Mayor Daddona's plan to save Allentown was the canopy built in front of the stores on Hamilton Street. Mayor Heydt's plan was tearing down the canopy in front of the stores. Mayor Pawlowski's plan is to tear down the stores and build an entertainment complex. Pawlowski's plan will eventually take three square blocks off the tax rolls. Already the first $100 million block has grown into a second block and another $100 million. Because of a rainy week, Steel Stack's Jeff Parks is walking around with a tin cup asking for donations. The Sands Corporation will be able to finance its new entertainment complex with a money machine called a casino. When it rains on Pawlowski's white elephant, which it must from all the local competition alone, the short fall will come from our pockets. I'm not sure where Pawlowski will be then, but we're going to be up the creek, without a paddle, paying for huge, underused tax free buildings. There should have been a law, or a vote, or a City Council.
above reprinted from September of 2011
ADDENDUM AUGUST 9, 2024:Who knew that 13 years later Musikfest would again be having another rainy week. Allentown's arena turned out to be an underused pretext for a real estate scheme called the NIZ, which has profited essentially one man. Pawlowski ended up in federal prison, and this blog is still taking the bad actors to task.
And the rest of the city outside of the NIZ (which includes the area between the Hamilton Street Bridge and the Tilghman Street Bridge) gets older and older, with no where to park, with more and more people with their hands out waiting for their government assistance checks and free meals for their children. Paid for by the Allentown School District. Which is another disaster unto itself.
ReplyDeleteI'd argue that along the perimeter of the NIZ, that the dozens of smoke/dope shops with flashing fluorescent lights are doing great. Just take a walk outside the boundary of the NIZ some time and you can smell the aroma of loser degenerates smoking dope all day long.
DeleteMaking a city prosperous is not that difficult. It must make the city enticing to people with incomes to want to live in the city. It must make operating a small business easy and create the conditions for it to be prosperous. It is a bottom up process, not a top down deal. Very few politicians today know anything about bottom up, it is all about them and spending more money and making it more difficult for anyone in the city to succeed.
ReplyDeleteSo many lies have been told about both Allentown and Musikfest over recent years it will be interesting how both of these exaggerations handle revelations that should be coming out by the end of this month.
ReplyDeleteIn a few weeks, a more honest accounting from ANIZDA and the boys will be made public thanks to the efforts of Jared Coleman.
We should also get some announcement from the Musikfest elites about attendance. This one will be tricky given the weather. As soon as Musikfest began to falsely claim attendance in the one million+ range it boxed itself in. No one will want to give an estimate under a million.
These two hornswoggles are under some pressure now.
I suppose having Musicfest in the Pawlowski (PPL) arena would be too much to ask. Seating with air conditoning, along with refreshment stands.
DeleteDoes anyone with school age children and the possibility of a better educational experience for their children decide to relocate or remain in Allentown for the opportunity to enroll their children in the Allentown School District? Does the fact that Allentown just procured a grant that officially recognizes it as one of the most distressed job markets in the country act as a beacon to entice enterprising young families to the formally Queen City? Does the fact that the most visible community partner in that grants coalition represents a group that proclaims its dedication to reducing gun violence on it’s hi-vis apparel
ReplyDeleteinspire optimism? Is there any outcome data on that indicates successful, verifiable outcome regarding youth crime and delinquency or the fear associated with it? Has City Hall established a sense of political and civic competence and stability that speaks to the delivery of essential services particularly in the area of public safety? What does the exodus of the social capital in the relatively affluent West End to L.M. Twp. mean to the future of Allentown? When are the trend settings, Tec savvy, college graduates looking for an hip urban experience due to arrive in the NIZ? Does Allentown’s magnificent park system represent a resource of tremendous appeal or a visible manifestation of decline?
Just a few questions to ponder as one gazes into the crystal ball.
There are many questions to ponder in Allentown but they all lead back to the primary one; who elects these people? You have listed the results of the answer. Scott Armstrong
DeleteNeglect of the entire area out of the zones will in time mean more zones to conquer. This will lead to more and more tax payer dollar's dumped into this failing destination attraction.
ReplyDeleteI'm not as excited as all the rich white people seen in the articles celebrating in Allentown over the 20 million grant. A growing city (Allentown) in a prosperous, well connected region (Lehigh Valley) is to be associated with the other award recipients, a motley assortment of poor rural areas and poverty stricken Native American enclaves. I wonder how bad they had to portray our city and region in the grant application. Is Alletown really as bad off as people living in the hollers of eastern Kentucky or on isolated rural reservations in Washington and Wyoming. Are we as desperately poor as Birmingham Alabama, a decaying former steel producing city in a poor state (Alabama). I'm actually feeling a little guilty that Allentown got this grant, since we may have taken much needed funding away from some extremely poor, isolated, rural people who really and truly need this kind of assistance.
ReplyDeleteMethnks that grant was intended as a boost for Susan Wild. An incumbent who has accomplished nothing on her own, but is a super loyal friend to Nancy Pelosi.
DeleteI just read on WFMZ that the Allentown Police union held a vote of “no confidence” in Chief Rocca that passed on Tuesday. According to the article:
ReplyDeleteThe lawsuit names 16 current and former police officers, including chiefs, assistant chiefs and members of the vice squad, alleging several police officers had sex with prostitutes and stole drug money…
…(FOP President Dave) Benner says the lawsuit was not mentioned as the reason for the vote, but that:
"The allegations and rumors have been circling around the station for a long time. I think an outside, independent investigation needs to be done so the Allentown Police Department can move forward. If the allegations are true, it's only going to tarnish and hurt the officers who work hard every day."