Before I became the politically correct blogger you read here, I had a darker site known as www.molovinskyformayor.com
I still keep that site up for those who prefer not to wear rose colored glasses. At the bottom of it's home page there are several links; Problem of the Month, Insights and New Approaches (also campaign 2005). I no longer add to the site, but think of it as a internet archive. (At the bottom of this page there is a hyperlink to the site) Essentially, it outlines undesirable consequences of good intentions. Last week Alan Jennings announced that KNBT and PPL have contributed 1.5 million dollars to be doled out by a newly formed Alliance of Grantmasters. I suppose that will require another director of handouts. The parent banks and electrical utility know Alan well. Nobody is better at bending their arm than him. How many branches will you open up in center city? How many months of free electric will you provide before pulling the meter?
It's being used to support the existing efforts of OAPA and the 7th Street Development Committee. Staff already exist (Peter Lewnes for 7th St and Marie Sincavage in Old Allentown). These are programs that are volunteer driven. The money will be used for specific projects.
ReplyDeleteYour disdain of people trying to improve their neighborhoods shines through. Did you even ask how the money would be spent or assume? You probably don't care, just enjoy making snide remarks. There are no rose colored glasses here: only people trying to make a difference in their neighborhoods. enjoy the view from the burbs while we try to make a difference.
Mike, in all do respect, your shameful participation in the sadistic "Troll Blog," whose only purpose is to emotionally torture a grieving family, will derail any runs at the mayorship of Allentown your contemplating. We guarantee it.
ReplyDeletedear anonymous grant administrator, i'm glad this new financial input guarantees your job for another few years. fyi, if there were more of me, you wouldn't need to give facade grants to those who let their buildings decay, and startup money to those for whom you wish to create a lifestyle which cannot be sustained. fyi, all over allentown there are homeowners who wish buildings in their neighborhood were still managed by me. don't talk about making a difference, then hid behind an anonymous tag. i put my money, efforts and name behind what i say.
ReplyDeletedear anon 8;42 who is bill villa. although i'm not a member of the troll blog, and commented there seldom, as i have said before, i understand why it was created. you send 10 snarks a day to my blog and many others. you comment on the morning call forum, which you claim to boycott and protest against. most of the comments on the troll blog were posted by you. you sir are the torturer, and distort the meaning of grieving by hostile, antagonistic harassment for which you should be ashamed.
ReplyDeletep.s.. i'm not contemplating any run for any office, but will continue to identify aholes, such as yourself.
Michael, Am I missing something? Private businesses are making a fund available for distribution, presumable to those who could use it. Isn't this what conservatism is all about? CACLV is privately run as well. If this were government money, you'd have a point. It's not. You don't.
ReplyDeletebernie, perhaps because a point isn't apparent to you, it can still exist? As taxpayers bail out the financial system with 700 billion, perhaps it is some of our money coming back to jennings. as the ppl prepares to raise rates 34%, perhaps it is some our money. downtown branches are not successful for banks. there's not much profit when someone opens a checking account with $34, writes $54 worth of checks, then wants to argue about the overdraft charges. I haven't seen alan complaining much lately about lack of branches, and i didn't see him fighting hard against the ppl increase, which will adversely affect low-income. as far as caclv being public or private, 501 or political, few questions are asked, yet nobody is quoted more than alan jennings in the morning call, and there is no larger sacred cow in the lehigh valley. i understand people are not to question the rescue mission, caclv, etc, especially as the season is upon us; this blog will.
ReplyDeletebernie, perhaps because a point isn't apparent to you, it can still exist? As taxpayers bail out the financial system with 700 billion, perhaps it is some of our money coming back to jennings. as the ppl prepares to raise rates 34%, perhaps it is some our money
ReplyDeleteI asked if I was missing something. Apparently I'm not.
Feel free to criticize what the government does with our money. But if you want to criticize PPL or KNBT for charitable contributions of their money, get on the board of directors or file a stockholders' suit.
Private business should not be condemned for giving to the community.
The personal snark was unnecessary.
I think peter lewnes is doing a good job, and i have no reason to doubt that ms. sincavage isn't either. from my POV i don't think it's fair that some property owners get facade grants and other's don't (there's not enough for everyone). to me the issue isn't if these funds come from private or public sources, or those which are overlapped. grants for startup businesses are a concept for which i have no appreciation, bless the liberals for whatever their thinking?
ReplyDeletebernie, my apology for the perceived snark. as a long time observer of the programs which will be financed by these contributions, i have issues which relate to a level playing field (even for hand to mouth start ups) and homeownership in the historic district. i know homeowners who were forced to remove their front stoops because they were added after the houses were built to receive the grants, and many others who were forced to comply with arbitrary rules by the historic review board. ironically, when ed pawlowski was director of the alliance for building communities, one of his foreman told me they were avoiding old allentown for that very reason. there is somewhat a self-righteous elitist arrogance with oapa, one need only go back to the post about cannon's to document that. although they will resent my saying, they feel more entitled than the landlords, and certainly the tenants who occupy the apartments.
ReplyDelete"dear anonymous grant administrator, i'm glad this new financial input guarantees your job for another few years."
ReplyDeleteI'm a volunteer, you jerk. I have a full time job that has nothing to do with grant administration. You comments, as Mr. O'Hare seemed to highlight, show nothing more than contempt for the people living in these neighborhoods. The private sector makes a contribution and you blast them for doing it. I would understand, from a philosophical standpoint, if you were blasting gov't, but private industry is, by its nature, allowed to do what it wants (within the law of course).
"from my POV i don't think it's fair that some property owners get facade grants and other's don't (there's not enough for everyone)."
Then get on the board of directors of these organizations and change teh policies/procedures. My guess is that you'll claim they don't want you on teh boards and go back to your sniping at Allentown. Here's a concept: put up or shut up. Get involved with the Main Street program or OAPA with your time and doing something constructive.
oh, and the reason I'm staying anon is b/c I've seen the hatchet jobs you've done on good people like Geoff Brace, Shane Fillman (who you cited in that article) and others in the past. You're a political cyber-bully and nobody wants to put their name to the time wasted responding to your hyper-extremist comments only to be ripped by you later.
ReplyDeleteMike,
ReplyDeleteWhile I disagree with you regarding these donations that will continue the ongoing revival of 7th St and Old Allentown, I applaud your willingness to criticize some of these do good programs.
The gravy train of rental and food assistance, homeless shelters, and drug rehab programs have been preying on center city Allentown for far to long.
If they were as caring as they pretend to be they would distribute the burden of their good deeds across the valley instead of taking the path of least resistance and concentrating the poor. This only further to complicate the problems of these individuals.
Wouldn't a Parkland education benefit some of these kids?
Wouldn't a secluded rural location be better suited to an individual working to recover from an addiction?
Worst of all, they travel around to all the companies in the burbs telling people that the way to help the locals in need or to help Allentown is to donate to them via the United Way when those donations do the opposite. The low-income housing and business start up grants bring more poverty to the Valley!
The word is out and lunch is free in Allentown.
anon 10:33-37, i think brace and lewnes know that i'm a critic of the concept of some the programs, not them personally. furthermore, i do partake in efforts i and others consider constructive.
ReplyDeleteMM & Bernie -
ReplyDeletePerhaps the reason that many of us cringe is that it seems that the more that Jennings and his ilk are involved, the worse things seem to get in the city. Poverty is increasing, not decreasing.
I know we can argue the chicken or the egg about this all day, but the solutions that Jennings has been proposing - and implementing - in the city seem to be hurting more than helping.
As to MM's statement about CACLV and the looming electric rate increase, I wonder if this is not how PP&L was shaken down - or PP&L bought CACLV's relative silence - on the rate increase.
If people want to improve neighborhoods they should start by electing better people to run the city. Without honest, credible leadership the rest is pointless windowdressing.
ReplyDeletescott Armstrong
For some reason I have a hard time thinking of PPL and government-chartered banks as 'private companies.' They are both appendages of government, if only in price regulation/support.
ReplyDeleteMichael, can you tell me why, Scott Unger, Executive Director of the Allentown Economic Development Corporation is still sitting on the Allentown Zoning Hearing Board. Wasn't he "appointed" by Pawlowski? Isn't this a conflict of interest??????
ReplyDeleteJust a question...