Apr 4, 2022

Allentown's Revitalization And Our Frame Of Reference


I suspect that the millennials are most enthused about the changes in Allentown, while the baby boomers are the least. How you feel about what is new there now, is probably based on your frame of reference.  We who experienced Hamilton Street in it's heyday are not so impressed with current developments.  Although the Whitehall Mall opened in the mid 1960's, Hamilton Street continued on for another 30 years. When the Lehigh Valley Mall opened in the late 1970's, Hamilton Street's decline as a destination was swift. Although the former Hess Brothers store would stay open through Christmas of 1995, most of it's shoppers entered and left via it's own parking deck, never stepping foot on Hamilton Street.

During the next 15 years, the downtown survived by serving the neighboring demographic, which was becoming poorer every year. Five years ago, when I debated about the coming NIZ on Business Matters, one of the NIZ board members actually referred to the stores being displaced and their clientele as a cancer. The same merchants and customers are now considered part of 7th Streets' success, what a difference a few blocks make.

Despite one promotional article after another by The Morning Call, the verdict is still out on the success of the new revitalized center city. Because it is being financed exclusively by public funds, and will be for at least the next 30 years, normal barometers of success cannot be used. I spend a lot of time there, but have yet to feel the buzz.

above reprinted from November 30, 2015

ADDENDUM APRIL 4, 2022: The six plus years since the above was written hasn't changed my assessment of center city...construction proceeds on the new offices and apartments. The new Strata 13 apartment building at 8th and Walnut mystifies me...what would compel anybody to move there? However, these type questions seem limited to this blog, and my frame of reference.

9 comments:

  1. As I am presently restricted from all but a few things on Facebook at the moment, I'll post my comment here on your forum.

    It's true that how you view Hamilton Street today is based on your generation. Millenials who grew up during the 80s and 90s only knew Hamilton Street in its long decline. Newer generations after them are growing up in Reillytown, and see it what it is, as a office park with apartments. Company housing in a way, within walking distance of the office they work in. Sure there will be a few places like the "Allentown Market" and other minor stores where people will buy some things. However it's easier to buy things online or out in Whitehall, where the cluster of stores are. They also only know of the Allentown of today, with its older housing stock of multiple family homes, a population consisting of a large number of various ethnicities, and of limited opportunities as most buisnesses are service-sector, government, health care focused. The Allentown School District is aother matter, but it is not held in as high regard as it was by universities and employers as it once was in the past.

    This isn't 1975 any longer, the last time Allentown won the All-America city award.

    Reillytown is essentially one-man's vision of how to reverse the decline of Hamilton Street. It's really a matter of liking the glass and steel buildings, which is essentially all Hamilton Street is, and will continue to be for generations to come. Fifty years from now, which is within the lifetimes of many teenagers now, Reillytown will be as it is today... perhaps a few anchient buildings, like the Farr building, will still be there..

    Will the 100 block of North 8th Street, outside of Reillytown still be the same.. Likely it will be.. 50 years older, perhaps with a lot more ethnic signs as well as the population the city will likely be even more of diverse groups. The last Republican to serve in any public office in the city will likely still be Bill Heydt.

    Out in Whitehall, and South Whitehall, and Salisbury and the other surburban townships, will be the Great-Great-Great-Great grandparents of the people who lived in Allentown during it's "Golden Era" of retail and commerce. The people who live out there won't be from Allentown either. They'll be from Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania, as Allentown will be a lot like parts of Philadelphia by 2072. With the glass and steel towers in the center of the city..

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    1. I agree with most of what you’ve written. I moved out of Allentown— where I grew up in the 1st Ward— in May of 1970. However, I don’t see how having had a Republican mayor —Heydt—was memorable or important. It wasn’t for me anyway.

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    2. Hi Michael, I am always interested in anything that shows Allentown in a positive light. That's my "Hometown", as it is yours. And, I might add, am happy to see Whitehall Mall, because, as it happens, one of my cat's names is Whitehall. Didn't even know or remember a mall with that name. I initially named him that, because of living in London. Hope you're doing well. Always a pleasure. Regards, Linda Huthmaker

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    3. Ro - It was the last time the city was fiscally sound. Since then, it's been pension mishaps, tax hikes, fee hikes, and more borrowing. In addition, your water rates have skyrocketed in a failed attempt to stabilize city finances.

      While that may seem unexciting, it makes the city less attractive to private (non-government subsidized) investment, as well as to higher-income potential individuals and families looking to purchase a home.

      As MM has written numerous times, it is a downward cycle that contributes to the city's decline.

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  2. brent@6:23, you wrote.."Reillytown is essentially one-man's vision of how to reverse the decline of Hamilton Street.". It is actually one man's business plan on how to capitalize on what is essentially a unique, boutique tax incentive, seemingly written by him or for him. He privately owns publicly financed buildings, now over $1 Billion worth. This new apartment complex at 8th and walnut is an architectural monstrosity, better suited for soviet Siberia. the last building built with any architectural merit was the county jail.

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    1. I don't think you are referring to the monstrosity built at 4th and Linden having architectual merit. It's more out of some nightmarish vision of the future this huge concrete tower with slit windows to let sunlight into it.

      The apartments in Reillytown remind me of beehives. Basically a uniform design of a concrete box, accompanied by a concrete parking deck. One essentially being a slight variation of the other. I haven't seen the one at 8th and Walnut yet.. I'm sure it looks similar to the rest of them. Affordably priced starting at $1300/mo and up.

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  3. Brent -

    Good comments, but one small correction. I think that City Councilman Tom Burke was the last elected Republican in the city. I also believe Tony Phillips was the last to serve as a Republican (on council), since I think he switched parties after being elected as a democrat.

    MM - Totally agree with your comments about the buildings being built to maximize Reilly's profits, not his vision. If anything, it highlights the LACK of vision and creativity on his part as well as our city leaders.

    Had any of them had the slightest bit of vision, they could have themed each block differently, with different architectural styles and even cultural focuses. Instead, we continue to get buildings that look like European public housing all along Hamilton (and Linden, and Walnut), and no identity to any block. They might be clean and shiny now, but they won't age well.

    Another (big) missed opportunity in my opinion.

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    1. Here in Atlanta, we have entirely new CITIES being developed in the former farmers fields outside of the city. With diverse architecture, buisnesses, housing retail.. shopping areas.. Planned communities from the onset. For less than what Reillytown cost .. Look up Alpharetta, Georgia. It's booming..

      Although to be fair, in my area of town we have new monstorus beehive apartment complexes that are even larger than the ones Reilly builds. Although they're designed the same way. Mercedes-Benz moved their North American headquarters here a year or so ago, and built their company housing beehive.. a block wide and a block long. State Farm insurance moved here from Illinois as well. did the same thing 60,000 new renters added to the area where I live, Sandy Springs/Dunwoody.. which in bygone days, used to be a sleepy suburb ....

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  4. I agree with a lot Brent says above, people I know who grew up in Allentown are the most pessimistic. Those like me who moved from some other region wind up being most optimistic about Allentown, since its all they've ever known. Imagine my surprise when a close friend told me that William Allen High School was the undisputed #1 public school in Lehigh Valley as recently as the mid-1980s. Imagine my sheer disbelief watching an old Newlyweds Game episode where the winning couple won a vacation to Allentown with a week stay at the former hotel across the street from City Hall and all-week passes to the Great Allentown Fair. I couldn't even imagine Super Sunday on Hamilton Street or a packed house Thanksgiving Day morning Allen/Dieruff game!

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