A Crime By The Wildlands Conservancy

photo by Tami Quigley

The top photo shows the Robin Hood Bridge, before the Wildlands Conservancy demolished the little  Robin Hood Dam, just downstream beyond the bridge. The dam was only about 10 inches high, and was built as a visual effect to accompany the bridge in 1941. It was the last WPA project in Allentown, and considered the final touch for Lehigh Parkway. Several years ago, the Wildlands told the Allentown Park Director and City Council that it wanted to demolish the dam. The only thing that stood between their bulldozer and the dam was yours truly. I managed to hold up the demolition for a couple weeks, during which time I tried to educate city council about the park, but to no avail. If demolishing the dam wasn't bad enough, The Wildlands Conservancy piled the broken dam ruble around the stone bridge piers, as seen in the bottom photo. I'm sad to report that the situation is now even worse. All that ruble collected silt, and now weeds and brush is growing around the stone bridge piers. I suppose the Wildlands Conservancy considers it an extension of its riparian buffer.

The Wildlands Conservancy should be made to remove, piece by piece, all the rubble that they piled around the bridge piers, despoiling the bridge's beauty. City Council should refrain from ever again permitting The Wildlands Conservancy to alter our park designs.

ADDENDUM JULY 9, 2018: It has been five years since the dam's destruction in 2013, and the bridge piers look more disgusting than ever. While Allentown has the third Pawlowski appointed park director taking orders from the Wildlands Conservancy, we do have a new mayor. Hopefully, Ray O'Connell will wrestle park system decisions back to the city.

Downhill On Lehigh Street

During the early 1970's, Allentown demolished the entire neighborhood between Union and Lawrence Streets. It was, in a large part, home to the black community. How ironic that we destroyed the cohesion of a neighborhood, but renamed Lawrence Street after Martin Luther King. The only remnant of the neighborhood is the St. James A.M.E. Church. Going up the hill today we now have a vacant bank call center on the east, and the Housing Authority Project on the west. A whole neighborhood existed in from both sides of Lehigh Street, including black owned shops. The houses were old and humble, but people owned them, many for generations. Some blacks at the time wondered if the project was Urban Renewal or Negro Removal?

reprinted from January 2017


The bank call center referred to above is now Building 21, Allentown School District's own alternative charter like high school.

ADDENDUM: I was recently asked if I had done any posts on Allentown's black community. I graduated Allen in the mid 1960's when blacks only comprised about 2% of the town. Only one black guy hung out with my group, and he attended Dieruff. My father's meat market was on Union Street just before the bridge over the Lehigh. Mr. Brantley purchased meat there for his cafe, one of several black owned businesses in the former neighborhood chronicled above.  Although many of Allentown's black residents lived there,  the neighborhood was still predominately white.

To Whom Do The Allentown Parks Belong

Recently the Allentown Park Director told me that she is being pressured to plant wider riparian buffers by the Conservancy/Greenlands, and to cut them down by me.  But, who are we?  I represent the park sentiments of thousands of Allentonians.  I know this from social media such as facebook,  where hundreds of people every week tell me to keep fighting for the parks.  I know this from visiting the parks, where dozens of people tell me to keep fighting.  But more importantly,  who is the Wildlands Conservancy and Greenways of Lehigh Valley? They are regional groups with paid professional directors who seek and award grants.  Although their counsel might be useful for a small township or municipality without its own park department,  why should they dictate policy in Allentown?  Allentown has its own iconic park system, and even its own grant benefactor, The Trexler Trust.

In Allentown the storm sewer system is piped directly into the creeks, bypassing the riparian buffers, making them useless as buffers anyway.  All they accomplish is to block both access and view of the streams.  The Allentown Park Department allowed the Greenway Project to plant a buffer on the Little Lehigh in Fountain Park,  while at the same time allowing the swimming pool there to succumb to neglect and permanent closure.  It is time for Mayor O'Connell and Allentown to reclaim direction of the Allentown Park System.

photocredit:molovinsky

A Victory For The Traditional Park System

Followers of this blog know that I have been waging a war against the weed wall blocking both the view and access to the streams.  Perhaps my last post on June 14th finally struck the right chord, but at any rate the weed wall has been cut down from behind the rose garden.  Although this is done occasionally to control invasive species in the weed barrier,  I have confirmed on good authority that indeed this recent cutting represents a change in policy.   I would like to express my gratitude to both park director Lindsay Taylor and Mayor Ray O'Connell for their time on this and other issues.

Although I am grateful,  there is another issue needing attention....  Along the entire stretch of the Cedar Creek between Ott Street and Cedar Crest Blvd there is but one bench along the creek.  We elderly not only need access to the water, but a place to sit, rest and enjoy the serenity General Trexler intended.

As residents flock to the parks today to celebrate the holiday, I will continue to advocate for those aspects of the traditional park system which for decades were featured on picture post cards, as shown above.

Allentown's Poor Pool Excuse

Four reporters from the Morning Call joined forces to report on Here's Why Summer After Summer, Some Pools Are Closed.  Apparently the paper needs to assign more reporters, because they all seemed to accept the city's sorry excuse.  The article explains that the shortage is caused by factors such as teenagers wanting more comfortable indoor jobs.  The article mentions that the city has a limited budget and pays $8.75 an hour.   Although I do not have an advanced degree in finance,  I bet that if the city would pay $10 or even $12 an hour, there would be a surplus of applicants.  Furthermore, again even without the advanced degree,  I know that the extra pay would be taxpayer beneficial, compared to closed and underutilized pools.

I'm amazed at both the city and the paper for giving and printing such disingenuous answers, summer after summer. There is  little reason to believe that the city ever intended to open Irving Pool, which is on the books for conversion to a spray park.

Shown above is the former Fountain Park Pool which closed after years of excuses, as being reported now about the other pools.

LV Politics and Pro Wrestling

Lehigh Valley politics and professional wrestling have a lot in common... they both involve fakery with a pre-determined outcome.

Every year our state senators and representatives get to be white knights with the school budget. The state mandates that the districts must determine their budgets before the state contribution is known. This formula allows our elected officials to be heroes just a few months before the election every year.

Every summer Allentown parks has shortage of life guards, and must curtail the swimming pool options. If it's not just an excuse, you would think that by now they would learn that they must outpay the local amusement park, and start their yearly search earlier. This season Irving Pool will not open at all. The city is phrasing this pool out,  just as they did to Fountain Pool years ago. Shortage of lifeguards is an convenient excuse.  With the Tilghman Street Bridge closed,  the east side once again gets the short end of the stick.  Alan Jennings and Community Action Committee of Lehigh Valley want to train their low income clients to be farmers, how about life guards?

Most Allentonians of memory share my disgust about the weed wall barriers blocking the streams in the parks.  The Morning Call has been withholding letters on that topic to accommodate the agenda of the Wildlands Conservancy.

Those looking for a little truth about Allentown to sprinkle on their early morning gruel are pretty much limited to this blog.

Imantrek On Local Democratic Democracy

Imantrek isn't happy about the way certain people were treated at the recent Democratic Committee Selection Meeting. He isn't happy about how the event was covered by The Morning Call, and he isn't happy about how the party is now trying to distance itself from his coverage of the event. This blog will present Iman's presentations on this event, above is the first of three videos.

Lehigh Valley Railroad Piers

In this era of class warfare, while we worry that the rich are only paying 35% income tax, instead of 39%, let us be grateful that once upon a time we had the Robber Barons. In this era when we have to pay their mortgage for developers to build on Hamilton Street, let us be grateful that men built railroads with private money. Let us be grateful that incredible feats of private enterprise built piers, bridges and trestles. Trains allowed us to move vast amounts of raw and finished materials across America. This network allowed us to protect ourselves during two World Wars, and provided the prosperity upon which we now rest.

The Lehigh Valley Railroad tracks extended from their piers in New Jersey to the shores of Lake Erie. The Mile Long Pier in Jersey City was the scene of German sabotage in 1916. A train full of munitions, awaiting shipment to Europe, was blown up on July 30th of that year. In 1914, the railroad built the longest ore pier in the world, in Bayonne. The ore would come from Chile, through the new Panama Canal, for shipment to Bethlehem.

reprinted from August 2016

Blogging, The Last Watchtower

Anybody who buys The Morning Call on Monday knows what slim pickings is. The paper is produced on Friday, with a one man weekend crew, to cover the police blotter. There's hardly enough paper to cover the bottom of a bird cage. That leaves the news junkies forced to read garbage like this. Even the blogosphere is slim pickings. Another local blogger says that I'm lazy and preoccupied with choo choo trains. I actually haven't done a choo choo post in over six minutes, that's how long it took me to read the paper this morning. Truth to be told, I am fascinated with how much Allentown has changed within the last 50 years, and the railroads are a good metaphor. In my youth, the city was serviced by rail branch lines with dozens of sidings, supplying many industries with raw materials, to produce products distributed all over the country. Those industries fostered a large middle class, and a high standard of living. We were the truck capital of the world, we were home to the first transistors, and a retail legend. The tower shown above in 1963, and the gas tank in the background, were on Union Street. Although they are both now gone, this lazy blogger will continue to combine history, news and commentary for those of us who still remember a different era.

reprinted from November of 2013

Farm Nonsense In Lehigh Valley

There is no end to the nonsense about farms in the Lehigh Valley.  Subscribers know that I oppose Farmland Preservation.  While there is plenty of farmland in the valley,  all Farmland Preservation does is buy development rights from land owners who never intended to sell the land in the first place.  Ironically the rational farm program, Clean and Green, was misrepresented and bashed in a Morning Call article which has been featured on their webpage now for over three months.  If Farmland Preservation wasn't enough waste of our taxes,  the County has been subsidizing a program to teach farming.  Next, we'll be paying for actors to make believe they're farmers at county display farms.  Get over it... farming is hard work for real farmers on real farms.  Clean and Green provides a tax break for such real farming.

But continuing the nonsense,  now Community Action Committee of Lehigh Valley,  which assists low income people in various ways,  wants to take over the county training farm.  Next we'll be giving their graduates their own farms.  That organization already sets people up in business.  They don't just give fishing poles, they give fish markets.  The Seed Farm offers opportunities for those in the inner city to discover their green thumbs. “I like the idea of bringing in a more diverse population,”  County Executive Phil Armstrong said,  as if minorities were excluded from the previous program.

Ironically the director of Community Action just asked me to appear on his new radio show.  I'm not trying to be the guest from hell, but this blog would serve little purpose if I pull punches,  even with an upcoming host.

Allentown's Delusions Of Grandeur

On yesterday's post about the All American City,  someone commented that Allentown had a lot of nerve applying,  considering that the city elected a mayor facing numerous corruption charges.  Also yesterday,  I announced on facebook that Bernie O'Hare and I will be Alan Jenning's first guests on his new WDIY radio show,  after he resigned in 2014 in protest that the station wouldn't air his previous show with us.  Not to be an ungrateful guest,  but I scanned the station's upcoming schedule, and it's business as usual.... Another host interviews J.B. Reilly, talking about business leadership in Allentown.  I don't mean to imply that Reilly has delusions of grandeur,  we are building him a $Billiion dollars worth of real estate. However,  not only was the deck stacked in his favor, it was made for him.

Allentown continues to run with sacred cows and cronyism.  My new radio debut may be very short lived.

Blogger on left before being outlawed at The Morning Call

Before The Transformation

For most of Allentown's past, there was no need for a Transformation. We were the ideal city, so much so, that in the mid 1970's, we were proclaimed The All-American City. We were Mayberry, only much larger. Our little leagues played under the lights, and our fathers worked for top union wages. Imagine a city that could boast that it actually manufactured its own fire engines! Imagine a city that had no litter. We now have so much litter, not only do we need trash cans, we need trash compactors. We once were a destination and envied. This blog will continue to report current city events as I perceive them, engage with the bureaucrats as my energy permits, and occasionally share a glimpse of our past.

reprinted from September of 2012

UPDATE JUNE 25, 2018: An article in yesterday's Morning Call compared our current  All American City application with that designation in 1975. Although the article gave statistics, it made no reference that any changes might be abnormal.  At that time, Allentown was 97% white, 2% black and 1% Hispanic.  We are now 53% Hispanic, 10% black and 33% white.  At that time, center city had 3 department stores and dozens and dozens of smaller stores, owned by different people.  All that is now gone, but we have eight new buildings, owned by one person. Besides the dramatic racial demographic shift, which sociologically is a case study in itself,  the article also omitted the social economic shift.  The center city population is drastically poorer than before.

Trolley Demise In Allentown

A local young urbanist speculated that automobiles put the end to trolleys in the Lehigh Valley. He was half right, actually it was the Mad Men from General Motors. In the early 1950's, Americans were still a one car family, even in the prosperous Lehigh Valley. The mass transit system was still full of the other family members, still using the system for work, shopping and school. Between the late 1940's and 1953, Hamilton Street had both trolleys and buses. In the late 40's, General Motors wined and dined transit officials all over the country, exhorting the benefits of their buses. Shown above is a Lehigh Valley Transit work car, towing a trolley to Bethlehem Steel to be scrapped. The photograph was taken in 1952 on St. John Street, heading toward the Fountain Hill route. In June of 1953, the last trolley would run on Hamilton Street.

reprinted for September of 2011

The Dinosaurs Of Sumner Avenue

Up to the early 1950's, Allentown was heated by coal, and much of it came from Sumner Avenue. Sumner was a unique street, because it was served by the West End Branch of the Lehigh Valley Railroad. The spur route ran along Sumner, until it crossed Tilghman at 17th Street, and then looped back East along Liberty Street, ending at 12th. Coal trucks would elevate up, and the coal would be pushed down chutes into the basement coal bins, usually under the front porches of the row houses. Several times a day coal would need to be shoveled into the boiler or furnace. By the early 1970's, although most of the coal yards were closed for over a decade, the machines of that industry still stood on Sumner Avenue. Eventually, they took a short trip to one of the scrap yards, which are still on the avenue, but not before I photographed them.

reprinted from 2016

photocredit:molovinsky

Local Complacency In The Lehigh Valley

Most liberals in Lehigh Valley who are bent out of shape about Donald Trump are completely complacent about local politics.  Because of this complacency we have a former mayor being sentenced in early September on 47 counts of corruption.

It pains me to say that we also have a local newspaper steeped in protecting local sacred cows and cronyism.  There was never a word about corruption at city hall until the FBI raid in 2015. A former Allentown school board member, Scott Armstrong,  complains about how silent they are now about the up-side-down district finances.  I occasionally remind my readers about the paper's silence concerning the agenda of the Wildlands Conservancy.

Readers concerned about the unlevel playing field created by the NIZ are mostly confined to this blog for information.  When the paper publicizes their Keystone Journalism awards,  all we can do is wonder about the news in the towns with the losing papers.

Allentown's Double Parking

Yesterday, Paul Muschick of the The Morning Call speculated on the reason for all the double parking in Allentown.  Being politically correct,  he overlooked the oblivious answer... We have  herds of Rude and Crude living in Allentown.  Why has this problem persisted for so long?  The Allentown Parking Authority doesn't want to deal with face to face confrontations with the offensive offenders,  they prefer placing a parking ticket on an empty car and then running away.  The Allentown Police consider the problem beneath their law enforcement pay grade.  Muschick mentioned N. 7th Street as ground zero for the problem.  Fellow activist Robert Trotner referenced Muschick's column on facebook, and a Hispanic business owner complained about the lack of parking spaces on 7th Street,  for the volume of current businesses.  He does have a point, but the double parking in Allentown occurs everywhere in center city,  even with many empty spaces.

The city should identify parcels close to 7th Street that can be acquired for additional parking.  Peter Lewnes has done an excellent job developing 7th Street into a business district, as it was in Allentown's distant past.  Being as politically incorrect as I am,  I cannot refrain from noting that the same merchants and clientele now on 7th Street, were deemed undesirable when they were previously on Hamilton Street.  As I have written before, there was actually more commerce on Hamilton Street with the so called undesirables, than there is now.  However, the NIZ wasn't really meant to increase commerce, but rather to increase the real estate portfolio of certain individuals. Another recent article in The Morning Call,  on the NIZ,  avoided such realities.

Better Park Days Behind Us

A Guest Post
My walks with my dog along the creek in Cedar Creek Park between Ott and Cedar Crest Blvd. have been some of the best times of my life. I have met many nice people and dogs in the past twelve years. I have seen and spoke with many people picnicking, reading a book, or just relaxing to the gurgling of the water while laying on a blanket along this beautiful creek. None of my dogs through the years, nor I, have ever had any ticks in this park until recently. All of this is gone now, along with many friends who will no longer come here because of the decision to "save" this creek (the clearest, cleanest in the area) by allowing weeds to grow along it, outwards of 20-30 feet or more. Please tell mayor Pawlowski and the park department to end this nonsense. No one at the park agrees with or likes the weeds, but say that there is nothing anyone can do about it. General Trexler intended for this land to be enjoyed by people, their children and pets, not to deny access to the creek. Please people speak up and demand that these weeds be cut. It will not take long for the ticks, mosquitos, snakes and vermin and the deadly diseases they carry, lyme disease, west nile virus, etc. to spread out from the park to the homes and neighborhood surrounding it. No one would tolerate their neighbors to have weeds growing next door to them. Please do not allow the city to destroy the beauty of this park any longer.
Tony Martin

photo of park in 2008, when the creek was still accessible

reprinted from August of 2012

UPDATE JUNE18,2018: Although there is a new mayor and new park director,  the weed wall referred to above in 2012 is still there.  It is time that we let Mayor O'Connell and Park Director Lindsay Taylor know that this is unacceptable.  There must be at least some spots allowing open access to our creeks. Both the mayor and park director read this blog. Let them know how you feel about this in the comment section below.

Molovinsky And Morning Call Tumble Over Wehr's Dam

The Morning Call has declined to print the following letter, and a longer version of it.

The basis of the letter in question is centered on assumption of a result not yet known. We are declining to print the letter because it contains at worst faulty logic, at best an assumption. Please include this reasoning when you ‘go public.’   The Morning Call

The South Whitehall Commissioners never expected the voters to approve the referendum this past November to retain Wehr's Dam, especially when they had associated it with a possible tax increase. They thought that they could accommodate the Wildlands Conservancy in demolishing the dam, with no political consequence to themselves. In July of 2014, the Commissioners gave the Conservancy permission to conduct a study of the dam, which was intended to justify its demolition. The engineering firm for the Conservancy then claimed that the dam was leaking under itself, at one small spot. On February 13, 2015, the DEP wrote the township; "The Wildlands Conservancy has recently brought to our attention that there is some confusion relating to the current condition of the Wehr's Dam..." For the Commissioners to have granted the Wildlands Conservancy permission to interface with the state was improper. The dam is the historic property of the township residents, not an outside party. A subsequent study of the dam by another engineering firm could not confirm the above referenced leak. It is now necessary for the Commissioners to put aside their agenda of accommodating the Wildlands Conservancy, and honor the results of the referendum. They must change their Park Master Plan, which still calls for the dam's demolition. They must now advocate for the dam with the state DEP, and correct any misconceptions about its condition.
Michael Molovinsky

ADDENDUM: FEBRUARY 3, 2017. Although, The Morning Call has declined to print my letter(s), they claim that they will now inquire and report on the Township's intention in regard to the dam.

photocredit: K Mary Hess

ABOVE REPRINTED FROM FEBRUARY 2017

UPDATE JUNE 15, 2018: Although its been almost two years since the referendum, the township hasn't applied one dab of cement to the dam. On the contrary, last October they tried to breach the dam by having a contractor pull a tree trunk over it. The township has not said or written one word about the dam since the referendum. The new township magazine(summer 2018), which features capital projects in the park, doesn't show or mention the dam. The Morning Call never did make any inquiries or write one word about the dam since the referendum. The dam sits in a state of benign neglect, waiting for the state to accommodate the Wildlands Conservancy and condemn it. Only this blog defends the dam, its magic, and the voter's wishes.

Where's The Creek?

The young man seemed proud to be at the Old Fashioned Garden with his wife and child. I got the feeling that it was a rite of passage that he had enjoyed years earlier with his parents. He approached me with a quizzical look and asked Where's the creek? I assured him that it was still here, but hidden behind all that underbrush. When he asked me why they did that, I just shrugged my shoulders and walked away. I don't think he really wanted to hear a rant.

The Wildlands Conservancy had no resistance convincing the past two park directors to allow them to plant riparian buffers along the streams in the park system. Both directors were from out of town, trained in recreation at Penn State, and had no feeling or knowledge of the park's history and traditions. To add absurdity to the situation, the storm sewer systems in Allentown are piped directly into the streams, bypassing the buffers, making them useless to their stated purpose. To add further irony to the absurdity, the park department must now spray insecticide on the underbrush to control the invasive species. Worse than blocking access and view of the streams, the recent director endorsed the Conservancy demolishing two small historic dams, after being here only six weeks, and never actually having seen the dams himself.

Why do I dwell on water over the dam? The Wildlands Conservancy is now pitching the dam demolition and riparian buffer agenda to South Whitehall Township. If they get their way, the beautiful picnic vista overlooking Wehr's Dam will be replaced with a wall of weeds. I'm on a mission to make sure that beauty and history survive at Covered Bridge Park.

reprinted from September of 2014

ADDENDUM: June 14, 2018.  The park department now has a new director and the city a new mayor,  yet the influence of the Wildlands Conservancy continues, along with the weed walls blocking our view and access of the creeks.  Although Wehr's Dam was saved in South Whitehall by voter referendum,  the Wildlands Conservancy and the South Whitehall Commissioners still want to tear it down, and are conspiring with the state to have it condemned, to subvert the will of the voters.  The Morning Call has been cooperating with that effort by not reporting the story.

The Fountain Of My Youth

Just west of the Robin Hood Bridge is a fountain which quenched the thirst of my summer days. Built during the WPA era, it overlooked the creek. Although the water was turned off years ago, so now is the view. The weeds and assorted invasives growing are not a riparian buffer. Science says that a buffer has to be 25feet wide to be of any value. A reader described this thin strip of wild growth as neglect, masquerading as conservation. All it does is block both the view and access to the waterway. It denies our current citizens the beauty and experience for which the parks were designed. Although the Wildland's Conservancy would like you to believe that the Allentown Parks are there to be wildlands, in reality they were designed by landscape architects, to provide the citizens of Allentown with what Harry Trexler called serenity. He did also appreciate conservation, but for that he created the Trexler Game Preserve, north of Allentown. There are places in the parks which can accommodate the riparian buffer zones, without compromising the intended public experience of waterway view and access. Riparians could be created and maintained in the western side of Lehigh Parkway, between the pedestrian bridge and Bogerts Bridge. In Cedar Park, the riparian section could be in western side, between the last walking bridge and Cedar Crest Blvd. It's time that the parks were given back to the citizens of Allentown. They are not funded, or intended by our tax dollars and the Trexler Trust,  just to be a venue for the Wildland's Conservancy to harvest grants.  Let a child again giggle by the creek's edge. Let us get back our intended park experience.

reprinted from August of 2013

ADDENDUM: In addition to Molovinsky On Allentown, I also publish Rainy Morning Chronicle, a digest for conservative Independents.

Rainy Morning Chronicle: No Credit Ever For Trump

Rainy Morning Chronicle: No Credit Ever For Trump: In the media, especially dominant CNN,  Donald Trump gets no points for his historic breakthrough with North Korea...  Instead he is accu...

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Rainy Morning Chronicle: Trump Derangement Syndrome

Rainy Morning Chronicle: Trump Derangement Syndrome: Well over a year ago I wrote about a new Trump induced mental illness, which the psychological world would have to identify and name...Th...

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Is Allentown Still Corrupt?

Emily Opilo of The Morning Call interviewed Scott Curtis, the FBI agent whose investigation convicted Pawlowski. She ended the article by asking Curtis... So is Allentown a better place after a tumultuous multi-year investigation and the ensuing convictions? 

  “I don’t think so,” Curtis said. “Anywhere you severely disrupt a crime threat or a criminal enterprise … it’s going to create a vacuum where now you’re going to have competing elements vying for control,” he said. “No matter how successful you think you are,” he said, “rarely are you going to totally dismantle a crime threat in your area.” 

Because of this very question and answer, some people felt that City Hall needed a complete cleaning with a new broom. That would have precluded Ray O'Connell of city council,  and many of the current department heads. I have argued against that approach, defending the institutional knowledge necessary to keep the city running. I know Ray O'Connell, and feel that he sees his new mayoral position as his legacy. He doesn't have political ambitions beyond doing a good job. Over the years I've become familiar with many people who drive city hall, and believe that they also want to give honest service to the city. For those few who may not be so honorable, I think the recent trial succeeded in putting enough fear in them to keep on the straight and narrow.

I am realistic enough to know that the Pawlowski administration created a culture of heavy handedness, and that it endured for over 12 years. Although, such behavior patterns tend to persist, I only see improvement coming.

A WPA Monday

A month ago Mondays, I climbed the steps at Fountain Park to speak to the stone masons repairing that iconic structure. The steps were built in 1936, and would soon serve thousands of men walking down from center city to the Mack factory, to produce trucks for the war effort. It took me ten years to get the masons there, but by now I had another pressing objective. In the last couple of years, the top of the wall at the double stairwell at Union Terrace had become open, threatening that structure with potential catastrophic damage. After learning that the masons had no assignment beyond the Fountain Park steps, I drove over to the Park and Recreation Office.

Lindsay Taylor, the new park director, has been fairly cordial to me, considering my reputation as a mauler of city bureaucrats. I explained that the top of the Union Terrace wall was open, and that I had serious doubts about it surviving another winter of freeze and thaw cycles.  I requested that the masons make an emergency repair on top of the wall, while other repairs needed there could be delayed. Taylor agreed to consult her park supervisor, Rick Holtzman, about my request. Later that morning, I spoke with Holtzman, who agreed that it would indeed be appropriate to reassign the masons.  The masons were replacing missing steps and repointing the Fountain Park stairwell,  through a grant from the Trexler Trust. The grant had been written and requested by Karen El-Chaar, from Allentown Friends of the Parks. El-Chaar had attended my meetings years earlier on the WPA structures, and I had since  conducted tours of Lehigh Parkway in conjunction with her organization. Holtzman requested that El-Chaar clear the repair at Union Terrace with the Trexler Trust, since their funds were designated to be spent at Fountain Park. The Trust gave their permission for the masons to be temporally reassigned.

By the weeks end the masons spend a day at the Terrace, and repaired the top of the wall. I'm grateful that Lindsay Taylor and the Trexler Trust responded to stabilize that structure, and optimistic that their commitment to  our WPA history will continue.  I will  in turn  continue on,  when necessary, mauling the bureaucrats.

The photograph above shows the WPA steps being built in Seattle. I'm sure an identical sight could be seen on Lawrence Street in 1936.

reprinted from November of 2015

The Island Of Lehigh Parkway

The scene above shows the island in the Little Lehigh, with the boatlanding in the background. Please note the bridge leading to the island. The island, bridge and landing were created by the WPA. Although the island still remains, as does it's stone piers, the bridge is long gone. The boatlanding, although buried, was partially recovered last year by myself and a number of volunteers. The island, as remaining, has lost it's shape and has been enlarged from deposits carried by the Little Lehigh. The island was created by the WPA in the mid 1930's, by excavating a channel on it's south side. It is the intention of the park department to eventually allow mother nature to fill in the channel. Park philosophy has changed from manicured to al natural. It is my hope that the excavated portion of the boatlanding will be retained. In regard to yesterday's post on Irving Park, I have confirmed that one of the WPA stone stairwells was indeed removed this year by the city. I hope that is not their version of a fix. It clearly indicates the need for the WPA Support Group. Click photo to enlarge.

reprinted from April of 2011

UPDATE JUNE 7, 2018: Aa a boy I played on the island and especially remember the concrete benches inlaid with tile. It was indeed a special place.  Although the island will never be restored, it is my mission that the remaining WPA structures be maintained.  In years past I have conducted tours of the WPA Structures, and will do so again if the park department does some restoration.  In the photo above, note the bench overlooking the stream and island,  with no weed wall in the way of the view.

The Little Bridge Of Lehigh Parkway

A few years ago, new and young visitors to the park would have no idea that a magnificent miniature bridge crossed a spring run to the Little Lehigh. Certainly, such a stone construction wasn't necessary to cross the 24 inch waterway. It was built in a era of masonry art, fueled by the Great Depression, and funded by Roosevelt's WPA. Over the last decade, budgetary cutbacks and environmentalists demanding riparian zones, justified allowing it to be consumed by brush and saplings. In 2010, I persuaded Mike Gilbert, park department manager, to partially clear around the bridge. Although a tree now blocks it's southern approach, the bridge has been given a reprieve on it's destruction. Please join me April 6th, and learn about the hidden treasures of Lehigh Parkway.

This post is reprinted from April 1, 2013.  If Mayor O'Connell and the park department cooperate with a program to preserve the WPA Structures,  and allow access and view of the creeks with some openings in the Weed Wall,  I will again give a tour of the park.

The Boat Landing

Getting to the Boat Landing, for six year old boys who lived above the park in 1953, was quite an adventure. There were three other wonderful WPA structures to navigate on the journey. Unfortunately,  poor foresight by a previous park director has erased some of the WPA's monuments in Lehigh Parkway. As the postcard from the mid-50's above shows, the Boat Landing (my name for the structure) was a source of pride for the city and park system. It is located at the end of the park,  near Regency Apartments. I use the present tense because remnants of this edifice still exist,  buried under dirt and debris. Other attractions lost in that section of the park include the Spring Pond near the Robin Hood parking lot, and the bridge to the "Island", plus the mosaic inlaid benches which were on the island. ( Island halfway between parking lot and boat landing). Neither the Mayor or the Park Director knows that these centerpieces ever existed. These are irreplaceable architectural treasures well worth restoring.

UPDATE: The above post was written in May of 2009. Later that year I organized a small group of volunteers, and we unearthed a portion of the boat landing. The next year I prevailed on the Allentown Water Shed Foreman, Michael Gilbert, to expose the remaining stones around the Spring Pond and remove the growth hiding the Miniature Bridge.

Trexler Smiles, Landing Revealed

I believe that today, for the first time in decades, General Trexler had something to smile about. Most people never understood why three steps were near the lower entrance of Lehigh Parkway; they seemed to lead nowhere. This morning eight people joined a grass root effort to unveil, for the first time in decades, the structure I called the Boat Landing.

Buried under the dirt and grass were several more steps leading to a landing. Chris Casey was the first to arrive and cleared these steps and the first landing himself. A second set of steps led from the landing to the main landing on the creek. These second steps had a foot or so of ground and plants.

The quality and condition of the stonework is excellent, as was all our WPA icons. I will be polite and say only that it was a crime to have let this neglect occur. On the main landing the accumulated earth was two and half feet thick. The crew dug out the curving retaining wall several yards in each direction, and cleared off the top of the wall.

Eight people working four hours managed to reveal about one third of the landing at the bottom of the steps. It was a thrill to realize we were standing at creek's edge as the WPA architects had envisioned. I stood there often as a boy. There still remains a large portion of dirt to remove at the steps base, but you can now experience the Boat Landing.

The retaining wall and the landing continue for fifty feet or so in both directions. Unfortunately a huge tree has grown on the landing to the right, but the left appears reclaimable.

We who worked there today, hope to return and clear off the remainder of the dirt at the bottom of the steps.

Perhaps others will be motivated to clear off the remaining portion of the landing to the left. Now that might even be an idea for the City; imagine restoring an irreplaceable icon instead of buying something from a catalogue. I'm most grateful to all those who helped today, and will reveal their names with their permission.

ADDENDUM:Michael –

I just wanted to thank you for organizing today’s cleanup at the “Boat Landing” in the Lehigh Parkway. It’s not often that one gets to help unearth a treasure while barely leaving home, but that’s exactly what happened today.

It was truly impressive what big difference a small group of people can make. I can’t even estimate the amount of dirt that was moved with nothing more than a few shovels and a lot of hard work.

We can only hope that the City and the Trexler Trust will become aware of this location and start giving all the great structures in the Parkway the care they deserve.

However, the best part of the story for me came after we all left. I got home and my daughter Lucy (age 7) wanted to know how things went. We hopped in the car and soon we were walking up to the stairs leading to the landing. The sun was shining, and the sunlight trickled through the trees and onto the freshly-exposed stairway.

Lucy asked if she could go down to the landing by the water and next thing I knew we were both there at the waters edge, standing on what had been buried only a few hours earlier and marveling at the beauty of the location.

We spent a few moments there - a father and daughter both enjoying something completely “new” to us (even though the landing is over 70 years old). We talked briefly about what was – and more importantly what could be again.

Thank you for making that moment possible, and I hope many others take the opportunity to visit the landing in the near future.

Mike Schware

P.S. – After visiting the landing, Lucy and I walked further upstream and saw the remnants of the bridge to the island (near the water fountain). The remaining supports of the bridge confirmed what you had told me earlier about the island being much smaller years ago.

I organized the excavation shown above in 2009. We did return and remove the remaining dirt at the bottom of the steps.
reprinted from two separate posts combined

The above post is a reprint

Rainy Morning Chronicle

Some of you know that a few years ago I started a sister blog called The Morning Chronicle. I have decided to rebrand it as Rainy Morning Chronicle, and apply more focus to it. This is not to say that all is well in Allentown. While I'm giving Mayor O'Connell a breather to start reforming Allentown City Hall, the park department will continue to suffer my scrutiny. I consider the endless weed wall along our park streams unacceptable, and have told the park director as much.  She is in reality  under the thumb of the Wildlands Conservancy, and its front called the Greenway Trail.  In certain areas, such as South Whitehall,  the Wildlands is directly in charge of the project.  The Wildlands Conservancy has been degrading Allentown's iconic park system for over a decade.  Although they are a local sacred cow,  I will endeavor to regain some stream bank areas for the citizens of Allentown to again enjoy.

Meanwhile,  Rainy Morning will emphasize  a conservative point of view from a nonpartisan prospective.  I appreciate your readership.

Allentown's Park Master

Pity the poor residents of Philadelphia,  they have to sit by the river and be able see it!  They haven't been blessed with a growing weed wall to block both view and access to the water, like us lucky residents in Allentown.

Allentown Park policy has been governed by the Wildlands Conservancy for the last decade. The previous park director agreed to allow the Conservancy to demolish the Robin Hood Dam, in Lehigh Parkway, before he saw the park himself.  When I took him on a tour of the WPA Structures in the park,  and complained about the Riparian Buffer,  he said that water can be more exciting when you only get an occasional glimpse of it.

It is my hope that under the new O'Connell administration, Allentown will again start honoring our iconic park traditions.  I will lobby that several areas in each park be kept buffer free for the enjoyment of its citizens.

In a comment yesterday, I stated that changes were coming to molovinsky on allentown.  Although I have produced the blog each weekday for over eleven years,  starting next week the blog, on occasion, will be less Allentown-centric.

The Train Of Dorney Park

 By Wally Ely
 In 1934, times were tough — in the Lehigh Valley and throughout the United States. The Great Depression was rampant. Unemployment kept willing and able workers out of jobs, with some in food lines or soup kitchens. Dorney Park was just hanging on, waiting for better days. There was no way the park could afford anything new to keep interest in the amusements alive. Nobody could afford to come to the park in 1934, especially not to spend any money. Bob Plarr, park president, was not accustomed to sitting back, waiting and hoping for things to improve. Plarr had an acquaintance, Miles Erbor, from the nearby village of Wescosville. Erbor, known as Mike, ran a machine shop in his garage. Erbor floated his bright idea for a new ride at Dorney past Plarr, and he loved it! Erbor's thought was to build a miniature version of the national train sensation of the day, the Burlington Zephyr. He could do it economically, with many used parts he had on hand.... The new Zephyr traveled the route an old steam engine-powered open-air train had traveled around the west end of the park. The Zephyr Jr. started near the main crossing of Dorney Park road, which divided the park; it continued along Cedar Creek parallel to the Water Skooter boat ride and then passed the swimming pool and rumbled through a short storage building, which served as a tunnel. At the far end, the route approached the boating lake and began to circle back. On the return trip it passed the picnic groves, more Water Skooters, and finally the rocket ship ride and the old mill. A final turn across the bridge near the French fry stand brought the ride back to the beginning. The announcement of the new ride at Dorney Park was welcomed by the community; there weren't many positive announcements in those days. The public responded. Crowds appeared at the park to buy the nickel tickets for a Zephyr Jr. train ride. The nickels added up, and a new, steady cash flow helped pay the bills and enabled Dorney Park to ride out the Depression.....

The above is excerpted from a column written by Wally Ely which appeared in The Morning Call on May 5, 2013. The photo has been added.  Ely is a history,  train buff and author, who has written a book on Dorney Park.

Roseanne Barr And Starbucks

Tuesday was quite a day for the self-righteous.  Roseanne Barr lost her show despite her apology for a crass tweet, and Starbucks trained their baristas not to engage in unconscious bias, however that can be done?  I've previously mocked Starbucks for their absurd overreaction to a unfortunate incident.  Their new policy of allowing table space and bathrooms for non-customers cannot have good results.  My hardcore subscribers know that I'm not much for political correctness, and those who want to make being a victim a career.

The Me-Too Movement has become predatory itself....It even ate Al Franken.

I certainly understand that racism is real, and  reducing prejudice is a most desirable goal.  However, I don't think that smelting down a statue of General Lee that stood in a New Orleans park for 100 years will accomplish the task.  The statue is now gone, and so is the educational opportunity associated with it.

We have to learn the difference between teachable moments and burning people at the stake, or worse, commercializing the PC response.  The Starbucks school yesterday was such a public relations response, nothing more. Unfortunately for Barr,  the anti-Trump entertainment industry relishes her execution. If ABC hadn't fired her,  I suspect that in some future show Barr would have turned the incident into a teachable moment.

My Grandfather's Horse

My grandfather lived on the corner of Chew and Jordan Streets. He butchered in a barn behind the house. For the sake of the vegans I'll spare the details, but suffice to say it wasn't for sissies. The house is still there, 301 Jordan, the barn is gone. He would deliver the meat with a horse and wagon. On the weekends, when the family wanted to visit friends, the horse insisted on doing the meat market route first. Only after he stopped in front of the last market on the route, would he permit my grandfather to direct him.
I managed rental properties between 4th and 12th Streets. Collecting rents or throwing people out is not for sissies. I developed a route between the buildings, utilizing many alleys because of the one way streets. While on my route, I got to know many people living in Allentown, and the circumstances of the different neighborhoods. I would often take pictures of people and things I considered photographic. Although I no longer have the managing job, like my grandfather's horse, I continue on the route. But things have changed, I now often keep my car door locked. Not only don't I take photographs anymore, even making eye contact can be uncomfortable. The streets are meaner and the people are harder. Don't blame me, as an agent I always put the neighbor's comfort ahead of finding tenants. Don't blame me, as a citizen I ran for office and bluntly said what needed to be done.

reprinted from March 2012

UPDATE MAY 29, 2018: I considered sanitizing this post, especially about the behavior of some of the urban core poor. However, you can find political correctness anywhere, but it's just not this blog's brand.

Hurricane Diane, 1955

Hurricane Diane hit the Lehigh Valley in August of 1955. Living in Little Lehigh Manor, I remember huddling in the house, while the metal garbage cans of the era flew around the neighborhood. My father, whose meat market was on Union Street by the Lehigh River, worked throughout the night. Fortunately for him, his market had an second floor backup cooler, and a small freight elevator. While the retail business district on Hamilton Street is elevated enough to be unaffected from flooding, center city Easton was devastated by the Delaware. The next morning was rather surreal for a nine year old boy. A large willow tree on the corner of Lehigh Parkway South and Catalina Ave. was lying on it's side. Although the Little Lehigh receded quickly, the park road and basin had been flooded. Diane remains a record in flooding and damage. Let us hope it remains that way.

photo from August 1955. Lehigh River rising by former A&B Meats. The row of houses shown were demolished to make way for a new bridge approach several years later.

A Park Problem In Allentown

Ray O'Connell invited me to his office this week to talk about problems with the WPA structures in the park system.  My invitation was a long time coming.

In 2009, I started conducting a series of meetings at the Allentown Library, to inform the public about the deteriorating condition of the WPA structures.  In subsequent years, I organized a group effort to unearth the Boat Landing, which was buried decades earlier by a former park director.  I convinced the former water shed director to unearth the Spring Pond, which was allowed to become overgrown.  I unsuccessfully attempted to save the miniature dam, which was built to complement the Robin Hood Bridge in 1941. The city foolishly allowed the Wildlands Conservancy to destroy this charming accent.  I conducted tours of the Parkway, both public and private.

This week I proposed to Mayor O'Connell that the park department simply spend $25 thousand each season(out of their $3 million dollar annual budget),  and have one structure repointed. Two years ago, Karen El-Chaar from Friends Of The Parks, secured a grant through the Trexler Trust for $25 thousand.  With that modest amount she had the steps repointed at Fountain Park.  El-Chaar attended my meetings years ago, and became interested in the cause.  Unfortunately, the city government works in a much more bureaucratic fashion. Also in attendance this week was park department foreman Rick Holtzman, who elaborated on the process.  Work is preceded by an engineering study, which can end up costing as much as the work.  Bids are then put out, and responding stone masons must be bonded in order to be eligible to bid.  Consequently,  very few contractors bother to bid, and the prices are much, much higher than they need be.  However,  that is Mr. Holtzman's dilemma....  My mission is to point out what needs to be done,  and publicize the progress, or lack thereof.

For over a year I have been lobbying for the landings to be repaired on the double stairwell in Lehigh Parkway.  If these landings are not repaired this season, the steps themselves will be jeopardized.

I appreciated Mayor O'Connell's time.  The park department, despite the bidding process,  is managing to open a dog park and build a skateboard park.  Several years ago they managed to spend over  $1.5 million buying two unnecessary new parcels.  Since I started advocating for the WPA over a decade ago, the park department has built numerous new features, and spend many $millions of dollars doing so.  In all those years they have not done one thing for the WPA.  They rebuilt part of the Parkway wall,  but only after it fell down from neglect, closing the park entrance.  It is now time that they start maintaining the structures which first made this city's park system a destination.

Allentown's Water Joke

When former mayor for life Ed Pawlowski decided to lease* the water department,  I cringed.  Water was the only component of the city that operated in the black.  Because of the huge capacity no longer needed for industry,  Allentown had a surplus to sell to the growing suburbs.  Unfortunately, because of his success dictating policy to city council, the only question left was to whom it would be sold.  At the time I felt that the LCA was the lesser of the evils, because at least it was a local authority, as opposed to an outside for profit business.

The fact that the LCA wants to substantially raise the rates for Allentown customers should be of no surprise to those who now govern.  Mayor O'Connell considers the increase unconscionable.  When he was a councilman there were those who felt that the lease of the department to the LCA was also unconscionable.

If you think Allentown tap water is expensive,  the story gets worse.  Former county executive Don Cunningham invited Nestlé to the valley.  Some of you now buy our own local water in little plastic bottles, paying a $dollar a pop, somehow thinking that it's better.  That's a real joke.

* The water department was leased for 50 years, but I doubt that the city will ever have it back.

shown above an early postcard of the Allentown Water Works

Best By Test

Growing up in Little Lehigh Parkway, now called Little Lehigh Manor by the Realtors, the milkman was an early morning fixture.  Almost every house had the insulated aluminum milkbox.  The milk trucks were distinctive, and the drivers wore a uniform, indicative of their responsibility.  Freeman's milk was the best by test, or so the slogan said.  Their trucks were red and immaculate.  The dairy building  still stands, a quarter block north of 13th and Tilghman Streets.  They competed with a giant, Lehigh Valley Co-Operative Farmers.  That dairy, on the Allentown/Whitehall border, just north of the Sumner Avenue Bridge on 7th Street, even sported an ice cream parlor.  Milk, up to the mid 50's, came in a bottle.  The milkman would take the empties away when delivering your fresh order.  In addition to white and chocolate,  they produced strawberry milk  in the summer.  About once a week the milkman would knock on the door to settle up;  times have changed.






Occasionally the bottle, and later the cartons, would feature themes and advertisements.  A picture of Hopalong Cassidy would entertain young boys as they poured milk into their Corn Flakes.  Earlier, during the War, (Second World) bottles would encourage customers to do their part;  buy a bond or scrap some metal for the war effort.

reprinted from January 2013

The Union Terrace Train

The Conrail engine backs across Walnut Street, as it delivers a flatbed of large granite slaps and blocks to the former Wentz Memorial Company, by 20th and Hamilton Streets. Years earlier, the spur route extended across Hamilton Street and terminated at the building across from school district stadium, now occupied by the park department. On it's run to Wentz's, it went through the auto junkyard, continued on past the now closed Allentown Metal Works, and crossed the trestle in Lehigh Parkway. At Union Terrace the track was next to the former ice skating pond, behind the WPA Amphitheater Stage Mound. This photograph was taken by Dave Latshaw in the 1979, and is part of the Mark Rabenold collection. Rabenold is a local train historian, specializing in Allentown's former branch lines.

reprinted from March of 2016

The Train Of Lehigh Parkway

When the 15th Street Bridge was closed, as people detoured over the  Schreibers stone arch bridge,  few were aware of the industrial past surrounding them. The Barber Quarry railroad branch line crossed the road, just south of the bridge. On the left was the Union Carbide's Linde plant, the concrete loading dock is still visible. Although the last train ran in the early 1980's, the wooden railroad trestle is still there, to the west and south of the bridge. The area is now used as part of the disc golf course. The photograph was taken by Dave Latshaw in 1976, and is part of the Mark Rabenold Collection.

reprinted from previous years

Allentown's West End Train

The Lehigh Valley Railroad operated a train branch line which served Allentown's commercial west end. It ran along Sumner Avenue servicing the scrap metal yards, warehouses and numerous coal dealers located there. The line then crossed Tilghman Street on a diagonal at 17th, before looping back east by Liberty Street at the Fairgrounds. The line ended at a rail yard now housing the small shopping center at 12th and Liberty. Although many of former commercial buildings still exist, all now house more retail type businesses. The B'nai Brith Apartments occupy the site of the former Trexler Lumber Yard. These historical shorts are difficult to write. Most current residents have no frame of reference to our former commercial past. True historians, such as the local railroad buffs, cringe at the lack of detail and specific location of the tracks. Suffice to say, that once upon a time, the mid-section of Allentown had much more commerce.

photo of train crossing Tilghman at 17th Street taken by Kermit E. Geary in 1974, from the Mark Rabenold Collection.

reprinted from March of 2016 and earlier

NIZ And The Allentown Budget

Budgets for Allentown show a structural deficit of 4 to 5 $million annually in the current five year projection.  This is in spite of almost a $Billion dollars of publicly funded, privately owned new buildings.  I believe that it is fair to say that financial data for the NIZ, at the clearest, is obscure.  Although, over $33 million a year in state taxes is going for J.B. Reilly's debt service,  there may be substantially more going his way.  Another $30 million goes for the arena,  and where Reilly's portion begins and ends is unknown.  For instance, although the first floor of the arena facing Hamilton Street is considered public arena,  the second floor and up belongs to Reilly.  How the prorations were assigned, nobody knows. Furthermore,  nobody scrutinizes the tax money distribution back to Reilly and the arena board.

What we do know is that despite all this construction and expected increase in property taxes,  Allentown is in the red.   If all this new construction hasn't produced a windfall,  and the homeowners endure tax increases,  what is the public benefit of the NIZ?

Lehigh Valley Election Expectation

Recently, I referred to the Morning Call/Muhlenberg Poll as a broken clock.  I have been making the same accusation since 2005,  when Muhlenberg had the mayoral election wrong by 26 points.  Although they have been wrong ever since,  and were wrong again last night about Susan Wild and John Morganelli, this morning the paper still quotes their pollster as if he is a genuine authority. It's amazing to me that The Morning Call keeps going to the same sources.....I suppose that they value loyalty over accuracy.

Talking about loyalty, yesterday I referred to the machinations of Bernie O'Hare,  in his campaigning for John Morganelli.  Although he started out polite enough toward Susan Wild,  he became a virtual hit man as the campaign progressed.  He excused his metamorphosis on Wild breaking a promise to Morganelli.  He seems to value loyalty over decency.

For the fall campaign expect the Morning Call/Muhlenberg Poll to continue being a broken clock.  Expect Bernie O'Hare to continue bashing Susan Wild, but now acclaim himself as a non-partisan.  Expect molovinsky on allentown, when necessary, to point out local nonsense.

Pawlowski's Political Legacy In Allentown

Recently Robert Trotner, a local political activist, asked me...Do you think Pawlowski and his sympathizers still wield much in the way of direct power in Allentown? If so, how much?...

A considerable amount of power still resides with his former associates, because during  his tenure over three plus terms, (since 2006) he made so many appointments and filled so many positions. However, I never favored the clean broom approach, because the city would lose so much institutional knowledge. I think that over the last two years most employees have put as much distance as possible between themselves and the former mayor.  Furthermore, I question how many of these employees are his sympathizers. For the most part they are people who appreciate having a job, and hope to contribute some value from doing it well. Once he is sentenced this chapter in Allentown will really be over.

Today is primary election day.  Readers may notice that I have not beat the drum for or against any  candidate in the primary.  I urge readers who feel properly informed to vote.  Being properly informed , now a days, is a research challenge in itself.  It certainly doesn't come from campaign mailers or even in the local blogosphere,  such as with Bernie O'Hare's machinations.

above 1962 postcard showing the new Allentown City Hall

Examining The Morning Call

The Morning Call has announced that in July they will conduct a journalism course. My question is who is going to evaluate the Morning Call? Their recent article about the new United States Attorney for Eastern Pennsylvania once again associates Pawlowski with Allentown's $Billion dollar buildout. The paper can't seem to understand that he was only an accidental tourist on that train, not the conductor.

In fairness to the paper they have some excellent reporters who do good work.  This isn't New York City in 1950, with five newspapers competing for readers.  This is small-town USA, with one paper trying to survive. The paper is further restricted by outside corporate ownership,  dictating staff size and budget.

Fortunately, they have an examiner apprising them of their shortcomings... you're reading him now.