Urban renewal projects are nothing new to Allentown. Every couple decades some Mayor thinks he has a brighter idea. In a previous post, I showed the historic Lehigh and Union Street neighborhood, totally destroyed by city planners. Today, an under used Bank calling center sits awkwardly alone on that Lehigh Street hill. The picture above shows another hill of merchants and residents, fed to a mayor's bulldozer. The picture is from 1953, and shows Hamilton Street, from Penn Street down toward the railroad stations. At that time we still had two stations, The Lehigh Valley Railroad and The New Jersey Central. The current closed bar and restaurant occupies the Jersey Central. Everything on Hamilton Street, west of the bridge over the Jordan creek, with the exception of the Post Office, was demolished up to Fifth Street. Government Center would be built on the north side of the street, and a new hotel on the south, to accommodate the many anticipated visitors.
Recently we had to remove and replace the facade of the county courthouse, which leaked since it was constructed. The hotel is now a rooming house. Unannounced plans are underway for a new hotel to service anticipated visitors to Pawlowski's Palace of Sports. It will be up to some future blogger to document how that hotel becomes a rooming house.
reprinted from December of 2013 and 2011
ADDENDUM JANUARY 2018: Reilly's new NIZ funded Renaissance Hotel doomed the former Hilton Hotel at 9th and Hamilton, once a new jewel in a former urban renewal scheme. The hotel, most recently with a Holiday Inn designation, is now in Reilly's vast City Center Real Estate portfolio.
The reason these projects were unsuccessful is that in both cases, Allentown had planners dictating to the populace what they believed should be in these locations. I recall the Lawrence Street project from the late 1960s. It was a poor people removal project in essence. Yes, they did remove the old Wire Mill. However they wanted to get the poor somewhere else (I don't believe they cared where, just somewhere else), so they did and it's been a grassy hill for the past 50 years.
ReplyDeleteI don't recall clearly the City Hall/Lehigh County Courthouse project, but then Allentown needed both buildings replaced and the planners relieved the city of a lower-class working living area to do it. Never understood what the demand would be for the Allentown Motor Inn, as at the time the Americus was a functional, working hotel in the middle of the Central Business District. I suppose the belief was that throngs would flock into the city to see the new City Hall and Courthouse ?
Both of these projects have been government-planner driven, rather than what was the case for Allentown in decades past, when the smoke filled rooms at the Livingston Club determined what was needed where commercially. The City looked at things such as where to put a Rose Garden. The difference being that the private sector expands as needed and encourages growth to increase wealth.
Not to build utopias.. as has been the case since 2012.
Urban planning seems to always be in the Hamilton Street area or in the vicinity. Every where else in the city is neglected. While JB is building his empire in the Hamilton Street area, except for Jaindl's riverfront NIZ supported giveaway, no other reputable developer wants to develop in the expanded NIZ exclusion zone. Any other development outside the NIZ and its taxpayers supported money, would be impractical at least. Therefore, the rest of the city starts to crumble under urban decay. We currently have government in Allentown, supported by the people who proliferate in the decay, that is totally unresponsive to the needs of Allentown as a whole. Said, but true!
ReplyDeleteLook at all of the hoops Albert Abdouche had to go though with the Americus. No wonder there are no other NIZ developers. It's an old boy's club with the taxpayer money at ANIADA
ReplyDeleteFrankly, the Allentown City Government needs to work on the crime issue, and induing the streets are passable, the fire department can put out fires, garbage is collected, the public parks and infrastructure are maintained, and ambulances can take the sick and injured to the hospital for medical care.
The city isn't in the social welfare business. I