Dec 13, 2024

Double Whammy For Taxpayers In Allentown


Some of our local state elected officials met at the Baum Art School with a hired consultant to solicit input and build support for a downtown revitalization initiative. After these same officials condone the NIZ spending of a $Billion of taxpayer money for revitalization, don't they realize how meager the return on public value has been from the NIZ? Don't they realize the irony of their new initiative? 

In the Morning Call's report on the meeting, the reporter writes that the NIZ has transformed the formerly empty neighborhood into a cosmopolitan region. She wouldn't know from the paper's archives that actually Hamilton Street was not empty, and that it is not cosmopolitan now. In reality, Hamilton Street was much, much busier back then. The former Family Dollar store was the busiest in their chain. Rite-Aid was busy, as were most of the stores in the 700 block of Hamilton. Because the Morning Call acted as a press agent for the NIZ, their archives are very distorted. 

While I do agree with the consultant that Allentown is a dead zone, apparently Tuerk, Schlossberg and Miller think that vitality is a small $million more away. Nick Miller said “Speaking from the state’s perspective, we’ve invested a lot in buildings and we now need to invest in people,”  Tuerk wants his former employer, Allentown Economic Development, involved. Promise Neighborhoods' input was invited. It was suggested that nearby residents be set up in businesses.

As a taxpayer in Pennsylvania, I would pay the consultant off for his time, and hope that all the recommendations are ignored and forgotten. I do believe that Reilly's latest project, the Archer music venue, will bring some more foot traffic downtown, as will the new apartments and condos in the former PPL buildings. I ask our above mentioned politicians to stop thinking that spending more of our money is always the solution.

21 comments:

  1. Allentown needs to do two small things to bring people into the former commercial district between 5th and 12th

    * Clean up the crime that keeps people out of the area
    * Allow AEDC or another body to sell the storefronts to private owners and let them decide what type of retail outlets they want to use them for
    * Reform the Allentown Parking Authority to operate more like the former Park and Shop inside the NIZ area,
    * The APD needs to hire meter maids, and change the parking meters to use change. The last time I was in Allentown actually I was very confused about the current metering system and was not sure how to pay. (I actually found an open parking space with a meter on Hamilton Street. i got away with parking for an hour and never paid). Meter maids can also deal with the double parkers also.

    That's more than two suggestions, however i haven't had my coffee yet. It's not enough to build buildings, it's what they are used for. If a downtown offfice park is what Allentown wanted, that is what it has. Not a commercial retail district, which I believe is what the city wanted to when the NIZ was proposed,

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  2. I’m hoping that the impression new power players mentioned in today’s commentary have their ducks in a row as the impending horde of young, upwardly mobile, urban loving, entrepreneurial, educated hipster types will be arriving in Allentown, only slightly tardy, early in the coming weeks and months ahead.
    The future is so bright I have to wear shades!

    Is there a Promise Neighborhoods auxiliary I can join? Are tee shirts available?

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  3. I suggest Allentown slowly create more SURFACE parking lots adjacent to the NIZ. Parking decks are generally seen as unsafe after dark and during times when lightly occupied. Few would choose to ride alone on any empty elevator or use an empty staircase.

    The entire downtown strip needs to be overly lit up to provide a near daylight atmosphere. It needs to have security people within sight every 100 feet equipped with radio contact. Bike Police, etc. Constant observers within shouting distance around every corner and all along the patron’s route.

    The perception of crime, disorderly teen behavior, unsavory loitering, panhandling, etc. is a HUGE negative for Allentown still unsolved. Some of this could actually increase with the type of acts Live Nation might bring to a music venue that relies on an audience that will mostly be standing around inside with booze in hand.

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    1. Ironically, pathetically and corruptly the Parking Authority sold off its convenient surface lots, so that the couple NIZ developers had parcels a little easier than demolition.

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  4. I'm downtown a lot and I think enforcement of quality of life issues would go along way towards improving center city. While I'm also excited about the music hall and the coming apartments in the PPL, I think new residents and visitors would benefit from foot patrols or bicycle patrols to monitor the types of issues below:

    1. Rampant double parking (so many of these cars/drivers likely have no insurance, expired registration or occupants with outstanding warrants).
    2. Loud car stereos and mufflers
    3. Speeding and dangerous driving that threaten bicyclists and pedestrians
    4. Riding of power scooters and electric bikes on the sidewalks
    5. The dozens of smoke shops need to be made to come into compliance with City ordinances for excessive signage, neon and flashing lights
    6. Something has to be done about the constant smoking of skunk weed, much of it is smoked in parked cars. Around the perimeter of the NIZ you can smell skunk weed 24 hours a day.
    7. The litter needs to be removed along the perimeter of the NIZ daily. It's no coincidence that the litter starts up at the perimeter of the NIZ where the smoke shops and skunk weed odors start up.

    In short, Miller, Schlossberg and Tuerk should focus on making downtown clean, safe and desirable to visit.

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    1. I was born in Allentown, from one of the German-American families that were dominant in the city until recent decades. When I went into the military, I was sent to Germany for a number of years as part of my duty.

      There, the streets are clean, and actually washed at least once a week. People are fined for not using litter boxes. I lived in a small German town, and my neighbor every saturday was scrubbing his porch and washing out his driveway. Vehicles were also kept clean.

      It reminded me very much of growing up in Allentown, which was then a clean city also. There was little crime and our parks were well-maintained.

      It seems as when the Germanic influence in Allentown declined, the quality of life has as well. I do think one has had the effect on the other. And why the city has become a filthy, crime-ridden place.

      Diversity......,

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    2. anon@8:53:The demographics in cities change. While people won't be scrubbing front stoops anymore, littering and other quality of life laws could be better enforced. Unfortunately, the current administration has a different definition of quality of life.

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    3. Your experiences in Germany and old Allentown were universal in the US many years ago. I can remember the little old Italian ladies using Clorox to clean sidewalks in front of our Bronx neighborhood. They were recent immigrants, spoke little English (at the time), lived in cramped row homes, but looked to make their little world a better place. Not even one welfare check in any mailbox on the block.

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    4. Back in the 70's I lived in the Feasterville area... a very nice community. I never really noticed just how spic and span Allentown was till I drove down Tilghman Street from Cedar Crest to the East side over the bridge... the dutch cleanser women were out washing sidewalks and porches and everything just gleamed... something not seen in Feasterville. No garbage or litter on the streets... it was amazing when I took notice. Now, as a 40 year resident of this once great city, all I see is a deeply declining area, and no amount of lipstick is going to make this pig presentable. Take a gander downtown with all the new buildings... still a dump site... looks great to outsiders...
      We have the Rescue Mission guys picking litter up daily to no use... as soon as it's cleaned up, more is dropped... sad, indeed!!!

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  5. Who among leadership has eyes to see? What outside consultant actually has a clue. Those of us with eyes know why people don't want to come downtown, those of us with a clue would know how to return the downtown to a place people may want to go. For starters imagine you have never visited to city, drive in from almost any direction, by the time you to Hamilton why would you want to stay? For those who still don' understand, the NIZ is wringed by blighted neighborhoods. The people in these areas deserve far better than they are getting from city government. They see only token hires, flag raisings, a white mayor who claims to be Spanish because one his grandmothers arrived from Cuba( an island full of white descendants of the Spanish colonists. Castro was such), and a partisan minority pseudo crime reduction force. could go on.

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    1. Yes, the cure for downtown Allentown requires SURGERY, not just another BandAid.

      Allentown doesn’t need to pay an outside consulting firm to simply write only what the City really wants to hear. That’s like paying for political polling. The payer gets the result it wants, and not necessarily the truth.

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  6. Double whammy to taxpayers? Try triple whammy at least!

    Read LVR this morning about Easton removing its “commuter tax” on non-residents working in that city.

    I believe that Allentown also used the distressed city label twenty years ago to get around the 1% limitation on the earned income tax in the city charter. I also believe that the city hasn’t been considered financially distressed for almost 10 years, or at least since City Hall leased the water system to finally “solve” the pension crisis.

    If so, Allentown has been overcharging workers for almost a decade. I want my refund, with interest!

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  7. In another case of our elected officials having a muddled plan for downtown, I believe that I recently read about City Hall touting a new rehab center downtown that will be taking up residence on Hamilton Street. I don’t know if it’s a new program, or just a move for the current rehab center on Sixth Street (just south of Hamilton) onto Hamilton Street itself.

    In any event, this is not the “foot traffic” that downtown needs. The existing center takes its patrons out for multiple walks downtown each day. I have seen the reaction that those attending events at Symphony Hall have had when the they happen to run into the groups walking from the rehab center, and I don’t think it leaves a positive impression of the city or creates a desire to come back.

    I understand that those with substance abuse issues need help, but City Hall needs to realize that some uses just aren’t appropriate for downtown buildings if the goal is to draw people with disposable incomes downtown. To me it’s just another case of those occupying having no clear plan or vision for downtown.

    Before our local representatives commit another single taxpayer dollar to the downtown area, they ought to deal with that problem first.

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    1. There vision is an ideological one, they are unaware of what is practically in the best interests of the actual residents and the city itself. For instance, A non-profit "Ripple" was gifted a vacant church building at 16th and Chew. They told the community here in West Park they planned to transform the church into several low income apartments. We didn't object, until we found out on our own their plans were actually quite different, they wanted a medical facility, offices, the apartments, and a community center. This would have increased traffic around the church, added to already existing parking problems, but worst of all would have been a magnet for the areas growing homeless population. This smack dab in the center of the downtown's last attractive downtown neighborhood, a community of diverse middle class homeowners. This obviously bad idea had, I'm sure the tacit support of the mayor and the administration. We/the community, had to hire a lawyer to fend off this existential threat to he neighborhood at zoning. After three long hearings, lawyers charge by the hour, the boards decision was a squeaker, Ripple got all they wanted but the community center. That is likely all they wanted in the first place as there is lots of grant money out there for those who help the homeless. They appealed to county court, again, we had to pay the lawyer, and again we squeaked by. If we weren't the tight community that we are, and if we didn't have the funds to fend thus off it would have sailed through and there would be a drop in center, a block from West park, to serve the homeless. We already have a homeless problem in the park from Ripple's other drop in center located two blocks south on Linden, the additional drop in center at 16th and Chew would have at least doubled the homeless population in our alleys, on our streets, and in the park day and night. We have discovered, it's not just the city government that is clueless on to how to truly help Allentown, notable trust funds, wealthy virtue signalers, and the county government is throwing money at the non profit, who if they get their way will turn West Park into a mecca for the areas homeless. This will drive away the diverse middle class homeowners who have been the anchor to this historic well kept neighborhood. Again, why are city and county government, local trusts, and those of wealth, power, and influence so unaware their actions aren't helping! They are hurting the city and the good people who call Allentown home.

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    2. Scott, in regard to the trust funds and virtue signaling:
      The Trexler Trust, set up to fund the parks, is now contributing to Promise Neighborhoods. Promise Neighborhoods is also acting as guides on the Wildlands Conservancy's South Mountain reserve. The Wildlands in turn is supported by the Rider-Pool Foundation.

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    3. There should be no funding of nonprofits by government. They are being used to skirt the rules of what government can and cannot do, and are not accountable to the taxpayers.

      The government should pay to do things it should be doing and the public funds the nonprofits to do their work.

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    4. The Pool Trust is responsible for the creation of Promise Neighborhoods (United Way also had some initial involvement), this early institutional memory is largely lost or ignored. The Program was based on a model developed by Jeffery Kennedy, if memory serves me, it often doesn’t, out of NYC, as an educational program utilizing Wall Street cash during the boom boom years. The model never stood a chance of being duplicated in Allentown and the floundering initiative took years to find a cohesive form, if on is will to except the idea that the current organization represents something
      authentic or constructive.

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  8. I live in what might be called the near West End, Allentown. I’m happy to hop in the car and go downtown with family and friends for an evening out a few nights a month…downtown Easton, Historic or South Side Bethlehem. During the coming holidays these outings will happen several times a week. It’s well worth the drive.

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  9. The heart of any city is who lives there. Not who owns or invests, or works or goes there, but those who live there. The residential neighborhoods surrounding the NIZ have been and are the sources of Allentown's problems. Once the source of Allentown's greatness, these neighborhoods became a growing problem somewhere around the 1970's Municipal response managed these problems through the early 2000's. However, now these neighborhoods are an unchecked millstone hanging around the neck of a billion dollar office park that's been plopped down in the middle of chaos and there is no relationship between the residential neighborhoods and the office park. It is as if a foreign object by some irregular means grew within the city that surrounds it.
    If you really want to improve all of Allentown, you must start by addressing the rampant problems in the residential neighborhoods surrounding Hamilton Street. That is the disease, center city's woes are a symptom of that disease. "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

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  10. I'm going to put this out there and I'm sure it will be pooh-poohed... but, as a center city homeowner, I have personally witnessed the city giving homeowners grief while rental units seem to get a universal pass. However, if you are an owner/resident of a rental, you don't get the pass, you instead get put under the magnifying glass. It is patently obvious the city is endorsing rentals since tenants are easier to control. My understanding is the greater part of center city is slated for redevelopment in the coming years. Renters are easy to move, homeowners not so much. The wrecking ball has been slowly creeping past the NIZ for some time if you have taken notice. Why the NIZ has been nothing more than an office park is amazing. Restaurants come and go like locusts. The swanky apartments appear quite underutilized and more dark than lit at night... but the wrecking ball creeps onward...???!!!! We need more building to be successful.....

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  11. Mike same old circus carnival sideshows with a different flavorful spin for the public to gulp. Some will make claims as too the old fermenting blue juice that made up the insider trading water sale!

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