Yesterday, Allentown officially joined the drive-by shooting strata. A woman was shot on her porch near 9th and Tilghman, and officially designated an unintended drive-by, according to Allentown police.
Recently, a retired west end lawyer told me that he and his wife do not go downtown because they fear being an unintentional victim of violence. Although I found his fears unwarranted, after he reads today's paper, his fears will only be confirmed.
In 2005, as a candidate, I told Allentown that they were becoming a poverty magnet, which would have later consequences. One of the agencies which concerned me at that time just stated that they earned their reputation of an outstanding service provider, an effective advocate for low-income residents of the Lehigh Valley. We will now be funding agencies which promise to deal with the violence previous agencies wrought us.
illustration by Mark Beyer
I brought a friend to downtown Allentown on Monday. Both Southern Lehigh Class of ‘73 grads; she teaches out of the country. We went to Fegley’s. The only people we saw on the street were LVHN employees walking. “Where is everybody else? How would you change this?”
ReplyDeleteMy response: “I don’t live, work, or pay taxes here. My voice counts for nothing. All I can do is agree to visit or not. This is beyond me.”
It’s the quality-of-life issues that escalate into shootings. Good homes encourage civility. Nutty taxation (fireworks are for taxes!) and rapacious zoning (R-1-to-R-4) deprecate our lives.
I have no solutions to offer.
John, I usually limit my opinion to the post, and not the comment section... however.... a fellow blogger once referred to my writing style as succinct. Today's post actually summarizes Allentown's last 20 years in about 120 words. Previous agencies were flawed, as are the current ones. More on that in future posts....
ReplyDeleteMike, you and I have been forecasting this outcome for years. Anyone with eyes to see could have called it. Sadly, Allentown is populated by those who prefer to keep their eyes and minds closed. We have arrived. What now?
ReplyDeleteAnd unfortunately, if the agency I’m thinking of is the same unnamed one here; its mission is to spread the poverty and violence to outlying boroughs as Allentown has been an unfair victim, and other towns should “share the misery”. The director is a typical grievance administrator.. no solutions for poverty. Just create more so he has a job.
ReplyDelete