Trump wants to rename the Department of Defense, the Department of War. Likewise, Allentown's Park Department should be the Department of Neglect. Bogert's Bridge has to be the classic example. Rather than just keeping it painted, it is getting a $2.7mil overhaul. It's grant money mind you, but it's the system which needs the overhaul, not the bridge.
For the pedestrians and the occasional horse, it has plenty of structural integrity. It had seen its last motor vehicle many decades ago. Although technically a sag in the span, two concrete piers were added to the middle back in the traffic days.
When the metal bridge in the parkway was damaged by a storm, it was replaced with a pedestrian bridge, bisecting the park to vehicle traffic. That was the time and place to spend money, and keep the park as designed. We essentially now have two parks, both depriving citizens the pleasure of driving through. The Department of Neglect has suffered from the lack of strategic planning for the last three decades.
Like I said before, Mike - consider moving to New Tripoli. Allentown was flushed down the toilet years ago and is beyond all hope.
ReplyDeleteA few years ago I made one of my now infrequent visits to Allentown. I no longer live in Allentown, my visits are for personal reasons as I have no close living family living any longer, however it still is my "hometown" mentally. It was a Sunday morning that I had arrived and had some time before I could check into my hotel. As I was over on Lehigh Street I decided to stop at McDonalds for lunch.
ReplyDeleteNow, the McDonalds on Lehigh Street was the first one in Allentown, origionally being built in 1957. Ok so it's changed quite a bit since then, but I did want to stop there. One of my early memories is my family going there, about 1960 and we had a Chevy Impala convertible, and the top was down. My dad went into the "Golden Arches" building at the time and got a bag of hamburgers, I suppose we were going for a drive somewhere, but I digres..
So I got my two cheeseburgers and thought, okay, it is a nice, sunny morning, lets do lunch in the Parkway. So since I'm on Lehigh Street, I cut over through Alton Park on 24th street (where I learned to play tennis in 1970), and went over by Bogart's Bridge. That looked like hell, it needed painting and also it's sagging. Now I'm happy it is being restored, but simply painting it every once and a while would have stopped the deterioration and not necessitated the multi-million dollar "restoration" it is receiving.
I pulled in the 24th street entrance to the parkway and went down the road to the parking area where the road that used to go over Klein's Bridge is now blocked. Klein's Bridge is now only for pedestrians and bicycles, and Allentown has essentially cut the parkway in half (you can't drive through Trexler Memorial Park either now, but that's another story), So okay, lets park here in the lot next to the creek, enjoy some cheeseburgers by the little lehigh and enjoy the parkway. Looking around, I quickly learned that today, there are now two Lehigh Parkways.
There is the one which you enter via South Jefferson Street, which, with the exception of the weeds along the banks of the Little Lehigh (thank you Wildlands Conservancy for runining that), but the grass is generally cut, and there are recreation places in it.
Then there is the Parkway which you enter off 24th Street. The grass is overgrown and looks like a green wheat field with weeds (along with the weeds along the creek), and the wooden rails that delineate the gravel parking lot are rotted, falling down and need repair. There is a cheap pastic barrel that is used as a trash can, which was laying on its side. It isn't in any condition to just walk on the grass, although the running trail along the Little Lehigh is weed-free so the joggers can jog on it, and the people who walk their pets on it can let them deficate without getting ticks or fleas in their fur. Allentown also does not have a "pooper scooper" law it seems either. This part of the parkway seems to be ignored by the City. Although if you look accross the creek, the Allentown Police Academy is well-kept and the lawn trimmed all the way to the bank of the creek, Wildlands Conservatory being ignored.
Such is Allentown Lehigh Parkway the last time I visited. Where you can get ticks and possibly lyme disease due to the weeds and unkempt park.
Sadly the fat American can no longer drive across the parkway and eat his bag full of big macs he must do so partly on foot what an injustice!
ReplyDeleteanon@5:53: I wasn't going to print your hostile, anonymous mindless insult, but there is an issue to mention. The parks used to accommodate older citizens and passive enjoyment, now they are strictly recreation driven.They have become primarily venues for running and cycling. It is indeed a profound lost that an elderly couple can no longer drive through the parkway. Worse, there is. nobody in the department or the new Parknership to champion for those traditional park values. Although I've come to expect it with the department, the Parknership representation is disappointing.
ReplyDeleteThe 50's called they want your car centric mindset back!
DeleteOK BOOMER@8:06 We learned to read adequatley so we could comprehend and pass the operator's test. We didn't require it to be in Spanish either
DeleteEnjoy using LANTA
Quite honesty, I'm glad the Parkway is bisected, could you imagine today's Allentown population using this as a through road?? It would be nothing but skunk weed, tinted windows, loud mufflers and deafening music coming out of speeding cars.
ReplyDeleteA through road inside the parkway today would be the kiss of death and of course MM is completely aware of this.
DeleteI suspect that no other through road would blocked in this way. They just don't care about the historical significance of the parkway. It really does cut off much of the population who live on the west side.
ReplyDeleteAs for Dept. of war, it is more fitting with a view of last few decades. It should be a Dept. of Defense in reality.
With regards to the "Department of War", this is quite illustrative on Trump's backwards thinking. Yes, it is semantics. Before World War II, there was a War Department. It was changed to the Department of Defense by the 1947 National Security Act. It was done so becuse during the war, it was found the fragmented and competitive policies of the separate departments that had hindered effective military action during the war.
DeleteIt was done for another reason as well. That the United States military exists for the defense of the United States, and not because we are a warlike nation, such as Germany and Japan were during the war, to expand their wealth and control of other people. We do not "Go to war", we DEFEND ourselves from warlike nations, usually undemocratic dictatorships.
However Trump essentially has the mindset of a New York real estate trader, and aquiring real estate as a way of making money. Going to war is how a nation can enrich itself by siezing the resources of other nations...
This stupid act simply sends a negative message around the world to other nations.
Not to mention the simple cost of changing all the names of buildings and offices from "Defense Department" to "War Department". And that syncopant Hegseth, being the "yes man" that he is, just goes right along with it.
Ray@7:31: Replacing Klein's Bridge with a walking bridge was Don Cunningham's decision as County Executive at the time. The Pawlowski administration should have insisted, but he was an out of towner with out of towner park directors.
ReplyDeleteIn the well over 25,000 hours I spent in the Little Lehigh Parkway I never saw Don Cunningham there one time.
DeleteAs you know Hermano Tuérk is a very skilled and well traveled cyclist, there are ongoing discussions to enact a "cyclovia" incorporating several blocks downtown on every Sunday this is a great idea IMO and would be a big hit placing him in the party's stratosphere of mayor's along with Comrade Anne Hidalgo who has transformed Paris into a 15 minute City
ReplyDeleteComrade Jurgis
I lived near the park and I was annoyed when the park was bisected, but I also realize that that the park was a policeman’s nightmare after dark since t they didn’t put up vehicle barriers every night. It also was getting used as a cut-through from 24th Street to South Jefferson. I remember the park tried to stop this by making the road one-way, but that didn’t work. I assumed the division of the park had to happen. I was really annoyed when the rocks from the dams were piled up next to the bridge abutments and the mowing stopped. As the population of Allentown changed the visitor’s manners changed and I avoided the park on weekends to avoid the loud music, the trash, the unattended kids, the wading/swimming. Many new park users needed an education on how to properly use the park, but that isn’t going to happen. My park days have past, but what a gem the place was.
ReplyDeleteWhat happened is a entirely new population of people who drive like maniacs.
DeleteWhat happened to making our parks accommodating to all?
ReplyDeleteNot only are older residents being deprived of enjoying driving through Lehigh Parkway, but the city is also missing out on having those older people from bringing their kids and grandkids to the Parkway as well. Those kids and grandkids are then missing out on having a positive experience in Allentown, which could greatly influence their feelings about the city when they're older.
Some of my first memories of the Lehigh Parkway are being with my parents driving through that stretch of the Parkway, stopping to feed the ducks, and then stopping at one of the Lehigh Street restaurants on the return trip. I learned much about the park system during that time and grew to appreciate it even more as I grew up.
As to concerns about the road being a through road again, most of the problems 7:23 mentions could be solved with speed bumps and simple enforcement of existing laws/ordinances.
To me, it would be a great opportunity for the cadets at the Police Academy to get real-life training and, combined with enforcement from other officers (already going there to use the firing range), would likely be a boon to city finances as well.
Rules and laws haven’t been enforced with any regularity in the Parkway in decades. I’m calling you out as someone who has no idea about what actually happens in the park.
Delete10:06 - As someone who has been (and continues to be) in the park both before and after dark, I can assure you that I have a better idea of what actually happens in the park than most.
DeleteAs you note, the lack of enforcement is the real issue, and ironically, having no through traffic makes it much easier for those who are doing something suspicious to be spotted and reported.
Closing the road has taken a lot of eyes off the park, particularly at night, and allowed those doing wrong to feel safe doing what they want.
8:55 - I know your post is sarcasm, but it brings up a good point.
DeleteUnder Tuerk's leadership, the former Bike Line location on Tilghman has moved out of town and is now a beer and smoke shop.
That hardly seems like a positive development for the cycling community, and the beer/smoke shops seem to be the only growth industries under Tuerk's policies.
That's certainly not a trend that leads one to believe that the city is heading in a positive direction.
@10:06
Deletemj adams
I went to the park daily for over a decade and lived in the middle of it for almost another decade. I don’t think you know what you’re talking about.
Let’s all pretend that Police Academy students can issue any tickets or summons of any sort.
DeleteHow about we have delusional people write speeding tickets?
I’m well over 70. When I want to go into the park with the grandkids I drive in, park, turn around and drive out. This works for either direction.
ReplyDeleteLet me relate a personal, and I presume common experience of using Lehigh Parkway in the summer for having simple fun as an 8 year old.
ReplyDeleteI had gotten an innertube from somewhere, perhaps from one of my dad's gas stations, and fill it with air from the air pump at the station. After lunch, my mom had me get in some cutoff jeans, some inexpensive sneakers and a t-shirt and we would go over to Bogart's Bridge.
There I would get into the Little Lehigh. sit in the hole of the innertube and begin floating off in the current. My mom would drive over to the parking area by the Robin Hood Bridge, and wait for me to float down the stream, in the innertube, and when I saw her, I would paddle over to the bank and get out. It took about an hour or so and I had a fun time that afternoon; Then maybe a trip to McDonalds on Cedar Crest, then I would change up at my dad's gas station at Cedar Crest and 22.
That was 1964. Today how much of what I described is illegal or impossible to do?
1. What's an innertube?
2. Getting through the weed wall at the Little Lehigh (impossible)
3.. Floating in the creek (Illegal)
4. Going directly from Bogart's Bridge to Robin Hood Bridge (impossible)
Other days, we'd go over to Lake Muhlenburg and she would let me float around im my innertube there..... With my paddle I could paddle around the island there a few times before going back to the shoreline. In 1964 it was not an issue.. Today, it would be like floating around in a cesspool.
I'm glad I was born when I was....
I remember back in the mid to late 60’s going down to the Robin Hood bridge with our 5th and 6th grade teacher from the Roosevelt Elementary School. We had a Model Rocket Club that we would be driven down there by our parents.
ReplyDeleteWith the use of a car battery that Hoffman’s Junk yard gave to us and a homemade launch pad that we built so we could launch multiple rockets. We would spend an afternoon shooting rockets several hundreds of feet into the air. This was all good clean fun. The rocket kits were purchased at Miller’s Hobby Shop, which was located on Wyoming Street across the street from Jefferson Elementary School. It was a tiny hobby shop located in the basement of a row home. We learned how to build rockets and how to launch them successfully. All good clean fun. I doubt that you could do this activity today in the Parkway unless you pulled a permit and got a $ million $ dollar insurance policy. Ahhh, the good old days!
In todays world you would be viewed as a potential terrorist.
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