$100 A Week

In 1935, a Jewish boy earning $35 a week carrying 300 pound blocks of ice, was offered three times more to fight; win, lose or draw. For one hundred dollars a week, Jock Whitney, British aristocrat and sportsman, owned Abe Simon. Abe won his first 14 fights, 12 by knockout. On his climb to fight Louis in 1941 he would knock out 27 opponents, including Jersey Joe Walcott.
reprinted from December 2012 

This blog has produced numerous posts chronicling the Joe Louis boxing era, many featuring Abe Simon, a Jewish heavyweight of the era; Simon and my mother were cousins. Lately, Allentown political shenanigans have allowed me little time and space to visit Madison Square Garden in the early 1940's. During the next couple of weeks I will reprint some of the Simon posts, while still assigning staff to City Hall. One of my attractions to the boxing world is the black and white photography produced during that era. The public would listen to the fights on the radio, and then see the photographs in the newspapers the following day.  I refer fight fans to December of 2012,  which can be found on the archive list on the right sidebar. 

reprinted from December 2014

Allentown Officially Becomes Reillyville

Yesterday the PPL Corporation announced that they are moving into a Reilly NIZ office building and putting the tower for sale.  The tower is more than  just an iconic building, it is the symbol of Allentown, and has been since 1928. 

The first question of course is what will become of the tower?  I suspect that J.B. Reilly has some insight in regard to that question.  With a glut of new office space available,  no commercial entity besides the PPL would have any use for it.  Its future is certainly residential, and its new owner I suspect has already been determined.

The second question is --what is really going on with our diverted taxes and the NIZ? If Reilly's first building at 7th and Hamilton has the room to accommodate the PPL, how much empty space is there in the subsequent buildings? 

Although this post is heavy on the questions and light on the answers, one thing is for certain...the Allentown of pre NIZ no longer exists.

shown above PPL Tower from the era of classic postcards

Weekly Reader

When I was growing up my parents would receive both The Morning Call and The Evening Chronicle.* This was their main source of news. Television in the late 40's and early 50's had national and world news, but there was no local programing in Allentown. The antenna on our roof would receive the three network (ABC, NBC, and CBS) stations from Philadelphia, and that was it. The morning and evening papers provided the local news, in addition to national and world stories. Hess Brothers and Leh's would compete with multiple full page Ads. We children also had our own little paper, Weekly Reader, handed out in the classroom every Friday. I think of it when I get the thin Morning Call on Mondays.

* The Morning Call and Evening Chronicle were both published by same company, Call-Chronicle Newspapers. 

reprinted from March 1, 2010

ADDENDUM JUNE 8, 2023: When my parents received the Call newspapers, and later when I had my own subscription, I never imaged that down the line that I would be writing my own local newsletter. I have been subscribing to the Morning Call for over 50 years, and writing this blog every weekday for 16 years. Unfortunately over these years I have offended some  elected officials and members of the press. Offending people is never the intention, my mission is to examine those things which would otherwise escape scrutiny.

Improving Strata's View

Your tax dollars circling back as grants are hard at work dressing up the store fronts in the 1000 block of Hamilton Street.  What we are paying for is a better view for Reilly's tenants in Strata 15.  That's not the real name of the new apartment building, but I call them all Strata.  

Now, we can't do much for the view from Strata 12, at 7th and Linden. Out the front they're looking at the 7-Eleven, scene of numerous shootings over the years. Out the back they see the hapless bus riders waiting on the cold steel benches for their Lanta seat.                                                                                                   But dammit, we can dress up the view on Hamilton Street for his 15th Strata, and we are!

Poverty and Violence Agencies Compete in Allentown

Two professional agencies will be directly competing to service Allentown's poor, courtesy of the Allentown School District.  Promise Neighborhoods, supposed violence reduction specialists, will work out of the new Hays Elementary School.  Community Action of Lehigh Valley, with their experience in attracting poverty, will be dispensing out of the former Cleveland Elementary School, which they purchased.  Both will operate food banks... Who will have the better menu remains to be seen. Enterprising patrons will need motorized shopping carts to make the rounds.

I followed Community Action for many years, their staff made a career out of poverty.  It appears as if Promise Neighborhoods may want to make a career out of violence. I can appreciate that my view on these agencies may appear dark.  I do realize that there are families in poverty with very legitimate food needs. I respect traditional faith based small food banks...My issue is with growth-oriented, grant seeking, arm bending agencies profiting from society's problems.

If the above sounds cynical, you may request a refund on your subscription to this periodical.

artwork/Mark Beyer

A Tale Of Two Cities

"We're a medium-size city

with big-city crime."
   -Mayor Ed Pawlowski, Allentown

For those of us who grew up in Allentown, we always considered ourselves a medium-sized city with a small town feel. We were literally designated the All American City. One of the most amazing aspects of this transformation, is that our total population has essentially stayed the same since 1928, when we first achieved 100,000 people. Twenty years ago we lamented the loss of Hess Brothers and other symbols of our prosperity, now we mourn the loss of basic civility and safety.

 above reprinted from May 12, 2010 

ADDENDUM JUNE 5, 2023:Although thirteen years have passed since I wrote the above missive, and the mercantile district on Hamilton Street has been replaced with a new urban office park, there have been no improvements in regard to basic civility and safety. Instead, those problems are now the status quo, and we who still lament losing those values of time past are considered dinosaurs or worse.

The Brass Rail

The Brass Rail was a fixture on Hamilton Street for many decades. At one time, to the left of the front door on Hamilton Street, was the women's entrance. A woman could use the special corridor to avoid walking through the bar room, to get to the dining room at the rear of the building. The business owners had all the bases covered. The front grill provided their famous steak sandwiches, for the take out lunch business on busy Hamilton Street. The back parking lot and service window specialized in takeout pizza, long before separate pizza shops become the norm. In the 1950's, pizza was more less limited to the Brass Rail and the Paddock, another long time food tradition. Having gone for the Brass Rail pizza's so often, I easily recognized the back of the Philly's Sport Bar, on the Morning Call shooting video. I patronized the first restauranteur who purchased the former Brass Rail location, Wellington's, but I haven't been there for years. Reading the article yesterday, I felt sorry for the new owner. He is petrified that his Philly's Sport Bar will be classified as a nuisance bar, and shut down. He, as were the owners of other "nuisance" bars and clubs, are also victims; They are the victims of what this town has become, and who the businesses are reduced to dealing with.

reprinted from April 10, 2010

ADDENDUM JUNE 2, 2023:A lot has changed since this post of 2010. The new NIZ libation spots don't have the problem clientele of this former era, but then again, they apparently have difficulty staying in business, despite all the new Strata apartments. Even the suburban Brass Rail on Lehigh Street has closed, but only because the owners aged out.

Double Down(Towns)

People often speculate as to why Bethlehem now is a destination, while, too often, Allentown is considered a place to avoid. The long answer will not fit within this short post, but here may be a few reasons. Bethlehem had two downtown's, on both sides of the river. While downtown Allentown certainly was the premier shopping area for the Lehigh Valley prior to the malls, it may have become a victim to over-planning. In the late 60's, early 70's, Allentown attempted to compete with the suburban malls by building a canopy on Hamilton Street. The viability of Hamilton Street was extended for a few years, but the magnetism of Hess's could well have been the reason. Bethlehem also built a pedestrian mall on Broad Street, but the historical quaintness of Main Street remained. Although the commerce in its southside business district languished, the architecture remained. By the time Allentown removed the canopies in the late 90's, the architecture of its buildings had long been bisected and altered. As historical became chic, Bethlehem profited from having done less in the past.

It's southside business district is a time capsule, architecturally unchanged since the turn of the last century. It now is becoming a mix of boutiques and bistros in a fashionable historic setting. Last, but not least, Bethlehem benefited from consistency of developmental leadership. While Allentown has had a succession of Economic Directors, Tony Hanna, with benefit of his institutional memory, has led Bethlehem for many years.

Shown at the top is pop up photo matches from the 1930's, promoting Julian Goldman's Fine Clothes For The Family on the South Side, East Third Street. Also shown is Tony Hanna, along side of the former Goodman Furniture Store.

reprinted from April 1, 2020

ADDENDUM JUNE 1, 2023: Because of the NIZ, Allentown's former mercantile district has transformed into an urban office park, complete with new company housing for the office workers. Like an office park owned by one entity, downtown Allentown is now also essentially owned by one person, and it looks it. I do not believe that Allentown can ever again become a destination, it simply has no atmosphere.