Jul 6, 2015

Removing The Undesirables From Hamilton Street, Circa 2007

In the fall of 2007, Allentown began the systematic removal of the undesirables from Hamilton Street, in cooperation with Lanta. At the time, I championed for the now former merchants and their customers. Among other things, I organized a meeting at a center city church. Below, three posts from that period are reprinted. For a more complete understanding of the bus stop issue, click on 2007, listed on the right side bar, under the archive section.

MEETING AT CHURCH
As the organizer of the forum at Faith Baptist Church on Lanta, I would like to make some speculations on what was not said at the meeting. First and foremost, the meeting was not covered by The Morning Call. I sent the press release to two reporters,plus the local editor. I'd like to note the "Paper" is a "partner" in the new Lanta Terminal. It was built on land they sold to the Parking Authority and they receive free parking at the new deck; Their publisher attended the dedication with the three amigo's.(scroll down to earlier posting). All four democratic candidates for county commissioner were no shows, although one of the candidates, Kevin Easterling, expressed solidarity over the phone; but Kevin was recently hired by Ed Pawlowski as our new Recreation Director. My attempts to connect with Lehigh Carbon Community College in regard to the effect on their students at the Hamilton Street annex were unanswered. I would like to thank all the candidates who did attend, Ellen Millard-Kern from Senator Browne's office and Bernie O'Hare for his coverage of my efforts.
UPDATE: As a result of a inquiry by Ellen Kern, I did finally receive a call from a dean at the Community College. They approve of the bus stop being removed from in front of their facility because it has "reduced the litter". I inquired about the inconvenience for their students who now must walk to the Lanta terminal; they have received "no complaints". As one who tried to contact a dean myself and received no replies, I must question whether that comment has much value. As winter weather approaches, common sense would indicate a bus stop moved from in front of the building to two blocks away, is not student friendly.

 ALLENTOWN CELEBRATES

Allentown's latest Dancing in the Street, Octoberfeast, will have multi-cultural attractions. There will be genuine rickshaw rides, pulled by former Asian merchants who were forced out of business by the City Department of Gentrification. After this weeks party for the Brewpub, the rickshaws will operate on a regular basis between Hamilton Street and our new Lanta Transportation Center.

 SILENCE OF THE LANTA
Hannibal Lecter has been offered parole on the condition he restrict his diet to Hamilton Street bus riders. Once a month he will be permitted an Asian merchant; on thanksgiving he may have a preselected blogger. Mr. Lector will be micro-chipped and given a new Hamilton Street loft apartment. He will be monitored by the new surveillance cameras. Mayor Pawlowski and Armand Greco will provide more details at a press conference early next week at the new Lanta Terminal.

4 comments:

  1. And now it costs twice as much to park on Hamilton and near the NIZ. I'm sure students love that, too. It's all part of reducing litter.

    ReplyDelete
  2. momma@8:41, the $2 meter rate is absurd; Destination cities, such as ft. lauderdale, don't charge that much. considering arena events occur only a fraction of the time, it's totally counter productive, by any criterion. the shortfall to fund the city budget and the new parking deck should come from the niz authority, not the residents of allentown.

    ReplyDelete
  3. "the shortfall to fund the city budget..."

    And there's the half BILLION dollar question. How does a city that just "leased" its water and sewer operations for a huge sum of money have any budget shortfall?

    Where did all that money go?

    How is the tax assessment of a building built by millions of dollars of taxpayer dollars get appealed for a fraction of the alleged cost to the taxpayer?

    Where did that money go?

    Something just doesn't add up.

    ReplyDelete
  4. MM,
    Maybe til all is said and done the mayor and bobbleheads as well as reciepiants will be giving the public ricshaw rides through the blighted arena area¿ We can all see today the mayors block is being blacktopped by the cities streets department¿ Another question would be are the pictures of basement remodel going to be made public so we can see the handywork of allentowns flopp with paintbrush in hand¿

    redd
    patent pending

    ReplyDelete

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