Feb 28, 2022

Allentown"s Phantom Rejuvenation


Yesterday's Morning Call had a story on the PennDot study, which recommended four different options to handle the onslaught of traffic to rejuvenated center city Allentown. It's truly amazing how little $1Billion buys now a days. Believe it or not, despite the endless use of adjectives by the paper, the town is as dead as ever. PennDot, realizing that the study wasn't necessary, is never the less proceeding as if it was. One recommendation was actually for a bike lane on 7th street. When is the last time you saw a bike on 7th Street? Their consultant, from King of Prussia, thinks that patrons are going to ride their bikes down 7th Street to a show at the arena; I couldn't make this stuff up, where would I get such an imagination? Meanwhile, Pennsylvania has been ranked as one of the worst run states in the country, maybe it's because we hire consultants who recommend building bike lanes on 7th Street, to accommodate invisible arena patrons. So far, the best arena night hasn't come close to duplicating the traffic on a Thursday night,  back in the days of Hess Brothers. What we have is a bunch of new buildings, of no architectural significance, and a medium size arena, which gets  half full, 40 nights a year.
 
above reprinted from November of 2015

UPDATE FEBRUARY 28, 2022:  Activity wise, even before the pandemic, nothing changed in the five years between 2015 and 2020.  While the NIZ has made a couple millionaires now billionaires at taxpayer expense, lets hope that the rejuvenation comes before the new buildings start looking shabby.

3 comments:

  1. Rejuvenation of cities is not such a difficult thing. It has nothing to do with roads, awnings, arenas or other government projects.
    It just has to do with creating an environment that encourages business and people who have disposable income to choose to live in the city. This applies to all cities.

    People with jobs and money to choose to live in the city means they must see advantages, opportunity and a safe environment.

    Something that seems to be out of the grasp of most city politicians.

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  2. Lower Macungie Township was very self-congratulatory about its installation of bike lanes on the shoulders of Hamilton Boulevard several years ago, despite the fact it was opposed by the cyclists in Trexlertown, who recognized that it would force them to be confined to a narrow strip that would be littered by roadside debris 9+ months of year. These bike lanes remain unused and unusable.

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  3. Anon@9:38, Allentown put a bike lane on MLK drive, on the narrow section between Schreiber's Bridge and Hawk Mill. A clear hazard. They had a "grant" they couldn't resist using, even against commonsense.

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