When I was in high school we would drive the circuit. The circuit was from the Ritz at the fairgrounds down Hamilton Street to 6th Street, and back up Linden Street back to the fairgrounds.
Now that I'm a senior citizen, operating an adult day care blog, I drive the loop. On the high school circuit we looked for girls, on the senior loop I look for signs of civility. The loop is down Tilghman Street from Ott to 2nd, and across and back up Linden, back to Ott St. Going down Tilghman I encountered a young man doing a wheelie on his motorcycle in the 900 block. Farther down in the 500 block a pickup truck double parked, tying up traffic in both directions. Going east on 2nd, I was passed by a scholar on the left. The scholar stayed in the left, against the oncoming lane for several blocks. He was very pleased with himself.
Back in high school on the circuit, I was never very good at meeting girls. Now as a senior citizen, I'm not very good at finding quality of life in center city Allentown.
On the quality of life topic, last week the city celebrated the renovation of the amphitheater at Joseph Daddona Park. While I usually insist on using the traditional names of our historic venues (Union Terrace), I'm using the Daddona name because his house has just been approved as a two-unit by the zoning board. That house has a lot of history, starting out as a trolley office, to a favorite mayor's pride and joy. I hope the zoning application received the proper scrutiny.
Today, the city administration celebrates the circut with their annual car show on Hamilton Street. I suppose the phrase "You never know what you got till its gone" applies.
ReplyDeleteAt least in the early 1970s, just before Hamilton Mall was built, the city disliked the circut. Having all of those cars crusing along Hamilton Street, primarily from 12th down to 6th, then north to Linden and back up to 12th was froned upon each night. A lot of us actually would hang out in parking lots, mine was just east of 10th and Linden where the cars would pull in and we'd hang out. Then go back out again. There was an unmarked Allentown Police crusier, a green Plymouth Fury III that would park at the southwest corner on 8th street at Hamilton, and the officer would just sit there and monitor everything and everyone. We all knew he was there and behaved accordingly.
Also Hamilton street was three lanes then. Most people behaved themselves, and if you wanted to race someone, 309 was the place to do it between the Emmaus Avenue and Cedar Crest Boulevard exits where the road is straight and flat, NOT Hamilton Street.
Hamilton Mall more or less killed the circut with the narrow street lanes, the canopies and stop lights at the half-streets and the speed bumps. Even though I left Allentown in the Summer of 72, on a vist in May 76, I went up one night and there were a few cars there, but not many. It wasn't the same..
Today, I suspect the city administrators would love to have the circut back. Just to get some people to go on Hamilton Street at night.
I was living in Emmaus at that time and it seems everyone spent a lot of time driving around with their friends, and the LOOP was one of those places, the fairgrounds parking lot, it was place of community for the youth of the whole county, Sometimes friendly sometimes not so much, but generally a positive situation for all.
ReplyDeleteThe Allentown ZHB paid an apt tribute to former Mayor Joe Dadonna by allowing a suburban investor to turn his former home into a 2 unit last week. What has the City of Allentown learned over the past 50 years? Not much.. Joe Dadonna set it up in the 1970s to allow single homes to be converted to multi-units by right. In 2025 you need only go to the ZHB to turn singles into multi-units.
ReplyDeleteYou should check your resources, the City wouldn't allow a conversion to multi-family buildings. I've been told that the City banned conversions like that in the zoning ordinance.
ReplyDelete@8:02
DeleteEarth to 8:02:
I think you meant sources?
Hundreds and hundreds of conversions were done legally back in the day. I’m guessing you weren’t born yet. Off the books conversions are still done on the down low, weekends, when City staff is mostly off, are especially active times.
So you think its possible that the City approved this conversion now??? I was certain they fixed this rule and banned conversions. What if other property owners line up now for conversions? They wouldn't have to do them illegally as you are suggesting? I hope this isn't some change from the new zoning ordinance.
DeleteThis is all interesting. When the rental law came out, which, by the way, was predicated on the "three strikes you're out", which turned out to be bullshit, the paperwork that cam with the application said "and if you don't apply now, you will NEVER be allowed to have this property as a rental"... I may be paraphrasing, but you get the gist. In the final analysis, it has turned out to be nothing more than a revenue grab and more control on the populace. BTW, I only know of ONE person that was cited for the 3 strikes portion and they got off with a warning. I would love to know of all the 3 strikes situations as I may be wrong on this. AND, the police don't seem to care either... they can issue a DCR on repeat offenders. Another joke on the taxpaying residents of good ol' Allentown!!!
ReplyDeleteYou are spot on. If you call the APD regarding a disturbance at a rental unit and request that they issue a DCR, they don't even understand what you mean. There's no way that Tuerk/Roca would let the APD issue DCRs.
DeleteSince I encounter wheelies and double parkers on my weekly loop forays, these infractions must be very poorly enforced. The notion that the current administration would contribute to the affordable housing /homeless situation through DCRs is indeed remote.
DeleteThe DCR is a farce.
ReplyDeleteAs to the Daddona property, the zoning hearing board rolled over 2-1 to allow it. Despite conversions not being allowed in that area. Despite the landlord presenting no hardship.
ReplyDeleteIt used to be that the zoning code was there to protect people’s investment by letting people know what was allowed in their neighborhood. The zoning hearing board just undermined that.
No neighborhood is safe from conversions anymore. The landlord that bought the Dadonna property rents rooms anyway, and the zoning department does nothing. The landlord’s website advertises “Rooms for Cheap” as the city allows people to be packed into his properties. His “flagship” property, a large twin near West Park had 14 people living in it despite being zoned for single family use only. It has become a neighborhood problem, with about 30 police visits over the last few months.
Think it can’t happen in your neighborhood? Guess again! He just bought the Honochick property on the edge of the park surrounding the Rose Garden. He’ll likely pack that single family home full of unrelated people as well. He’s not the only landlord doing this, and the city does NOTHING.
Thanks Matt Tuerk for ignoring yet another problem in your city.
Anonymous 1:31: Thanks for the well informed clarification. It seems to me that the ZHB issued a use variance then that allowed a complete change in the use. I wonder how the realtors attorney argued that the house could not be used as a single family dwelling or if the board members even understand the concept of a hardship. My greatest concern is that speculators will now line up to get similar zoning relief to carve up single homes into apartments.
DeleteI was able to download the video from the city website and it was pretty bad. It was clear that 1 board member was a staunchly in favor of giving out a variance. She went so far as to suggest that the house the Dadonna's lived in for decades wasn't arranged like a proper single home. There was another somewhat confused person making irrelevant points and then the Chairman indicated that conversions are not permitted and the project should be denied. Some how some way, the other two prevailed. Very troubling precedent set.
DeleteAlthough I allowed comment 1:31, future comments can address zoning/housing problems in Allentown, but not specifics, identifying particular properties or people. Such comments will not appear.
ReplyDeleteThe City of Allentown doesn’t work.
ReplyDeleteIt’s still “The City Without Limits”.
I just passed on seven comments. Please don't send short insults about people.
ReplyDeleteI'll never print the MC/demolition plan, please stop sending it.
anonymous cynical commenter, you're apparently more comfortable with my name associated with your accusations, than your name.
ReplyDeletemj adams
ReplyDeletePeople should applaud the Zoning Boards commitment to affordable housing.
The current Mayor is absolutely incompetent in his current position.
Two observations based on verifiable facts.
Funny you say that...the landlord guy actually testified that he wanted to bring in low income families to the conversion and I think that made a big difference to the 2 board members that voted in favor of the variance.
Delete6:29 and 8:02 -
DeleteAllowing homes to be carved up into units or rented as rooms doesn’t fix the affordable housing crisis, it adds to it!
How? Here’s the short version:
By increasing the number of units available for rent, the price of the property increases as it can fund a higher mortgage value for the landlord. Investers often are willing to take on a higher mortgage (based on monthly income projections) to pull out excess mortgage funds as part of their profit or to fund additional property purchases.
This causes home prices to increase beyond what a single family can afford.
Without the city providing concrete numbers as to how many units the city has vs. how many units the city needs, any CITY policy that purports to solve a NATIONAL housing problem is just political pandering. At best, they are providing affordable housing to people from New York and New Jersey who are moving here because the cost is comparatively cheap (again, this only adds to the problem).
In addition to raising prices for home buyers, they are also making even rental housing more expensive. I know of some landlords renting rooms and charging $1,000 to $1,500 PER ROOM. What do you think that does to the price of an actual apartment that is being rented? It drives it far beyond the room rate and above what most people can afford.
Right now, city policy is misguided, ineffective and making the problem worse.
Generally speaking, greater supply should make housing more affordable.Because over three thousand units (converted factories and new construction) have been added to Allentown's inventory in just the last several years, pleas for affordable housing are something we cannot afford. Those seeking lower cost will have to move elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteMM - If the city existed on its own, adding more housing would make housing more affordable for city residents. Unfortunately, those 3,000 additional units have likely been filled with an additional 3,000 residents from outside the city. So nothing is solved from a number of housing units perspective, and those moving here aren’t on the upper end of the income scale.
ReplyDeleteAs you know, this is part of the poverty magnet that you spoke about decades ago.
The conversation that City Hall should be having is how many people can city infrastructure reasonably support; what are the current income demographics in the city; what do they want those income demographics to be; and how do we achieve that.
If you look at what’s happened in Allentown over the last decade or so, Allentown’s population has increased greatly but it’s been the low income demographic where the growth has occurred.
My personal belief is that since Allentown leads the Lehigh Valley as far as people living at or below the poverty level, it should be adopting policies that would draw people who have higher incomes or assets. Instead of approving smaller, less expensive housing units, it should be encouraging larger homes to be purchased (not rented). The state hospital property would have been the perfect opportunity to do this, but once again a large number of apartments are planned.
The policies that Allentown is following now is completely opposite of what it should be doing. It dooms the city to increasing poverty and for current residents to continue to pay for low income replacements to move into the city.
Allentown has been on a downward trajectory for much longer than a decade.
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