Aug 11, 2011

City Mocks Neighborhood


I wanted to make you aware that the neighbor's garbage is piling up again out back and there is a notice on their door dated mid-June that it is illegal for anyone to be occupying the residence until the house passes inspection. Beyond the fact that they are still living in the house....Aug.5,11

When city inspector Ed Wilson first placed the vacate within 30 day notice on the house in early May, he stated that the occupant would be out by June. When I contacted him in mid June, he told me that the Lonnie Glase, another inspector, said that he would handle the case. Glase is an old family friend of the occupant, and thus began the abuse of the neighborhood.
This blog, and my calls and emails to Glase's superiors, resulted in Glase tagging the house again in June, but it was meant only as a stalling tactic to protect his friend, not enforce the law evenly. Ironically, most of the hundreds of orange tags throughout Allentown were placed and enforced by Glase.
Taxpayers will be glad to know that much of the initial garbage was removed at their expense by the city contractor. The lawn is being cut by the city contractor. The occupant was never the owner, and there is no chance of reimbursement to the city, generous of Glase. Although the occupant is a veteran, so are many of the neighbors whose property is being devalued by this blatant violation of equal enforcement of the law. This is the second installment of this post. Two months have passed. In this post I revealed the inspectors' names; the one whose authority was disregarded, and the second, who is ignoring the law. In the third installment, I will include the email correspondence with the chain of command.

30 comments:

  1. Well, having lived in Allentown the past 12 years it is no surprise. I have discovered that their are quite a few for whom the laws do not apply. Crap all over your neighbors and laugh that they have no recourse because you're "special". Is it any wonder decent people are fleeing in droves hoping to find a place where they might be treated equally?

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  2. Welcome to Ayatollah Pawlowski's Allentown. this city has gone down the toilet our wonderful Ayatollah couldn't care less about the issues that affect the average citizen, as long as he gets his way and kicks those merchants out of downtown who have worked hard to build their buisness up just so he can take it away from them to build his precious hockey arena that will not bring anyone into downtown.

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  3. Gee, this is similar to the results received when calling Allentown communications center to get police service.
    In Allentown, some are more equal than others.
    There must be a special password for special people that gets results.

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  4. George Orwell saidit best in his classic, "Animal Farm:"

    - "ALL PIGS ARE EQUAL, BUT SOME ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS"

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  5. MM

    Sometimes it's difficult to know when your comments initially posted.

    Are you now saying the garbage is back in piles in this South Side property owned by a city worker?

    Check out street after street with cars being repaired on lawns as antifreeze deadly to birds in the now-Bird USA city drips on to pavement. No one does a thing! Check out the broken windows, broken down sprouts, roof lines, broken steps, broken sidewalks, on and on. Check out the gas stations where garbage litters the property and once again antifreeze drips on to pavement.

    Why do city officials allow these issues to continue? Why aren't hundreds of residents at monthly council meetings demanding excellence from their city officials?

    A month ago at a city council meeting, a young female homeowner stood at the podium with more courage than this writer and spoke of difficulties she was having with a neighbor who happens to be a city employee. Her comments
    are available to anyone via council minutes.

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  6. anon 6:50, the property is not owned by a city worker, but the illegal occupant is being protected by a city inspector. the occupant is the former tenant, and now the property is bank owned. the inspector, lonnie glase, knew that the property was tenant occupied for years, but never enforced the city rental regulation requiring inspection. he also suppressed reports about garbage, contaminated swimming pool, and multiple police calls. he is a childhood friend of the occupant's family. although another inspector tagged the house on may 9 for non-compliance with the rental inspection law, glase intervened, and the occupant remains, 60 days beyond the 30 day notice. garbage is again piling up in the rear yard, and the occupant continues to disrupt the neighborhood.

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  7. Anon 6:50 am said:

    "Why do city officials allow these issues to continue? Why aren't hundreds of residents at monthly council meetings demanding excellence from their city officials?"

    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    Why? Because we keep voting the same people into office election after election, regardless of the poor results they are producing.

    City council - when they actually bother to listen to someone at the podium for the lengthy three minutes allotted to the people who pay their salaries - will quickly pass a speaker off to someone in the administration. But they'll never follow up themselves as to whether the problem was solved.

    This is the government you get when you have a rubber-stamp council unwilling to stand up to the administration and for the taxpayers. When was the last time ANYTHING was rejected by council and the Mayor didn't get what he wanted?

    A real city council would have already picked up on this story and have called the Mayor and the inspectors involved into Council Chambers to get answers for the public. But the current group serves Pawlowski and themselves, not the taxpayers.

    None of that changes until we vote different faces into office.

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  8. You're right. The three minute limit has to go. How actually is that done? Through Referendum? How?

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  9. MM.
    Believe you re: city inspector. The young female owner just written about told of various city inspectors ignoring her pleas and celebrating the code violations including non-secured building permits of her city-employed neighbor.

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  10. Another issue that needs at least a review is the legislation passed that permits a special "arena" zone tax incentive package.

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  11. That Bird City USA status seems a bit of a fraud.

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  12. i am not surpised to find out that lonnie glase is the dubious inspector. both residents and owners know that he has his own set of rules, enforces what he wants(often to an extreme)and circumvents the system. he is a disgrace to the city and its taxpayers.

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  13. Got An Idea-
    Needed: One Leader
    Followers: Many
    When: Any Saturday
    Time: 10:00 AM
    Where: Anywhere in the City
    Why: Take a single street
    How: Walk from end to end with a pad making notes of code
    violations.
    Give a copy of the list to the city's top person in Codes and then make that person responsible for the improvements.
    Keep a tally of when and how each improvement is being handled. Do not give up and do not give in.
    Make the code director responsible.
    When that single street is upgraded. Move on to the next.

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  14. Anyone know what's happening with that log cabin in Midway Manor?

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  15. Holding officials responsible for their jobs is key to what has happened to Allentown. Call various city departments. No one gives their name. Residents have to demand it. That's no way to run a business and running Allentown should be a business.

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  16. That's it! You're right. That's what
    the next door resident said too.

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  17. For nearly 10 years neighbors have tried to get one illegal car repair business that operates out of a 4-unit apartment building shut down.
    The Zoning Office file by now must be 5 inches thick. Now the garage is back up and running most Sundays. Inspectors were called but say it's their day off.

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  18. Molovinsky has a new method of controlling the expression of ideas that conflict with his. He now requires that my posts must be "on topic." Not the topics he has published in the past on hundreds of occasions or even one posted this week, but on the one he posts today. This convenient ploy denies his readers the results of my research on the "poverty magnet."

    gary ledebur

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  19. gary, with your complaint/announcement made, please post your research on the poverty magnet to the previous post, " a sign of the times." i assure you that my readers who are interested, will check your research out.

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  20. Molovinsky has a new method of controlling the expression of ideas that conflict with his. He now requires that my posts must be "on topic."

    Sorry Charlie. It aint new. From
    the day blogs were born, the blogger owned editorial content.

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  21. I am sorry but do we need bureaucrats, bureaucrats telling us how clean to keep our back yards?

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  22. anon 10:09, because this post is important to me, i requested gary to submit his comment to the previous post (sign of the times) although his comment actually regarded an even earlier post on the poverty magnet. his most recent comment defends bureaucrats, and is also off topic.

    gary, yards are important, especially when you lived with attached or row houses. would you want to live in a twin or double house with the next yard full of garbage? when the bureaucrats paid to implement the law ignore it for favoritism, what good are they? in this case four levels of supervision, above the inspector, have been aware of this situation for three months, to no solution. bernie o'hare on ramblings picked up on this post and wrote that i promised to reveal the supervisors. actually, i hope that the neighborhood is shown some respect, and that installment will not be necessary.

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  23. Dear Binzley said...
    While Upper Saucon Township residents slept, their government
    officials adopted a 425 page zoning ordinance. It takes away the burden of figuring out how to live.


    "I am sorry but do we need bureaucrats, bureaucrats telling us how clean to keep our back yards?"

    August 13, 2011 10:17 AM

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  24. MM said:
    yards are important, especially when you lived with attached or row houses

    They are more important than folks can imagine. When the exterior backyard decks began the fad, folks built out so far into their small row home backyard they literally could look in the kitchen of their next door neighbors. When one neighbor allows his dogs to use the row home's backyard as their toilet, it is smellingly-evident to neighbors too. The list can go on and on. Mr. Molovinsky is correct. For center-city living, backyards are a key component to a quality of life and the hope of a small piece of privacy.

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  25. There is absolutely no way blogs should be have the Freedom and Liberty to publish whatever they want, to speak nothing of editorial content.

    That is so un-American and actually smacks of hostage-taking terrorism.

    All blogs should be heavy monitored and overwhelmingly regulated by an army of arrogant, know-it-all bureaucrats connected to every crack out-of-state, high-priced consultant whoever lived.

    At astronomical Taxpayer expense, naturally, it almost need not be said.

    Where is the Justice?

    I.M. DEM

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  26. as i said in the past, this blog will return the subscription price to anybody who feels they're not getting their money's worth. that said, occasionally, as i apparently failed to do here, i try to keep a post on topic for one selfish reason or another. the need for comment moderation is another story, stemming from one person's attempts to put this and other blogs in a distorted light.

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  27. your such a pussy putz mikey

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  28. i believe that the previous comment by anon 2:02 was written and sent by bill villa. anybody not familiar with the villa's should visit their web site; lehigh valley somebody

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  29. A subscription price would be a fantastic idea, so long as this blog issued waivers for "the Poor" and "the Disadvantaged".

    Spending other people's money is what I do best, it should be remembered.

    I.M. DEM

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