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.
above reprinted from June of 2022
ADDENDUM APRIL 19, 2023: Since the above post was written less than a year ago, there's yet another new park director, but I'm hoping to maintain a channel to that office. However, as always, my mission remains the parks, not polite cordiality.
While I'm still advocating that the current picnic pavilions be saved, another important park feature has just been discarded. Before the expensive (10k each) PlayWorld novelty exercise kiosks were installed, the park had old school exercise stations. A classmate of mine from the mid 1960's would finish his daily walk with pull-ups. While these time proven exercise stations were in good condition, this park system apparently still prefers gimmicks from catalogs.
Last, but not least, this year's duckling forecast... You may have noticed very few ducks on the Rose Garden side of the park, but there are a few pairs. Unfortunately, their propagation chances again look slim. The park department did not mow the creek bank on the first cutting, and the poison hemlock is already thriving. If they cut down it before the ducks hatch, as they have for the last four years, once again no ducklings will survive to swim the ponds. The window for the bank cutting has closed, and they must now wait until after the ducklings are hatched and on their own.
It’s funny that your 2023 addendum mentions the pull-up bars being removed. I miss having them there so that I could do a few (but ever-dwindling number of) pull-ups after my walk or run.
ReplyDeleteBut do you know what else left along with the pull-up bars? The high school ROTC groups that used the pull-up bars (and the running paths, and the hill near the Cedar Crest College Library).
Those young men and women were inspirations, Both in their fitness consistency and willingness to serve their country. I often wonder where they moved their training to.
I know many politicians are anti-police and anti-military. I hate to think that was the real purpose or even part of the decision behind the removal of the pull-up bars.
Rose Garden Rager
It is not surprising these picnic pavilions are being allowed to deteriorate. It is the benign neglect of the current city administration with regards to Allentown's parks that continues.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that the current mayor has little use for Allentown's past and only focuses on its future and the interests which he pursues. Just add these to the list of things that seem to be on the schedule of "we will get around to it".
* Bogart's Bridge ( I suppose it needs to collapse into the Little Lehigh until something is done about it)
* WPA structures in Lehigh Parkway, Union Terrace, Irving Park, other places in the city.
* cutting the grass in the west end of the parkway
* Cedar Creek Park (as you highlighted yesterday)
The list is long, and I have not included the refuse problem that plagues Allentown. The current city residents seem not to care about trashing facilities.
Just another reason the city today is not as it was in previous generations.
Perhaps they are viewed by our current leaders as relics of an exclusionary past, not worth preserving.
DeleteNo it's not political....We've had an succession of park directors, who seem to adopt the existing long term infrastructure decisions, without reevaluation. There has been consequences to that... they allowed the roof to leak on the large garage across from the stadium, the building so deteriorated that it needed to be demolished. Park equipment is now scattered willy nilly, here and there.
DeleteWhile off topic, your silence on the new Democrat hopeful may be the loudest message.
ReplyDeleteRay, this blog bills itself as A Chronicle of local politics and history and although I occasionally go beyond that boundary, it's not my mission. I thought it was improper to hide Biden's deteriorating condition, and appropriate for him to stand down from the 2024 race. As an independent conservative Kamala Harris will not receive my vote. If her stepping in is proper, that may be a concern for the Democrats, but not for me or this blog.
DeleteI’d like to go slightly off-topic and talk about litter in general. Anon 6:47 made a comment about “the refuse problem that plagues Allentown”, and it jogged a thought.
ReplyDeleteLong ago, every city block had a couple of municipal trash receptacles attached to poles. Our parks also had numerous receptacles within a relatively short distance of each other.
Somewhere along the way, that changed and our litter problem got worse. Today we’re lucky if there’s ONE trash receptacle per block in our neighborhoods and in the parks the receptacles seem mostly limited to parking areas (and picnic pavilions). They’re certainly needed there but it’s nowhere near enough.
Decades ago, Disney decided that if they wanted clean parks, they needed more receptacles (approx 15-20 ft apart!) throughout their amusement parks. A major part of Dorney Park’s effort to clean itself up also involved putting in more trash receptacles.
So while I wish that more people did a better job at cleaning up after themselves, I also believe that we have once again been failed in a large part by City Hall. More receptacles equaling less litter isn’t exactly rocket science, yet this fact seems to elude our leaders in City Hall.
Finally, since 6:47 also mentioned Bogert’s Bridge, what’s going on there? They had their 175th anniversary of the bridge years ago and supposedly had (or were very close to having) the money needed to repair and paint the bridge. Yet nothing gets done.
If major features of our parks are not being properly maintained, just what is our parks director doing, besides filling out the mowing schedule?
I really don’t care if the director is new or not. We should be seeing results. Major results. But I don’t see ANY.
I don't think increasing the number of trash receptacles would make a difference. I clean up all litter on a daily basis from my immediate neighborhood and I can tell you than roughly 25% is thrown from cars, roughly 50% is discarded by the urban underclass in front of businesses and rental properties and the other 25% is from the trash haulers and other various unique sources. Due to cultural incompatibility, the 50% of trash is getting littered regardless of the presence of a trash can. It would be like expecting the urban underclass to stop double parking because there's a space available. I think it's naive to think that the cultural traditions of littering can be corrected. I'd recommend that you simply do like me and go out and pick up all the litter each day so your little part of the City will look nice and you can be proud of it.
DeleteMike, why not form a group of citizens to meet with the Mayor, CD Director and Parks Superintendent/Director and ask all these good questions?
ReplyDeleteFor many years I did attend meetings, but now this blog serves as a medium for the questions.
DeleteAt that bureaucratic juncture, complete with the requisite glossy report and masthead of distinguished academics and distinguished citizens, funded by Trexler Trust, a critical management decision was taken.
ReplyDeletePARKS and Recreation was to became one organizational structure under one Cabinet Level administrator.
Imagine if you will, Yankee Stadium and the Bronx Botanical Gardens run by the same management team. Baseball park infields and greenhouses devoted to exquisitely delicate tropical horticultural species, all one big park and recreational extravaganza.
An economy of scale!
Allentowns extraordinarily precious park system precise has been in steep decline for at least several generations now. The damage and the destruction that the casual visitor observes is the literal tip of the iceberg.
mj Adams