Sixty years ago downtown Allentown hummed. It was fueled by the vision of people who developed empires, not cookie cutter ideas from the National Magazines for Bureaucrats, like the arena. Shown here is the Transit Office and depot at the side of 8th and Hamilton. General Trexler had been a principle in the Trolley Company, which also built the 8th Street Bridge, to connect Allentown with points south, all the way to Philadelphia. In addition to being the terminal for the Philadelphia bound Liberty Bell, it also fed the merchants of Allentown with thousands of shoppers from its many Allentown routes. The shoppers now sit on the cold steel benches at the Lanta Detention Center on 7th Street, as the non-visionaries prepare to demolish the center of town, to build a monstrosity. The light and shadows reveal that this is an early morning photo. In a few hours 8th and Hamilton (behind the trolley) would be clogged with shoppers
ADDENDUM DECEMBER 24, 2021: In the decade since the above was written, downtown Allentown turned into an urban office park. While there are a few stores, it no longer aspires to be a shopping destination. The first floor retail space in the new apartment buildings are to justify the NIZ financing requirement, not to meet any market demand for storefronts. Criticism of the new center city is limited mostly to this blog. Other voices, such as the newspaper, have either profitted from the NIZ, or are indifferent.
above reprinted from December of 2011
there were 47 vacant storefronts in the NIZ as recently as last month. Doubt that has changed much. I now use Hamilton as a preferred eastbound route through town, little to no traffic down there unless there is an event.
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