Dec 31, 2015

The Harrisburg State House Experience

Julie Harhart issued a press release confirming that this is indeed her last term. "It has been an honor and privilege to represent the residents of the 183rd District in the state House," Harhart said in a press release. "In doing so, I have made many friends, both in the General Assembly and the surrounding community, that I will miss tremendously. They have helped to make public service, while challenging, one of the most satisfying experiences of my life." I take particular notice of her word "experience". To my way of thinking, 11 terms, or 22 years, is not an experience, but a career. Although I'm a candidate for this office, the 183rd District, I have no interest in learning the language of political speak, I prefer straight forward English.

I also note that both my opponents for the Republican nomination indicated that they just learned of Harhart's pending retirement, from a recent Morning Call article about State Rep expenses, which had only a few words suggesting that Harhart wasn't seeking re-election.  One candidate is the aide of Harhart's colleague, and most assuredly knew of  Harharts pending announcement.  The language of politics apparently comes very easy to some people.  I hope that I don't confuse them with speaking only the straight forward truth.

Dec 30, 2015

Harrisburg, A House of Worms


Anybody who fishes in the Susquehanna can find all the worms they need a few blocks east, in the state house. Many of them even wear suits and ties. Although Governor Wolf deemed the partial budget he signed garbage, both parties, and both branches of our government, are to blame. On a positive note, funds will be released immediately for public schools, some of which had to already borrow over $900 million to stay open. Once again, pension reform fails to pass, not even passing the Republican controlled House of Representatives. For anyone who hasn't subscribed to this blog for the last couple of days, I'm running for state representative, as an outsider in the Republican primary, against two establishment candidates. When I see the chaos in Harrisburg, I'm proud not to be a partisan. Tell your friends north of Route 22, in the 183rd District, that I look forward to working for them.

Dec 29, 2015

A Supremo Christmas



While I've never shown much enthusiasm for J.B. Reilly's attempt to revitalize downtown through his high end shops, neither has the marketplace. Christmas day, I visited the new Supremo Market on 7th Street, occupying the former Levine's Fabric store. The market was attractive, large, well stocked and mobbed.

There is an old saying that there are more nickels than quarters. I suppose that it should be no surprise that in a city populated by a large percentage of low income people, a well run store geared for that demographic can prosper. What's interesting is that while the taxpayer ponied up a $Billion dollars, so far, for the NIZ, the thriving Supremo costs us nothing. While the Morning Call writes one promotion after another for Reilly's portfolio, there is nothing said about the real success story in Allentown.

Let me provide some history.  Once upon a time,  that was the busiest block on 7th Street. The building was built as a Sears and Roebucks in the early 1950's, using a plan duplicated in other cities. The store did well competing with the three local department stores, and was first to go suburban.

Talking of history, some may notice a new item on this blog's sidebar. It's a picture of a Mack Truck Magazine cover, which was printed each month. I have titled the new insertion, LOCAL HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE.  Hopefully, the local political shenanigans will slow down, so I can devote more posts to our rich history.

stock photo from Supremo website

Dec 28, 2015

Announcing My Candidacy


After some deliberation, I announce my candidacy under the Republican banner for the 183rd State House seat. Although, I will compete for the Republican nomination, needless to say, I will retain an independent spirit. As an outsider to party politics, I will need help in gathering petition signatures, and other necessities for success. Harrisburg is clearly broken, let us together see what we can do to improve the ethics of this state. Those who share my interest in a better Pennsylvania can leave their contact information by comment to this post. Such comments and information will not be printed or shared.   Thank you, Michael Molovinsky

Dec 25, 2015

Christmas City


In 1937, Bethlehem was still struggling from the Great Depression. In December of that year, the Star was built on top of the mountain, elaborate street decorations were installed, and the city began calling itself                                                Christmas City.

reprinted from December 25, 2012

Dec 24, 2015

Pawlowski's Willing Patsies


Allentown City Council was recently asked to approve a feasibility study for a trail path through the former fertilizer plant property, west of Schreiber's Bridge, along Martin Luther King Drive. Students of bad Allentown government recognize this parcel as one of the two, that Mayor Pawlowski purchased at significant profit for the owner.  I believe that this trail topic is being raised now in an attempt to justify the purchase. However, there was absolutely no need or previous plan to purchase the land for a trail, because the right of way for the former Barber Quarry Rail track runs right through the parcel, already providing the rail to trail option.  At no cost, I opposed the trail, because the park department has neither the manpower or budget to maintain existing features. Purchasing the land was a poor decision at best, corrupt at worst, and should be put up for sale immediately.

This year, when I offered my historical perspective to City Council as a volunteer consultant on park system matters, their response was total silence. Apparently, they prefer to be willing patsies, rather than informed decision makers.

photo of Barber Quarry rail line, just west of Schreiber's Bridge, taken in 1976 by Dave Latshaw. From the collection of Mark Rabenold

Dec 23, 2015

Teaching The Sweat Hog Parents



Recent news from the Allentown School System is that 10 more students have been arrested because of the recent fights, and that the system is starting Parent University Workshops.

The Allentown school district is correct in realizing that much fault for the discipline issues at the schools comes from their home life. However, thinking that their parents will attend workshops to improve their parenting skills is something only an administrator could think will work. In real life, dedicated parents don't need the help, and problem parents won't attend.

This is the kind of program a school district engages in desperation.That said, even minimal results make the program worth pursuing if the cycle of poverty can be broken in at least a few families.   Scott Armstrong

Dec 22, 2015

A Raise For J.B. Reilly



There's one constant in every rejected state budget plan coming out of Harrisburg, that's a raise in the cigarette tax. In that land of the moral and mental midgets, cigarette smokers are the low hanging fruit. They're not exactly an organized group, with a lobby defending their interests. Back here, in the land of private bonanza, any increase goes straight into J.B.'s pocket. Only Allentown, in Pennsylvania, could be having a $Billion Dollar building boom, which doesn't benefit anybody, but one man.

Dec 21, 2015

Humbug Christmas Continues


On Saturday I put up a rare weekend post titled Humbug Christmas, in which Alan Jennings was taken to task for handing out ten dollar bills. Because Bill White has a Christmas Lights special each year, and Bernie O'Hare is trying to emulate him with his Municipal Christmas Tree posts, allow me a second in the Humbug Christmas series. The alternative caption for the photo shown above would be, For Whom The Bell Tolls, which I believe someone has already used for a book title. In my version, Mayor Ed is ringing the bell at the Lehigh Valley Mall in Whitehall. He's hoping it's the bell of redemption.

Dec 19, 2015

Humbug Christmas


Altruism?

On Friday night 69NEWS did a Christmas “story”of Alan Jennings handing out envelopes of cash in downtown Allentown. Point one: it wasn’t his money. Point two: how did 69 NEWS know about this event if they weren’t notified in advance by those dispensing of the “charity”? Isn’t anonymity a basic rule of charity? If so, it was totally blown in this story. While one might want to see the upside of any situation, this one strikes me as very galling. Alan could have done the same act with discretion but chose not to. To me, that makes all the difference.
                                                                                   Scott Armstrong

 Because, neither this blog or myself care about being perceived as nice, this submission by Scott Armstrong was accepted without hesitation. Alan Jennings apparently called both WFMZ and the Morning Call, to publicize the handout. He stated to them that the money came from a private donor, one hundred ten dollar bills.

photo: Sharon Merkel / The Morning Call

Dec 18, 2015

PPL Plaza Lawsuit


Yesterday, I said that I was deferring opinion of the Plaza lawsuit, the deferral is over. The building was purchased by New York investors with what I call a New York City frame of reference. At the time of purchase, they had no idea that Reilly/Brown would be scheming up the NIZ. They paid top dollar for a premiere building, with a blue chip Fortune 500 tenant. Because they didn't pay NYC prices, although an associate referred to it as a Philadelphia price, they thought it was indeed a solid investment. It is a unique building, which was custom designed to accentuate PPL's promotion of energy efficiency. Although the center atrium facilitated natural daylight, it wastes an enormous amount of space. The grass on the roof and other high tech energy concepts of that moment, bring no added value for other tenants.

The KOZ was originally conceived to help cities draw businesses to brownfields. That concept was bastardized over the years to regular parcels, including the former prime address of Lehigh Valley, 9th and Hamilton. With the KOZ expired, PPL having spun off Talen Energy, and Reilly and Jaindl competing for their tenant, their investment does indeed look like a white elephant.

The NIZ certainly does create an uneven playing field, but so did the previous KOZ's, to a much less extent. If class A space like the Plaza cannot compete, older office buildings have no future what so ever. If we had anything more than moral and mental midgets in Harrisburg, perhaps they would have thought through the NIZ,  in regard to the consequences to the greater marketplace.

link to companion post

Dec 17, 2015

LVHN Doctors To Reilly's Wallet

If you're in the hospital, you would like to think that the head honcho for your malady, the chief of staff, is near by. Well, he or she is not, instead they're above the arena entrance, in Reilly's portion of the building. Floors 6 through 9 of the PPL Center is the official address for the LVHN administrators, and chiefs of staff. This maneuver allows J.B. Reilly to harvest the state income taxes from the highest paid employees of the hospital. Although this is a ruse to funnel even more money Reilly's way, I only hope that these doctors do in fact spend their time at the hospital, and not above the arena.

The owners of the PPL Plaza office building, now occupied by Talen Energy, have filed a federal lawsuit. They claim that the NIZ makes the playing field so uneven, that the NIZ is unconstitutional. Although I'll defer opinion on the constitutionality issue, it certainly can spawn corruption. It appears that the NIZ is so lucrative, that it can even subvert the integrity of a large tax-free, such as LVHN.

As I often say, Pennsylvania is a corrupt state, and you are represented in Harrisburg by nobody but moral midgets. Although, I have exposed many shenanigans on this blog, today's revelation even surprised a jaded blogger like myself.

An Independent Lady

Although Allentown City Council is currently composed of all Democrats, there is an independent voice. On the vote for approving Eminent Domain, the only dissenting vote came from Jeanette Eichenwald. Whenever a group is being disenfranchised, they have an ally in Eichenwald. Her passion for prejudice reduction is well known in the community, and always supercedes any party affiliation or loyalty. Eichenwald's campaign budget for this coming election is $0.00. She feels that it's inappropriate for financial support to be a factor in City Council Elections. The moral compass in the Council Chamber has always pointed to her seat on the dais.

reprinted from October of 2011

ADDENDUM: I published the above endorsement of Ms. Eichenwald for the November 2011 election.  In looking back for this post, my archives revealed no less than thirty posts noting her independent stances on council. As an advocate for many issues over the decades, I can tell you that invariably council members know how they're going to vote before the meeting. Jeanette Eichenwald took her responsibility to a higher level, and rendered each decision based on the merits of the issue, not political alliances.  Jeanette attended her last meeting as a council-person last night.  Let us hope that somebody chooses to emulate her integrity.

Dec 16, 2015

Arena No Benefit For Allentown Taxpayers


There is fundamentally something wrong with a town that bestows a $Billion Dollars worth of real estate on one or two people, but gives everyone else a tax increase. While $34 million of our state taxes pay for Reilly's debt service this year, residents of Allentown will see a 24% increase in their city income tax. Mayor Pawlowski claims that the increase is necessary because of pension obligations, but that's why we supposedly leased the water system. In short, there has been no benefit to the public from the revitalization. We know that Reilly was revitalized, and that Pawlowski would have been, except for a pesky FBI investigator. While I  called for tar and feathers yesterday, where is the Morning Call? Save for Jeanette Eichenwald, where is city council?

This coming June, Allentown will host a convention of Pennsylvania bureaucrats, who will study the success of Allentown's inner-city revival. Ed Pawlowski, if not yet incarcerated, will be a speaker. State taxpayers will pay for these fakers to stay at the new hotel, eat at the new restaurants, and hear how we're benefitting from it.  If they're interested, I'm available as a speaker.

Dec 15, 2015

Molovinsky Holiday Cheer


I suppose that tar and feathering sounds a bit harsh, but a hundred years ago, a thousand miles to the west, Ed Pawlowski would have been coated already. I would prescribe the treatment not for his alleged abuses at city hall, but for his recent facebook posts, which have been insufferable. In a recent post, he's pictured with immigrants from Liberia. Tonight I welcomed members of the Liberian community in Allentown as they form a new organization to help bring reconciliation to their homeland which has been torn apart over the years by civil war. Picture after picture, Ed is with people who probably don't know about the FBI scandal. To them, and to Ed, he's still mayor.

While I'm spreading holiday cheer, allow me to address the recent Morning Call special on J.B. Reilly's investment in the NIZ. The report said that he's putting 5% down on the projects, which are approved by the NIZ board. The article omits the fact that he was loaned $20 million before any construction began, and before any specific project was announced. According to Mike Fleck, as reported in the Morning Call, J.B. had pledged $50 thousand dollars to Ed's campaign fund.

I think that local politicians, developers and reporters must have accidentally misplaced my address,  I have yet to receive any greeting cards this year.

Dec 14, 2015

Real LIfe In Allentown


Putting aside the endless NIZ promotion by The Morning Call,  real life in Allentown hasn't gotten any better. Stabbing and shootings have become so commonplace,  that they're relegated to the middle of the paper. The reputation of the school system is so dismal, that people choose charter schools, not because of their merit, but just hoping for something a little better.  A school system that once had a national reputation for theater and art, is now known for fights and beating up policewomen. Add  a scandal ridden mayor and city hall, and we owe Billy Joel an apology. We accused him of maligning Allentown, we can't blame him this time. While the paper can't contain its joy over the arena, the city can't contain its crime.

There was a recent drive-by shooting in the small residential area wedged between Target shopping center and route 22, within sight of Cedar Crest Boulevard. Early Sunday morning, close to the municipal golf course and again within sight of Cedar Crest Boulevard, a car was left sitting on the owner's driveway, missing all four wheels.

Office workers may now drive downtown to work, but come five o'clock, all but a few childless millennials will drive back to suburbia, where more often the woes of Allentown now follow them.

Dec 11, 2015

Allentown And Its Newspaper

When I was a kid, the paper was printed twice a day, The Morning Call and The Evening Chronicle. Many subscribers, like my parents, received both editions. The paper was locally owned, as were the businesses that advertised within. The owner/publisher, the Miller family, were part of an oligarchy that ran Allentown. Donald Miller was also a partner in Park&Shop, predecessor to today's parking authority.

Today, the paper is owned by the Tribune Company, and has virtually no institutional memory of the town. To my knowledge, there is nobody on the staff born in Allentown. The most senior writers arrived in Allentown no earlier than the early 1970's. When the paper asks for memories or photographs of the heydays, what they receive is all new to them. Yesterday, a columnist recommended a history written by somebody who left Allentown as a 15 year old in 1962, and never returned, except for a visit in 2010.

The newspaper situation in Allentown mirrors a national trend. Many communities, like Bethlehem, no longer have a local paper. I just think that each article they write should have a disclaimer.

Dec 10, 2015

The Morning Call and Xanax

For those of us who know and care about Allentown, they should deliver the Morning Call with a xanax, because the paper's that frustrating. Just when I thought that Bill White was about as deluded as he could be, he doubles down.  In his column today, he praises a story about Allentown, by someone who hadn't lived or visited here since 1962.
I will tell you that he believes the city's two biggest challenges are drugs and jobs, and that although he told me the same book 10 years ago might have concluded that Allentown was a lost cause, that's not the feeling he gets today, even though he recognizes the divisions and challenges that remain.  
The author's hope about Allentown is because of the arena and surrounding revitalization,  a misconception right up Bill's alleyway. I understand that this writer doesn't know squat about Allentown, having left 53 years ago, but how about Bill White, who has been here since the 70's?  Bill should be wondering  why an outsider's uninformed impressions,  resonate with him so much?  Although the FBI has discovered a cesspool of corruption, Bill can't seem to see beyond his seats at the arena. We, who have lived through the changes in Allentown, don't care about the impressions of a former resident, who wrote his book reading Morning Call clippings. We only wish that Bill White and the Morning Call would have the reported on the damage inflicted upon this city as it was occurring.  However, those that spoke out were more often called naysayers, and some put into a hall of shame.

Dec 9, 2015

Allentown City Council Awoke (For Five Minutes)

On Wednesday evening, City Council, for the first time in six years that Ed Pawlowski has been mayor, didn't approve one of his proposals. The proposal wasn't actually rejected, but the 3 to 3 tie vote doesn't allow his scheme to proceed. Who voted which way, is the topic of this post. Although the Pawlowski promoted Trash to Energy company was going to charge the city twice as much, for twice as long as a competitor, the RubberStamp Trio once again sang the Yes Song. Worse yet, all three singers, Schweyer, Schlossberg, and Guridy, would like to be State Representatives. Rejecting the non- competitive offer was Jeanette Eichenwald, Ray O'Connell and Cynthia Mota. Jeanette has emerged as an independent voice on Council, but until Wednesday, usually stood alone. Many people had expectations when Ray O'Connell was elected, but it took over two years for him to stand on his own. The great surprise of the evening was new councilwoman Cynthia Mota, who asserted herself at only her second council meeting. I did not attend the meeting. This analysis is from the benefit of phone calls, and two excellent articles by Devon Lash in The Morning Call.
reprinted from February of 2012
ADDENDUM: Within a month of writing the post above in February of 2012, Delta Thermos would wine and dine Cynthia Mota,  she would change her vote, and never again vote against the mayor.  The night of the vote change, the Pawlowski and Groen scheme had the council chamber packed with over 400 union workers, most of them from out of the area. Furthermore, they had bikers outside, trying to intimidate normal citizens from entering. The FBI has requested documents pertaining to this sorry chapter in the Pawlowski story. Schlossberg and Schweyer did go on to become midgets in the State House.  Had Delta built the plant, right now truckloads of New Jersey garbage would be using the new American Parkway Bridge, to deliver additional trash to the plant.

Dec 8, 2015

Trump and Pawlowski on Refugees


Trump is giving the press and the garden variety liberals a fit, suggesting that foreign Muslims be denied visas from entering the country. Although, I also find a religious barometer offensive, I'm equally disturbed over the common notion that such a suggestion will only drive Muslims to extremism.  If prejudice normally created such a result,  I would presume that all blacks and Jews would be very militant by now.  Trump is only articulating a common fear.

Syrians refugees have a friend in Pennsylvania, Allentown mayor Ed Pawlowski. Yesterday, he attended another news conference, pleading for Congress not to complicate the path to Allentown for the refugees. While Trump plays on the fear,  Pawlowski wants to be associated with compassion.  While Donald hopes to be elected,  Ed hopes to be exonerated.


Dec 7, 2015

Bill White's Pawlowski Column



Although Bill White's column is a template set on seasonal themes, such as Eating His Way Through Musikfest, he also now serves as the paper's de facto editorial writer. Recently, I observed that although the paper's love affair with the NIZ continues, the honeymoon with Ed Pawlowski seems to be over. On Sunday, Bill White interrupted his normal Christmas light column, and with profound regret, suggested that Ed Pawlowski should resign. Bill said that he refrained from writing an earlier column defending Ed, but that sentiment had, never the less, permeated several of his columns. White strove to disassociate himself from the naysayers, which he now labels as Pawlowski haters.

White's fundamental faulty thinking is contained in the last line; Ed Pawlowski helped get Allentown moving in the right direction. What White refuses to acknowledge is that Reillyville has nothing to do with Pawlowski, it just happened on his watch. Reillyville, although perfectly legal, is not the pure driven snow that White and The Morning Call have bestowed upon it. It is an aberration of the marketplace, for the private gain of just a few individuals. It is a result of a morally flexible state government, with a long tradition of corruption. It is promoted and justified by a newspaper impressed by new buildings of no merit, occupied by poached tenants. The NIZ creators, in their profound manipulative way, even included the Morning Call building in the zone, although it's across the street from the rest of the district.

Dec 4, 2015

American Jihad


Because we're so afraid to offend, although it sure looked liked terror,  yesterday's news about the mass shooting in San Bernardino started with speculation about work place violence.  Only after it was discovered that the shooters had over 5,000 rounds of ammunition,  could our liberal press mutter the word terrorism. Instead of terror, the focus now will be on gun control,  already the press is blaming the NRA.  We are so afraid of profiling,  we instead pat down little  92 year old grandmothers at the airport. We are so afraid of being called xenophobic, we have become fish in a barrel.

ADDENDUM: This afternoon, ten hours after I wrote this post,  the authorities and press concede that indeed the attack was terror.  The Obama administration still wants to link it to gun control, but I have no doubt that this couple would have acquired firearms and ammunition, regardless of regulations.

Dec 3, 2015

Wildlands Conservancy Targets Another Dam


The dams associated with this beautiful grain mill in Hellertown has been targeted by The Wildlands Conservancy. The conservancy has been in the dam demolition business now for several years. They are allowed to keep 15% of the grants received for administrative costs, which in turn they use for their salaries. The caretakers of the mill shown above have wondered aloud if the dam removal on Saucon Creek will affect the flow of water to the mill run. Although the easy answer is of course, the Wildlands will conduct a study, producing an answer which serves their needs.

It's unfortunate when organizations like the Wildlands and DEP, which are sacred cows, become so arrogant that they feel justified and entitled in whatever they do or spend. The 110 year old Wehr's Dam is an excellent example of this abuse. In 2012, the DEP reported that the dam was in overall good condition. Two years later, when the Wildlands wanted to tear it down, they spend $259,000 on a study to convince South Whitehall that the dam should go. That study concluded that it would cost $1 to $2 million dollars to repair the dam. That figure was based on a total rebuild, as if it was holding back the lake behind Hoover Dam. A director of the DEP had publicly stated that there is no reason for any mill associated dam to exist. Quite a historian. The DEP paid for the study with our tax money. That $259,000 could have kept the dam maintained for the next 110 years.

I'm proud to have started the movement to save Wehr's Dam, and glad of our success saving such a picturesque part of South Whitehall's history. I hope that kindred spirits in Saucon Valley likewise defend their dam and history,  both of which are irreplaceable.

Dec 2, 2015

Allentown's Pawlowski Dilemma


Allentown City Council is beginning to realize that you cannot legislate integrity. Although freshman council member Hendricks called for Pawlowski's resignation, council as a whole is reluctant. Understand, that Pawlowski isn't going to respond, but such a request by council is long overdue. Of course, another elephant in the room of elephants, are the citizens requesting that certain council members also resign. Politically, this isn't a sophisticated place. For the most part, the voters elected Pawlowski's recommendations last month, despite knowing that he going to the pokey.

While I'm talking about legislation and integrity, allow me to clear up a common misconception. People wonder when the FBI will be going after the NIZ? They won't be, everything about that development was legal, immoral, but legal. It conformed with a custom made law by Pat Brown, to benefit mainly J.B. Reilly. Because, you're served in Harrisburg by incumbent midgets, they approved it, hoping to get their back scratched in return sometime. Pawlowski saw these $millions being made two blocks west from city hall, and wanted his own taste. It appears that a scheme was devised that normal city contracts, having nothing to do with the NIZ, would be influenced by contributions to Pawlowski's Campaign Coffer.

I believe that corrupt elected officials will always find loopholes for profit. You cannot legislate against a wink and nod. Until which time the public puts aside partisan politics, and measures candidates by different criterion, we will need a FBI.

Dec 1, 2015

Pawlowski Overstaying His Welcome

As the second defendant has pleaded guilty to wrongdoing as part of a Pawlowski Pay to Play scheme, our mayor is grandstanding by asking for more Syrian refugees. I'm not stating a position on the refugee issue, but on Pawlowski, still making executive decisions which will affect Allentown, long after he's indicted. There are those that feel an honorable Pawlowski would resign. Accepting that he is not honorable, he should at least not be making decisions that impact Allentown's future.

Allentown City Council should  have the consideration to publicly chastise him. Our local state representatives, who as recently as early July were inappropriately part of his PACs, also remain mute.

From Allentown to Harrisburg, we have a political system based on cronyism, diplomacy and mutual personal benefit.  It is a system which does not value honestly, nor considers consequences to the public.

Because,  I have no respect for anybody serving in Harrisburg, I am once again considering running for the 183rd  Statehouse District. If I decide to run, and would get elected, I pledge not to get along well with the others there.