Mar 21, 2023

A Park Primer For The New Administration

A local activist, Tyler Fatzinger of Fairview Cemetery fame, wrote on Facebook yesterday...

I once attended a community meeting and the mayor was there. The community said how ugly the (park) banks were and wanted them back to how they were for so many years. The mayor responded that the banks were for erosion control and he trusted those individuals who made those decisions because they went to school and had a degree in that field.
In the early 1920's,  Harry Trexler had the park system designed by Meehan Associates of Philadelphia,  the country's leading landscape architectural firm of that time.  They specified that willow trees be planted along the creeks. The spreading shallow root system of those trees  held the banks firmly in place for over 70 years. More so, they allowed both view and access to the creeks.  Families and their children enjoyed the parks for generations.  In 2005, mayor Pawlowski hired a series of  park directors who all had the same background in recreation from Penn State. They were content to farm out park maintenance decisions to the Wildlands Conservancy, which was more than glad to administer grants for the park system. The Wildlands harvested 15% administrative fee for each grant. Their specialty is popular conservation trends, regardless of local specifics. They instituted riparian buffers, which are supposed to filter lawn fertilizer runoff from entering the creeks. In Allentown, however, the storm sewer system is piped directly into the creeks, under the buffers, making them useless for that designated purpose. Meanwhile, as the willow trees started dying out from age, they were not replaced.  This series of recreation trained directors, all from out of town, couldn't care less that both the view and access to the creeks were blocked. One of them told me that when you can only catch a glimpse of the creek, it is more exciting.  Neither The Wildlands Conservancy,  nor their park director lackeys,  realized that these weed walls would cultivate invasive species, including Poison Hemlock.  So the buffers still have to be cut down several times a season, especially with the Little Lehigh and Cedar Creek being sources for the water plant on Martin Luther King Drive.

The time has come to restore the Allentown parks to their former glory.  It's time to plant new willow trees along the banks. Allentown was known for its park system, featured on numerous picture postcards...Let's restore that fame.

postcard of Robin Hood Bridge, Lehigh Parkway, 1955

11 comments:

  1. “ The mayor responded that the banks were for erosion control and he trusted those individuals who made those decisions because they went to school and had a degree in that field.”

    Ugh. This is the problem with electing people who didn’t grow up here. They don’t have the base of knowledge of the city beyond what they’re told, and (as in this case) lack the curiosity to learn on their own. They excessively defer to those with titles or degrees, as if they are infallible.

    Tuerk may be a lot of things, but he’s no leader in a city that sorely needs one.

    ReplyDelete
  2. "Nothing would be more fatal than for the government of states to get into the hands of experts. Expert knowledge is limited knowledge and the unlimited ignorance of the plain man who knows innately what hurts is a safer guide than any vigorous direction of a specialized character. Why would you assume that all except doctors engineers etc. are drones or worse?
    W. Churchill

    ReplyDelete
  3. The banks look so unmaintained and obscure the intended views. Maybe planting a few willows would create a photo-op, that might get Mr. Tuerk to attend.

    ReplyDelete
  4. This is like the story of “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” Someone tells them “Hey, Allentown. Your city looks like a dump. It’s unsightly and not what you think.” Problem is, Allentown’s leaders don’t seem to care. They’ve got the NIZ charade going on.

    ReplyDelete
  5. The stream doesn't need to be the subject of photo ops. The stream needs to meander through thickly vegetated meadows that will provide protection from sunlight and strengthen the streambank. I find it refreshing that old timey/outmoded thinking is being replaced with a more environmentally sound policy. To those of you who think the Cedar Creek Parkway "looks like a dump", do us all a favor and stay away then. Sounds to me like the Mayor really does care.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There’s nothing “environmentally sound” about this policy. It’s already been established that the willows can stabilize the stream banks and the runoff bypasses the riparian buffers. In short, the policy is a fraud.

      The only real question is whether 9:26 is the Mayor, one of his underlings in the Parks Department, or someone from the Wildlands trying to curry favor for a future grant.

      Delete
    2. anon@12:39, Unfortunately, there are other possibilities. There are contrarians, who find it amusing to post as such. Worse, there's a full time local predator, who mostly sends obvious insults, but occasionally a masked contrarian comment such as this. He is responsible for many blogs in the area using comment moderation.

      Delete
  6. I grew up practically living in these parks. Now I won’t go near them. They are breeding grounds for ticks and mosquitos. Bring back the weeping willows.

    ReplyDelete
  7. anon@9:26: people wanting to picnic or fish by the stream with their family, aren't looking for a "photo-op", but the experience for which the park was intended.

    ReplyDelete
  8. While we’re discussing stupidity by the Mayor and his Parks Department, I noticed that parts of the grass along the ramps from the 15th Street bridge were being paved over.

    Why? To accommodate the truck traffic that can’t seem to stay on the ramp when going north on 15th and trying to access MLK Drive. So they’ve been hopping the curb and put large ruts in what used to be grass.

    So what was Mayor Clueless’s solution? Pave the grass, and diminish the park-like feel of the interchange.

    You would think the Mayor, who lives fairly close to the bridge, would have a little curiosity about why truck traffic is suddenly using MLK Drive more frequently and put a “No Trucks” sign on the ramp. Nope.

    I’m willing to bet that some of the truck traffic is GPS related and posting the ramps/road for no trucks could have solved that issue. I’m also certain that far more of the trucks are a result of the (likely) illegal trailer parking lot that Abe Atiyeh is running at the site of his (likely) illegal “storage” operation on St. Elmo Street.

    So when the Mayor and City Hall decide to ignore one problem (the truck parking) it creates another problem. Who would have thought?

    Apparently, not the Mayor.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. anon@12:59 and others: For information sake, I'm willing to publish comments. However, when using such terms as "stupidity", "cluelessness" and "likely illegal" it would be more "courageous" to sign your name(s).

      Delete

ANONYMOUS COMMENTS SELECTIVELY PUBLISHED. SIGNED COMMENTS GIVEN MORE LEEWAY.