Dear Mayor Pawlowski,
Forgive me for saying this, but I'm very disappointed in the changes made to my town. After my wife passed away, I moved to the senior high-rise at 8th and Union St. I can see the old Mack Transmission Plant from my window, I worked there for 40 years. I understand now it's a indoor go-cart track, I find that a bitter pill. Actually pills are why I'm writing. I used to walk to the Rite-Aid on Hamilton Street. With that closing, I don't think I can walk out 7th St. to the old Sears. Forgive me Mayor, that's before your time in Allentown. The other Rite-Aid used to be Levines Fabrics, they bought it from Sears. The Army Navy store was across the parking lot. Anyway, back to my problem. Now I can't even catch the bus on Hamilton anymore to go visit my daughter in Catty. What have you done to me? My neighbor, a nice widow, tells me you gave that Mexican Restaurant lots of our money and they don't even pay their bills? Never ate there, what were you thinking? Anyway, sorry to bother you, I know you're a busy man, but I don't know where I will get my medicine from, and I'm upset. Sorry.
UPDATE: Mayor Pawlowski, forgive me again, but I'm no younger since I wrote this letter in 2008. Since then, that Mexican restaurant, I think it was Johnny Tomorrow, has closed. The drug store did move back to Hamilton Street, but they say that you're going to tear it down? They say you're going to tear down the whole block and build a hockey game. I get my prescriptions at the drug store, but my other things at Family Dollar, where will I shop? They haven't raised my Social Security in two years. Oh well, I guess you know what's best. When did we vote on that? I was sick last November. Thanks for listening. Mayor?
PhotoCredit: molovinsky
During the last ten years we have experienced a massive shift of wealth from the middle class to the richest five percent who now control 80 percent of the wealth in the United States. CEOs of Right Aide and similar corporations make on average 850 times what their average employee makes. Sears, drug stores and grocery stores are moving from cities to suburbs where the profits are higher.
ReplyDeleteWe are moving rapidly to a two class economy in America. Sadly this gentleman is being screwed by the system. Blame a local mayor if you want but I think that is blaming the beat cop for rape and killing.
gary, your comment once again reflects your repetition harp about wealth distribution. this post, once again, is allentown specific. yes, our mayor is tearing down the block with the drug store. the drug store would prefer to stay, and their attorney stated that to city council.
ReplyDeleteIf you have flies in your eyes, you cannot see the flies in your eyes.
ReplyDeleteNo pocket full of money?
ReplyDeleteNo friends in low places?
Pulpudsky would like you to shut up and eat your Alpo.
Get out of the way so all of the wealthy patrons of the hokey arts may bring and spend heaps of cash in heavenly down town Allentown.
This hockey travesty should have withered and died long ago.
Cut all the crap on blaming the rich. We all know it is we, the folks with money that make our valley great. The poor, the elderly, the disabled and pseudo disabled deserve their fate. We make jobs. We work for our money. so this little guy can't get medicine, so what. He should have saved money for a taxi to the mall.
ReplyDeleteanon 8:10, i believe you have your targets overlapped. gary blames the rich. I fault the ill advised changes to the downtown. although many people feel the arena will not be a game changer for downtown, it will certainly adversely affect the elderly, in two union street high-rises, that count on that convenient drugstore. i must mention that no less than a former supporter than liberal jon gettings has changed his mind, and no longer supports the arena. it's success is based on a hope and prayer on the public dime, research does not support it.
ReplyDeleteWith all of the retail gone on that block, I am wondering about a point MM made some time ago: what will happen to the foot traffic on that block? I would imagine there would be less people walking that block, since there will be less retail establishments. Will the arena be open during the day? I picture a huge arena sitting vacant during most days, creating a ghost town atmosphere in that block and perhaps spilling over to the rest of Hamilton.
ReplyDeleteSome folks feel that the stores on that block catered to "undesirable" clientele. But they still spend money. Where will those folks go now? And what will happen to the remaining businesses on Hamilton once these stores are gone? I think the unintended consequences of this arena are going to be quite grave.
Now, it's time to see if there were more random stabbings downtown today. Did you notice that one of those stabbings took place at 10th and Hamilton, supposedly?? That is right in front of the new police station. That's not real good for business downtown, is it???
Was this a letter to the editor? I do see it addresses the mayor, however.
ReplyDeleteDid this gentleman leave his name? I know one letter was written prior to the other, but I'm just looking to get some context here.
monkey momma, couldn't agree more with all your points. it will hurt the merchants across from the arena. they will not succeed in displacing the undesirables, the pawlowski/greco lanta deal proved that point. cities are realizing that these arena's are money pits which negatively vacuum their downtowns of any remaining retail. unfortunately, pawlowski's edition of the City Government magazine is five years old.
ReplyDeletevin, these are imaginary letters, written by me.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure it is a battle between the rich or poor, or involves anyone financially in between. It is simply a matter of priorities. The attraction of a Hess's, Leh's, Zollingers, as well as retail establishments used to be enough to make center city living attractive, and a special time for people living outside the area to visit. Without convenient services now within reasonable walking distance, after you located there to easily access those services in the first place, not to mention you even built the retirement residences there, would cause anyone discomfort and inconvenience. Government should exist in order to accomplish tasks that individual taxpayers can't do themselves. If it can't do this adequately, there is no sense putting the "lipstick on a pig".
ReplyDeleteAlthough I hate to admit it binzley is onto something. Allentown was once a middle class city supported by working folks with good jobs that paid well with sound benefits. This is no longer true. It is becoming a city of the poor. Efforts to save it are futile without a growing middle class. Efforts by our mayor to grow a middle class when that class is shrinking every day are also futile.
ReplyDeleteDudes there is no growing middle class anymore. The world has changed, get used to it. Pawlowski has failed miserably In his pathetic self-deluded efforts to change Allentown. So has city council. I love the bigots who come on this site, so sure of their position. Hubris absolutely refuses to allow them to see, one day. they to may be wallowing in what they refer to as the gutter. They will not survive. Get used to the fact we are all in this together. I think that I will scream if I hear another person point out Allentown is a poverty magnet. No sh*t, now what are WE going to do about it?
ReplyDeleteget the hell out anon 10:44
ReplyDeletemove to south whitehall like everybody else
I guess we are back to blaming the Mayor again. If someone else was mayor I am sure Allentown would be thriving. No poverty, no crime and no problems. It is all his fault. Blaming is one way of dealing with an issue. Is it working?
ReplyDeleteDude,
ReplyDelete"Bigots"?
Can you provide specific examples to back up such a provocative statement or are you just blatantly and shamelessly mud-slinging in order to Race-bait properly?
PS - Allentown IS a poverty magnet, open your eyes and use your brain.
"Bigot - A person who wins an argument with a liberal”
ReplyDelete----------- Rush Limbaugh
Wow! I was not aware that Rush Limbaugh is a regular reader at Molovinsky's ... He must comment anonymously, as do many others.
ReplyDeleteStill waiting for specific examples of bigotry in comments HERE at this blog to be cited and referenced.
Following standard operating procedure all the while hiding behind smoke and/or mirrors is all well and good but, at some point, it becomes time to put up or ...
Survey the riders at the transfer center and you'll see they love it. Minimarket, Dunkin Donuts, warm in winter and cool in summer. And MM keeps whining on behalf of a few malcontents. Dude, it's only 1 block off your sainted Hamilton St. For decades mayors of all stripes, editorialists, businesses and the general public had complained of the buses clogging Hamilton St. Now they don't and the complaining continues.
ReplyDeleteanon 8:21, actually i did survey many of the riders at the time, and they strongly preferred doing some shopping while waiting for their bus, not sitting on some cold metal bench. don't equate one mini market with a block of stores. hamilton street was never clogged with buses. actually, it hasn't been clogged with anything for the past 30 years.
ReplyDeleteCan someone please explain to me how the Hamilton street retail corridor can compete with Union blvd,South 4th,Tilgman Street,Lehigh street,Hanover ave retail clusters not to mention the small strip malls in allentown and suburban mega malls, many which didnt exist in the 50s.Seems to me the reason north seventh has gone its current direction is to establish retail oppertunities for the changing demographics.A restaurant row makes perfect sense for hamilton but not limited to fine dining.
ReplyDeleteMakes no sense to me.
ReplyDeleteWithout continuing government support, the fine dining establishments on Hamilton St are generally short lived ventures.
I'll preface my comment by saying that the City needs to deal with the neighborhood issues around Hamilton Street first, something that Pawlowski has proved unwilling to do. Unless that is done, nothing will ever change no matter what is done on Hamilton Street.
ReplyDeleteI think one of the main things that's killing Hamilton Street is the one-way, narrow road.
Driving down Hamilton is slower and much less convenient than driving elsewhere. Any business depends on traffic count, and the city has done everything it could to destroy the traffic count on Hamilton.
If you want to change things, restore Hamilton to two-way traffic.
Hamilton Street has no reason to exist other than a thoroughfare from point a to point b. It will never function as a retail location again. Tear down the adornments and return it to its true function, a 2-way street. Give up the ghost ---
ReplyDeleteWhen other societies around the world resort to killing their own, examples: Hitlers Germany, Japan, Iraq, etc; we get involved and kill the evil perpetrators to protect the innocent. It's called "war"! It is fast and simple but cruel, depending on how we look at things from a moral prospective. Here, we would rather do things from a seemingly "compassionate" way, like allowing certain elements of our society to bring down the rest of society by killing, looting and maiming the innocent without doing anything to stop it, all for politically correct reasons of course. In the end, the results are much worse and just as costly. We seem willing to go to war to save others, but not to save ourselves. War is the political failure to solve things through debate and sacrifice of one's own greed for power and material gain by our "leaders"! For this, we are all guilty but are unwilling to accept any blame, for we have elected the ones that have given us failure after failure after failure. We will wake up when we are forced to! The UK is going through what we will be going through if we don't stick together and stop the blame game. Remember, elections and your votes count, now more than ever!
ReplyDeleteStealth.
Molovinsky claims I blame the rich for all our problems. That is inaccurate.
ReplyDeleteI do not blame the rich for doing what everyone does, i.e. maximize their wealth and resources. I do it and so does Molovinsky. The problem is that the system is rigged to favor those with resources. With the massive shift of wealth from the middle class to the upper class there is less wealth for the middle class and virtually none for the lower class. Molovinsky says that is irrelevant to the problems in Allentown. If he is correct then Allentown can renew itself with a smarter Mayor. If I am right, the suburbs will grow and the city will slowly become solely a haven for the poor. Don't blame the great landlords that provide safe housing at low cost, --they are not the poverty magnet. It is our economic policies that are redistributing wealth to the upper class.
Perhaps if we reverse polarity on the Poverty magnet we can Save Allentown.
ReplyDelete"It is our economic policies that are re-distributing wealth to the upper class."
ReplyDeleteOh!
Exactly whose economic policies are re-distributing all the money to dreaded, evil people destroying this once-proud nation --- "the Rich"?
Hmmm. Good question. Let's think back.
Well, the Democrats had control of BOTH the House of Representatives and Senate from 2006 to 2010 (two years BEFORE Obama was elected).
And, the historic and transformative Barack Hussein Obama has been President of the United States since January of 2009.
So, therefore, everything is, without question --- ALL George Bush's fault!
CHAIRPERSON,
DEMOCRAT PARTY NATIONAL STRATEGY CENTER
"With the massive shift of wealth from the middle class to the upper class there is less wealth for the middle class and virtually none for the lower class."
ReplyDeleteJudging by those remarks, wealth should be redistributed evenly regardless of who created the wealth. I call that Socialism bordering on Communism. Is that what you want, Gary?
"It is our economic policies that are redistributing wealth to the upper class."
News flash!
Our economic policies are hard work, late hours, sacrifice, risk taking and using our brains. It has absolutely nothing to do with "redistributing"! What government school did you flunk out of? I don't pity losers, losers pity themselves too much already! Why would any successful person want to "redistribute" their wealth to you? They wouldn't but you want the government to do that for you! Is that why you love government so much?
Stealth.