Shootings In What's Not Paradise

Last week on this blog I wrote that it's time to raise the flag for homelessness, since flag raising seems to be a big part of this administration.  Here I am less than a week later correcting myself...IT'S TIME TO RAISE THE FLAG ON PUBLIC SAFETY, THAT IS AGAINST SHOOTINGS AND STABBINGS. I don't literally need to see such a flag flying, but let's not delude ourselves anymore that hope and promise organizations are any solution. WE NEED MORE POLICING.  We need to protect life and limb.  

Instead of the police car passing the double parker, let's start by checking them out. We already know that such citizens don't have much regard for public safety, and probably not much for laws either. Don't worry about culture or offending anybody. If Charles Roca is not up to the task, a new chief may be in order. If Matt Tuerk isn't up to the mission, maybe a new mayor will also be necessary.

illustration by Mark Beyer

The Mad Men Of Allentown

Back in the day, the titans of Allentown would fill the five barberchairs of the Colonial Barbershop, 538 Hamilton Street. That was when the town had three department stores. That was when Wetherhold and Metzger had two shoe stores on Hamilton Street. That was when Harvey Farr would meet Donald Miller and John Leh at the Livingston Club for lunch, and discuss acquiring more lots for Park & Shop. By 1995 all that was gone, but Frank Gallucci, 82, would still give some old timers a trim. The Colonial Barbershop property, closed for many years, has been purchased by J.B. Reilly. It is my pleasure to present this previously unseen portrait of Gallucci, toward the end of his career.

photocredit:molovinsky

reprinted since 2013

Jews In Jerusalem

Except when barred by one conqueror or another, Jews had lived in Jerusalem since King David. Prior to Jordanian rule in 1948, there was a Jewish majority for 150 years. In 1864, eight thousand of the fifteen thousand population was Jewish. By 1914, two thirds of the sixty five thousand residents were Jewish. In 1948 the United Nations Partition Plan divided the British Mandate of Palestine into two states, one Jewish and one Arab. Jerusalem was to be initially an international city, with access guaranteed for all. This plan was rejected by the surrounding Arab nations, which attacked Israel in concert immediately upon the UN vote. When the truce was declared, Israel had survived, but East Jerusalem(walled Old City) was in procession of TransJordan. The Jordanians subsequently destroyed over 50 synagogues in the Jewish Quarter, which dated back to the 1400's. For hundreds of years both Christians and Jews were prohibited from building higher than Muslim structures. The few synagogues which survived were the ones built mostly below street level. The oldest surviving synagogue, The Jerusalem Synagogue, was built by the Karaite Jews in around 900. Shown above is the Ben Kakai, a Sephardic Synagogue built in the 16th Century.

Perhaps the most famous synagogue destroyed by the Jordanians was the Ashkenazi Hurva Synagogue built in 1720, it's dome visible in the top center of this photograph from the 1920's. It's replacement was completed in 2010.

This post was first printed in April of 2010, and titled The Synagogues of Jerusalem

Time For The Homeless Flag Raising

Allentown activist Lewis Shupe took the photo above, and wonders aloud how we can have homelessness surrounded by a $Billion dollars of new development?  While mental illness is certainly an explanation, it doesn't make the sidewalk any softer or warmer for the poor person shown.

We have raised the flag for numerous republics in the Caribbean, perhaps it's time to raise one for the homeless? While such an effort to help done quietly would be more dignified, if political fanfare gets the job done, raise a flag and give a speech!

I do acknowledge that local efforts to help homelessness have occurred. Both the Fountain Park pool house and the YMCA have recently operated shelters.

Allentown is concerned with its image.  Both 7th and Hamilton Street gateways get dress-up grants...That's nice, but it's time to concern ourselves with the people sleeping on those new sidewalks.

photocredit: Lewis Shupe

Saving The Bridge

Allentown and Lehigh County aren't much for history. Last year Allentown celebrated it's 250th anniversary by having someone rewrite the lyrics to the Billy Joel song. The County actually commissioned a whole music program for their 200th, also last year. Believing our history should be more than a tune and a speech, I've been using this blog to advocate for the preservation of our historic structures. During the County Commissioner committee meeting last night, the project manager said that if the bridge is repaired instead of replaced, it might last two months, or it might last six months. Considering that the bridge has endured everything that has come it's way for 189 years, that statement clearly demonstrated that he was never a fair broker for options concerning the bridge. Recently, the Commissioners expressed support for preserving the King George Inn, but noted that they had no say in it's fate. Last night, I pointed out the durability of the bridge, and reminded the Commissioners that they do have the say concerning the bridge's fate. By a 7 to 2 vote, the Commissioners decided that the historic Reading Road Bridge should continue to provide passage over the Cedar Creek, by Union Terrace. 

reprinted from October of 2013

ADDENDUM SEPTEMBER 21, 2023:Saving the Reading Road Bridge in 2013 took me two weeks, two blog posts and attending two meetings.Saving Wehr's Dam took nine years, twenty meetings and fifteen blog posts. I'm hoping that someone will come forward to campaign for the iconic WPA/Art Deco post office. Already two irreplacable light fixtures have disappeared. For a city with a $Billion dollars worth of new crass construction, the languishing post office is a crime.

Cannibal Valley

During the summer of 1952, Lehigh Valley Transit rode and pulled its trolley stock over to Bethlehem Steel, to be chopped up and fed to the blast furnaces. The furnaces themselves ceased operation in 1995, and are now a visual backdrop for young artists, most of whom never saw those flames that lit up that skyline. Allentown will now salvage some architectural items documented on this blog, and begin tearing down its shopping district, which was serviced by those trolleys. As young toothless athletes from Canada, entertain people from Catasauqua, on the ice maintained by a Philadelphia company, Allentown begins another chapter in it's history of cannibalism.

photo from August 1952, showing last run on St. John Street to Bethlehem Steel

reprinted from November 2011 

ADDENDUM SEPTEMBER 20, 2023:When I wrote the above post twelve years ago, I didn't expect the NIZ to bulldoze practically every building on Hamilton Street. Worse, the new buildings are devoid of any architectual merit. The tenants in the new Strata apartment buildings are seldom seen, and appear to bestow very little economic benefit to the few new businesses. Why anyone would want to live in the new monstrosity at 7th and Linden, between the hapless bus passengers and the infamous 7/11, is beyond my comprehension. Needless to say my opinions or frankness on these topics is not very appreciated by the powers that be. If you need some smoke blown your way, buy the local paper, don't read this blog.

The Lost Beauty Of Lehigh Parkway

                                                                         photography by Tami Quigley

This beautiful photograph was taken by Tami Quigley last fall. This classic view of the stone piers, rising out of the Little Lehigh, has been inspiring photographers and artists for over 70 years. I have picture postcards of the same view. The stone piers are now surrounded by the concrete rubble of the former dam. Although the rapids still provide some sound and view, the portion of beauty and magic has been reduced in half. The new park director may have set a record in park degradation. Although only here for a matter of weeks, before even having seen the whole park, he agreed and recommended that the Robin Hood Dam be demolished. Piling it's rubble by the stone piers is salt in the wound of our lost beauty.

photograph by Tami Quigley

reprinted from October of 2013 

ADDENDUM SEPTEMBER 19, 2023: It has been a decade since the broken rubble of the former small scenic dam was piled around the stone bridge piers. What was formerly beautiful is now an eyesore. Weeds and saplings are now growing in the rubble. While I've had no success with the administration on this degradation of the park, I respectfully now ask City Council to address the issue.

The New Jobs Of Allentown

J.B. Reilly said this week that the downtown development is bringing 3,000 jobs to Allentown's $600 million NIZ. Between the National Penn Bank, and his other prospective tenants, that figure seems high. Giving him the benefit of the doubt, and considering everything else he's gotten, we can easily throw that in, each job will cost the state taxpayers $200,000.00. Now, this is nay-sayer math, but then again, this is a blog. Talking of nay-saying, last night over 200 unemployed  packed into a center city church, hoping for some benefit from the NIZ. I think a church was an appropriate venue, because that will take a lot of prayer. As I had written in a previous blog post, the new jobs, except for the peanut vendors at the arena, will be white collar, college degree required. This brings us to the photograph shown above. As they demolish the former Gallery Building in the 900 block of Hamilton Street, we see that the steel beams were fabricated at the former Lehigh Structural Steel. At one time, the buildings on Hamilton Street were built by entrepreneurs, to accommodate our prosperity.  Now they are funded by taxpayers, hoping to steal another town's employees.

above reprinted from November of 2013

ADDENDUM SEPTEMBER 18, 2023: A decade has passed since I wrote the post above, and we're now funding a $Billion dollars worth of real estate for J.B.  Outrage that a privately owned empire is being paid for by the taxpayers is still limited to this blog. The Morning Call continues to praise and promote each new building as progress. The former Lehigh Structural Steel site itself is now part of the NIZ, and hosts a new commercial building by the Jaindl dynasty.