Shown above are former customers with a former merchant, in a former store, in a former building on Hamilton Street. They are all gone now, replaced by a hole and lawsuits. When I first starting blogging about the arena, over a year ago, there wasn't too much interest. I wrote about fairness, level playing fields and the years those merchants had invested in Hamilton Street. They pleaded to no avail with the Administration and City Council; They even had a meeting with Pat Browne. They are an industrious people, and landed on their feet. I cannot say the same for Allentown. If it was greed or arrogance, apparently the Reilly/Pawlowski/Browne cartel reached for a little too much. Townships have joined townships defending their tax-base against the EIT grab. Developers outside of the NIZ will now also legally assert themselves to remain competitive. As Pennsylvania cuts back on services, local representatives will have to explain their vote for HOCKEY-GATE. As the bonds are delayed, if not cancelled, a local banker and bank will have to hope for repayment. J.B. Reilly is now sitting on a square block of inter-city apartments, not the clientele he envisioned. One thing is for certain, if the project gets back on track, the pot will not be as sweet as the big boys hoped, nor should it.
I usually age a post at least a year before I would reprint it. The above post is less than a month old, from April 20th. Things have not been going well for Pawlowski's hole. The municipal lawsuit has been enjoined by more townships, and the state wide township association might well join the fray. It appears now that we might be aging the hole. I have added a list of links to the April 20th edition of this post. Those links outline the history of the arena from inception, through November 2011.
UPDATE: Sunday's Morning Call has a feature story on the arena. In four pages and six thousand words, they cover the paragraph above. The article concludes with the notion that it would be a tragedy if Allentown is left with the hole, I'm not so sure. The expensive $35million dollar hole would have the potential to eventually attract market demand uses. That may well serve the taxpayers better than a $600 million dollar failure, which enriches the few, and burdens the community for the next century.
Mr. Molovinsky, As a person from out of state I have been following the news and blogs about the Arena and the N.I.Z. The issue that confuses me the most is the former Mcandless cigarette wholesale business now located in the N.I.Z. It amazes me that if the state cigarette taxes received in the N.I.Z. now are kept by the City.I do not understand how this sales tax can be collected my the Mayor to use at his digression.I seem to rememberer the Allentown Health Bureau operating stings ect. to cut down on cigarette taxes. Has the City changed this much?
ReplyDelete@11:08, it's actually worse. the cigarette tax will be used by a private developer, j.b. reilly, to pay down the debt service on his privately owned building. the wholesale business was purchased by him and his partner, joe topper. despite this, the lehigh valley hospital will locate a sports medicine center in another building, above the arena front, to be owned by reilly. reilly was former chairman of the hospital board. the arena story is the quintessential insider story of the century, at least locally.
ReplyDeleteyour out of ideas. putz.
ReplyDelete@2:09, please keep your comments at the bill and angie villa blog.
ReplyDeletemight as well, that's where everybody is
ReplyDeleteIt will be a tragedy if a city any city is allowed to get away with corruption.
ReplyDeleteSo the suburbs should step back and just accept abuse and deception. Sounds like a good suggestion.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteDo you notice the Call's headline on this story includes the word "flap."
ReplyDeleteIsn't flap mean an insignificant issue? Perhaps a bias showing?