If you want to picnic in an Allentown park, you need to reserve the table and pay the fee. If you wanted to demonstrate, you needed a permit and to post a bond. However, for the recent protest in the fragile Rose Garden, no permit or fee was enforced.
This weekend on social media, a downtown woman complained of fireworks tormenting her dog and keeping her children awake. However, she made it clear that she wouldn't clean up an exploded garbage bag across the street, or involve the police. In the more livable areas of Allentown, cleaning up litter and notifying the police is exactly what the neighborhood groups do.
Fortunately, this weekend's Defund The Police march in Allentown probably won't gain too much traction with city council, two members themselves were former policemen. However, a couple of months ago city council did throw the fairgrounds' neighborhood under the bus, by passing a noise exemption ordinance for the Maingate Nightclub. Let us hope that they have the resolve not to throw the whole city away.
As one who lives in the city, I don't see much effort being made to enforce the rules on those who don't want to follow them.
ReplyDeleteIt's taken several years to get the police to even acknowledge that unlicensed dirt bikes and ATV's driving on our streets is a dangerous thing and worthy of their intervention. But despite a much-publicized crackdown, I haven't seen ANY reduction in such vehicles riding through my neighborhood, and this year seems worse than ever. And that's despite repeated calls pointing out the precise ADDRESS of the offenders. Noise and fireworks complaints also seem to be ignored despite providing the addresses of the offenders of THAT ordinance.
City leaders could have treated the Rose Garden event as a teachable moment, since nearby pavilions are frequently taken over by those not paying for them, but it was another missed opportunity for City Hall. Instead of showing that everyone is treated the same under the law and moving the unpermitted event out of the Rose Garden, those organizing the event got the message that certain groups can get special treatment from City Hall. In light of the action City Hall took to make a special DISTRICT for the Main Gate, maybe the rest of us are the dopes for following the rules and thinking others should do the same.
All I know is that the actions (or inaction) of City Council and Mayor Invisible are taking a toll. We just had good neighbors put their home up for sale. Both had good incomes, paid their taxes, and kept their house up immaculately. In short, they're the the kind of residents that Allentown needs. But it was the nuisance complaints (noise - primarily music and fireworks) that were continually ignored that pushed them out. They lost any hope that City Hall would improve things.
Now it's us that are HOPING for a good (or at least not too bad) replacement, but I can tell you there are others who are not far behind them unless City Hall steps up and fixes things.
I just read an article about how some on City Council are very upset about the fireworks situation in the City. But I hear the same excuses about the state or someone else being responsible and taking action. How about Council calls a special meeting to look at all the options that THEY can take, and what new laws (if any) and manpower adjustments our police need to reduce the problem? If increased enforcement is going to cost money (and it will), how about increased fines on offenders that attach to the properties they live in? What I see now is a lot of lip-service, but not a lot of effort, on the part of City Hall.
I also don't believe that what we're seeing with our neighbors is an isolated incident. But soon we'll see articles in the paper about how city revenue is down despite numerous tax hikes, and the blame will surely be put on the coronavirus. Never in a million years will City Hall think to look in the mirror (or the paper think to report) that the larger problem is the lack of enforcement of quality of life issues on the part of City Hall.
If you talk to realtors there is a boom in the real estate business, I doubt that it is people moving into cities. We are likely to see a exodus of those with incomes and assets to be moving out. This is all about the the feeling of safety and security. This is just a human instinct for survival. I don't see anyone who can turn this around.
ReplyDeleteRay -
ReplyDeleteI don't see anyone WILLING to turn this around.
It's been said that you tax what you don't want, and don't tax what you do want. Allentown taxes residents 1.975% and non-residents 1.28%. That tells me that their POLICY is to drive higher-income people from the city, but then they wonder why their city continues to get poorer in relation to surrounding municipalities.
Similarly, they try to act as if they care about quality of life issues in the city, and then fail to actually enforce the rules uniformly throughout the city or (even worse) create special zones for their cronies who don't want to follow the rules. What message does that send?
Unfortunately, I think the decision in City Hall was made a long time ago to write off certain sections of the city as far as equal enforcement. This has only made the disadvantaged areas of the city more disadvantaged, as those who can afford to move do so (as you noted). This policy has also allowed formerly stable neighborhoods to be chipped away at until those neighborhoods suffer the same problems and exodus.
But instead of demanding more policing for residents, we have city council members who are aligning themselves with those calling for the police department to be defunded. That's exactly the WRONG thing to do.
Call me old-fashioned, but I think that ALL city residents deserve the right to live without being bombarded by somebody else's music or worrying about their home catching fire from a neighbor's illegal fireworks display. That doesn't change if you're wealthy or poor, black or white.
What I don't see is any leadership from City Hall in actually addressing the problem.
What Rules is there any such a thing as rules anymore?
ReplyDelete