One of the things that annoys me most is municipal wishful thinking. Perhaps nothing exemplifies that more than bicycle lanes.
In the grit of real center city, cyclists are pre-teen boys, who haven't yet acquired enough for their unlicensed dirt bike. Instead, they pop wheelies on their bicycles, like their older brothers do on their loud dirt bikes. and ride down the middle of the street. 'They practice going the wrong way, and ignoring traffic lights.
Meanwhile, in Delusionalville, elected officials takes credit for the bicycle stencil grants, wasting our tax dollars on complete uselessness. I remember the trash compactors, as if they would solve the littering problem.
If my tone sounds somewhat more bitter than usual, it's because I think time's running out for the Allentown I knew. This city west of Bethlehem will still be called Allentown, but it won't resemble anything I remember. Likewise, I'm sure the old timers in Reading can say the same thing.
As I peck away on the typewriter with this municipal obituary, I do take solace from pictures of an inner city Easter Egg hunt. Those mothers want better for their children. I would have liked to see more fathers there, but there were some. These are tougher times in every way than my Allentown was. All these new buildings on Hamilton Street mean nothing except to the few people who own them. The smoke stacks are long gone, and so are the high paying union jobs that they fostered. Immigrants still want to come here, the left over bones from our industrial past are still more than from where they come from.
How to fold this all together, the memories with new realities, is a tough recipe.
You can't go home again.... Words by Thomas Wolfe..
ReplyDeleteI learned the meaning of those words a long time ago when I left Allentown after graduating from William Allen.. That summer was a turning point in my life, and although I came back just a few months later, in early November, it wasn't the same Allentown that I left. Hamilton Mall was being built then, and you reference the Delusionaville with the bicycle lane stenciling and the replacement of most of downtown with new buildings... it was the same when Hamilton Mall was built in an attempt to bring shoppers back downtown again.
After the Hamilton Mall, began the loss of many of the union industrial jobs you wrote about, and the closing of the storefronts on Hamilton Street.. Then the big stores began to close... Zollingers.. then Leh's then Hess's... and the big banks... First National, Lehigh Valley Trust... Merchants... Even Speedy's Record Shop was gone... and then Heydt tore down Hamilton Mall...
There have been other changes.. nearly all bad since the last shopper walked out of the doors of Hess's and the door was locked for the final time..
I never returned to live in Allentown sice I left after high school, as it's no longer the Allentown I grew up in and have the childhood memories of. Why should I? I prefer those memories over the Allentown of today...
I have had a similar experience. After Lehigh U and Penn State (State College) I left PA for a 'real job'. I returned in 1975 - A-Town was in a state of collapse. Nothing like I remembered it. My wife, who was from western PA, couldn't believe how Allentown desinagrated in just five years.
DeleteMike, The mayor came to our meeting last night and gave a sort of state of the city address. While congrats to Matt for modernizing city hall his vision for the Allentown of tomorrow is worrisome. Two things in particular, the zoning codes are now being rewritten, Matt expressed an interest in increasing density in the downtown areas rather than decrease it to more conform to its more workable original design. The second thing involves "reducing car traffic in the downtown". He would achieve this several ways but mostly by making it more expensive to own a car in the city. There were several other details that I'm sure you can discover if you dig but long story short, Matt appears to reflect the typical liberal elite thinking forces the working classes to conform to their vision of walkable, sustainable, car free cities. This isn't working out well in cities where it's already being tried, it is especially punitive to the city's low income residents who dominate the downtown and surrounding neighborhoods.
ReplyDeleteanon@7:52: Years ago Wolfe spoke at the art museum. I bumped into him afterwards at the then Hilton Hotel bar. Unusual for me, because I neither attend events or drink. He was wearing his trademark white suit.
ReplyDeleteScott@7:59: I credit Tuerk for his energy. He certainly makes himself available.
Different Wolfe. The writer of the quote died in 1938. He's my favorite writer. Look Homeward Angel). Your Thomas Wolfe (in the white suit) is the author of The Right Stuff.
DeleteMichael, I think Mayor Matt has already accomplished his one goal… Fewer cars coming Downtown Allentown. What is there to come downtown for?
ReplyDeleteBut, I do find it ironic that the Allentown Park Authority which claims they are going in the RED have purchased yet another parking deck.
Lynn Erickson, executive Director from the Da Vinci Science Center, Just closed up the suburban science center, and spent MILLIONS of DOLLARS building a new science center in Downtown Allentown. I’m sure she certainly hopes that more cars will come down to the new science center that has been built at 8th and Hamilton Street.
JB Riley would hope that more cars would come downtown to his new music venue at 10th and Hamilton and the new hotel that is being built also at 10th and Hamilton Street.
The Mayor better get on the same page with these people….unless the mayors grand plan is to have people park out at Cedar Beach and have them walk or be shuttled Downtown to these venues.
Just Sayin
Allentown has more cars than spaces west of the Jordan Creek. It's a nightmare to drive the main streets with parallel parked cars parked bumper to bumper on both sides of the street, leaving about a lane and a half with for the two opposing directions of travel to drive in.
DeleteI find it amazing I learned to drive in Allentown, back in the day before triple decker apartments, which used to be single family housing and I actually could find a place to park my mom's VW bug along 8th street pretty easily back then.
The answer to Allentown's lack of parking in the downtown neighborhoods is to reduce density in the primarily residential areas. A program to encourage deconverting multi units back to single family or two unit apartments would be the wisest move. Allentown has no logical housing plan. If I understood Matt correctly he seemed to favor allowing residential units be permitted in the rear of the old single family homes that are now multi units in the downtown. Mike, I'm sure you have seen and been in some of these existing back yard rentals. They were a bad idea when they were originally permitted and would be an even worse idea now. Forget the parking problem, if these type of structures are permitted to be built they would add considerable to the already overcrowded downtown neighborhoods, neighborhoods that were never planned to be high density.
ReplyDeleteThe current per unit price for existing apartments has been astronomical. The opportunity to encourage deconversion has come and gone.
DeleteI agee, in the short term it's not workable except to offer incentives to home buyers who want to deconvert multiunits into their single family home. I do think we will agree Mike, that Allentown's downtown neighborhoods are not the place to solve the housing shortage.
ReplyDeleteIf Tuerk's plan is for higher density in the city, I wonder if the Allentown School District is on board with that plan.
ReplyDeleteHigher density means more students, likely more transiency, and possibly more school buildings needed. That all costs money and affects student learning.
This is the problem with electing someone who hasn't been in the city very long. Tuerk is painfully unaware of the fact that downtown's density was increased decades ago and has led to the decline in both the city and the ASD. We are doomed to make the same mistakes again.
I have owned and lived in my West Walnut St home since 1987. The last thing we need are more densely populated neighborhoods. Thankfully the zoning board recently denied an application to construct two apartments to the rear of a multi unit building. The zoning board did approve the conversion of a single-family home to four apartments . Bad decision.
ReplyDeleteAnon 2:27 said: “…it's not workable except to offer incentives to home buyers who want to deconvert multiunits into their single family home.”
ReplyDeleteAnd that’s EXACTLY what the city should be doing. Allentown already has too much density, which causes too much stress on the school system, and too many people living below the poverty line. It’s not sustainable.
The only way to fix it is to give incentives for people who have the income to move into the city and do the work (on deconverting) that needs to be done. Without that happening, no amount of new downtown venues will revitalize the city.