Nov 28, 2014

Protecting A Stage Set Called Allentown

Sharon, An out of town visitor to the arena, wrote in a letter to the editor yesterday, Please keep the police presence around the arena. It was so reassuring to see them and know their job was to keep the fans safe. Actually Sharon, their real job is to protect Allentonians, all over the city. However, they are being diverted to Reilly's taxpayer funded,  part time adult disneyland. A well known restauranteur confirmed that indeed he was given such a lucrative inducement to open up,  that it made no sense to say no. Although center city Allentown will certainly hum with a vitality that it hasn't seen in many decades on event nights, there are hidden costs involved with this theater of public money. If it's the other sections of the city being under served by the police on event nights, or the waiters making no tips on non-event nights, the new entertainment will cost everybody something.

Nov 27, 2014

Blue Heron Blues

Today's Morning Call promotes that their website has been digitally remastered, to be more compelling on the new smart mobile devices. Although they imply the same for their journalism, in truth, the paper staff continues to downsize. Here at molovinsky on allentown, we continue to use our original format, classic if you will. Another hyper local blog just announced, after only a few weeks, that he's closing shop. The young man couldn't figure how to make local news' blogging financially feasible, good luck with that. This blog will continues on, defending the history, traditions and values of the Lehigh Valley. I give no consideration to audience size or financial remuneration. Likewise, I give no consideration to political correctness or diplomacy. Although your readership is appreciated, the only mission here is to defend issues of local significance.

photocredit:molovinsky

Nov 26, 2014

Emergency At Union Terrace

From a distance, the double stairwell off of St. Elmo Street, down into Union Terrace, looks pretty good. As you get closer, the disrepair becomes more apparent. The neglect and demise of this icon is nothing new, I have been writing about it for years. Union Terrace was the last major park developed by the WPA, and without a doubt, the most ambitious. The amphitheater and raised stage is separated by the Cedar Creek, an incredible symphony of landscape design. The park is now called Joseph Daddona Terrace, but I always use the original names, they have more meaning and history. The top of the main wall of the staircase is missing numerous cap stones. As this winter weather begins, water will seep down into the middle of the wall and freeze. This freezing and expansion cycle can destroy the irreplaceable wall in short order. Let us hope that a city with a $billion dollars of new development can find a few dollars to seal the top of this wall.

Nov 25, 2014

The Culverts of Constitution Drive

As an advocate and student of the WPA, I'm often asked about the stone walls on Constitution Drive. None of the walls there invokes as much curiosity as the one I'm shown photographing. Locals refer to this structure as The Spring. Notice that there is a small short wall in front. This stone barrier protects vehicles from driving into the pit, designed to drain water through a pipe under the gravel roadway. Culverts and other practical structures were common WPA projects. Constitution Drive has several WPA culverts, but none of the other retaining walls are as elaborate as the one seen in the photograph above. Although Lehigh County designated funds several years ago to repair this wall, the work was never done. Such neglect is also the case in Allentown. The top wall of the double stairwell descending into Union Terrace is in dire jeopardy. This blog will soon once again document the condition of that structure. While our history and legacy crumble, this community and it's leadership is preoccupied with the arena and Philadelphia cheesesteaks.
photograph by K Mary Hess

Nov 24, 2014

South Whitehall's Transparency Issue

As an advocate for Wehr's Dam and traditional park systems, I was slightly disturbed when South Whitehall's Commissioners congratulated their park director, Randy Cope, for winning an award for the Covered Bridge Park Master Plan. That plan recommends that the dam be demolished, and that the Jordan Creek be lined with a riparian buffer. Both those agendas are the business of the Wildlands Conservancy, which participated in the plan's formation. Visitors to Allentown's parks in the summer are distressed to have their access and view of the waterways blocked by the unsightly weed walls. The notion of replacing the vista of Wehr's Dam with just a wall of weeds shows no respect for history or beauty.

This weekend I learned that dam demolition and riparian buffers are family business for Randy Cope, whose father Scott Cope, is a director at the Wildlands Conservancy. I also learned that the former park director of Allentown, John Mikowychok, had met with the Conservancy, and was bought on board with dam demolishing before he even began working in his Allentown position. This explains how he endorsed demolishing two small dams on the Little Lehigh, before he actually ever saw them. Although I never underestimated the influence of the Wildlands Conservancy, I didn't realize that they were actually inside and running the park departments.

It's disappointing that after attending township meetings for five months, nobody in the administration had the courtesy to inform either myself, or the other advocates, with a potential conflict of interest disclaimer concerning their park director. In light of these new revelations, it is now apparent that Wehr's Dam must be added to the Historic Overlay District, if it is to be preserved.

Nov 20, 2014

Jew Killing, A Long Tradition

In response to the synagogue killings in Jerusalem, the media has been speculating about a religious war. I'm not sure where those reporters have been for the last 3,000 years, but killing Jews is a historical sport. Almost every language even has special words for the ritual. For many centuries before the Holocaust, killing Jews was called a pogrom. In 1929, the Jews of Hebron were massacred. Yes Dorothy, there were Jews living there long before Israel was created in 1948. There's even a long tradition of killing Jews in their synagogues. Twenty two Jews were murdered in an Istanbul Synagogue in 1986.

What's new is that Jews in Israel are capable of shooting back, capable of defending themselves. Although the world is used to dead Jews, they don't like Jews who fight back. For Israel's audacity to defend itself, it is called racist, apartheid and even nazi. Fortunately for Israel, it doesn't allow those insults to deter them from defending themselves.

South Whitehall Slams It's Placid Residents

Imagine a municipality where the elected officials can announce a 37% increase in taxes, and not one citizen questions it. Such is the case in the burb just west of Allentown. In their defense, the Township maintains that this is the first increase in 29 years. They have been previously operating with a surplus, generated by decades of high end development. One thing is for sure, the township operates virtually with no outside scrutiny, seen elsewhere in the Valley. I think that when the new tax bills arrive next spring, even the normally calm township residents will take notice.

Nov 19, 2014

An Allentown Cheesesteak Story

Readers of The Morning Call have seen several photo spreads of Tony Luke's opening on Hamilton Street. Two spreads in a row showed Mayor Pawlowski and the owner hyping the new cheesesteak spot, along with at least two articles in recent weeks announcing that the business was coming. The same readers have also seen coupon ads by Zandy's, which have been advertising in the paper for maybe 20 years. Zandy's, on the intersection of St. John and Lehigh Streets, is a third generation Allentown business. Yesterday, a reader commented on a different blog topic that the NIZ is crony capitalism, supported by crony journalism. Submitted comments about which cheesesteak you think is better will not appear, I don't care about that. What I do care about is a mayor and a newspaper, who now seems to think that Allentown starts and stops at the NIZ portion of Hamilton Street.

Nov 18, 2014

Allentown's Misplaced Park Priorities

It wasn't that many years ago that Allentown was nationally known for it's park system. This distinction resulted from the foresight and wealth of General Harry Trexler. The general had an elaborate system designed by distinguished landscape architects in 1928, but when the Depression struck in 1929, the plans were put on hold. By the mid 1930's when Roosevelt's New Deal was formulated, Allentown had shovel ready plans. Up to 4,000 men labored throughout the park systems building irreplaceable stone structures. The completed iconic park system became a designation with a national reputation. Move ahead to 2014, and we have a city hall with no institutional memory or knowledge of these resources. We have a succession of park directors from out of town with a background in recreation. The current park budget again doesn't have one dollar earmarked for WPA restoration.* Not unlike Detroit, we will be building a Kaboom Playground, a strategy for impoverished inter-cities, utilizing public planning and participation in construction. While the Kaboom project is the emphasis of the park department, the top wall of the double staircase leading down to the amphitheater at Union Terrace is crumbling. Another winter of wet and freezing may well destroy another monumental structure which we could never replace. Where is Allentown going?

*For the first time since I began advocating for the WPA, this year's budget has $25,000 allocated for an engineering study of the Fountain Park Steps.  Although this hopefully will be a beginning, I believe that the funds would be better spent on a stone mason. The top of the wall at Union Terrace and St. Elmo Street, and the missing treads on the Fountain Park steps, could be replaced with no engineering necessary.

Obama helping to build Kaboom Playground

Nov 17, 2014

The Crime and Nonsense of Grants

Just a few years ago Allentown and the local Chamber of Commerce were conducting Vision meetings for the merchants of Hamilton Mall. While these soon to be displaced saps thought that they were planning Hamilton Streets' future, Reilly and Browne were cooking up the NIZ. On a more regional level, in 2011 the valley received $3.4 million dollars to study development. This hunk of HUD cash was distributed to local agencies, who like baby birds with open beaks, ate it up. The baby birds included LVEDC,LVPC,CACLV,and LANTA. A special director was hired and community meetings were conducted to collect your input. They named this disappearing $3.4million Envision. You can now attend the final meetings where the conclusions are available; Imagine that.

ADDENDUM: There is a mistaken notion that a grant, especially a federal HUD Grant, has little bearing to our pockets. Apologists for this bureaucratic waste say well at least the money is being used locally. If the money is being wasted locally or not, this waste is being repeated locally, regionally and nationally. Grant writing specialists are prized employees in all levels of government. Although due diligence needs to proceed any project or expenditure, the grant process has assumed an expensive life of it's own.

Nov 14, 2014

molovinsky Battlefield Policy

Mayors' Nutter and Pawlowski were recently taped for a Business Matters segment. Both mayors lamented the lack of pension reform as anchors around the neck of government. Neither gentleman bothered to mention that their party, which they fully support, failed to muster even one vote for pension reform in the state house. Although it's easy for me to point out that hypocrisy, many of the other issues I bring to light are painful. I normally support the Lehigh County Commissioners who are being obstructionists in keeping Cedarbrook viable. Although I criticize the South Whitehall Commissioners for allowing the Wildlands Conservancy to set the time table for the Wehr's Dam decision, I admire most of their other good decisions. I suppose that I might be less abrasive and more diplomatic championing these causes, or more political as some would say. My problem then is that there would be one less voice speaking out, and there's so few already.

Nov 13, 2014

County Commissioners Euthanizing Cedarbrook

Reflecting upon an article by Samantha Marcus in The Morning Call, the County Commissioners are hellbent on killing Cedarbrook. Despite a most complete, logical plan to restore it's fiscal health, Commissioner Mike Schware keeps saying that he will withhold any nourishment until there is a plan in place. Vic Mazziotti's rationale might even be more Catch 22ish; He claims that the plan to attract higher paying Medicare Rehab patients to one wing is contrary to the facilities' low income mission, and that it should stay exclusively with medicaid patients. Both of these absurd, disingenuous arguments mean that Executive Tom Muller will have to improvise to keep the cherished institution alive, until which time more responsible people occupy the dais at Government Center. Commissioner decisions should not just be an ultra conservative ideology formulated in a void, but a localized decision, reflecting the traditions and best outcome for the residents of Lehigh Valley.

photograph by K Mary Hess

Nov 12, 2014

An Expensive Endeavor

The other day I received a message on my answering machine thanking me for my effort to represent the residents of the 183rd District. Although the election is over and I lost, I am not too proud to still accept contributions. The district is very large, and to get my message out to the voters was an expensive endeavor. Those inclined to contribute can use the paypal button on the sidebar, thank you.

Citizen Abuse

South Whitehall, at this point, is actually abusing it's residents over Wehr's Dam. Over 7,000 have signed petitions to retain the dam, with 6,500 of them actually signing the document while at the dam. The Commissioners are not being uniquely stubborn, rather the problem is politics as usual. Although the dam has been declared structurally good by the state, the township agreed last summer to allow the Wildlands Conservancy to make a case for it's demolition. In a further insult to local residents, the Wildlands' study is being funded by the taxpayers through a grant. Over $200,000 is being spent to make a case which the residents do not want, nor is necessary by any objective criteria. Additionally, the Commissioners feel compelled to defer their decision until which time the Wildlands presents their finished report. In addition to wasting the taxpayer's time and money, the credibility of local government erodes for 7,000 citizens.

photograph by Gregg Obst

Nov 11, 2014

Re-earning My Certificate

Several years ago Allentown Friends Of The Parks presented me with a certificate for my advocacy for the WPA Structures in the park system. A year later, I re-earned the certificate by attempting to defend the WPA Robin Hood Dam. This week I will again re-earn it by explaining to the Park and Recreation Committee that funds have been allocated for WPA restoration, but never used for that purpose. In reality, I will be talking to a proverbial stone wall. The Committee was comprised of Cynthia Mota, Joe Davis and Peter Schweyer, but Schweyer has resigned Council. Mota and Davis allowed the Wildlands to remove the scenic WPA Dam on the recommendation of Park Director John Mikowychok, who had only been in Allentown for six weeks at the time. Neither Mota or Mikowychok had ever seen the dam before. Mikowychok has since resigned, and has been temporarily replaced by Vicky Kistler, from the Health Department. Mikowychok had replaced John Weitzel as Park Director. Weitzel had secured funds to repair/fortify the leaning wall along the Lehigh Parkway entrance road, but the funds were never spent for that purpose. Mikowychok had secured funds for the repair of the steps leading down to Fountain Park. This week when the Park and Recreation Committee meet to discuss the upcoming budget, I will be there re-earning my certificate once again.

Nov 10, 2014

The Night Of Broken Glass



In 1938,  on the nights of November 9 and 10, the Nazis whipped up anti-Jewish riots in a pogrom now known  as Kristallnacht.


During these two nights,    synagogues were set on fire and  thousands of Jewish shop windows were broken.



Ninety one Jews were killed.  30,000 were arrested and taken to camps, a harbinger of the Holocaust.

reprinted from previous years

Nov 7, 2014

Boxing Eggs


When I was a little boy, I would work at my father's meat market, boxing eggs. The job was pretty straightforward. I would take eggs from a big box, and put them in small boxes with folding lids, each of which held a dozen. If I did a whole crate without breaking an egg, I did a good job. The real adventure was the drive to the shop. We lived just off Lehigh Street, and would take it all the way to Union Street. The many landmarks are now gone forever, only remaining in my camera of the past. Shown above in 1952, is the portion of Lehigh Street near the Acorn Hotel, which is not visible in the photograph. Before reaching the Acorn, you drove under The Reading Railroad bridge overpass, which recently has been dismantled and removed. That line served the Mack Plant on S. 10th Street. Just beyond the area pictured, the Quarry Barber railroad spur also crossed Lehigh Street, at the bridge over the Little Lehigh Creek. That line also crossed S. 10th, and served Traylor Engineering, now known as the closed Allentown Metal Works. Just last week Mitt Romney was there, to rebuke Obama's former visit to the site. Mayor Pawlowski is now rebuking Romney, but none of them really know anything about it's past. A half block away, on overgrown steps built by Roosevelt's WPA, a thousand men would climb home everyday, after working at Mack and Traylor. Freight trains, on parallel tracks, from two different railroads, were needed to supply those industrial giants.

After my father rounded the second curve on Lehigh Street, we would head up the steep Lehigh Street hill. It was packed with houses and people. At the top of the hill, we would turn right on to Union Street. Going down Union Street, Grammes Metal was built on the next big curve. Grammes made a large assortment of finished decorative metal products. Beyond Grammes were numerous railroad crossings. The Lehigh Valley Railroad tracks crossed Union, as did the Jersey Central and several spurs, near Basin Street. It was not unusual to wait twenty-five minutes for the endless freight trains to pass. A two plus story tower gave the railroad men view and control of the busy crossing. A few more blocks and we were at the meat market, in time for me to break some eggs.

reprinted from August 2012

Nov 6, 2014

Photos of Lehigh Valley


Photos of Lehigh Valley showcases work by K Mary Hess, an extraordinarily gifted landscape photographer.

Molovinsky Back On Watch

Between working to save Wehr's Dam, and trying to be the first independent in Harrisburg for 85 years, downtown Allentown has been spared my scrutiny for months. Although the paint hasn't completely dried on the arena district, the first cracks are beginning to appear. While the godfathers Reilly and Topper need a wheelbarrow for their profits, PPl has announced layoffs. Topper's Lehigh Gas, propped up by the unprecedented use of Pennsylvania's cigarette tax, created windfall profits for it's new parent company. The glut of new restaurants, subsidized by their landlord's NIZ, known formally as our state taxes, will become even slower as less workers lunch on Hamilton Street. Add the NIZ new employees, subtract the 300 PPL workers to be laid off, and we're probably in negative territory. Thank goodness that the taxpayers of Slatington and Danielsville are indirectly footing the bill. Thank goodness for local truth seekers that I'm back on duty.

Nov 5, 2014

The Death Of Democracy In The Lehigh Valley

This death report might be somewhat exaggerated, because I'm not sure that democracy was ever alive in the Lehigh Valley. Out of eleven state house races, six of the candidates were unopposed. By now all my readers probably know that I failed in my attempt to be the first independent or third party candidate in the state house since the 1930's. Someone once told me that if an independent does nothings, he still gets 3% of the vote in a three way race, but if he does everything, he only gets 5%. Last night, according to news sources, I got 9%. Ms. Harhart received 60% and the Democrat got 30%. On my campaign facebook page, Mr. Molovinsky Goes To Harrisburg, I tried to pump up the residents of Northampton and Slatington by asserting that they have the moxie to vote for an independent, apparently they didn't. However, in fairness to my fellow citizens of the 183rd, I must confess that I only managed to man 4 districts with poll workers. Here in lies  another advantage of the party machines. The Democrat, with no qualifications what-so-ever, manned the district with party faithful and received 30% of the vote. Although they will celebrate Tom Wolf's victory, that willingness to blindly support any D candidate on the local level (same for R's) is most unimpressive. It makes me proud to be an independent.

Nov 4, 2014

Molovinsky Moxie Time

Everyone must know, no matter how partisan they may be, that Harrisburg is broken. If you, or a friend, live north of Route 22, chances are that you're in the 183rd District. My candidacy is an opportunity to tell the Republicans and Democrats that you expect more out of your legislators. I will bring an unprecedented tenacity to the state house, without any consideration for party agendas or being re-elected. Help me be your message. Get your friends to the poll, and vote Molovinsky- Independent.

Nov 3, 2014

A Campaign Of Consequence

In my unhumble opinion, my candidacy in the 183rd District is the most interesting choice in the valley for the voters tomorrow. We know that a Republican incumbent who has held a seat for twenty years, but isn't known for legislating, has been there for 16 years too many. Although the Democratic challenger has a party machine working for her, she has no credentials on her own. Local Lower Macungie Commissioner Ron Beitler supports me, but wonders if the voters have the right stuff to go beyond the normal two party choice? I believe that they do! There's a self sufficiently in those long miles between the houses in the large district. If they come out to vote, they would just as soon make it meaningful.