Carry In/Carry Out Doesn't Work For Allentown

The current national park philosophy, adopted by Allentown, is Carry In/Carry Out.  In our environmentally woke time, the belief is that people will take their trash with them, after they guzzled their sports drink.  Allentown accordingly removed most of the trash containers from the parks, instead installing larger capacity containers, which only have to be emptied once a week.  While previously one man and a pickup truck removed the bags, now a dump truck, two men and crane are used to extract the 8ft. long bags from a pit below the containers. 

It all sounds wonderful, until you drive through downtown Allentown any Monday morning...It looks like there was a parade every weekend.  The litter in Allentown is astounding...Many throw their trash down even if there is a container within several feet.  Parents throw down their trash in front of their children.

Rather than less trash containers in our parks, we should have installed more.  There is nothing Allentown  can learn from national park bureaucrats.  Our traditional park system was second to none.

above reprinted from August of 2021

ADDENDUM JUNE 7, 2022: Early on Monday mornings, a park employee fills large containers gathering all the trash tossed down on both sides of Cedar Park over the weekend.  Although the department did add some containers back since the above post was written last year, littering is a reality in the new Allentown. As the department adds new events and recreational features to our parks, this problem will only increase.

ADDENDUM JULY 26, 2023: Mayor Tuerk, in keeping with both your inclusionary and bi-lingual policies, please don't be bashful about Do Not Litter signs in both English and Spanish, No Bote Basura.

Morning Call Wonders

Another person, who we will probably learn was turning his life around, shot at police officers yesterday. The Morning Call wonders why city council is balking at throwing more money at Promise Neighborhoods ... really?? 

Hasshan Batts' Promise organization received more funding from Harrisburg than he ever hoped for. If that wasn't enough, the school system gave him even more.  Credible messengers are now going to be paired up with middle school kids to discourage them from taking the wrong path. Maybe if we had more police officers they could volunteer time to PAL, instead of being needed for overtime.

Allentown is fortunate that there are two former police officers on council.  The time may be fast approaching when council will be more progressive, and buy into defunding the police.

Natural Born Promoter

Hamilton Street was hot and barren on Saturday afternoon. When the elevator opened onto the fifth floor of the BreW Works, I entered the world of cool and hip; It was Alfonso Todd's Fuzion 2012. Hundreds of people mingled, listened to music, and saw what was new in the Lehigh Valley. Unfortunately, when I left, the cool and hip didn't stick with me.

photocredit:molovinsky 

above reprinted from July of 2012

ADDENDUM JULY 24, 2023: Promoter Alfonso Todd has been putting on Fuzion events for over a decade. This year's event occurred this past weekend at Riverside Park in Easton.

A Small Meat Market In Easton

A lot of posts on this blog start out as an extension of my own experience and/or interest in local history.  Some of the posts grow out of my interest in my family's history.  In addition to this blog, about a year ago I started a facebook group named Allentown Chronicles. Although there were several existing groups based on local nostalgia,  I foresaw a group which went beyond who has the best cheesesteaks.   Enforcing the group guidelines has alienated some people,  but I believe others appreciate the intent.

While the facebook group does have some material seemingly lifted from wikipedia,  original pieces have also been submitted. Among my favorites are people's personal snapshots of growing up in Allentown, or the greater Lehigh Valley.  Where I'm headed to is a post about my father's meat market in Easton, unfortunately with no corresponding photograph.

I often tell younger people that they should ask questions of their older relatives, because the answers will not be around forever. My father was a workaholic, who had no interest or time for such questions.  Although I have researched the history of his Allentown meat market, the one in Easton has proven much more difficult.

The market in Allentown was in the front of a larger building,  with the back portion being a former meat packing house.  The Easton shop, called Melbern, was a small market contained in the first floor of a former row house. The name came from my father Melvin, and his brother/partner at the time, Bernard. It was located at 34 S. 4th Street, near Pine Street, which was then a very narrow alley.  On the corner of Pine was John's luncheonette, which also served Chinese food. Next to John's was Melbern.  The buildings were later  demolished to make Pine into a wider street.  Two partners in another meat business,  Drucker and Young, set up the shop for a meat market. However, they were taken to court by another butcher named Brill, who had purchased their former market on Washington Street, with a non-competition clause.  I surmise that they were forced to not open their new market on S. 4th, and sold the operation to my father and uncle.  Drucker and Young also operated for many years in the Nazareth Farmers Market.

I worked at the Easton market on weekends and summers during high school. Needless to say, I never inquired about the store's history, nor did my father ever mention such things.

The photograph above is of the Allentown meat market, taken after it was closed, but prior to being demolished. To my knowledge, no photograph of the Easton market exists.

reprinted from June of 2020

108-110 Union Street

When the illustrated map of Allentown shown above was marketed in 1879, 108-110 Union Street were already long standing twin houses. Behind the houses was the western channel of the Lehigh River, which went around Jeter's Island. Years later the island would be called Kline's, and become the city sewage plant. In the mid 1960's, that portion of the river would be filled in and no longer exists. While maps now indicate that the Little Lehigh joins the Lehigh at the southern end of the former island, previously it joined the channel on the western side of the island.

When the map was produced, 108 was owned by William Goetz, and 110 was owned by the Remaley family. Over the years the two sides appear to have been occupied by a number of families,  as both owners and tenants.

In 1921, both houses were purchased by H.H. Steinmetz, a former meat manager for Swift Packing. Steinmetz built a modern 10,000 ft. addition, opening his meat packing plant in 1922. Steinmetz Meat Packing supplied the chain of Economy corner markets with meat and provisions.

In 1941, the packing house was purchased by the Molovinsky family, and renamed Allentown Packing Company. While wholesale operations ceased in 1949, the business continued as a retail meat market until 1970. The plant was demolished several years later to provide parking for A&B Meats. The vacant parcel was then purchased by the neighboring commercial property.

reprinted from April of 2020

The Butchers Of Allentown

photograph by Bob Wilt

A&B (Abogast&Bastian), dominated the local meat packing industry for almost 100 years. At its peak, they employed 700 people and could process 4,000 hogs a day. The huge plant was at the foot of Hamilton Street, at the Lehigh River. All that remains is their free standing office building, which has been incorporated into America on Wheels. Front and Hamilton was Allentown's meatpacking district. Within one block, two national Chicago meatpackers, Swift and Wilson, had distribution centers. Also in the area were several small independents, among them M. Feder, Becker Brothers and Allentown Meat Packing Company.

reprinted from February 2013

Two Butchers From Allentown's Past

Those coming here today looking for a story about sloppy civic leadership will be disappointed. This post is literally about butchers, more specifically, some butchers at Allentown Meat Packing Company.

A few days ago, while at the Fairground's Farmers Market, I learned that Bobby had passed away. Bobby was the "kid" who worked at my father's meat market on Union Street. Bobby grew up in an orphanage, a hardship which my father respected. One meat cutter that I knew nothing about was Lamont, other than he lived at the West End Hotel. He was a bear of a man, who could carry a beef quarter from the cooler with no effort. I never saw Lamont in the market portion of the shop, he always remained in the back, either in the large cooler or the adjoining cutting room. While my father insisted that people working on the counter change their meat coat and apron several times during the day, no such rule was imposed upon Lamont. Although he would look over the trays of meat before being taken out to the display cases, he never spoke.

Last time I spoke to Bobby, he told me that he appreciated that my father had taught him a trade, which he used throughout his life.

reprinted from 2014

Hasshan Batts' Luck Machine

If you're into good luck, I suggest rubbing up to Hasshan Batts, director of Promise Neighborhoods.  Pa. Lt. Governor Austin Davis thinks that Batts and his mentors are the answer to Pennsylvania's crime, and has already steered over $2 million Batts' way, with more to come.  Davis wants Batts to have the funding to expand his program state wide, and he is in the position to make that happen.

Never mind that so far Allentown shootings this year exceed the total last year. When it comes to solutions, wokeness won't allow Pennsylvania to let results get in the way.

Photo* above shows Davis at Promise headquarters on Union Street. 

*photo by Kurt Bresswein/lehighvalleylive.com