Don't let Matt Tuerk's park director drive your sports car, apparently she isn't very good at changing gears. Allentown is now building an addition to the Jordan Park Skateboard facility for $420,000. Although nobody accuses me of being up on trends, I do know that I haven't seen a kid on a skateboard in a long time. But this project was in the pipeline, and she is going ahead with it.
On the squandered money topic, state representative Mike Schlossberg bragged last week about money for new basketball courts at Cedar Beach. We're replacing the basketball backboard supports at Cedar Beach, despite them being in excellent condition. Removing the thick galvanized steel posts shown above is proving to be quite a job. The new powder coated steel won't have the longevity, especially under the surface. Replacing something of quality with an inferior product, just to say that it's new and that you brought it to Allentown, is insulting. Meanwhile, other parks, such as Canal Park on the east side, hasn't had its roads resurfaced in decades.
While the Tuerk Administration is steep with every new kind of position, they're very weak on common sense.
I happened to attend Art-in-the-Park at West Park on September 14th. It was a beautiful day, the park was filled with people and vendors, and the park was clean.
ReplyDeleteI also visited West Park over this past weekend. The leaves needed to be cleaned up, park benches had been moved under trees with low-hanging branches (likely so truant students could smoke their weed without being seen) and the homeless were back to sleeping on park benches.
Not only is the Tuerk Administration weak on common sense, they also seem weak on observation and the basics of park maintenance.
On another subject, you might want to check out the masonry work at the UT stage. I'm no masonry expert, but there appears to be little attempt to match the new mortar color to the old, and much of the new bright white mortar appears to be slopped over the stones. I'm hoping the part on the stones gets washed away when the work is completed (or when it rains) and the brightness of the new mortar subsides, but it wouldn't surprise me if this is what the finished product ends up looking like. Where is the oversight?
Regarding the basketball backboard supports, slimy state politicians don't get their names mentioned in the press when the backboard supports are merely maintained. But if you put in brand new ones, even if the old ones are perfectly fine, now that's something that the media will turn out for and certainly looks good on a campaign mailer.
ReplyDeleteOops, did I say campaign mailer? It's hard to tell the difference, but I meant to say constituent newsletter.
By the way, you're paying for the production and mailing of those self-promoting newsletters also.
PA has the largest State Assembly in the nation. Why??? For what??? Is our state government better or worse than others? How bad do things have to get until enough citizens get smart- mad- interested enough to demand change.
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