All the solutions offered, such as the Route222 anti-gang task force, surveillance camera system, yearlong study of police force, Office of Faith-Based Initiatives and the anonymous tip line, ignore the politically incorrect reality that there is a correlation between poverty and crime. Although the administration wants to make Hamilton Street appear more affluent, by relocating the bus riders to sabotage the existing merchants, elsewhere Allentown remains a publicly financed poverty magnet.
The mayor of Hazleton, although offering no solutions to the national dilemma of immigration, sought to avoid its consequences in his community. Allentown can ill afford to lead the nation in a solution to poverty, drug abuse and crime.
illustration by Mark Beyer
above reprinted from December of 2007
UPDATE OCTOBER 1, 2019: Former mayor Lou Barletta didn't try to solve national problems in Hazleton, instead he realized that the small city should do everything possible to avoid those elements which cause them. Despite the warnings of this local blogger, Allentown put out the welcome mat, and we are now immersed in poverty and crime. While the Hazleton mayor went on to congress, mayor Pawlowski is now in federal prison.
The biggest mistake that politicians and sociologists make is to espouse the idea that poverty is the cause of crime. As a historian of Allentown, you know that in the past there were many poor Italian and eastern European immigrants and residents in Allentown. The vast majority had a strong family life, a religious centered community and a strong work ethic. Poverty is a result of an un-intact or no family structure, no moral compass, which comes from grounding in religious belief and poor decision making. All the government programs, as we have witnessed, will not make it better.
ReplyDeleteWhile I would agree that poverty isn't the SOLE cause of crime, it is a contributing factor. And while I'll concede that the issues that Ray notes (having a strong family structure, religious beliefs, and moral compass) can certainly mitigate crime from coming out of poverty, today's reality will tell you that most people today (whether poor or not) lack such traits.
ReplyDeleteThe reality is that there is a limit to the amount of problems (poverty included) that any community can successfully absorb. Allentown passed that limit decades ago, Pawlowski accelerated it further, and O'Connell's done NOTHING to change the course (on this issue or anything else really, but that's a whole other post).
To top it off, a current City Council candidate, still serving and helping to bankrupt the Allentown School District (and apparently hoping to do the same to the city) recently wrote an Op-Ed advocating inclusionary zoning to accomodate lower-income people into new construction projects. She may not have noticed, but Allentown has its fill of lower income residents, and attracting more UPPER-income residents and visitors is not an easy proposition. Inclusionary zoning won't help that.
Sadly, she will be elected to City Council in November to do more damage to the city there.
Which brings us to the voters, who are ultimately responsible for the "cesspool" that Allentown has become. Until enough of them stop falling for the same empty promises, get some common sense and vote for something different, the City will get the same results.
What choice do Allentown voters really have.All the candidates have same priorities .As far as Ms. Gerlach's plans she will now be able to get a A.S.D. job next year. A total win-win for Councilperson Gerlach
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DeleteIt is true that a society can only absorb and assimilate a small amount of new culturally dissimilar immigrants at a time. In the past, new immigrants wanted to be Americans and worked to become like the rest of the population. When it is overloaded in a short time the new culture becomes dominant and the former residents move out. Sadly many Americans no longer believe in the American experiment, would gladly exchange a nation of opportunity and freedom for a nation of providing basic necessities.
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