An Allentown Cheesesteak Story

Readers of The Morning Call have seen several photo spreads of Tony Luke's opening on Hamilton Street. Two spreads in a row showed Mayor Pawlowski and the owner hyping the new cheesesteak spot, along with at least two articles in recent weeks announcing that the business was coming. The same readers have also seen paid for coupon ads by Zandy's, which have been advertising in the paper for maybe 20 years. Zandy's, on the intersection of St. John and Lehigh Streets, is a third generation Allentown business. Yesterday, a reader commented on a different blog topic that the NIZ is crony capitalism, supported by crony journalism. Submitted comments about which cheesesteak you think is better will not appear, I don't care about that. What I do care about is a mayor and a newspaper, who now seems to think that Allentown starts and stops at the NIZ portion of Hamilton Street.

above reprinted from November 18, 2014

UPDATE FEBRUARY 14, 2022: Since I wrote the above post over seven years ago, not only has Tony Luke's come and gone, but also local cheesesteaker Vince's, in the same spot, has come and gone--- not to mention Pawlowski himself.  However, Zandy's is still on St. John Street, serving up its famous cheesesteaks, without the paper's promotion or any NIZ subsidized rent. Until last week the Morning Call has stayed faithful to NIZ, with no questions asked. However, lo and behold they revealed that their right to know inquiry about NIZ taxes was stymied by Pat Browne's latest NIZ amendment.  On the surface it might appear that the paper is finally doing what it should have been doing for the last decade. However, having a smudge of cynicism,  I see another possible motive. The Morning Call editors have embraced Mark Pinsley and his political ambitions. Bashing Browne now serves the paper well with that agenda.