It's Like A Postcard

Last week when I prevailed on some players at City Hall to meet me in Lehigh Parkway, somebody remarked that it's like a postcard. With the creek banks now overgrown, it would difficult to recreate the nationally distributed postcards of Allentown parks from the 1950's. But the old postcards still exist, giving testimony to the beauty that was ours. There will be a formal discussion with the City Council Park and Recreation Committee next Wednesday at 5:00p.m. They will hear about stream velocity theory and habitat from the grant driven new age science crew. I will talk about beauty. I still believe that the parks were created for the pleasure of people.

reprinted from August of 2013

ADDENDUM APRIL 29, 2022:The above post was from my unsuccessful battle in 2013 to save the small, melodic dam built to accompany the Robin Hood Bridge in 1941. At that time I noted the overgrown creek banks. In addition to dam and history destruction, the Wildlands Conservancy also potty trained the Allentown Park System to grow riparian buffers. They're not really riparian buffers because here in Allentown the storm runoff system is piped under them, directly into the streams. However, the faux buffers do cut down the grass mowing a bit, and the park system satisfies its masters. But because of invasive species, the buffers still must be cut at least twice a year, so the poison hemlock and other invasives don't take hold...here lies another victim of the buffers, the baby ducks. The duckling nests are destroyed with the first cutting. The west side of Cedar Park by the rose gardens failed again to produce any ducklings. One bewildered couple looks like they may try again. I have been on this save the ducks mission now for three years. In addition to this blog, I have unsuccessfully lobbied city personnel. Their supposed plan of looking for nests before the first cutting simply doesn't work in the field.