Oct 30, 2015

Flyer For Lou Hershman and Steven Ramos

Mailer For Bob Smith and Scott Armstrong

Tomorrow, some Allentown voters will receive a mailer promoting Bob Smith and Scott Armstrong. Ed Pawlowski had targeted both incumbent school board members, by supporting a PAC with alternative candidates. While I took the Result Team county commissioners to task for evolving Pawlowski against Dan Hartzell, I find the using the Pawlowski association appropriate in the school board race. Pawlowski had stated that Bob Smith wasn't right in the head, and also personally demeaned Armstrong in the past. Both incumbents are dedicated to the education of students in the district. Yesterday's fights and student attacks on police officers, only emphasizes the importance of keeping these disciplined members on the board.

Dinner With Allentown's Write- Ins

I don't go out much at night. Between usually writing this blog around 4:30AM, and the family bakery, I have the schedule of a three year old. Truth be told, the bakery closed 35 years ago, but it's my normal excuse for going to slept at 8:00PM. With the election on Tuesday, and Rich Fegley and Shane Fillman running as write-ins, I'll try to catch up with them tonight in the little apple. Between my rosacea and shiny nose, I usually have my butler powder my face before I go out.

ADDENDUM: I invite any candidate for Tuesday's election to join me this evening, 6pm, at the Hamilton Street BreWWork

Oct 29, 2015

My Vote For Dan Hartzell

Come this Tuesday, I will cast one vote for county commissioner, it will go to Dan Hartzell. While in previous years my votes went to the current Republican Result Team, previously called their Reform team, they lost my support over Cedarbrook and the budget. As I posted earlier this week, although they claim support for Cedarbrook, they declined to approve a proven formula in the nursing home industry for a rehab unit. While their first handout card indicated support for the nursing home, two recent mailings from them make no mention of the facility. I find the most recent card (shown above) quite offensive, it's a hit piece against Hartzell. While hammering Hartzell for accepting a $3,000 contribution from Pawlowski last spring, they don't mention the cost or source of their own two mailings this week. Frankly, the four Republicans responsible for this card, Holt, Osborne, Mazziotti and Nothstein should be ashamed. While Nothstein's campaign mentions his gold metal, it apparently didn't involve sportsmanship. Holt campaigned on her efforts toward a fair redistricting map, how about fair campaigning? While I never expected to be voting for a Democrat next week, I'm even more surprised about the next paragraph.

I want to commend Geoff Brace for his lone vote against the commissioner's amended county budget. Brace refused to endorse a token tax decrease, while the county has a deficit spending budget. Muller today issued a partial veto, along with this statement:
 “The Happy Meal tax cut, which amounts to $12.80 per household on average, was a move designed to confuse voters into believing that campaign promises of the past have been met,” said Muller. “It is not prudent fiscal management but I am opting to leave the Commissioners running for election with their political spin and only veto what I consider to be the five most ill-advised amendments.

While the ethics of Pawlowski are certainly fair game for a discussion of  City Council and school board candidates, whose decisions interact with the city,  those questions are not relevant to the election of county commissioners.  The hit piece mailer shown above, only reflects poorly upon those who sent it.


The Good Ship Allentown Losing Credibility

The blogosphere has been buzzing since yesterday afternoon about Sara Hailstone leaving, and the budget being delayed until after the election. Although, The Morning Call associated her with the $billion dollar Reilly development, she had absolutely nothing to do with it. Although director of the paper tiger NIZ board, that too is just a legal requirement for the Reilly Development Company. Her departure, like the police chief, is a hope to be gone before they bring in the handcuffs. What we need to discuss here;   How can a city with a $billion dollars of new development needs a tax increase? Making Reilly's empire has not been cheap for the taxpayers. The development required considerable infrastructure improvements, and police protection. Need a cop, there's almost always one present by the Artwalk, along by Shula's and the new stores there. Although he does you no good, shut up, and pony up two more mills in city tax. Reilly is being treated to a $billion dollars worth of real estate at taxpayer expense,  while the same taxpayers get a tax increase?   By the way, that tax increase will not be announced until after the election, as to not hurt the Pawlowski endorsed candidates on Tuesday. Those candidates would be Glazier and Affa for City Council, and Koval for Controller.   Only in Allentown,  pass the arena popcorn please, we're paying for it.  

Oct 28, 2015

The Pawlowski Bitch Slap

Who's your Daddy now?
We, who write and read blogs, overestimate the general public. We assumed that Pawlowski's support with his PAC in the spring, would come back to haunt those candidates, after the FBI investigation. I pretty much dismissed that logical reasoning, until today's article in the Morning Call, by Emily Opilo, FBI cloud darkens Allentown election. The article makes that logical reasoning public, making it a reality, seven days before the election. The article associates Thiel, Glazier, and Affa with the Pawlowski/Fleck/FBI fiasco. Then again, I may now be overestimating the influence of the Morning Call's article. But, at the very least, it's a well deserved bitch slap at those who gladly kissed Pawlowski's ring last spring.

Oct 27, 2015

The Cedarbrook Myth

It's funny that with one week to go before the election, candidates are now suddenly supporters of Cedarbrook. Understand, that as a registered independent, I don't get most mailings sent out to the party faithful. One mailing I did receive was from Dan Road Warrior Hartzell. As someone who has addressed the County Commissioners on Cedarbrook, I don't remember seeing Dan there. That's another funny thing, seeing some candidate attend a meeting or two for the first time, after they decide to run for the office. Dan also claims on his card that he used to cover the meetings for the Morning Call. I assume that he did, but I don't remember that, and I remember too much. Anyway, the only thing sadder than Dan's funny card, was the Republican Results Team card. The team, Holt, Osborne, Northstein and Mazziotti, also pledge their loyalty to Cedarbrook. Results Team is dedicated to contining Cedarbrook's mission of care and excellent services in a fiscally sustainable manner with a clear and measurable strategy. In reality, the record shows that they apparently never found a clear and measurable strategy, as they voted against every reasonable proposal to modernize and save Cedarbrook.

ADDENDUM: As often the case, I get a message from some candidate I criticized, asking if I would kindly phone them, so that they could more fully explain their position, which perhaps I misunderstood.  In the case of the Republican Results Team, allow me to elaborate on my condemnation.  When you decided against remodeling the D wing for a profitable rehabilitation unit, you demonstrated your lack of commitment to Cedarbrook.  When you stated that perhaps instead you should get even more studies, or build a new nursing home, you demonstrated just how disingenuous you are on the topic.  That said,  I will host any comment from any candidate.  

photograph by K Mary Hess

Oct 26, 2015

The Business of Cedar Park

As an advocate for the traditional park system, I find commercial companies leasing Cedar Park a complete exploitation of the park.  On Saturday, the park lent itself to the second for profit company this year, The Color Run. (The first was Slide The City) These companies donate a small portion of the proceeds to a local cause, creating the misconception of community benefit, while the traveling shows are actually for their own profit.  Slide The City was really ironic, considering that Cedar Beach Pool was closed because of neglect.  After a long season of one scheduled event after another, one would think that the Rose Garden neighborhood deserved a respite, but not in this administration's commercial mind. I cannot tell you exactly from where the music was being broadcast early Saturday morning, but you could hear it from Cedar Crest Blvd. to 17th Street. These commercial add on events may be fine for a park system with no scheduled recreation, but that's not the case in Allentown, especially Cedar Park.

I don't write much about Pawlowski's trouble with the FBI, that's above my paygrade, but I can tell you I consider him a park criminal. His main crime against the parks is the neglect of the WPA structures, resulting in the collapse of the Lehigh Parkway wall.  Allowing the Wildlands Conservancy to demolish the Robin Hood Dam, to garner a grant, was another crime.  While the park system infrastructure crumbles, Pawlowski brags about people paying to be sprayed with colored powders.

Oct 23, 2015

Allentown's Pawlowski Girl

When Louie Belletieri ran in the 2005 Democratic primary against Pawlowski, he was supported by his fellow business person at 12th and Chew, Candida Affa. When Pawlowski won the primary, Candida switched her loyalty to him, and has never looked back. Pawlowski, in turn, has rewarded her devotion with numerous appointments, and she has never failed to support the company policy. This year she was recruited to run for City Council, and supported by the Pawlowski PAC, until political manager Mike Fleck disappeared, in the Pawlowski-Gate scandal. While other candidates are trying to distance themselves from Pawlowski, Candida doubles down. "What the mayor needs now is more support..." It's unclear to me if it's blind loyalty, or she may be oblivious of current events. I believe that in all the years of pushing Pawlowski agendas, she has only attended one council meeting. She personifies what's wrong with Allentown politics.

Downhill On Lehigh Street


During the early 1970's, Allentown demolished the entire neighborhood between Union and Lawrence Streets. It was, in a large part, home to the black community. How ironic that we destroyed the cohesion of a neighborhood, but renamed Lawrence Street after Martin Luther King. The only remnant of the neighborhood is the St. James A.M.E. Church. Going up the hill today we now have a vacant bank call center on the east, and the Housing Authority Project on the west. A whole neighborhood existed in from both sides of Lehigh Street, including black owned shops. The houses were old and humble, but people owned them, many for generations. Some blacks at the time wondered if the project was Urban Renewal or Negro Removal?

 reprinted from January of 2011

Oct 22, 2015

2nd and Hamilton


Up to the mid 1960's,  before Allentown started tinkering with urban redevelopment, lower Hamilton Street still teemed with businesses. The City had grown from the river west,  and lower Hamilton Street was a vibrant area.  Two train stations and several rail lines crossed the busy thoroughfare.  Front, Ridge and Second were major streets in the first half of the twentieth century.  My grandparents settled on the 600 block of 2nd Street in 1895, along with other Jewish immigrants from Russia and Lithuania.  As a boy, I worked at my father's meat market on Union Street.  I would have lunch at a diner, just out of view in the photo above.  The diner was across from the A&P,  set back from the people shown on the corner.  A&P featured bags of ground to order 8 O'Clock coffee, the Starbucks of it's day.
please click on photo
photocredit:Ed Miller, 1953
reprinted from November 2011

Oct 21, 2015

Leasing Allentown Municipal

I know nothing about golf, last time I was on the city course was as a 11 year old caddy.  However, I know something about Pawlowski. The problem with leasing the course golf, simply put, is that Pawlowski and this administration doesn't have the trust to continue making such decisions. Even before the recent FBI investigation, the golf course restaurant lease was political. While the administration justifies the proposal because the course lost $163,000 in 2014, please remember that we paid Atiyeh $1.4million for land that we didn't need, to expand a park system that we can't take care of, as is. The current pro, under job duress, is an interested bidder in Pawlowski's quick lease scheme. I'm sure that if council nixes the leasing, that gentleman will make sure that the course is in the black next year. However, that would involve council doing something new for them, saying no. After ten years of Pawlowski, that's a power that they seem to have forgotten that they process.

Oct 20, 2015

Molovinsky on Weddings and Elections

On Friday night I stepped out, by myself, to attend the Fegley Wedding Bash at the Brew Pub, the Mrs. couldn't go, she was tied up. Steven Ramos asked me if I was there to cover the event for the blog, and I said "no," just to smell the wedding flowers. Steven is running for city controller as a Republican. Who would expect a Hispanic to be a Republican in Allentown? His opponent, Mary Ellen Koval, is the incumbent hand picked by the Pawlowski/Fleck PAC. She has been busy lately gathering documents as ordered by the FBI subpoenas. Come election day, in two weeks, Steven is the integrity that this city so desparately needs. I would also strongly recommend the groom himself, Rich Fegley, for city council. Fegley is not on the ballot, but is running a write in campaign. The new electronic voting machines have a keyboard, which makes the write-in option easier. Voters only need to type FEGLEY to begin changing this city for the better.

Oct 19, 2015

WPA, A Work In Progress

On Labor Day in 2011, The Morning Call ran a story about my efforts in regard to the neglected WPA structures, and announced my upcoming meeting at the Allentown Library. Among those in attendance at that meeting was Karen El-Chaar, director of Friends Of The Allentown Parks. Later that year, I took El-Chaar on a tour of the WPA structures throughout the park system. In 2013, I conducted my first tour of the WPA in Lehigh Parkway, in conjunction with Friends Of The Parks. This year, El-Chaar successfully secured a grant from The Trexler Trust, which is currently being used to restore the steps at Fountain Park. The grant is being supervised by Lindsay Taylor, Allentown Park Director. The work is being done by Dietrich Stonemasonry, and managed by parks supervisor, Rick Holtzman.

Although much work remains to be done, it's my sense that all the decision makers mentioned above, are developing a greater appreciation of the unique gift that the WPA bestowed upon the Allentown park system.  I'm hoping that both that interest and work continues this coming spring and summer, especially in preserving the remaining portion of the wall in Lehigh Parkway.

Oct 16, 2015

Guarding Allentown City Hall

I've been intrigued by a recent report, by Emily Opilo in The Morning Call, by actions seeming to complicate the paper's discovery about the Ciiber contract,  which is apparently an object of the FBI investigation.  The city solictitor, Susan Ellis Wild,  refused to release documents requested under the company's former name,  Five C. This obstacle required the paper to file a new right to know request, under the new name, Ciiber.  Furthermore,  Susan Wild then responded with a thirty day delay, to review the second request.
Wild said she canceled the city's contract with Ciiber on July 16 after the company failed to provide the city with proof of liability insurance. Wild said she contacted city directors who would have been affected. None, she said, was opposed to canceling it. Wild said she also consulted with Managing Director Francis Dougherty before pulling the plug but did not speak to Pawlowski about the cancellation. "I got concerned about their responsiveness in general," Wild said of Ciiber. "If they couldn't respond before the contract, how would they respond after [it was executed]."
What is startling about this whole sequence is that the contract was only cancelled after it became an object of interest by the FBI.  Although Wild does serve at the Mayor's pleasure, she stated when all the commotion began, that it isn't her job to defend the mayor or any person at city hall. Although I understand the technicality that  Ciiber never satisfied the insurance requirements,  decisions to institute or cancel contracts are not normally made by the solicitor, although that office might consult, and send such notices. Additionally, Wild went out of her way to not have the mayor involved with her decision.  Wild is certainly appearing to be injecting her office defensively on the mayor's behalf, against both the ill fated Ciiber contract,  and the paper's attempt at scrutiny of city hall.

Oct 15, 2015

As Allentown Turns

Linden Street is reduced to one lane today, as a private contractor installs stencils on the street for the bike lane. I had forgotten about this idiotic plan. Let us hope that the projections for the arena's success are more realistic than their vision for the bike lane's use. Also observed on my patrol today was the unbelievably slow progress of the 15th Street Bridge project. More concrete and steel is completed in one day on the arena and City Center buildings, than has yet to be completed on the bridge. The entire southside of Allentown remains prisoner to misplaced priorities. Talking of misplaced priorities, yesterday the Administration applauded itself for starting the eastside fire house, a year and half late.
UPDATE: ABOUT THIS POSTCARD- Earlier this week I used a postcard of Lehigh Parkway in the Give A Damn, Save A Dam post.  Both cards have a similar coloration and were photographed by Harold Becraft in the early 1950's.  Becraft was a photographer from Suffern N.Y.,  who produced many of the images used in the postcards of Allentown's parks.  These cards were produced locally by E.H. Schall Co.  In addition to Becraft's name on the front, they're also marked Kodachrome.  Although Becraft did many park scenes for Schall, the image shown above is one of his few cityscapes.

reprinted from May of 2013

UPDATE OCTOBER 15, 2015: We seem to have two types of government, slow or greedy. The entire square arena block was built before the 15th street bridge was completed. While two and four men worked on the bridge for two years, 300 men worked around the clock on the arena. The old 15th Street Bridge, built around 1953, was a study in neglect. One city administration after another deferred maintenance,  because there was a plan for a new bridge, although the plan took decades to come to fruition. Then the contract, to save money, wasn't time sensitive. The greater NIZ arena project, including affiliated buildings, which allows the developers to reap an unaccounted for money stream of public taxes, was built as if money was no object, because it wasn't.  So, while a city was inconvenienced by a snail pace public bridge project, our state taxes were used for overtime, to speed up a bonanza for the barons.

Oct 14, 2015

Allentown Internment Camp For Homeless

According to Rich Fegley, who is a write-in candidate for Allentown City Council this year, the city will use the Fountain Park Pool House as a homeless shelter this winter. Although pool house sounds like a cabana, it's actually a stark concrete block building from the 1940's, where you could change into a swimming suit. This barrack opens to a high fenced in area, where the idle empty pools sit in a state of dilapidation. During the day, if they're physically capable of it,  the homeless can attempt to climb the steep steps, going three block straight up toward Walnut Street. Only a few years ago, the homeless lived under the 8th Street Bridge, in a small shantytown. The First Lady of Allentown, Lisa Pawlowski, had that demolished, and the hapless homeless ended up at Alliance Hall last year, after spending a couple of winters in a church basement. For whatever reason, perhaps Alliance Hall is too close to the downtown renaissance, the hapless will now be back on Martin Luther King Drive.

ADDENDUM: The Morning Call has picked up on the story.  According to them,  the pool house is currently under renovation.  However,  the paper also had the parkway wall collapsing while under renovation.  Nothing had been done to the parkway wall for 80 years prior to the collapse, and nothing has been done since.  So far,  the same invisible city crew has been working at the pool house.

Oct 13, 2015

WPA Labor Bears Fruit


I can't exactly tell you how long I have been advocating for Allentown's WPA structures, probably at least a decade. I can't tell you how many blog posts I've written, many dozen, or letters to the editor, dozens also. I have conducted meetings at the library, given tours of the structures, and excavated structures buried in the 1980's. I have lobbied several city councils and am currently tormenting a third park director. I'm now pleased to announce that for the first time in many years, some work is occurring on these irreplaceable icons of our park system. The stone steps have been reset and re-pointed in Irving Park. Currently, the missing steps at Fountain Park are being replaced, and by next week, I believe that the Union Terrace staircase wall will be repaired. I'm not known for praising, but next week I will try to properly thank the people authorizing these repairs.

reprint from The Morning Call, May of 2009

Oct 12, 2015

Another Morning Call Infomercial

As an advocate for the park system, seeing the above photograph from the Morning Call article on the Lehigh River parks, was a harsh joke.  The article is subtitled, Insider's Guide To The Lehigh Valley. It actually is an outsider's guide. The reporter states that he has never been to these parks previously, and his tour gulde is Pawlowski.  I'll go further, and doubt that any of recent park directors have ever been to Canal Park, which is in a condition somewhere between neglect and hazard.  Before I go further, let's be clear that the Morning Call asked Pawlowski, whose negligence allowed the iconic Lehigh Parkway entrance wall to collapse, to be it's tour guide in the parks.  Nothing has been done in Canal Park since Pawlowski was elected as mayor in 2005, or before that, when he served as Community Development Director, under Mayor Afflerbach.  Pawlowski even refers to the train line through Canal Park as a problem.  Someone should inform him that it is the main west line of Norfolk Southern, and more relevant to Allentown than he is, certainly at this time. As if that wasn't enough irony, Pawlowski is considering a new park to neglect,  for boat launching. All this attention about the river is part of the paper's hype for the new NIZ construction, soon to begin by the Tilghman Street Bridge. In a recent exchange with a Morning Call writer/editor, he defended the informercials
concerning the NIZ. Although I have been sending notes to the paper about the deplorable conditions in the existing parks, they choose instead to engage in a puff promotion for the NIZ, featuring a future indictee. Pass the Tums.

ADDENDUM: In regard to an earlier post, regarding emergency repairs needed at Union Terrace, shared by somebody on facebook,  Joe McDermott commented, "Fine, who is willing to pay more taxes to make those repairs, Mike Molvinsky, maybe?"  This is disturbing, because McDermott is a former Morning Call reporter who now pens for Pawlowski.  So, although this administration paid Abe Atiyeh $1.4 million dollars for land it's not using or needs for the park system, it employs a hack to link park maintenance with higher taxes.

photo by April Bartholomew/The Morning Call

Oct 9, 2015

Shame on LCCC, Again

When the NIZ was in the planning stages, before we, the unwashed public, knew about it, Lehigh Carbon Community College was already playing ball with the big boys, at the expense of their students. Those compromises started when their dean didn't object to the bus stop being removed from in front of it's Hamilton Street building. The college had no problem with their students walking from the transportation interment camp on 7th, beyond Linden. I phoned their dean at the time, and posted about it here on molovinsky. My next post concerned their willingness sell out to Reilly's plans to own the entire 700 block of Hamilton Street. They justified that compromise by saying that the building no longer served their needs. Now, that Reilly really has slowed down, seems that the building is again adequate enough. Although J.B. put on the smiley face about Talen going Jaindl, he's really not a happy baron about that. What has irritated me enough to write this third complaint about LCCC, is their program to train workers for the new NIZ restaurant jobs. I'm a proponent of community colleges, I see them as an opportunity for more students to continue their education. Although, I expect to see a lower bar on student admission standards, I expected that the deans and administration should be professional. Colleges, even community colleges, shouldn't stoop to training peanut vendors for the arena.

Oct 8, 2015

The NIZ As Etch A Sketch

When I sat down with Alan Jennings last month, he complained about the things mentioned yesterday in his resignation from the NIZ board. Other NIZ news besides Alan, is that the board cleared the way for Talen to move to the waterfront. What that means is that they unilaterally declared that state income taxes from Talen employees can be divided for both the arena debt, and for Jaindl's debt service by the river. Pat Browne, author of the NIZ stated;
"This is the result of a many-months-long public-private collaborative effort to balance the language of the NIZ program with its financial expectations,..."
Normally, if a law seems to have some leeway, I might say that it was written in pencil. However, in the case of the NIZ, it's an etch a sketch, they make it up as they go. Who knew that you could arbitrarily balance the language of a law? One of the reasons that Jennings resigned from the NIZ board is the lack of financial reports. State taxes will be diverted to pay for $1 Billion and counting in development, and nobody is counting the beans. Bills are accepted as presented, and the public coffer is dinged accordingly. Even Alan, whose own organization spends $millions of public money each year, was offended by the lack of accountability. According to Jennings, the Allentown NIZ is essentially a one man show, run by Sy Traub. The idea of a question seems to offend him. Personally, I don't solely blame Browne or Traub, I also blame the worms in Harrisburg called state representatives. They passed a law that they didn't know anything about, and continue to sanction an obvious work in progress, which works for the progress of just a few connected individuals.

Oct 7, 2015

Allentown As A Bustling Downtown

Just as people who visit Disneyland know that they're not really in the west or the future, visitors to downtown Allentown know that it's really not bustling. Bustling was a gift word bestowed on J.B. Reilly's City Center Public Tax Funded Empire, by The Morning Call. The Morning Call itself is struggling. Yesterday, their mother ship The Tribune Corporation, offered a buyout plan to it's senior workers. Unfortunately, most of the people at the paper are just a little too young to retire, and too old to land somewhere else. Most will pass on the offer, hoping to keep their seat when the musical chairs start playing again. In the meantime, we readers will be treated to words like bustling, even as reality starts to set in, before the paint is  dry on the new restaurant walls. While Grain opens this week, the pickings are slow at Roar. Too many restaurants already for the thin event schedule, and quick lunch times available for the imported office workers. J.B. will have to again prime the pump with another round of gift cards for the esteemed office workers. The Morning Call will have to review another restaurant, and coin yet another word describing excitement at Allentown's Disneyland.

Oct 6, 2015

Allentown's WPA Watchmen

Being a self appointed watchman over Allentown's WPA structures is an act in frustration. Since I started posting about the neglect of the structures in 2008, I have seen nothing of substance done. Actually, besides the steps at Irving Park being rebuilt, I have seen nothing done at all. While rebuilding that small staircase was positive, many negatives occurred in the meantime. The meantime has been over seven years. Also in the meantime, another set of steps were removed from Irving Park. The staircase at Union Terrace is deteriorating to the point where that structure is in jeopardy. The repair to a remaining staircase at Irving was done with a $25,000 grant from the Trexler Trust. In the last seven years, the park department's budget has been over $25 million dollars. The playground at Cedar Beach cost $1 million. Pawlowski has rejected my offer to be a liaison on behalf of the WPA structures. I'm pictured above standing over the former WPA wall, after it collapsed this summer, closing Lehigh Parkway's classic entrance. This city's history and future are tied to our park system and other quality of life issues, not just some private/public new buildings. I know there's no big money or national attention to be gained in fixing an old wall, but we have a responsibility to the things which made this city unique.

Oct 5, 2015

Mr. Pawlowski, Build Up This Wall

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.

reprinted from November of 2014

ADDENDUM: Although, I have been writing about the need for maintenance at Union Terrace for years, the above post appeared last November, under the title, Emergency At Union Terrace. Unfortunately, since then not only has nothing been done, but the condition of the structure has significantly deteriorated. The flagstone on the landings has become dislodged. Pieces of the flagstone and stones from the wall, are being strewn about in the park. I have serious doubts if the wall can survive another winter, as water seeps down from the open top,  freezes and expands during the cold weather. If this irreplaceable structure is to be saved, the city must act now.

ADDENDUM:Earlier this morning I first titled this post, Ms. Taylor, Build Up This Wall. Lindsay Taylor is the current park director. I have decided instead to address the post to Mayor Pawlowski. Mr. Pawlowski has cut many ribbons opening businesses that have come and gone. Let up hope that he will turn his attention to a imperiled structure, that has graced Allentown since 1939. Let us hope that there was a lesson learned from the collapse of the WPA wall in Lehigh Parkway.

Oct 2, 2015

Nonsense In Allentown's Future

Above is some nonsense on Charlie Thiel's facebook page, about the American Parkway Bridge. By November, drivers will be able to travel on one road from the east side of Allentown, a baseball throw from Coca-Cola Park, to the city’s bustling downtown. Last year, I did a series of posts on Allentown's next mayor, in which I featured Sam Bennett and Charlie Thiel. This of course was well before the FBI visited the city's bustling downtown, and the reality that a new mayor will be coming sooner than later. Since then, Sam Bennett has been silent on all issues, except for fabricating a role in West Park's Historic District history, that she had no part of. Charlie, on the other hand, has become such a cheerleader of Allentown's nonsense, that he also has no credibility.

I've never seen Allentown's bustling downtown, but since I'm on Hamilton Street between 5th and 10th most days, perhaps Charlie can show it to me sometime. In the meantime, despite The Morning Call, Sam Bennett or Charlie Thiel, welcome to the real Allentown, as showcased at molovinsky on allentown.

Oct 1, 2015

Pennsylvania, A State Of Thieves

Back in July, I reported how the state was stealing from drivers at the Pocono turnpike exchange. By installing an EZ Pass only exit at the popular destination, and charging $65 per pop, per vehicle, the state has been making $150,000 a week at that point of robbery. It's been so lucrative, that the state will now duplicate the crime on both ends of the turnpike; At the Delaware crossing into New Jersey and at the western side, with Ohio. Welcome to Pennsylvania.  Meanwhile, back in Harrisburg, our visionary with the beard, has vetoed the stop gap budget presented by the  State House, forcing local school systems to issue bonds,  incurring more interest and debt payments.  A sorry state indeed.