Dec 18, 2011

The Historical Hypocrisy of Jennings

From The Archives
Tomorrow as the merchants in the 700 block of Hamilton Street struggle for another day under the new handicap inflicted upon them, the movers and shakers of the Lehigh Valley will gather at the Brewpub to honor Alan Jennings and The Community Action Committee of the Lehigh Valley. Air Products and Chemicals is sponsoring the luncheon, which will include testimonials on the wide spectrum of CACLV, including The Community Action Development Corp. of Allentown, 443 N 7th St., which endeavors to assist start-up business from low-income and minority populations. I invite Mr. Jennings and the Air Product executives to attend a meeting at 7:00pm thursday evening at Faith Baptist Church, 219 N. 12th St., to honor small business owners, from mostly an minority population, who want or need nothing more than a bus stop.
reproduced from Oct. 16, 2007

UPDATE Dec. 18, 2011. Mr. Jennings never attended the meetings I conducted at Faith Baptist on the Lanta issue, nor did The Morning Call cover the meetings. The bus stop removal has become a moot point, because recently, the merchants themselves were removed. Although Mr. Jennings has since received $millions in grants to aid small business owners, he never did defend the small merchants of Hamilton Street against Lanta or the Arena.

16 comments:

  1. M.M. MR. Jennings salary at the Non Profit C.A.C.L.V. do you know. if so could you publish.

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  2. anon 6:04, i do not know the answer, but would not publish it anyway. this blog does not traffic in such personal information, only issues.

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  3. There have been a number of exposes highlighting employment in the poverty sector. Jennings has made his career the "business" of poverty. Some would say after 30 years and poverty worse than ever, he might consider a career change. Now with several new Washington millions coming into the region, doubt it.

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  4. i received a comment from an antagonist, who finds it hypocritical that i published joyce marin's salary with the school district. i felt that in marin's case, the salary was relevant, because the job may have been created for her. furthermore, it was "hidden" in a long list of personnel adjustments, during a period of threatened layoff's for real teachers. on the other hand, jenning's is the long time director of a large organization, with a huge budget.

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  5. Mr Jennings is a advocate for the poor.I feel he considers the shop keepers on hamilton middle class.As we both know the middle class needs a voice, like yourself, to return to prominence. Its not class warfare in my book just common sense to push for a return to a 50s middle class focus.

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  6. guy, jennings has a division which helps start small businesses. a number of those displaced businesses on that square block fit jenning's criterion to a tee. he has been supporting the administration's endeavor, both passively and actively, to replace those small businesses with a large corporate sports franchise.

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  7. Michael, I read that you would not publish Mr. Jennings salary, that in part is subsidized with tax dollars. Since you would not publish even if known, Maybe Bernie might consider to do a story on Mr. Jennings Salary from C.A.C.L.V. I am sure many poor who he is helping would want to know this and if Ber nie cannot provide, mabe a member o the C.A.C.L.V. board of directors could provide on Bernies Blog, since you will not carry even if you did know.

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  8. you have every right to demand specific comments on your blog but how can you not say a word about these continued murders in the city?
    Last night's allegedly occurred in front of the couple's child and now apparently the police in less than 24 hours have the culprits. How could they know so quickly?

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  9. anon 11:04, this blog will never serve as a police blotter or crime scanner. crime, and it's perception, will only be mentioned in regard to city policy. for discussion on specific crimes, such as the tragedy to which you refer, you'll have to look elsewhere.

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  10. i received a well informed comment by the blogger capri, who by comparison, makes the point that jennings is paid much less most executive directors responsible for comparable and smaller budgets. the information is public, and may be found at Guidestar.org

    capri, i regretfully decline to publish your excellent comment, because the accusation and questions concerning jennings' salary were not made by me. my issue is his silence on the merchants, not his salary.

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  11. Thanks Mike. I understand your reasons for not publishing my comment, but I appreciate you directing people to guidestar so they can find the information for themselves.

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  12. Well, there's a push for development on in Allentown and as a consequence, certain businesses are either not wanted or they have to be moved out for others to take advantage of things like the arena. Either way, this appears to be part of a master plan to develop Allentown which obviously doesn't include these particular businesses or even some of the citizens. Unfortunately, that's how some of these things work.

    Mike, you and I have had our differences, but I applaud you for taking this up.

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  13. There is another player in this story that cant be ignored.Jennings pales in comparison to the actions of the Chamber of Commerce.After all Ianelli former head of downtown improvement district,Lesley shur his main street manager hamilton district,Miriam heurtas his allentown inititives vp were all working on attracting businesses to the hamilton street corridor since the demise of the former authority.The chamber and its directors are not exactly a hot bed of democrats and Ed P supporters.The mayor might draw all the arrows but the the silence and selective PR from the chamber tells me they are a major supporter of the arena project.Politics the breakfast of champions.Blah,Blah,Blah Keep Up the good work.

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  14. guy williams, your point has often been made on this blog, and is due once again; it will be the subject of the next post. thank you both for your readership, and your reminder about iannelli's complicity with the administration.

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  15. Not sure I understand the need to know his salary. He does a job that not many people would care to do, he does it fairly well and he has done it for more than thirty years. Unless he is making 250k a year, I'm certain that he is fairly compensated.

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  16. luisa, i will not print any of that information about mr. jennings, or anybody else. (salary, home address, private car model, etc.) i will state, once again, that mr. jennings salary is modest in regard to the size of the organization he runs. you or mr. jennings is welcome to address the subject of this post; his choice not to support the small merchants of hamilton street, but speak out on the rite aid zoning hearing, concerning building design.

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