Years ago in downtown Allentown there were about a dozen barbershops and virtually no litter. Today, with the same population, there are about 60 shops and tons of litter. Apparently there is no longer a correlation between nice appearance and good manners. In the past men would wait their turn. Many of the new shops seemingly have an express system. A doorman with a walkie talkie informs the "barber" who is coming, and the patron can receive his service in less than a minute. Over the years I photographed most of the shops now gone. Although I'm sure many of the new proprietors are hardworking honest people who would not tolerate any criminal behavior, the days of taking my camera into barbershops has passed.
photocredit: molovinsky
reprinted from January 7, 2009
One of the first things I noticed when moving to Allentown from Bethlehem in 98' was the the litter everywhere, and its only gotten worse. What could I do when I saw some kid flipping thru one of the free news/advertisements from a strip mall and then he just chucks it in the air? Or when following some thugs in a car when they just throws a beer bottle out the window into a park? Berate them like a former Allentown councilman once did and then got smacked upside the head? I don't know what the difference between Allentown and Bethlehem is that makes A-town a city of slobs but maybe they could spend some money on investigating that instead of trips to the Dominican Republic to learn the A-town citizens' "culture".
ReplyDeleteMy uncle had a barbershop on 7th St that he ran till a few years before his death. YES, litter WAS almost non existent in Allentown... you had a town loaded with "Dutch Cleanser Women" who, just like the moniker on the "Dutch Cleanser" can, would chase dirt right out of sight.
ReplyDeleteI Iived 50 miles south of Allentown for 15 years, and coming home and driving thru town, the LACK of dirt and litter was amazing... it made where I lived look like a pig pen in comparison... now it's exactly the opposite. Could it be that Bethlehem is a) non tolerant of litter, or b) they have a higher class of residents.... you decide!!! Welcome to beautiful, historic, downtown $***hole Allentown... it is what it is. Sorry!!!! Most of the residents have busted "shive-a-givers"!!!
On the litter issue, I think there are three main issues at play here:
ReplyDeleteThe first is tolerance of it. The city has a SWEEP department that seems largely compliant driven. They seldom seem to come out of their offices to deal with the problems proactively. Similarly, someone should look at citing the city’s trash hauler. A good portion of the litter in the city comes from them as the fling trash towards the truck on garbage nights. A little focus on the issue from City Hall would go a long way.
The bigger issue is finding ways to reduce housing density in the city. Many (formerly) single-family homes in the city have far more than one family living in them. This could be from legal or illegal apartment conversions, legal or illegal rooming houses, and the like. In short, there are too many people living on top of each other, and litter is one of the many bad results from failing to address that. And City Hall’s failure to address that problem is killing the school district as well.
Finally, City Hall needs to change their outlook and try to attract more affluent residents. The percentage of residents at or below the poverty line is far too high. That puts an incredible strain on city services and is a never ending problem. While we all want to be compassionate and help those in need, what we’re doing is just drawing a never-ending stream of those in need. You’d think after a half century of throwing money at the problem and watching it get worse our city leaders would realize this. However, when I hear them discussing the need for more “affordable housing” in a city where too many residents are already in poverty, it’s clear that they don’t get it. The city obviously has too much affordable housing, not too little.
Interestingly, the city was begging people to convert their houses to apartments post WWII and now not so much. However, when the rental laws came, they were rather reluctant to let the fees they wanted go to waste... IE: folks that didn't want anything to do with having an apartment (and they had no idea their property was listed as an apartment... city said if you don't apply now you never can... city insisted they pay the back fees and refused to let it go in spite of the fact that they had no apartment(s) at their address) so the people left Allentown and all the attendant B/S.
ReplyDeleteAs far as Sweep goes, I have been ticketed at 9:30AM after picking up the litter at 5:00AM as I left for the day... and they always manage to appear on a windy day for their Sweep ticketing... I see an issue here!!! The City manages to find the litter after it's dropped, not where it was dropped from....