I worked in my father's meat market located at the foot of Union Street, where the Hamilton Street Bridge crossed over the Lehigh River.  Saturday was busy, with many customers who worked at the Steel, Lehigh Structural, Black and Decker, Western Electric, Mack and dozens of sewing factories.  A couple of guys who worked during the week at Arbogast & Bastian helped my dad out on Saturdays.  Both Swift and Wilson meat packers had wholesale branches near by.  They would be supplied by rail sidings,  which  criss-crossed that area of the city.  At that time everything was made in America, except for cheap novelty junk.  Now, in addition to losing our manufacturing,  we're even losing our retail,  as everything comes directly from online ordering and warehouses.    I suppose that soon the cashiers at the supermarket will be a relic of the past.

reprinted from March of 2017

Mayor Tuerk And Billy Joel

In a recent radio interview, Mayor Tuerk said in regard to the song "Allentown" by Billy Joel...It's so wrong... I don't know how it felt in 1982, but it doesn't feel like that now... it's not hard to stay. It's hard to leave.

Certainly as Mayor, Matt Tuerk must be a cheerleader for Allentown, and  I realize that for many of the new people here, Allentown is better than wherever they came from. But as a native Allentonian, the city was much better when Joel's song came out back in 1982. All those new buildings on Hamilton Street don't mean jack, unless you're the one man who owns them. 

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What's much worse now is the crime, litter and violence. Tuerk wrote recently that illegal guns are a toxin in Allentown. Of course the real problem is the people who readily use those guns.

Billy Joel was lamenting the lost industry in the rust belt, but I'm missing the quality of life we had when he was singing that song forty years ago.

Zion Liberty Bell Dilemma

In a recent editorial, Sara Brace threw the  Liberty Bell Museum Board under the bus, to help some local liberal causes.  Her dance was very complicated, because she was head of the museum board before her resignation, and her husband was a principal of Zion Church, and is a county commissioner to boot. 

Now, if this all sounds confusing, it certainly is. Normally, the Morning Call wouldn't publish such contradictions, but a local liberal dilemma developed at the Liberty Bell church.

Because Gregory Edwards was raising the rent from $1 a year, to $1000 a month on the Bell Museum, some people were thinking less of the pastor.  Some people were thinking less of the Zion Church board which didn't safeguard the museum,  putting county commissioner Geoff Brace in an awkward position, considering his role at the church.

Sara defends the increase, and suggests that the state should come forward with some $moolah to save everybody's face.

School Board Graduates To Harrisburg

Our new state senators have something in common, both were former school board members. However, they apparently took different courses...While new state senator Jarrett Coleman wants to submit the NIZ to some very overdue scrutiny, senator Nick Miller wants Reilly to continue his windfall, without much accountability.  Miller brags about all the new office tenants on Hamilton Street, ignoring the reality that they were poached from surrounding office parks, creating few, if any, new net jobs for the area. That poach job transferred the state taxes from the state budget, to instead service Reilly's mortgage debt.

What brings me to this topic today is Miller's assertion that Coleman doesn't have the best interests of Allentown in mind with his inquires. On the contrary, in my opinion, Miller doesn't have the best interest of taxpayers in mind with his position.

Miller complains that the NIZ is in his district, and that Coleman should visit there to learn about Allentown's commercial success. Coleman could response that the businesses were previously in his district, and now with the NIZ allowing parcel swaps,  it can be anywhere the chosen find opportunity, like  at a former state hospital.

At any rate,  I believe that we are better served with our elected officials not being on the same page all the time.  For too long there has been too much back scratching in Harrisburg.

Shown above Tony Iannelli conducts debates between Miller/Browning and Coleman/Pinsley.  Photo by Donna Fisher for LehighValleyLive.Com