Center City residents in Allentown must frequent the State Store at 1918 Allen Street for their nearest firewater. Although Hamilton Street and center city has umpteen vacancies for many years, and our Allentown and Harrisburg officials cooperate to bring the Injuns hockey, no state firewater stores are provided in city center. Local
West End Theater District residents have grown accustomed to double parking, and cars blocking Allen Street, as they wait to enter the small parking lot next to the busy state store. Deeper West End residents have a choice of state stores at Crest Plaza, K-Mart Plaza and the Shops at Cedar Point, but then again, they don't have a problem with firewater.
Let them drink beer.
ReplyDeleteMaybe a state store can be lured to the NIZ with the help of one of our state legislators. That way any tax dollars generated from liquor sales can go directly toward paying for the hole.
ReplyDeleteAnd God knows, Allentown residents will need a drink or two when they start getting their new water bills.
@5:53, don't be surprised if reilly and browne pick up on your idea. however, the tax would go to the building's landlord (reilly's city center corporation), not the arena. taxes generated by approved developers (so far reilly and butz) go for their debt service, while taxes from the rest of the properties for toward the arena.
ReplyDeleteAnd you wonder why people see you as a racist!
ReplyDeletebill, people don't see me as a racist, but they see you as a mean spirited antagonist, libeling dozens of people every day. hopefully the law will catch up with your cyberstalking. i believe that the State Store System has discriminated against center city residents, by not providing a store in center city, especially for those residents without cars. since the store on hamilton street closed many years ago, at least two additional stores have opened on the fringes of town, at both cedar point and k-mart. again, please stay on your hate blog, and stop sending comments here everyday.
ReplyDelete@6:54 - Nothing stated by MM indicates any racist intent.
ReplyDeleteTransference can be a powerful psychological phenomena.
I would expect a "state store" to magically appear in the NIZ as well as the possibility of PA legalizing prostitution to accommodate the plan to raise Allentown from the ashes.
The State Store near 19th & Allen is overused and a huge burden on the area. It is almost exclusively the sole source of problems in that part of town.
ReplyDeleteYou think for a minute the big guy like Butz and Riley want Center City poor people comming around the palace to buy their alcohol?
ReplyDeleteNo frigin way?
An easier to get supply of liquor won't help the center city.
ReplyDeleteWho will get to be the newly licensed drug dealer?
@11:26, reilly has purchased much of the NIZ zone. if he can harvest the alcohol tax, like the cigarette tax, yes, he will seek a state store as a tenant on the fringe of the zone. 5:53AM's idea is another cash cow
ReplyDeleteBig guys like Butz and Riley are in this for the money and there is a small fortune spent daily on booze in Allentown.
ReplyDeleteThey surely won't want to miss this opportunity.
The state store on Hamilton closed in part because of lobbying by local residents fed up with public drunkenness in and around our historic, and now much neglected, old Allentown cemetery at 10th and Linden. Same reason the bar at the Hotel Grand is now closed--complaints from residents. It took years, but persistence can bring results sometimes. As for a new state store downtown--no thanks!
ReplyDeleteBTW, the cemetery has a fascinating history and is another case study of the slow, steady erosion of public services and the decline of our physical heritage(which long predates the current mismanagement).
Were are all going to have to drink some sort of spirits because allentowns water will become like the deasease infected people running this town. This being a done deal already made behind closed doors. This is to cover trax of using revenues that should have very prudent reserves stockpiled.
ReplyDeleteThe king has some very good accountants that will hide the money appropreated by him and them. Just make ssure the papperwork is the for the misapprpreated monies.
Democrats take God out of platform ... throw Jerusalem under the bus. Why not? Obama's got Israel's back, or so he says.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I love it!
I fucking love it.
And I tell my "Independent" friends, go ahead and vote for Obama --- TWICE if you feel the need!!!
I say, "You wanna shoot yourself in the foot? AGAIN? ... Please be my guest."
:-)
I want to vote for the village idiot from Texas again.
ReplyDelete@2:46 and 3:25, our editorial staff will prepare an article for tomorrow where such comments are appropriate, however, in the meantime, further such off topic comments will not appear on this post.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteMichael,
We who know you understand that you are not a racist. You image for today would be perceived as way out of line by many American Indians and would be received with considerable hostility in much of the Southwest and other areas with large Native American populations.
In all seriousness I tthin you should remove it. It's really out of line.
@4:09, strange that you find my image out of line, but are not bothered by comment 12:23, which pretty much says that OAPA used it's influence to have both the center city state store and a private bar closed, because the injuns were misbehaving. you are correct that the state store story does involve discrimination, but it's source is not the words or image i used today.
ReplyDelete@4:09 - With all due respect, are you serious? The American Indian is not even referenced, in the context of the post, relative to fire water at all.
ReplyDeleteThat image if anything is a parody of an old worn out stereotype. To me the Indian looks like a tipsy Caucasian dressed in a costume.
While everyone has an opinion, which should be respected, it seems we tend to get stuck on the minutia and fail to see the larger broader perspective.
In this case, the focus is on the profitability of the NIZ and arena to the extent of individuals own selfish interests. They, those with their own selfish interests, completely fail to see the reality of the broader picture, as it impacts the total community of Allentown.
The state not putting a store in city center is a statement of racism, certainly.
ReplyDeleteThis really is discrimination. No not for a vote or a job but for one's own pleasure. Take a bus
ReplyDeleteall the way to 19th St., wait for a bus back. How long is that!
Shame on city hall for discriminating. Where's Alan J.?
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteThe state not putting a store in city center is a statement of racism, certainly.
September 5, 2012 10:26 PM
100% Agree. It might sound funny,
oh the drinking and all, but it is discrimination. Who has ever visited a major city and found not one liquor store in a downtown area. "Don't own a car, don't try to drink."
Minority leaders need to protest this issue.
Racism? Really?
ReplyDeleteIn every urbanized city I have seen or visited, especially ones with minority majorities (black, hispanic), the billboards are designed to lure them toward beer, alcohol, cigarettes, lottery tickets, you name it. It's a form of profiling, and maybe racial sterotyping, but the sellers recognize selling opportunities and they capitalize. Capitalists cannot afford to be "racists".
Allentown may be clueless, they might be behind the times, but racist? I think not.
VOR
VOR, pa. has a state store system, denying the sale of alcohol by private party. while all sections of the city have at least two state stores, center city, with the highest density and population, has none. one comment already conceded that a group used it's influence to have the only center city state store closed. although minorities may be victimized by assorted vices including alcohol, they should have the same access as afforded other populations. i also will not conclude that the lack of such a store is racist, but it does appear discriminatory against low income.
ReplyDeleteMike you cannot conceal you're racism, hard as you try. Same goes for your pussy putz-ness.
ReplyDeletebill, i allow another one of your comments from today, just to show your veiled threats and persistent harassment. what a way to spend your days
ReplyDeleteHas it been thought of as another reason the state store system should GO!!
ReplyDeleteLet business people decide where to set up shop.