This week Allentown City Council will decide if the new Managing Director must live in Allentown; A better question would be if Allentown needs a managing director. This new position was created by Mayor Pawlowski in 2006 to help him manage the city. Depending upon who you ask, anywhere from 30 to 44 new white collar positions have been created by this Administration, while at the same time police officers are retiring in mass, and the streets are strewn with litter. One of the positions the Manager would overseer is the Special Events Manager. Yesterday, Hamilton Street was closed for CELEBRATE ALLENTOWN, nobody came. Nobody coming was the good news, the bad news was what the street closure cost the merchants. This was the third Saturday that Hamilton Street was recently closed to traffic. Matthew Tuerk told the reporter covering the event he was having a great time. Matt once again forgot to mention he's acting director of the Allentown Economic Development Corporation. In July a private promoter, Alfonso Todd, produced UPWARD BOUND, a Multi-Cultural Celebration on the 600 block of Hamilton Street. That event was reasonably well attended at no cost to the taxpayers. It required no full time director with benefits and pension to manage a full time coordinator with benefits and pension. I suspect the taxpayers could have sent the few people who attended on Saturday to DisneyWorld, for a week, and still saved money.
reprinted from September 2008
UPDATE 2012: It's four years later, the managing director referred to above, left and returned. The litter remains. The park department is down one third it's former crew. We now have torn down an entire square block to build a $220 million dollar arena, which will use all local and state income tax for the next 30 years.
I'm having a great time.
ReplyDeleteI am having fun just reading of the flop and knowing many many more are to come under this adminstration? The mudhole being the biggest in the nation!
ReplyDeleteYou are the definition of a grumpy old man.
ReplyDeleteWhy don't you write about all the people who went to the 5th Annual Blues, Brews and Barbecue this weekend? I guess that would be a positive story and you only write about how much you hate Allentown. For a old man you really need to grow up.
@11:39, there are plenty of puff blogs for you to find, if not, start your own.
ReplyDelete11:39 am personally I think no one hates allentown just the administration that has been bulling people. Now the mudhole has broke the proverbial camels back. This being the last straw and help with the downward spiral that allentown is on a straight course.
ReplyDeletePuck-shy. It's the reason behind hitting the other team hard repeatedly. To make them afraid to handle the puck.
ReplyDeleteChairman Pawlowski certainly was neither afraid nor shy about digging a big hole that he certainly was not properly prepared to finance. And yet, heroically, the Chairman has persevered and remained positive in spite of all your ruthless attacks, Comrade Molovinsky. This is genuine authoritarian leadership at its utmost finest.
Please note that 16 of the 42 players used by the playoff-less Phantoms this season were born in the United States - concrete proof that you oppose jobs for Americans.
Shaibu!
VIKTOR TIKHONOV
Chariman Pawlowski really should not permit you to insurrect, Comrade Molovinsky.
ReplyDeleteYour negative influence via your old-fashioned brand of classic anti-progressive Western Imperialism spreads faster than a wildfire in the Katyn Forrest :
"PALACE OF SPORT COUP? - PENNSYLVANIA STATE LAWMAKERS CONFRONT NIZ SENATOR"
Furthermore, I hold you personally accountable for the commentary at the end of the article :
"BROADCAST RESPONSE FROM RADIO FREE ALLENTOWN"
http://www.goironpigs.com
This is why all information should be distributed by the State and why you belong breaking rocks in a Siberian salt mine.
VIKTOR TIKHONOV
Apparently you didn't go to the New Years celebration put on by the city this year which was incredible and very well-attended.
ReplyDeletehttp://youtu.be/Kd145h7LexI
http://youtu.be/uTN4VQQLXVk
Hey, MM, thanks for the SHOUT OUT from the PAST! And, yes, I am still ALIVE and KICKING and doing events. Wow, has it been 4 years ? Yeah, alot of changes have taken place and while I no longer do the UPWARD BOUND, ALLENTOWN (after 3 awesome years) I am doing events all over the Valley. My most recent one is bringing me back to A-town and it's an event called FUZION 2012 / www.fuzion2012.com .
ReplyDeleteFor the record,I have nothing against the City of A-town and I KNOW how much work is involved to do these events, I only wish they would realize alot of their events, like BLUES, BREWS, and BBQ's, and information is STILL not getting distributed into the communities which are, literally, one block away from the event. I remember when one of the City executives came out to my first UPWARD BOUND, ALLENTOWN and saw all of the vendors/ sponsors / and people and remarked to me, "I didn't think it was going to be this big." I am really unsure what people expected me to do but this is HOW I make a living and give back to the communities simultaneously. My events tend to attract the "URBAN' culture but it is open to EVERYONE! (Plus, the URBAN culture is what makes up a majority of Center City anyway and it's NOT a bad thing! Perhaps if we had more interactive and annual events like UPWARD BOUND, ALLENTOWN their could be a sense of pride and community placed back into the people and the whole attitude and aura could change... But I digress. Either way, a town or city is gauged, by outside interests and people, by its' community events and now with MAYFAIR possibly gone, I hope the "powers that be" in Allentown are finally seeing what I was trying to show them years ago: The greatest strength and value of A-town is not in new buildings and politics, but the cultivation of its' people and THEIR ideas. (It seems to be working for Behtlehem) Be well and prosper.
- Alfonso Todd
www.alfonsotodd.com
www.fuzion2012.com
484.619.6541
publius, you and the other cheerleaders should check Allentown Good News Blog for the type of report you want. Their last post was on December 5, 2011. Perhaps you could submit an anonymous post on the new year celebration, or start your own blog.
ReplyDeleteNo problem. http://livinghereinallentown2012.blogspot.com/2012/01/happy-new-years.html
ReplyDeletepublius, i would like to remind you, and everybody else, that addresses must include html code to show and work as a link. i notice that the last entry for that blog was in january. the cheerleaders must write more often, if they want to be read.
ReplyDeleteAs a guy who has 1,008 articles up at the football blog and another 410 over at the ice hockey blog ... perhaps I should ask if you are not being too hard on the Cheerleader blog people, Mr. Molovinsky?
ReplyDeleteAfter all, unlike other 'local' bloggers who shall remain nameless here, I do not get paid one penny from anyone or anything in exchange for massive amounts of time it can take to do all the rearching, writing and producing of blog posts for the enjoyment of everybody else.
I can categorically state from plenty of applicable experience, it IS very hard to do everything over and over again by yourself all the time without any sort of cash subsidy or other type of valued assistance from benevolent and compassionate Big Government, you do understand.
:-)
ROLF OELER IMPERSONATING ROLF OELER
Celebrate the dessolation in allentown hamilton st, 7th st the new american way?
ReplyDelete