Common sense would say why not just reshingle the older ones, and give them a fresh coat of paint. They have served the city well for eighty years, and still are eager to serve. However, the metal replacements have been put into the schedule years ago, and the bureaucratic way is to let the older ones decay until they're replaced with the scheduled new ones.
Somehow I suspect that the replacements, when they finally do appear, will not last a fraction as long.
Students of the blog know that years ago I was very critical of Pawlowski and his succession of park directors, which were all of the same mold (Penn State recreation program) and hired by the same city manager. Had the FBI's menu been longer, they might have looked into some of those decisions and contracts.
I actually have a rapport with the current park director, and have not yet totally burned all the bridges with the new mayor. However, it is my avocation to champion for the traditional park system and the WPA. To that end, I will not compromise the mission with polite cordiality here on the blog.
The city is broke. There are a lot of new buildings downtown Allentown but they simply stole tenants from the suburbs by offering tax or subsidized benefit within the NIZ.
ReplyDeleteYou can't blame the developers for taking advantage of it.
Let's paint the pavilions :)
Cities use the same tactic with bridges. I learned this from a civil engineer who specializes in bridges and roads.
ReplyDeletePainting the pavilions? You set your sites very high.
ReplyDeleteI'd be happy if the Parks Department could put an adequate number of trash cans/barrels in the parks. Instead, they keep removing trash cans and installing a lesser number of heavier trash receptacles, often self-compacting and with lids that have to be touched to be opened to put the trash inside.
NEWS FLASH: After Covid, nobody wants to touch a dirty trash can lid to throw something away (not that they wanted to before either). Wanna guess where the trash ends up then?
Specific to the Rose Garden/Pavillion area, it would also be nice to have trash receptacles that aren't right up at the pavilions. Not too appetizing when you're sitting under the pavilion eating food and you catch a whiff of what's been festering in the cans, or have to deal with the swarms of bees and flies that they draw. Nor is it attractive when dog owners walk into your event and deposit their poop bags right next to your party.
I don't blame the dog owners for that - there's just not enough cans out there. That's on the Parks Department.
Instead of putting out fewer cans that they don't have to empty very often, they should consider park users (their customers) and put out more and empty them more often. The cans should be for the convenience of park users, not the Parks Department.
anon@2:55: Two years ago Allentown's park department adopted the "carry in/carry out" recommendation from the national park magazine. The trash containers were removed from Cedar Park (rose garden side) and a large pit container was installed by the Park Dept. Office. It requires two men with a crane on a truck to remove the 8 ft. deep bag from the pit once a week. Every Monday morning an employee spends hours picking up all the litter from the weekend in the park. Downtown Allentown should have been the tip-off that the parks needed more receptacles, not less. Only when the park director lets that subscription run out, and starts studying the parks from the pre-Pawlowski era, will things improve.
ReplyDeleteMaybe they can afford another house for Mckleen and park employees, while throwing a good man out of the parkways log cabin?
ReplyDelete