Yesterday, J.B. Reilly broke ground on another residential building. Back in 2011, this blog wondered why the Morning Call parcel was included in the NIZ map, when it stood across from Linden Street by itself...I suppose now we know the answer.
This 15th Strata is called the Standard, and Reilly pledges to make some of its studio apartments affordable. That status will be down the road anyway. Because his new residential buildings have failed to gentrify downtown, they can't even support a food court, they will become the future's tenements soon enough. No less than four of our elected representatives were there to help Reilly celebrate his prosperity, it's certainly not ours!
In addition to our clueless officials, the Morning Call ran a 16 to 26 photo spread on the charade, depending on which version you see. Does the paper's new staff even know that this parcel were their former offices, when they had offices, before working from home? If my posts seem shorter, it's because my confidence in Allentown's relevance is becoming dimmer.
photocredit/AprilGamiz/TheMorningCall
These people are Allentown's grave diggers.
ReplyDeleteare they digging a mass grave?
DeleteSycophants and narcissists.
ReplyDeleteAs if downtown Allentown is already teeming with Strata residents. I suspect most Strata residences have never been lived in.
ReplyDeleteI fail to understand why Reilly just does not look at demographics and sees the most growing numbers in our population are the boomer generation, wanting to sell their homes after their children are now gone, and downsizing to condos and senior apartments.
Those all need food and drug stores to support them, although it can be said that many traditional drug stores are closing due to the growth of drugs by mail and internet suppliers like Amazon.
Allentown simply does not have the well educated Generation Z 20 somethings that are looking for companies to start their careers and invest in the future. Those are the individuals who can spend large amounts on renting, as well as eating out and consuming alchohol. Which the NIZ has plenty of places to indulge in, and also come and go with a sense of regularity as the expections of the owners does not match the revenue stream they recieve.
What Allentown has plenty of is lower class individuals with relatively small incomes with marginal educations and job skills. This is what the ASD is good at producing, with most of their graduates being unable to even read at their grade levels. This is shown by the high crime rate of the city and the large number of gang members that live in the Allentown east of the Fairgrounds.
The only destination which really is utilized downtown is the Arena, which attracts mostly surburbanites who attend the hockey games, then go back to their homes and yards in the townships.
Given his litterally unlimited amount of money being provided by the Commonwealth to build what he wants to build, I suppose building what the market would utilize is irrelevant.
Reilly doesn’t give a good gosh darn about the demographics, or the rental market.Read Molovinsky on Allentown for comprehension.
DeleteReilly claims that his occupancy is 97%. Must be very introverted tenants, I never see them, nor do they seem to patronize any businesses. With his debt service being picked up by the taxpayers, I don't see why he would want the upkeep, turnover and repairs associated with the real downtown tenant pool.
DeleteYour assessment of the demographics is spot on, but you forgot that each of these employed affordable housing residents need a car to get to their jobs at one of the industrial parks or medical centers. The days of taking the bus to your job downtown were really gone 50 years ago. And if I was a young pro looking for affordable housing I wouldn’t be looking at 6th and Turner. I’d be looking at something closer to my job.
DeleteMy guess is the suspicious claim of 97% occupancy is because large blocks of apartments are leased by corporations and other groups for occasional use. Like for sales people, out of town sports teams, etc.
DeleteThere just seems to be no evidence out on the streets at any time to indicate so many new residents have been brought in. Surely not in great enough numbers to keep business start ups going. Then, all those pitch black windows during early evenings. Just not natural.
Well, if worse come to worse they can all be filled with Hud tenants.
ReplyDeleteBash the Morning Call all you want. This is one fabulous photograph.
ReplyDeleteAgreed! Can't help but notice all the smiles on those gravediggers. This picture will be emblazoned on the 7th street exits off of Rte 22 when those exits are eventually shut down and access to center city is restricted.
DeleteThis photo is a biographical sketch of considerable merit. In a hundred years people can look at this motley posse and draw some pretty accurate conclusions about exactly how fugazi things really were.
DeleteVery, very, fugazi, and it is probably down hill from this already desperate place.
anon@11:40: down the road, we may look back at this as the good old days. I'm hoping for a reprieve, which is why I'm supporting Ed Zucal.
DeleteThe idea that a building with a majority of studios and one bedroom units is helping Allentown "families" is just delusional, regardless of the price point. I also doubt the 13 homeless people waiting to enter the library this morning are applying for any of these units in the future.
ReplyDeleteWhat is the expression? Whistling past the graveyard? That is what the current admin is doing, but at least we may get an ev or hybrid police vehicle to affirm our concern for the environment.
Has the State of Pennsylvania ever inspected or audited the NIZ at least to see where all the money has gone? $1,000,000,000 is a lot of Pennsylvania's citizens money to simply spend without any oversight, tracking, auditing, adherence to quality and efficiency standards, expectations of results, monitoring, you know, like the exam the state government puts all of its tax payers through every year to make absolutely sure they pay every cent of their income taxes. Could it be that Pennsylvania government gives one Pennsylvanian a billion dollars cart blanche while hounding the rest of the Pennsylvanians to declare the pennies on their eyes?
ReplyDeleteJarrett Coleman is our only elected official who has pursued an audit, and he has encountered one roadblock after another. If a real audit will ever occur is questionable.
DeleteIn the good ole days, a community’s local news media would slice and dice this whole NIZ scheme before the first shovel was turned. You know, in the public interest by adding some level of checks and balance.
DeleteUnfortunately, in today’s America, no one seems to care about wasted taxpayer dollars except those who go to work every day to provide those tax dollars.
Pat Brown had the good sense to disappear. Hendricks is the Cat Who Came Back. He lives for the photo op.
ReplyDeleteJosh just oozes perv quality. Josh makes Mayor Matt come off wholesome.
He sets the bar high for Lehigh County woke politics
Reilly is aging well, and why not? Imagine what he really thinks about this band of pretenders, losers and desperate political hacks.
The two women look like normal people.
Subject photo along with other evening pictures of the bleak, deserted streets of the NIZ after dark would make an excellent opening for some old Boris Karloff/Bela Legosi reruns. Makes me shiver just to think of them.
ReplyDeleteAgain I apologize for all comments not printed. Questions about who is who in the photo do not get printed. Posts speculating on which city officials will come to own Stratas do not get printed. Generally, any question or post with many factual errors which would require a reply, do not get printed.
ReplyDeleteJosh and Matt are totally in sync. This is the one-two leadership punch in action.
ReplyDeleteIt’s a thing of beauty.