Allentown's Coffee Square

When the staff of molovinsky on allentown recently visited Tim Hortons on a weekend evening, we were the only patrons. Likewise, when we visited Johnny's across the square on a business morning, there was only one other table occupied. Despite that reality, Starbucks will now be occupying the third corner. Although City Center Real Estate Company and the Pawlowski Administration wants people to think that the Starbucks entrance symbolizes something exclusive, the shoppers at Target on Cedar Crest Blvd. know better. The reality is that the existing coffee shops, which are only doing marginally at best, will do even less. Whatever failure or disappointment that visits these businesses, don't blame the Morning Call. They have been promoting the shops in a shameless manner. After multiple articles announcing the opening of a Philadelphia cheesesteak business, this weekend they will review the cheesesteak. How cheesy is that?

Reducing Democracy In Allentown

As I posted yesterday, and reported in today's Morning Call, Pawlowski has started a PAC to squash any deliberation of his ideas, at both City Council and the school district. Joining and supporting this PAC are Allentown's state representatives, newly elected Peter Schweyer and Michael Schlossberg.  Schlossberg says that some level of agreement is necessary. This political wisdom coming from someone who has never had an opponent. While Pawlowski claims that his goal is to improve the school district, both he and the article omit the fact that the NIZ's J.B. Reilly is seeking school tax reductions on the new buildings. If things are not bleak enough on the democracy horizon, Jeanette Eicenwald announced that she will not seek re-election. Allentown should be outraged by Pawlowski and his PAC, and with the support by Schweyer and Schlossberg for it; In truth, the voters don't care beyond the beer and pretzels at the new arena.

Pawlowski $Invests In Allentown School Board

Recently, a comment on this blog stated that both the Allentown City Council and Allentown School Board do Pawlowski's bidding. Although city council, with one full time exception, certainly stamps things for Pawlowski, the same cannot be said for the school board. For example, the board refused to give a proposal to remodel the Phoenix Mill into apartments the KOZ status pushed by the administration. Because school board candidates can cross register, there are several Republicans on the board, including two staunch conservatives. Mayor For Life has now established a PAC to financially support candidates with his vision. So far, the PAC is supporting Charlie Thiel and Elizabeth Martinez for re-election to the board. When this blogger interviewed Thiel last year, he indicated that he wouldn't hesitate to oppose Pawlowski for mayor. The PAC support doesn't bode well for that declared independence. Bi-lingual Martinez has been hired by dutchman Peter Schweyer, elected to represent Allentown's hispanics in the state house.

A Park Protestor From The Past

`Green' Curtain Blocks Sledding And The View
January 09, 1992|The Morning Call
To the Editor:
Hold your sleds girls and boys! Others, too, on the alert! With the planting of a dense cluster of 60 evergreen trees and the erection of a "No Sledding" sign, creating a veritable iron curtain, the park and watershed people have once again undertaken their repetitive effort of the past 45 years to eliminate a most popular sledding slope in Lehigh Parkway. The motive -- crass self-interest in defiance of public good. The effect -- an impassable barrier and concealment of a magnificent vista of "one of the finest valleys in Eastern Pennsylvania."
Children and adults from the 400 homes with longtime and easy access to the slope and others arriving in cars have enjoyed sledding here after school and into the night and throughout the day and night on weekends. Yet sledding is but one of the attractions of this enduring slope. In summer children and teachers from Lehigh Parkway Elementary School have enjoyed a walk down the slope and into the park for a break from book and blackboard. Birders, joggers, hikers and others on a leisurely stroll engrossed in their particular interest have found the slope irresistible.
For a host of others, this opening into the park after a long stretch of woods presents a charming vista and urge to descend. Interest is immediately evoked by the sight of a mid-19th century log house (now tenanted by a city employee whose privacy is further enhanced by the closure of the slope) and a historic wagon trail leading past the site of a lime kiln to tillable lands of earlier times.
The view takes in an expanse of meadowlands, now groomed, to the Little Lehigh River and up the western slope to Lehigh Parkway North. Indeed, a pleasant view to be esteemed and preserved for generations to come. It was distressing on New Year's Day to see a family and their guests intent upon a walk down the slope suddenly stop in amazement and shock as the closure became evident.
The cost in dollars through the years of the park peoples' fixation on destroying the Parkway slope must be staggering indeed without dwelling on other deliberate depletions. Typically, the placement of the 1991 "No Sledding" sign employed a team of four men with three vehicles -- a backhoe, a panel truck, and a super cab pickup truck, the latter furnishing radio music.
BERT A. LUCKENBACH
ALLENTOWN The Morning Call, January 9, 1992
reprinted from January 2012

I grew up in the same neighborhood and spent my childhood winters sledding on the same hill. Mr. Luckenbach would also be saddened that the historic Wagon Trail is now also blocked off, near it's exit halfway on the hill. I suppose children, mittens and sledding is too passive a recreation for this Administration's taste.

Allentown's Make Believe Economy

In a recent article on the Lehigh Valley economy, credit Tony Iannelli for a glimpse of reality; "There has been tremendous growth on a particular Main Street in Allentown, but that doesn't always translate to what's going on in outlying towns." On the other hand, Don Cunningham, as usual, had much more smile than insight; "We have no reason to be anything but encouraged." Of course, the most deluded is mayor for life Pawlowski;"Not sure where they got their data, but they obviously have not been to Allentown lately." In the real world of Lehigh Valley, things are not as they appear. While Cunningham boasts of the bottling companies which have come to drain our water resources and burden our sewage treatment capacity, a 97 year old local bottler closed. While Pawlowski cuts ribbons on businesses which have been induced into Allentown, other cities in our state hang For Rent signs on the space those same businesses vacated. While the enormous tax incentives may provide ribbon cuttings and photo opportunities for the Cunningham's and Pawlowski's of Pennsylvania, we are in reality just playing musical chairs. Without real additional net gains in employment, we will all eventually pay for these delusions.

A Russian Orthodox Corner In Allentown

While the pulpit section of the Protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary Orthodox Church is adorned with murals and icons of Mary, parishioners may notice that there is no such imagery on the beautiful stained glass windows. More careful inspection reveals that while there are no graven images in the glass, Stars of David and scrolls can be seen. As the ancestors of the current members came from eastern Europe and the Czarist Russian Empire, so did the building's original congregation. The gothic edifice was built as a synagogue in 1909 by Allentown's Russian Jews. The Orthodox Jewish congregation, Sons Of Israel, utilized the structure for 50 years before it was repurposed by the current American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox congregation.

The Mad Men of Allentown

Back in the day, the titans of Allentown would fill the five barberchairs of the Colonial Barbershop, 538 Hamilton Street. That was when the town had three department stores. That was when Wetherhold and Metzger had two shoe stores on Hamilton Street. That was when Harvey Farr would meet Donald Miller and John Leh at the Livingston Club for lunch, and discuss acquiring more lots for Park & Shop. By 1995 all that was gone, but Frank Gallucci, 82, would still give some old timers a trim. The Colonial Barbershop property, closed for many years, has been purchased by J.B. Reilly. It is my pleasure to present this previously unseen portrait of Gallucci, toward the end of his career.

 photocredit:molovinsky
reprinted from May 2013

A Road Runs Through It

Once, there was a time when gasoline was twenty five cents a gallon, there was no internet, and a family would go for a drive on Sunday. There was no traffic congestion or road rage. The cars were large, and they all came from Detroit. You could drive through a park, even an amusement park. There was no rush to get back to the television; It was very small, with only a few channels. Life now seems to revolve around small silicon chips, I preferred when it was large engines.

photograph shows the road through Dorney Park
reprinted from June 2012

NIZ Bitch Slaps Allentown Taxpayers

J.B. Reilly wants the best of both worlds; While poaching tenants with lower rents and paying his mortgages with state taxdollars, he now wants his property taxes reduced, based on the lower rents, instead of the construction cost which we are paying for. All our local politicians are complicit in Reilly's appeal to the assessment board. The NIZ was essentially designed with him in mind, and the entire NIZ Board has been carrying his water. I doubt that he would make this assessment appeal without their knowledge and approval. If the city and school district doesn't get the full anticipated taxes, WHAT IS THE COMMUNITY BENEFIT? Pat Browne, Ed Pawlowski, Michael Schlossberg, Sy Taub, ETC. should be ashamed.

The Hype and Reality of Allentown's NIZ

Allentown has certainly received mucho hype for it's new taxpayer subsidized growth. Mayor Ed pastes his facebook page with each new accolade. The challenge is not to confuse the hype with the reality. Locally, the hype was cultivated by placing the Morning Call in the NIZ, even though their building was on the wrong side of Linden Street. Likewise, the national stories are bandwagon writing, relying on google searches, vs. real research. The owners of the Cosmopolitan learned that the lunch dollars don't spread out everywhere. Allentown does have a new prime corner. In it's mercantile heydays it was 9th and Hamilton, with nationally renown Hess's. The new corner is 7th and Hamilton, with the taxpayer palace of hope. Shown above are Allentown's new players, cutting the ribbon for the Renaissance Hotel. Although it's future is somewhat doubtful, it will succeed in reducing the Hilton at 9th Street into a flop house. For those who prefer the hype, the Morning Call can be purchased everywhere. Save for this blog, reality is much harder to find.

Old Allentown's Inconvenient Truth

                                                   click photograph to enlarge

The merchants who built Hamilton Street counted on architecture to attract shoppers into their emporiums. Large neon signs wouldn't appear for another fifty years. The soffit and fascia shown above, halfway between 7th and 8th on Hamilton, is one of the most elaborate facades in Allentown. One thing you can say about Allentown City Hall, they never let culture, art, or history get into the way of their plans. As successful cities come to value and profit from their history more and more, Allentown keeps using the standard catalog of proven failures. I know from other projects on Hamilton Street that Pawlowski isn't big on history. The Cityline Building in the 800 Block was permitted to stucco over beautiful brickwork. Sad that the puppies, who are directors at the Art Museum and Historical Society, remain silent on the planned destruction. It's hard to describe the magnificence of the skylight shown below, also in the targeted block. It's very large in three sections, in pristine condition. Should be quite a snack for Pawlowski's bulldozer.
The bulldozer prevailed, and the former architectural treasures of our mercantile history were not preserved, save for this blog's archives. Above is reprinted from May 2011

UPDATE:  The post above, reprinted from May of 2013, was then titled Stealing Allentown's Treasures. This past weekend, a member of Old Allentown Preservation Association, and an active local Democrat, bragged on facebook about how he had recycled an old second floor office door from the demolished buildings in the arena zone. In truth, Old Allentown also turned a self serving, callous eye to the destruction noted in the above post. Although I'm glad the door was recycled, allow this post to note the irony and hypocrisy of the Association.

Pawlowski At Epicenter

Long before the NIZ, promoter and media consultant Alfonso Todd has been plying his trade from the upper floors of Hamilton Street. When I first met him he operated out of the former 1st National Bank building at 7th and Hamilton. At the time the former building was named Monument Center, and now is the site of National Penn, in Reilly's City Center 2. As Todd's promotions expanded, he moved to the current Hamilton Business Center, the large older office building at 11th and Hamilton. Todd and partners are now in the Somach Building, in still larger space, reflecting his determination to provide promotional services to the diverse market segments of the Lehigh Valley. Yesterday, as he kicked off yet another project, Mayor Pawlowski stopped by to wish the enterprise success. Although the mayor doesn't normally receive an abundance of praise on this page, his visit yesterday demonstrates that he understands that the future of Hamilton Street rests as much with the Alfonso Todd's of Allentown, as it does with the J.B. Reillys'.

Moshe Dayan

Moshe Dayan on born on a kibbutz near the Sea of Galilee in 1915. When he was 14, he joined the outlawed Haganah, an underground defense force to protect Jewish settlements from Arab attacks. Although caught and imprisoned by the British for two years, he would fight for them in Lebanon during WWII, losing his eye. In the 1948 War of Independence, he fought on all the fronts, defending Israel; by 1953 he was Chief of Staff of the Israeli Armed Forces. In 1956 he led the Suez Campaign.

In 1967 he was Defense Minister for the Six Day War. He remained in that position through the War of 1973. Although a genuine hero in every sense of the word, he was held responsible for the initial success of Egyptian forces in the surprise attack on Yom Kippur (1973), and would resign from his position.

Israel is too small of a country, and it's enemies too numerous, for any miscalculations regarding it's security.

reprinted from February 2013

Allentown's Tower Of Babel

I was at the Allentown Planning Commission meeting for the arena. To say that it was a rubber stamp procedure is exaggerating the commission's integrity. The only question they asked was how the garage door would look on the service entrance. Likewise, the chosen one J.B. Reilly, only gets green lights by all the bureaucracies; One only look at the wooden framed apartments on top of the steel first floor at 7th and Linden. Another developer, one from yesteryear, Bruce Loch, is not getting the same reception for his proposal. He's still trying to get to first base with his tower proposed for 9th and Walnut. He should make Reilly his partner. While I'm back on the subject of Reillytown, let me express doubt about the Lehigh County Community College announcement. Supposedly, their building on Hamilton Street across from the arena no longer suits their needs, but Reilly isn't interested. This blogger predicts that at the end of the transactions Reilly will in fact own the building. If the students study and follow that deal, they would get a real education.

Defending The Wall

The Western Wall was built in 19 BC by Herod the Great, almost 600 years before the birth of Mohammed. Herod built the current wall to expand the Mount of the Second Temple, built in 516 BC, after the Jews returned from the Babylonian Exile. The Second Temple would stand until destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD. Over 600 year later, in 691 AD, Muslims would build the Dome of The Rock, on top of the Mount where the Temple had stood. Today, there are 17 stone courses of the wall below the current street level. Although Jews have been praying at the Wall for over a thousand years, last week the Palestinian Authority issued a report stating that the wall is not Jewish, but part of the Dome. This report, although contradicted by Bible, history, archeology and even photography, is never the less disturbing; It plants another seed of revisionism against the history of the Jewish people. Recently, UNESCO declared that Rachel's Tomb is actually a Mosque, ignoring the thousands of years of Jewish reverence.

photograph shows Jews praying at The Wall in 1895

reprinted from November 2010

Fighting Terrorism

In United States, one well read speech at a national convention can put you in the White House four years later. In Israel, the price of admission is much higher. Sabena Flight 571 was hijacked on May 8, 1972. When an elite team of Israeli commandoes burst into the plane, they were led by Ehud Barak. Barak would later become Prime Minister, and currently serves as Defense Minister. One of the commandoes was shot by friendly fire in the close quarter gunbattle. That former commando is in Washington today, to speak with the former speech reader. Although Binyamin Netanyaho would recover from his bullet wound, four years later, his brother was killed leading the raid to free the hostages at Entebbe.

We did not look for wars. They were forced upon us. But when we were attacked, we did not have the right to lose a single time. And when we won we returned to seeking peace. Today, I suggest to those who seek war not to make the same mistake again. Do not disrespect our ability ... we are prepared to physically defend our land and morally defend our heritage. Shimon Peres, May 9, 2011

photo of Israeli Commando Binyamin Netanyaho

reprinted from 2011 and 2012

 Yesterday was the 37th anniversary of the Raid on Entebbe.  Although the enemies of Israel (and the Jews) continue to blame that tiny state for all the troubles in the Middle East, history and current events indicate otherwise.

reprinted from July 2013

UPDATE January 13, 2015:  This post was previously titled Defending Israel. Netanyaho was well entitled to participate in the march in Paris, Israel has been defending against terrorism for decades. Likewise, United States need not apologize for not being in the march, this country has spend the most blood and treasure in this effort. This war is much more than a march, but a prolonged conflict, far away from a one day media special.

When Rustlers Cry Poaching

molovinsky on allentown was hoping to get back to local history this week, but the folly of the NIZ has once again intervened. Seems like the NIZ rustlers are upset because Bethlehem is trying to lure Talen, the PPL spinoff for electricity generation. Sy Traub, chairman of the NIZ, said, "To poach a major company right across the city line, that wouldn't make a great deal of sense." Of course Sy had no problem with Allentown poaching National Penn from Boyertown, or even stealing the main tenant from Allentown's own Masonic Temple. All's fair in love and NIZ. Also in NIZ NEWS, Harrisburg has shook it's head no about about using state income tax for sidewalks and streetlights. Here at the molovinsky office, headquartered in City Center 2, along with National Penn Bank, we decided to use the rustler photo once more, before returning it to the Allentown Library later today. Currently, we're operating out of a broom closet, but J.B. has promised us better space in the proposed Walnut Street Tower.

SteakHouse Rustling

Most of the poaching for J.B. Reilly's City Center has gone on quietly, save for this blog. I did mention how the move by National Penn was Allentown's gain, but Boyertown's loss. I suppose my biggest protest involved the major accountant vacating the Masonic Temple for new digs in City Center 367. Apparently, the management of Promenade Shops also isn't taking the highjacking of Shula's as a community benefit, and has filed a lawsuit over the lease default. With these steals spread out over a large area, and a blind eye from the local MSM, the negative consequences of the NIZ has been mostly hushed over. Combine a license to rustle like the NIZ, with the ambition and connections of a J.B., and one area's benefit causes a corresponding demise elsewhere in the state. The number crunchers in Harrisburg did realize the problem after the fact, thus the newly hatched CRIZ alternative. The sorry story of our state representatives also contribute to Pennsylvania's dilemma; Complacent incumbents unopposed term after term. We are at the point now where nobody will invest anything in Pennsylvania, without being subsidized by the taxpayers.

For Whom Does The Morning Call Work

An article in today's Morning Call by Matt Assad follows the paper's new agenda, reporting J.B. Reilly's business promotions as news. This latest article claims that there is a shortage of market rate housing for the yuppies and empty nesters, but a surplus of low rent housing for the poor. Although Assad is correct about the proportion of low and high end units available, he's taking Reilly's promotion as a fact. In reality, just like the restaurants needed to be primed by giving out gift cards, the flats and lofts will also need to be pumped. Currently, Reilly is taking $100 returnable deposits for his yet completed apartments, certainly not an indicator of demand. Getting people to drive into center city for dinner is one thing, getting them to live there is another. The stated demand is bogus, the real urgency is taking advantage of building a real estate empire at taxpayer expense.

Stealing For Jesus

A former sportscaster is on trial for bilking hundreds of sports fans out of thousands of dollars, for sport travel packages that he failed to deliver. He has been defending himself wearing a cross and holding a bible, claiming that he misspent the money on good deeds. I have no interest in the defendant or the case, only the defense concept, which isn't novel. Over the years, hundreds of defendants seem to find religion in the time between being arrested and facing the judge. I would think that such pious people wouldn't mind spending some time incarnated, atoning for their sins. This blog occasionally veers from local politics and history with holy land posts. Perhaps this post should be filed under unholy.
photo by Rick Kintzel/Doylestown Intelligencer

An Eminent Domain Failure

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?
above reprinted from January 24, 2011 (then titled Downhill on Lehigh Street)
You don't have to go far from Hamilton Street to see an eminent domain failure; Only several blocks and 40 years. Fortunately, for our imported leaders, memory of this debacle has faded. Allentown now wants to discard the most historic mercantile block of Hamilton Street, so that an out of state developer can force feed hotdogs to people from Catasauqua, at minor league hockey games.
reprinted from 2012

Editor's note: By any criterion, including my own, the NIZ is not a failure. However, I proudly present this analysis of a previous urban renewal project. For those inclined toward reading only optimistic and happy promotion, may I recommend the Morning Call.

Smoke And Reality Of The NIZ

Ce-Ce Gerlach in her debate with Ed Pawlowski on Business Matters had to keep calling the mayor out on his distortions about the NIZ. He referred to a position of waitress at the Hamilton Kitchen as transformative. Although it may be life changing for that particular woman, being a waitress is nothing novel or prosperous for hundreds of others in the Lehigh Valley. Ce-Ce pointed out that the quality of her life at 9th and Walnut won't improve until there are grocery stores and pharmacies in her neighborhood. Toward the end of the program Pawlowski finally did concede that the jobs going to the local folks are entry level. Funny to see a Democrat defending trickle down economics. While Ce-Ce would like to see inclusionary zoning for the new upscale flats, Pawlowski had a slip of the tongue and referred to it as exclusionary. I believe that neither Ce-Ce or suburban apartment owners need worry about gentrification in downtown Allentown, it won't happen.

When Puppets Think They're Real

Ray O'Connell is poised to be the next Allentown City Council President. Julio Guridy is spinning the change that he is granting the position to O'Connell, because it will be good for him to be president for a year. He notes the big decisions, such as the water lease and the NIZ, as his legacy. Michael Schlossberg, on a recent Business Matters, noted his involvement in the NIZ by voting for eminent domain. On Pawlowski's facebook page, a friend compliments him as the architect of the NIZ and Allentown's revival. I'm sure that when J.B Reilly is depositing the state income tax checks into City Center's account, he doesn't care which of the puppets wants to think of himself as real.

Zeppelin Over Jerusalem

The German airship LZ127 Graf Zeppelin was in service from 1928 to 1937. Two of it's 590 flights were over Jerusalem. The first occurred on March 26, 1929. It was a night flight, during which they dropped mail into the German colony at Jaffa. The second flight, pictured above, was from Cairo on April 11, 1931. The ship hovered above the Church of Holy Sepulchre for several minutes.

reprinted from July 2013