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Old 05-31-2010, 11:25 AM
 
Location: Villanova Pa.
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I was up in the LV for the first time in quite awhile on business last week. I wasnt too pleased in what I saw in Allentown especially downtown. Whats going on and what in the hell happened? Is there any hope on the horizon?
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Old 05-31-2010, 12:09 PM
 
Location: MMU->ABE->ATL->ASH
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High taxes in city, Lots of rentals, Crime, and there is no hope...
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Old 05-31-2010, 01:32 PM
 
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Allentown is not getting much better as far as I can see but there was an article in yesterday's paper about some new businesses in the downtown area, so maybe all is not lost - From Shanty to showplace - mcall.com Since I never knew Allentown in better days, I don't feel these bad days so acutely.

Schools in the city's are hurting, but I don't see that much in the way of cut-backs in my small district other then losing a few teachers through retirement and then their positions are not filled. Our schools are not overcrowded though and there are still arts and sports...

Bethlehem continues to improve. It seems that every time I go there, there is another little shop or restaurant. And in our little towns surrounding the city's there are also better times. Emmaus has become quite attractive for the younger crowd and there always seems to be some event or festival on the horizon.

Yes, I'm an optimist.
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Old 05-31-2010, 06:34 PM
 
Location: Villanova Pa.
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So the poverty and crime in Allentown? Is it mainly organic at this point? Is it coming from NYC? Philly?

Its such a pleasant natural surrounding that it really caught me offguard the poverty that I saw downtown. Deteriorating housing stock,lots of hoopties,people walking down the street openly drinking malt liquor.It kind looks like Bronx west but surrounded by beautiful countryside.
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Old 05-31-2010, 08:01 PM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rainrock View Post
So the poverty and crime in Allentown? Is it mainly organic at this point? Is it coming from NYC? Philly?

Its such a pleasant natural surrounding that it really caught me offguard the poverty that I saw downtown. Deteriorating housing stock,lots of hoopties,people walking down the street openly drinking malt liquor.It kind looks like Bronx west but surrounded by beautiful countryside.
Allentown has had a huge influx of lower income folks from the NJ/NY area over the past 10 years. They moved into deteriorating apartment houses owned by local slumlords or absentee landlords. The older generation who kept up their properties and lived respectable lives has died off or moved away. Crime seems to be continually on the rise. People from the suburbs don't want to hang out in downtown Allentown like they do in Bethlehem.

It seems like every year or two, the borderline of the rundown/ghetto section of Allentown moves one street west. Now it's probably somewhere around 17th, maybe higher.

There are many beautiful, well-kept homes in the west end, but the property taxes are very high and the quality of the school district is low.
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Old 05-31-2010, 10:28 PM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rainrock View Post
So the poverty and crime in Allentown? Is it mainly organic at this point? Is it coming from NYC? Philly?

Its such a pleasant natural surrounding that it really caught me offguard the poverty that I saw downtown. Deteriorating housing stock,lots of hoopties,people walking down the street openly drinking malt liquor.It kind looks like Bronx west but surrounded by beautiful countryside.

What you see is the dividing line between the have and have-nots. The rich and the poor. The whites and the minorities. Nobody I know goes into the city anymore. It's a dump. I'm sure they have a few decent restaurants, but it really is a nasty, disgusting area. Outside the city is where all the big growth is happening. Investors are leaving the city to rot. Instead of tearing down some of those crackhouses and building some more affordable townhouses or condos, they are just building more and more mcmansions in macugnie or emmaus. I don't know of many businesses opening up in the city either, but a lot of new shopping centers just outside the city are being built all the time. I'm sure taxes have something to do with that. Oh well. I don't see things changing anytime soon. At least there is growth though!
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Old 06-01-2010, 08:21 AM
 
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Everybody else seems to have summed it up already for me. I would say that the turning point was when 78 opened in 1989, which made it a lot easier for the drug runners to go back and forth betweens cities. The Morning Call had a story about this several years back, noting that the NYC drug dealers are able to get a lot more for thei money out here than in the city, where there is more competition.

Give it time, and I see Emmaus falling to the same fate. I worked there for about a decade, and in that time and since, I have seen parts of that town fall into disreapair.
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Old 06-01-2010, 10:10 AM
 
Location: Villanova Pa.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnZ963 View Post
Allentown has had a huge influx of lower income folks from the NJ/NY area over the past 10 years. They moved into deteriorating apartment houses owned by local slumlords or absentee landlords. The older generation who kept up their properties and lived respectable lives has died off or moved away. Crime seems to be continually on the rise. People from the suburbs don't want to hang out in downtown Allentown like they do in Bethlehem.

It seems like every year or two, the borderline of the rundown/ghetto section of Allentown moves one street west. Now it's probably somewhere around 17th, maybe higher.

There are many beautiful, well-kept homes in the west end, but the property taxes are very high and the quality of the school district is low.
Tragic. I noticed the same thing going on in Lancaster of all places. Truly fascinating to see these pastural relatively isolated cities become hard core ghettoes.

The poor invaders coming in from NYC Newark etc? I suppose the majority live on federal assistance. Section 8 ,welfare, food stamps medicare etc. Why would Pa and Allentown take on the problematic poor from other states? Why are they allowing Allentown to become the dumping grounds for NYC/NNJ poor people?
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Old 06-01-2010, 10:36 AM
 
13,248 posts, read 33,345,557 times
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Originally Posted by rainrock View Post
Tragic. I noticed the same thing going on in Lancaster of all places. Truly fascinating to see these pastural relatively isolated cities become hard core ghettoes.

The poor invaders coming in from NYC Newark etc? I suppose the majority live on federal assistance. Section 8 ,welfare, food stamps medicare etc. Why would Pa and Allentown take on the problematic poor from other states? Why are they allowing Allentown to become the dumping grounds for NYC/NNJ poor people?

I don't quite understand what you mean. Discrimination is against the law and if someone is eligible for section 8 housing then they can get it. I don't think any city can not "allow" people to move there. The majority of people in Allentown do not live on federal assistance and of those that do, I would not assume they are all low life's. There's always a minority of people that are ill behaved, annoying and bring attention to themselves.

I think the majority of people that live in Allentown are just trying to get by, just like most of us.
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Old 06-01-2010, 05:32 PM
 
93 posts, read 308,379 times
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Originally Posted by toobusytoday View Post
I don't quite understand what you mean. Discrimination is against the law and if someone is eligible for section 8 housing then they can get it. I don't think any city can not "allow" people to move there. The majority of people in Allentown do not live on federal assistance and of those that do, I would not assume they are all low life's. There's always a minority of people that are ill behaved, annoying and bring attention to themselves.

I think the majority of people that live in Allentown are just trying to get by, just like most of us.
Landlords like section 8 because it's better to receive payment from the government than relying on slum dwellers to come up with the full amount every month. The system is a train wreck. Regardless of what you say about most Allentown people being decent hard-working people it is emphatically not the case. The idea behind section 8 was crime and quality of life would be improved if leeches and lowlifes were dispersed rather than concentrated, but all that's happened is that more marginal , lower rent areas like what Allentown used to be have become unlivable. You can thank Section 8. You can also thank the mass of "caring, open-minded" young lefties who have infested marginal neighborhoods in NYC and Philly for the cheap rents and driven out the brown people. Where do you think all the people they displace so they can afford to feel edgy in the big city and engage in morally superior preening end up?

it's the same game plan in South Bethlehem. It ain't happening quickly because the Lehigh Valley is pretty unsophisticated, but the game plan of all manner of lefties from Callahan to Lehigh U is obviously to slowly make the area attractive to the kind of people who'll drive the poor people out.

Last edited by Eephus; 06-01-2010 at 05:33 PM.. Reason: typo
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