It's not actually a creek, but the Lehigh River. It's not actually Jaindl up the creek, but Allentonians who care about history. Talen Energy has announced that it will relocate from the PPL Plaza down Hamilton Street to Reilly's new Tower 6. Jaindl was hoping to land Talen as his anchor tenant for his project at the riverfront, which also has NIZ designation.
Students of this blog may remember that I complained about the last spur route being removed from the riverfront, to accommodate Jaindl's project. Although, they tried to spin the track removal with the Rail To Trail annoucement, it was a historic loss for Allentown. The spur was part of the Lehigh Valley Railroad Old Main, with the last distributor in Allentown using rail service.
This town, and especially Pawlowski, has no knowledge or sense of local history. The boards, authorities and commissions in Allentown, which are composed mostly of Pawlowski appointees, also have no sense of history. Further adding to this problem, is the significant number of new residents in the area. Whether they are the entitlement folks from the big cities, or the new middle class suburbanites, local history is of little concern to them. Never the less, local history will continue to be a major theme of this blog.
Photo shows the former last spur line in Allentown, which was probably removed for naught.
Not to worry. Mr Jaindl will get a minor consolation prize to build something up on Hamilton Street from ANIZDA.
ReplyDeleteAllentown does have a great history--one I'm proud to know and to share. But I really don't remember a time that Allentown's history has ever been particularly inspiringly or interestingly presented.
ReplyDeleteThis issue for Allentown is that it has never been able to turn its interesting individual tales into a compelling narrative. Compared to Bethlehem, Allentown's attempt at history presentation pales, though the County Museum is a nice upgrade. Nor did Allentown ever do very well at integrating higher integration into its city life, outside of Muhlenberg.
Every town had hat stores, department stores, and factories--but the big question is, why in Allentown? What are some ways the present could be inspired by the past? In Allentown, our city fathers never really tried very hard, and we are paying the price today.
Maybe Mr. Jaindl does not hang out in all the 'right places' and drink with all the 'right people' anywhere near as often as perhaps he should ?
ReplyDeleteROLF OELER
Might be fun to see Jaindl buy PPL Plaza at a fire sale and convert it into Section 8 Housing. About a thousand apartments might make for lots of customers for the pricey restaurants that Reilly owns in the NIZ. Or not.
ReplyDelete