As an advocate for the park system, seeing the above photograph from the
Morning Call article on the Lehigh River parks, was a harsh joke. The article is subtitled, Insider's Guide To The Lehigh Valley. It actually is an outsider's guide. The reporter states that he has never been to these parks previously, and his tour gulde is Pawlowski. I'll go further, and doubt that any of recent park directors have ever been to Canal Park, which is in a condition somewhere between neglect and hazard. Before I go further, let's be clear that the Morning Call asked Pawlowski, whose negligence allowed the iconic Lehigh Parkway entrance wall to collapse, to be it's tour guide in the parks. Nothing has been done in Canal Park since Pawlowski was elected as mayor in 2005, or before that, when he served as Community Development Director, under Mayor Afflerbach. Pawlowski even refers to the train line through Canal Park as
a problem. Someone should inform him that it is the main west line of Norfolk Southern, and more relevant to Allentown than he is, certainly at this time. As if that wasn't enough irony, Pawlowski is considering a new park to neglect, for boat launching. All this attention about the river is part of the paper's hype for the new NIZ construction, soon to begin by the Tilghman Street Bridge. In a recent exchange with a Morning Call writer/editor, he defended the
informercials
concerning the NIZ. Although I have been sending notes to the paper about the deplorable conditions in the existing parks, they choose instead to engage in a puff promotion for the NIZ, featuring a future indictee. Pass the Tums.
ADDENDUM: In regard to an earlier post, regarding emergency repairs needed at Union Terrace, shared by somebody on facebook, Joe McDermott commented,
"Fine, who is willing to pay more taxes to make those repairs, Mike Molvinsky, maybe?" This is disturbing, because McDermott is a former Morning Call reporter who now pens for Pawlowski. So, although this administration paid Abe Atiyeh $1.4 million dollars for land it's not using or needs for the park system, it employs a hack to link park maintenance with higher taxes.
photo by April Bartholomew/The Morning Call
above reprinted from October of 2015
UPDATE MARCH 18, 2019: Pawlowski is gone. The park department has a new director, and while I'm more optimistic about the parks than I have been since 2005, Canal Park's neglect and isolation is still a problem. My advocacy and outspokenness for the parks continues...
Mike, The headline on the Call's ASD article that reported an independent audit revealed the district was spending more than it budgeted was headlined, "Audit finds Allentown School District has under-budgeted for programs".
ReplyDeleteThey have learned nothing! They spent years putting lipstick on the pig that was the region's most corrupt politician and now when the wheels are coming off the ASD they are covering for it instead of reporting.
The education of Allentown's children is at stake here. What the Hell do they think they are achieving?
scott, yes they are weak. They would never print my letter explaining how South Whitehall is cooperating with the Wildlands Conservancy to subvert the will of its citizens in regard to Wehr's Dam.
ReplyDeleteMore recently, when I took Bill White to task for defending the union attempt AFTER he was no longer employed, I was disappointed to see Randy Kraft defend White. In this town people are more concerned with being nice than with truth.
I haven't run into the "nice" problem myself. In fact just the opposite. But I ask the question again, what does the Morning Call hope to achieve by not reporting the truth and the facts? They have done serious damage to the city, damage that will effect the Queen City long after they have all moved on.
ReplyDeleteThe Morning Call could have exposed the serious corruption of city hall, they could now be reporting on the rampant incompetence permeating the ASD leadership. If the voters knew this, they just might act on it when they go and vote.
How else do we explain that so many people in the city believe the fantasy that things are OK? Because they foolishly still read and believe what the "local" paper reports.
Can Allentown improve so long as the Call continues to misinform? Yes, but it makes improvement much more difficult and perhaps impossible.