In yesterday's post, I called Site Selection magazine's praise of business in center city Allentown distorted. It's based mostly on J. B. Reilly's poached tenants from surrounding areas. Now the Morning Call cites the same article with a piece praising a recycling business in the former S. 10th Street Mack Factory. They fill the building with contruction debris, and then sort the trash. While the former factory once employed 1500 men, the Morning Call portrays that using a former factory for a dump, with less than 20 employees, constitutes some sort of success.
In the past I have posted about the Mack factories on S. 10th Street, and their part in Allentown history. They produced trucks for WW1, and also played a part in WW2. Hundreds of men would use the WPA steps everyday on their way to work.
Although there are several Facebook groups about Allentown, I decided to fashion and start another. Like this blog, the group will focus on local history and politics, but with a markedly different tone.... It is intended to discuss the city's past, present and future in a non-partisan manner. It will neither be liberal nor conservative. It is not a nostalgia site for the best pizza, nor a gripe site about the worst city council member. Posts will not be restricted to Allentown, but anywhere in the Lehigh Valley. Unlike this blog, most of the posts will be submitted by members other than myself. While I start out as the default moderator, I may be joined by others with a local history background. You're invited to join. The group is named simply ALLENTOWN, and another link can be found on my facebook page.
photocredit:Monica Cabrera/The Morning Call
I looked at that picture and felt sick to my stomach. My father worked in that plant until his death in 1976 machining truck parts. Now, the place he worked is buried under trash. How sick and how sad.
ReplyDelete