This week I decided to go back to school, at least to hang outside of Dieruff. Upon re-evaluation, I must give my previous report on the WPA steps at Irving Park a failing grade. Besides myself, also failing would be Mayor Pawlowski, Park Director Weitzel and City Council President Michael D'Amore. Any lessons given about the WPA Steps at Irving Park better be given in the next couple years; after that they will be gone. We are soon approaching the point where the City will declare the cost of repair is cost prohibitive; Unless that is their current plan! As reported in the previous post's comments, one set of steps has already been removed by the City. All the remaining steps are in a state of disrepair. Shown above are the steps on Washington Street, between Jerome and Irving Streets. WPA Support Group member Mark Thomas prepared comprehensive documentation on the remaining masonry structures at Irving Park.
UPDATE: Mark Thomas raises the question as to whether these steps are indeed WPA. They appear to be the same vintage and colorization of the pool bathhouse, dated 1941. In any regard, the steps are clearly historic, and this group will campaign for their preservation.
please click on photo
East Siders say they're the forgotten.
ReplyDeleteSince you're on this topic, what's going on with that improved light safety walk way near the Catholic Church?
Also, why doesn't the city enforce the no parking in yellow
along Hanover. There's a market on the curve where delivery trucks park every morning causing havoc. These trucks force right lane motorists either to dead stop or creep into the other lane?
Could these steps and their current neglect, along with most other WPA assets, actually be a metaphor for the financial and social condition of The City of Allentown?
ReplyDeleteIf so, you get an A!
MM -
ReplyDeleteI would encourage your readers - at every opportunity they have - to ask their elected officials why these icons are being allowed to deteriorate.
The Mayor visits neighborhood groups on occasion. We are also in election season where 6 people (including 2 incumbents) are running for 3 council seats, and they will surely be visiting voters.
The deterioration of some structures - and the removal of others - that you have cited is an outrage. This should be a campaign issue, and those in City Hall who have sat by doing nothing should be called out.
We are also coming up on budget season, where an opportunity exists to allocate funds to repair the damage. What will they do? Ignorance of the issue is no longer an excuse.
It should be noted that the park and the steps are owned by the Parks Department, not Dieruff or the school district.
ReplyDeleteAsking our elected officials about anything is an oxymoron on several levels.
ReplyDeleteThey are expert at allusion, distraction and outright lying.
Their attitude : you elected us so shut up and let us continue to do the crappy job we are doing.....
Unmitigated BS.
You are certainly right that an election is forthcoming.
All I can say is, as a graduate of Dieruff High School, Rubber-stamp Politburo Apparatchik MICHAEL D'AMORE must be oh so proud to see photos of these steps published.
ReplyDeleteMuch in the same way that I, a product of cross-town rival William Allen H.S., am always so happy when the Canaries get annihilated 76-0 by next door neighbor Bethlehem's Freedom H.S. in football.
Allentown now has a kick-ass, multi-generational playground to combat Racism and, soon, will have a proper Palace of Sport for D'Amore and his boss, Chairman Pawlowski, to take in some exciting ice hockey action.
Molovinsky never knows what he is talking about in that Upside Down World of his --- Life is GOOD in the City With No Limits!
CAPTAIN,
CITY HALL CHEERLEADING SQUAD
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ReplyDeleteanon 8:20 aka fairy g-dmother, i will not host the corruption of someone's name like that, not anonymously.
ReplyDelete