When Allentown Police Chief Charles Roca put up a Pray For Ukraine meme yesterday, my immediate thought was Pray For Allentown. I had just learned that in addition to the shots fired in Cedar Beach Sunday evening, there was another homicide, at an east side bar early Thursday morning.
In addition to putting out this blog every weekday, I also administer a large facebook group, Allentown Chronicles. The group majors in history, and minors in local politics. Many of its members are former Allentonians, whose memory dwells in better days for the Queen City. Many of them would prefer not even to read about the town's current state of crime.
In addition to those members fixated on the past, there is a group which I refer to as the cheerleaders. These are current residents who compare Allentown to Philadelphia, Chicago and Detroit, and think Allentown is just experiencing urban problems that are part of life in all big cities. Many of them are either transplants, or too young to remember the good old days. One of the cheerleaders mentioned that there were only 6 fatalities in 2020. He omitted the fact that there were 63 shootings. The low kill rate is only from poor aim, and good ER work at the local hospitals.
This post is not intended to minimize the suffering occurring in Ukraine. It is also not intended to demean the empathy shown by Chief Roca to that tragedy.
I altered Chief Roca's meme by putting Allentown over it.
The longer I observe this guy's leadership, the more I realize he prays that his paycheck keeps coming.
ReplyDeleteanon@7:30, this post was not about Roca. He appears popular with both the administration and the public. he is too new to the position to judge his leadership skills.
ReplyDeletePray for Allentown, not just because of crime but because of the continued incompetence of our elected officials.
ReplyDeleteIn case you missed it, the Morning Call online has an article about City Council tabling a vote on using 2.7 million federal American Rescue Plan money (or covid-relief funds) for the Little Lehigh Public Housing project. Apparently, the funding was tabled not because of the project itself, but because of the lack of a PROCESS for awarding the money.
Not sure what else council is looking at, but the Morning Call reports that the $2.7 million being requested is part of the larger $26 million project to demolish 56 apartment units and rebuild 50 new ones. The mayor is urging council to act quickly, though council seems concerned about having an applicant jump to the front of the line for this new trough of government money.
Missing from the article is that all of this is our money, or that if you take the $26 million cost of the project and divide it by the 50 apartment units it will build, you come up to a COST OF $520,000 PER APARTMENT UNIT!
I'm not sure, but I'm guessing that most taxpayers in Allentown aren't living in $520,000 homes, much less $520,000 apartment units, but they're the ones that will ultimately be paying for this.
If I were on city council, I'd be less concerned about process, and more concerned about basic math.
Pray for them.
anon@8:34, not only will those new units cost much more than the average house, the existing units are less than 50 years old. the average row house is over 100 years old. public and affordable housing refers to the people who live there, not the people who pay for it.
ReplyDeleteKeeping with the prayer theme, you get a big "Amen" for that!
DeleteMM said: "In addition to those members fixated on the past, there is a group which I refer to as the cheerleaders. These are current residents who compare Allentown to Philadelphia, Chicago and Detroit, and think Allentown is just experiencing urban problems that are part of life in all big cities."
ReplyDeleteI've heard these cheeleaders as well, and the problem is the policies they recommend for Allentown are the same policies that have been tried earlier - and failed - in our big cities, and won't make the city safer or improve the numbers in question. They instead try to excuse the numbers, not make things better here.
If there's one common denominator between the problems in our big cities and what Allentown has become over the last two decades, it's one-party rule. It's blinded city leaders to real solutions and will result in the city's continued downward trend.
I don't believe any party has all the answers to every problem, but while I hear great talk from our current city leaders about diversity, that doesn't seem to include ideas beyond their democrat ideology.
Like you, I've been around long enough to remember a time when the city wasn't ruled by a single party, and things were much better for all.
Not only allentown, but the whole USA.
ReplyDeletePolice have told me the reason there are so many shooting and so few kills is due to poor marksmanship rather than intent. Apparently they hold the gun wrong, don't know how to aim, and count on firing many shoots rather than place them. Let's hope they don't wise up.
ReplyDelete