Back at 7th and Turner, it's symbolically the longest half block you can imagine...no delusions of sharing the wealth. I've been photographing Allentown for over fifty years, and the gap has never been more apparent.
It's not because money hasn't been spent outside of the NIZ, because $millions have. Grants have been given, and facades have been renovated. People have been made store owners, complete with inventory, yet poverty permeates. The dispersing agencies have grown large and influential... We have succeeded in building a growing poverty industry.
If you ignore weeds, they spread outward. Water them daily, and they’ll overcome your entire garden.
ReplyDeleteThat describes my block perfectly. Here, Sweep will send you a ticket if your weeds ARE NOT OVER 12 inches.
DeleteSweep only visits my block after big wind storms and garbage is everywhere and then they have fun doling out tickets....
DeleteAs a frequent LANTA rider, I'm disappointed that you continue to denigrate LANTA and the ATC, maybe you have some personal issues with public transit or LANTA's ridership? The ATC is a clean, safe and efficient transfer station that is used by thousands of commuters who are far from "hapless". You should try coming into the City some time on the bus and plan a transfer at ATC, I think you will come away impressed. The modern digital schedule board will provide you with real time updates on the ETA for bus your waiting for.
ReplyDelete7:18 - Why don’t you ask the owner of Dunkin what they think of the ATC? They are deluged by the homeless as soon as the weather turns cold.
DeleteAs to the bus system, I’ve been on far too many empty buses to justify the money that is dumped into LANTA. It would be cheaper to pay for people to Uber on some of the routes.
And I continue to believe the reason so many buses are now wrapped in non-transparent advertising is to keep people from seeing how few riders are on many of the buses.
Free, free, free - No need for responsibility here. A homeowner can go five / six years without paying property taxes, inhabit a house without water or electricity, and sleep on the porch. The price of freedom is constant vigilance. There is no freedom here. Many elected servants might be more capable as middle school student government officials
ReplyDeleteanon@7:18: I doubt that you use the bus, but at any rate I further doubt that you would want that terminal as your home window view
ReplyDeleteAllentown today is not the one I grew up in, What caused the city to go down the poverty sewer and become rife with crime? My wife comes from central Pennsylvania near Lebanon/Hershey and its still a wonderful place to live.
ReplyDelete“We have succeeded in building a growing poverty industry.”
ReplyDeleteWe have, and will continue to build it until we start demanding accountability and actual ways to measure the success of those who propose these plans.
How many millions have been dumped into organizations like CACLV year-after-year to fight poverty while the poverty only gets worse?
It would be nice if they gave us a scorecard once in a while so we’d know what the goals were and how to grade them.
But they only seem concerned about staying on the government gravy train.
Allentowns declining system is claim to fix when it's just the kind of spin that justifies tax spending and the claim to fix is exactly the opposite, dessimate and destroy all positives. The abbreviation in 5:40 PM's comment tells the whole story to anyone with common sense that has been watching allentowns whole debaticle unfold? The all seeing eyes are blind, the ears are deaf the mouths are silenced and the doing is done?
ReplyDelete