Mayor Pawlowski had three of the four basketball nets removed from Andre Reed Park after neighbors complained of rowdy late night playing. According to The Morning Call, a youth coach has accused Pawlowski of accommodating a few neighbors over the need for youth basketball, to curry political favor in the neighborhood. Cynthia Mota is crying foul because of the deprived youth. Dennis Pearson is threatening to move back to Allentown and run as a write-in candidate, unless the courts are restored.
When contacted by phone, the founder of this blog and park activist Michael Molovinsky, said that the trouble started when Pawlowski renamed the park from Irving to Andre Reed. Furthermore, they removed one set of WPA steps, rather than repair them. When you have a park department that forsakes it's history and iconic structures for recreation, then suspends the recreation for politics, what do you have left?
photocredit: The Morning Call
ADDENDUM:This story attracted the attention of both myself and blogger Bernie O'Hare. Both of us paid homage to Dennis Pearson, an east Allentown activist for many decades, who recently married and is in the process of moving.
If the city would close the park at sunset and enforce it then there wouldn't be a problem. The troubles start in the evening and at night when courts and parks turn into meeting grounds for all sorts of nefarious activities. Much of it quite loud and disruptive. Litter and vandalism occur during these times as well.
ReplyDeleteAre these basketball courts a new addition to the park after they re-named it for Andre Reed ?
ReplyDeleteJamie, They are not new. They have been there for years. Scott, you are absolutely right! We had this same issue at Jefferson years ago. The police issued citations and did regular patrols and it stopped. Most of the players were not from Allentown. But that was under a different Mayor, Heydt, who did not cater to troublemakers as our current one does.
ReplyDeleteWhen one is using this as an excuse to relocated ones criminal acts to areas of its destination as a diversionary tool, this is just one criminal act overlapping many others.
ReplyDeleteWhy does it seem that the children are always the brunt of failure and miss appropriated funds?
Where are the police?
ReplyDeleteHow is removing the nets solving this problem? This is not a solution.
The police don't seem to care about issues like loitering after 10pm and loud noise. The police are always too busy to attend to these types of issues. Why are there vacancies on the police roster?
What did the police do in this situation? How many times were the police called?
Fix the problem. Don't remove the nets.