Morning Call Owner Taking Deposits

If I have succeeded in drawing you in with this teaser headline,  allow me to explain.  Today's local paper had two story titles which drew my attention.  One said that the owner of the newest apartments in Allentown was taking deposits, and the other said that the paper's publisher was moving on to another assignment, with The New York Daily News.  In my mind both of these stories are interwoven.

Needless to say that the newest apartment owner is J.B. Reilly.  Before my life as a blogger, I was a property manager in Allentown.  Myself and my counterparts had to spend $thousands advertising our apartments with the Morning Call.  However, we were not the current landlord of the Morning Call building, as is Reilly.

Although we have never met,  over the last few years Robert York and I developed a rapport of sorts.  I would complain to him about editorial policy,  mainly repressing my submissions about sacred cows and cronyism.  He in turn would express concern about what he felt were unfair complaints about the paper on this blog.

Neither of our replacements have been announced.

Alan Jennings' Missed Opportunity

This weekend Alan Jennings has an editorial in the paper about affordable housing, and landlording in Allentown. One would hardly know that the other week when I appeared on Jennings' radio show, Lehigh Valley Discourse,  he brushed by my experience as a city center landlord.  Instead,  Alan wanted to complain about Trump, never mind that we have our own issues here in the valley.  In light of  his editorial this week,  it may have been a lost opportunity.  I say may have been, because Alan wouldn't have agreed with my take on the problem,  and never has since 2005.

In 2005, when I ran as an independent candidate for mayor, I said that Allentown was becoming a poverty magnet.  As a landlord I saw how many people were being staked to move-in money by various social agencies in the valley. Thousands and thousands of people moved here whose career is exploiting Social Security Disability,  the job market was never a factor for them.  Those with that career are transient, with low and skipped rent deciding which town they move to, and for how long they stay.  That was a very politically incorrect observation at the time,  and is still a very sensitive issue.  However,  what isn't debatable is that Allentown has become a much poorer city in the last 15 years.   In a sense, Alan is in the poverty business.  Needless to say he still has social engineering recommendations, now about what should be done in 2018, to better the situation.  I could dissect them point by point, but let me instead make just one observation.  In reality there is no lack of affordable housing in Allentown, or there would not be so many low income people moving here. I do not believe that enlarging and making that segment of the rental market more attractive benefits Allentown in the long term.

Alan Jennings To Train Sharecroppers

Those of you who listened to the podcast of my interview with Alan Jennings know that toward the end of the interview I confessed to snickering about his organization's plan ( Community Action Committer of Lehigh Valley) to take over the farmer training at the Lehigh County owned Seed Farm.  Those who follow this blog know that I oppose Farmland Preservation,  because it is a ridiculous disconnect with the reality of food production in 2018.  It is however politically correct for urban liberals to think that if as much farmland as possible stays available,  there will be an endless banquet of environmental bliss, with organic food no less.  Alan sees it as an extension of food for the poor, sort of another ladder step in the food pantry mission. Low income food issues are because of money, not food production shortfalls. These liberals of course are ignorant of the long hours and hard work which goes into farming. They are also ignorant of the economic reality of competing with large scale agriculture.

Now, unless Alan wants to gift each of his graduates with a farm at our expense,  they will either be a farm hand, or at best a sharecropper.  What is really scary about Alan's plan is that it has the endorsement of the Republican controlled Lehigh County Commission.  They are apparently so vote craven, that they go along with such nonsense.

The only practical program assisting farming is Clean And Green.  Unfortunately, the Morning Call ran an expose on the program featuring photographs of large expensive houses,  surrounded by farmland. While the program limits tax reduction to only the land actively farmed,  the photographs give the impression that the tax breaks are going to people who don't need it.  I suppose the liberal paper thinks that those involved in agriculture are supposed to live in shacks.  Worse yet, the paper thinks that their story is a masterpiece, has has been running it on their website for months.

photocredit: Dorothea Lange, Son of Sharecropper, 1937

Cruising In Allentown

On Saturday Allentown will hold a Cruising Event,  celebrating a rite of passage from the Fonz days. Kids would cruise the circuit down Hamilton Street, back up Linden Street, and end up in the Fairgrounds at the Ritz.  The small town activity lasted well over twenty years.  Although the Morning Call article mentions it being banned in the 1980's,  I was a participant in the early 1960's.

While the newspaper does a good job reporting on the upcoming event, and the history behind it,  this post concerns our changing times here in Allentown.  I suppose we can now romanticize an activity that we once outlawed as the good old days, because the present is so much more dire.  Driving by and whistling at a girl is so much more innocent than drive-by shootings.  Driving around a loop is so much more innocent than drivers now being harassed and terrorized by gangs on dirt bikes, ambushing out of an ally in downtown Allentown.  Let up hope that we never get to the point of romanticizing those things.

artwork by Mark Beyer,  underground comic artist and native of Allentown

Change Coming To Parks

I tell people the only way that they will see my name in the paper is if I get arrested or die.  Considering that now you must order and pay for obituaries, I suppose only the arrest option remains.   I bring this up because it would not have been inappropriate for the Morning Call to ask me for my opinion about Lindsay Taylor being let go.  Nobody has had more to say,  or for longer, about the park system than me.  Although they do quote Cythnia Mota, I can  honestly say that I pass dogs being walked in the parks everyday who know considerably more about the park system than Mota.

Getting back to Ms. Taylor....Although I certainly have faulted her taking direction from The Wildlands Conservancy over park policy, especially the Weed Walls,  I never advocated for her dismissal.  However,  now that she has been handed the proverbial pink slip,  let me say that I didn't appreciate her attempts to justify Pawlowski's purchase of two parcels for future parks, among other things.

Lets get back to Ms. Mota.  The paper quotes her saying ....The next director of the department needs to reflect the city’s charging demographics, Mota said, emphasizing the city’s Hispanic population which now encompasses more than half of city residents. Taylor was the only woman who held a cabinet-level position in Allentown. All of O’Connell’s cabinet appointees so far have been white men. Although I will opine in another post about what qualities the next park director should process, none of them involve race or gender.

Although this next statement doesn't apply specifically to Ms. Taylor,  I am glad to see Ray O'Connell  willing to make changes in his administration.

photocredit:molovinsky

Jennings Interview Of Molovinsky & O'Hare

PODCAST FROM WDIY OF JENNINGS SHOW WITH MOLOVINSKY AND O'HARE

Drag Races And Such At Dorney Park

Dorney Park is celebrating it's 125th Anniversary, as noted by The Morning Call. A landmark that old, has provided memories for five generations. As a teenager in the 1960's, friday nights at Castle Rock, a dance hall from the twenties, were literally a Freddy Cannon moment. Park admission was free, and there were many attractions which no longer exist, most victim to fire. In addition to the dance hall, there was also a roller skating ring and a stock car race track. The picture above was part of a large neon sign on Hamilton Blvd., on the northwest corner with Cedar Crest Blvd.

In 2007 John Travolta,dressed in drag, portrayed Hollywood's version of Hairspray, initially made by campy underground film maker John Waters, and shot at Dorney Park in 1988. Travolta's part was originally played by a less wholesome, real life female impersonator named Devine, who died shortly after the movie was released.

In my father's time, you could get the trolley at 7th and Hamilton and take it to Dorney Park. Through the 1980's, you could still drive on the road which went right through the middle of the park. Now, combined with a water park, Dorney has become a regional attraction. Busloads of children and families come from New York and elsewhere, but it will always remain a rite of passage for local youngsters.

reprinted from May of 2009.

UPDATE: The large Dorney Park sign stood on the northwest corner of Hamilton and Cedar Crest.  Historic stone homes,  including the former King George Inn, stood on the other three corners. The intersection was called Dorneyville. At the Dorney Sign there was a diagonal road which also entered the intersection,  and the sign pointed to follow that road to the amusement park.

The Valley Of Cronyism

On Thursday I was a guest on Lehigh Valley Discourse, WDIY's program hosted by Alan Jennings. Despite some distractions, I was able to bring up one of Lehigh Valley's biggest problems, cronyism. Cronyism and sacred cows run the valley. An Op-Ed piece in this weekend's Morning Call illustrates the point. Because they hire veterans, Nestle is lauded for its plans to build another large plant, this one in central Pennsylvania. Their Lehigh Valley plant is at capacity for water usage. Of course hiring veterans sounds like a good thing, but sucking the water out of Pennsylvania to fill plastic bottles all over the world is a problem.  The Op-Ed is essentially a public relations piece for Nestle, presented as an editorial.

Here in Allentown we face higher water prices because LCA wants to implement a back door price hike, by increasing the residential billing cycle. (each bill contains a minimum charge, effectively resulting in an increase) We are in essence subsidizing the profit margin of Nestle and other commercial users.

Nestle was bought to the valley by Don Cunningham, now director of Lehigh Valley Economic  Development Corporation. Apparently, the Morning Call has no problem with a Nestle feel good editorial piece, but try and submit something critical about the local sacred cows and cronyism to the paper. Expect no reply, much less seeing it printed.

Allentown's Corner Markets

Although I doubt that there will ever be a show at the Historical Society, or brochures at the Visitors Bureau, perhaps nothing encapsulates the history of Allentown more than the corner grocery stores. Allentown proper, is mostly comprised of rowhouses built between 1870 and 1920, long before the era of automobiles and suburban supermarkets. Most of the corner markets were built as stores, and over the years many were converted into apartments. Up until the late 1940's, there may have been well over a hundred operating in Allentown. Some specialized in ethnic food. The bodega at 9th and Liberty was formally an Italian market. Live and fresh killed chickens were sold at 8th and Linden, currently H & R Block Tax Service. A kosher meat market is now a hair salon on 19th Street. The original era for these markets died with the advent of the supermarket. In the early 50's some corner stores attempted to "brand" themselves as a "chain", as shown in the Economy Store sign above. That market is at 4th and Turner, and has been continually operating since the turn of the last century. Ironically, as the social-economic level of center city has decreased, the corner stores have seen a revival. Most of these new merchants, many Hispanic and some Asian, know little of the former history of their stores, but like their predecessors, work long, hard hours.

ADDENDUM: The above post is reprinted from 2012.  The sign shown above has been removed or sold. When my parents were first married they lived next door and would patronize the same store.  My grandparents lived nearby on the corner of Chew and Jordan Streets.

ADDENDUM 2: the Economy Stores sign shown, apparently came from an early A&P format in 1912 when they leased small stores. If this particular store was such an A&P, or just dressed later with a reused sign, I have yet to determine.

Allentown's Mysterious Millennials

The Morning Call has been running an article now for over a week wondering what millennials want in  downtown Allentown.  Another article mentions that another restaurant is closing, and that J.B. Reilly has built a dozen new buildings, but must keep trying different pieces to find ones that fit.  The articles don't ask how come he can afford to keep looking for pieces that fit,  or how come the newspaper keeps promoting every new attempt to find the right piece.  For these questions you are limited to this blog.

Reilly can keep building and trying because it's not his money, it's ours.  The paper keeps promoting the phenomenal as revitalization, because they also are not as they appear.  They are just tenants in their former building, now owned by Reilly.  The paper is printed in Jersey City and I conclude might even be for sale itself.

The closing restaurant is Grain, and the article tells us that millennials want open spaces,  not tight narrow ones.  I remember when the space was the successful Federal Grill, and then it was considered cozy.  The truth is pretty simple..  There are too many restaurants and not enough millennials.  One would think that by now there would be... After all Reilly built hundreds Strata apartments, and The Morning Call tells us that they're all filled with waiting lists.  Go figure?

Meanwhile the paper continues to ignore my letters and others which criticize any policy of the sacred cows which they protect,  be it the NIZ or The Wildlands Conservancy.

ADDENDUM:  Mr. O'Hare and I spar tonight on WDIY 88.1 FM at 6:00PM. He has sociopathically taken to attacking me as a racist because he didn't like some comments by others on my blog, I don't obsess about Trump, and I oppose double parking. I understand that he is chummy with the Northampton Judiciary, but I didn't realize that they made him judge and jury. Yesterday he wrote about Better Angels, he clearly isn't one. Although he's preaching to the choir on a NPR station, I interrupt this bully with some truths.

The Union Street Train Tower

The Union Street crossing was a busy place. It was located between the Jordan Creek and south 3th Street. Virtually all the train lines serving Allentown converged here. The Lehigh Valley Railroad's old main line also crossed Union Street further east, toward the Lehigh River. Allentown was at this time served by two train stations, the Lehigh Valley Railroad Station which was built over the Jordan Creek, and the New Jersey Central, which still stands as a closed restaurant and bar. This photograph, from 1930, is first in a series which will chronicle both the demise of our railroad era, and manufacturing base. Today, the tower is long gone and only one track survives. It is used by a private short line operator.

photograph from the Collection of Mark Rabenold 

reprinted from June 2013

Rumble On The Radio

In 2014 Alan Jennings invited Bernie O'Hare and me to join him on his radio show, Lehigh Valley Discourse.  The station manager refused to archive the show,  and Jennings quit in protest against the censorship.  Move ahead four years, and Alan is back on public radio at WDIY.  For his first new show he again invited both O'Hare and myself.  However since that first appearance, O'Hare has developed hostility toward me,  for pointing out some aspects of his blog operating manner.

Since O'Hare and I both accepted Jennings' invitation,  I assumed that he was putting his hostility aside for the show.  Less than halfway into the taping he pounced on a word which I had mispronounced. I then noticed that he has a legal pad full of my blog quotes, and notes pertaining to them.  He accused me of hosting a hate blog based on a reader comment, which I didn't reply to.   Although O'Hare knows that I prefer not to debate in the comment section,  he delighted in taking his example out of context.  Ironically, Jennings wanted to talk about Trump's hostility and incivility, but seemed somewhat oblivious to O'Hare's hostility unfolding right in front of him.

I appreciated Alan's invitation, and although Bernie's attacks and my replies might make for an interesting show, O'Hare's behavior was unnecessary.  Hopefully this show will make it through the archive procedure,  and Alan's new run on the show will be well received.

ADDENDUM: Occasionally, someone says something rich in irony,  especially if they maliciously enjoy weaponizing words.  Such was the case on last week's taping, when O'Hare accused me of misogyny. In early 2016 O'Hare wrote...Whether I agree or disagree with her on this or that, I must say Susan Wild has been a breath of very fresh air in Allentown. She was put into a nearly impossible situation, and has reacted with integrity and honor. People with my history tend to bring the profession down, but someone like Wild can rescue a democracy in peril. He continued praising her for almost two years. Toward the end of 2017 he wrote...She has handled herself with integrity and a sedulous nature that kept the ship of state from foundering. With O'Hare, friendship seems to trump truth. When Wild put out a mailer about his friend Morganelli that O'Hare didn't like, the truth changed. When I pointed out that he did a 180 on Susan Wild, and essentially called her a whore, he tried to deflect away the truth of my observation by claiming that my statement was misogynistic. By May of 2018 O'Hare was accusing Wild of bashing little people to benefit hospitals...All of the regular people she screwed over 30 years will be contacted. 

O'Hare thinks that his readers are a weak minded jury that he can bully and manipulate at will. He delights in playing up to local judges and the district attorney. When one of his anonymous readers took him to task last primary, O'Hare replied...Sign your name so we know who to sue 

          Show will air Thursday July 12th at 6:00PM WDIY 88.1 FM

                                                             PODCAST OF SHOW

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.