Fellow blogger, Bernie O'Hare, has been pushing Vic Mazziotti's Anti Pay To Play ordinance proposal. Vic tells Bernie, "I'm going to push it," he insisted. "I'm going to push it real hard." Supposedly, in addition to pushing it with the County Commissioners, he's going to push it with Allentown City Council. Bernie would even like to see it pushed in Northampton County. I think it's amusing, especially for a city and county which just erected a $Billion dollars of real estate, with no scrutiny what-so-ever. They would reply that you got to start somewhere, sometime. Vic even wants to push it to the NIZ board. The NIZ board takes their orders only from G-D and Pat Browne. They even declined to stoop so low as to a community benefit agreement. As long as the voters keep electing used car salesman, there will always be add on charges. I think that the citizens got to start pushing back, in the voting booth.
Sadly, I don't think the average citizen is up to the task of "pushing back."
ReplyDeleteIn Lehigh Country both party machines are jokes with different punch lines, where does one begin to find candidates?
ReplyDelete@7:28 & 7:37, yes, so we're left with proposals like from mr. mazziotti. i suppose that we'll have to hire more government employees to monitor the contributions for conflict, or perhaps go on a complaint basis, let the mud slinging begin.
ReplyDeleteI like how they wait for the feds to crash the party
ReplyDelete@9:54, i believe that mr. mazziotti's proposal is a sincere reaction to the fleck scandal. i sincerely doubt that it can curtail shenanigans. contributions can be made through a third party. ethics is a hard thing to legislate.
ReplyDeleteI am equally concerned by the ethical decline of our entire nation. As a culture, far too many Americans have been asleep at the wheel. Fleck-like mischief, schemes like the NIZ, and outright lying have become commonplace. It's time to try anything to reverse this tendency. Unless it already IS too late.
ReplyDeleteFred Windish
One solution to this are term limits (2 terms) to all elected officials in the City of Allentown.
ReplyDeleteWill this happen? Likely not. Power brokers do not give up their influence easily.
I like the changes made to downtown. the activity on the street is reminiscent of the old Hess days where people flocked to the downtown area for shopping and socialization. Sadly when the sun goes down this aura quickly dissipates. It is easy to imagine the wind picking up and tumbleweeds traversing Hamilton Street as the sun sets and the day workers run to the protection of the suburbs, I hear "The Macungies" are where it is at. Many establishments are closed and the streets become the habitat of a different culture. Most evenings the arena, the heart of the current Renaissance, is dormant save a few security guards. Pawlowski and his minions are no where to be found. City Council has been reduced to a group of mute embarrassed wayward leaderless boys with no direction. Their new play book is "Lord of The Flies". The one shining star, a lone ethical woman, in a darkened night is the only sense of value politics in Allentown has left. Restaurants are not as busy now that the thrill is gone. Memories of The Cosmopolitan and "Johnnie what's it called" pervade, Hess's hallmark chandeliers are traumatized once again. The "professional" social workers and non-profit types, who seem to know what is best for this city, are also no where to be found. They have abandoned Alonso Todd and his cadre of associates who valiantly man the welfare of the city. And so it continues and will continue. The new hotel, which has served as the dormitory for the epic "Epic" workers, who will soon leave the city, now that LVHN has "gone live" will be downright spooky. Allentown, underneath it's new pretty face, is as it once was. Dreams of sky scrappers and bigger and better buildings are the among the new ghosts of Allentown. When the money runs out and the tax breaks have been banqueted upon by the BBC, Allentown may just be another pretty face in the continuing deterioration of urban America. The remaining beacon of light and activity in the cities night culture remains the Hamilton Towers, which once hosted afternoon "English Teas", reminds us of what Allentown wanted to be but no longer is. The reality is crack and heroin do well in Allentown. Thanks pay to play.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the name drop. But they didnt abandon us. Most never understood ua or bothered with us.
ReplyDeleteAlfonso Todd