Last week when I prevailed on some players at City Hall to meet me in Lehigh Parkway, somebody remarked that
it's like a postcard. With the creek banks now overgrown, it would difficult to recreate the nationally distributed postcards of Allentown parks from the 1950's. But the old postcards still exist, giving testimony to the beauty that was ours. There will be a formal discussion with the City Council Park and Recreation Committee next Wednesday at 5:00p.m. They will hear about stream velocity theory and habitat from the grant driven new age science crew. I will talk about beauty. I still believe that the parks were created for the pleasure of people.
Mike:
ReplyDeleteJust asking because I am not nearly as familiar as you are...when did the park system start to go downhill? Was it sudden or is this the result of a generation of slow, steady decline?
My guess is that despite the huge advantage of the system being finacially endowed by the General, that gift has been squandered through serious, long-term mismanagement by everyone from the trustees to the guys who man the mowers.
Your thoughts?
VOR
vor@9:14, i will absolve both parties at the top and the bottom. the trustees fund the park department to a large extent, but the city decides the priorities for spending those funds. those who "man the mowers" do their job as directed, and unfortunately, there's less and less of them. disregard for the WPA structures goes back over 30 years. disregard for the view and access of the creeks is recent, back to 2006. allowing Wildlands to dictate policy to extent of ripping out park features, such as the dams, is new. also "down the road" is joining the parks together with the trail network plan, which i also oppose. we are creating more to take care of, with less and less boots on the ground to do the work.
ReplyDeleteGotta share this thought with ya Mike. When I think of the current state of affairs and of the once beautiful Lehigh Parkway I cant help but think of a beautiful women with hairy armpits. In the past it seems like rocks were used for soil erosion as well as the entire stream was lined with weeping willows. Very impressive. Rocks also served as fishing stands. Recall popular swimming spots at trestle,robin hood dam,and bogarts bridge. Seems water was deeper then than now. Was possible to inner tube it from bogarts to dam, past barrier at water works, to fountain park. Then there was sledding down the big hill at entrance. But the best times were mid sixties to mid seventies along the big meadow on weekends. At times hundreds of teens Some time concerts and always the cruising cars all washed and waxed up with enough teen mischief to drive the park cop "The Mexican General" up a wall. As I see it the 50s,60s,70s,80s,and 90s, all were interesting, notable and were a joy to experience. Can someone please enlighten me to the joy of the 2000s. Maybe just a wee bit too much PC and not enough personal and personable communication. Cell phone and texting just doesn't cut it without eye to eye contact and expression of demeanor. More than ever it just seems that all our leaders just don't get it. Hope to see you at the Ham Fam embassy 2nd week in sept
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