And for the third time in two years, we have this:
No Big Macs today!
Saturday, July 01, 2006
Be Sure to Thank Your Local Developers and the LVPC
The LVPC wants to pave even more roads and is projecting even more development:
22 comments:
You own views are appreciated, especially if they differ from mine. But remember, commenting is a privilege, not a right. I will delete personal attacks or off-topic remarks at my discretion. Comments that play into the tribalism that has consumed this nation will be declined. So will comments alleging voter fraud unless backed up by concrete evidence. If you attack someone personally, I expect you to identify yourself. I will delete criticisms of my comment policy, vulgarities, cut-and-paste jobs from other sources and any suggestion of violence towards anyone. I will also delete sweeping generalizations about mainstream parties or ideologies, i.e. identity politics. My decisions on these matters are made on a case by case basis, and may be affected by my mood that day, my access to the blog at the time the comment was made or other information that isn’t readily apparent.
We could prevent the further escalation of events like this if we steered development to areas with existing impervious surfaces (cities) instead of open land. Unfortunately that is not the agenda the LVPC has set for us at this time.
ReplyDeleteZoning ordinances regulating impervious surfaces are routinely ignored by municipal zoning hearing boards.
ReplyDeleteSo, too, is PA Act 167 reguiring municipalities to enact ordinances regulating storm-water runoff.
When municipalities do adopt storm-water runoff ordinances, these are then ignored by local officials and zoning hearing boards.
A notorious example is Easton, whose chairman of the zoning hearing board is also chairman of the Easton Democratic Party Committee.
I hate to be the one to tell you all that you can't turn back the hands of time to when Native Americans settled Catasaqua. Their teepees probably got flooded too after 4 days of steady rains measuring 10+ inches that overflowed the tributaries.
ReplyDeleteStorm water management is expensive and as long as local officials are afraid to raise the taxes necessary to pay for improvements, basements will be flooded, roads will be submerged, and houses will be washed away. You get the kind of government you are willing to pay for.
All the anti-development zealots wouldn't even be here if that attitude prevailed decades ago.
There was no fence keeping them from moving to the Lehigh Valley years ago. But, now that they're transplanted here, they want the strongest, highest fence that someone else is willing to pay for.
You can't have it both ways! It's an act of God, people! Some secret society didn't conspire to approve 10 inches of rain just to inconvenience you and piss you off!!! It happens, it has happened, and it will happen--regardless of the level of development in a given region.
Bernie,
ReplyDeleteRe the last comment by "anonymous," When Kathy and the kids and I moved from the Jersey Shore to Blairstown Township in Warren County, we bought a house on Cedar Lake Road overlooking the Paulinskill River and the wrought-iron bridge over it that connected the village and Footbridge Park.
We had hardly moved into our new home when I made a startling discovery: Footbridge Park the TWP fraudulently claimed to own belonged in fact to the City of Newark.
When I exposed this and other frauds, the TWP committee and The Blairstown Press excoriated me and my family with same charges your last commenter "anonymous" makes: That as newcomers to Blairstown, we "wanted to close the door behind us."
For the four years we lived in Blairstown before relocating to Easton, we were harassed. When Kathy tried to present a petition opposing the sale or lease of Footbridge Park to Warren County to the Board of Chosen Freeholders in Belvidere, board chair Irene Mackey Smith threatend Kathy: If Kathy persisted in attempting to read the petition, she as chair of the board would call the sheriff from across the hall and have Kathy ejected from the meeting.
I then began organizing what came to be known as the Paulinskill Trail Committee, a crusade that led to Footbridge Park and literally thousands of contiguous parcels belonging to Newark becoming New Jersey's newest state park.
My efforts in creating the state of New Jersey's youngest park are described in an article published in the August 9, 1988, edition of The Easton Express (now The Express-Times) by reporter Don Rosselet (long since-retired) and in an article published in the December 11, 1988, edition by reporter Anthony Salomone, whose still on the staff of The Easton Express's successor, The Express-Times.
Carol King - not the songwriter and lyricist but The Express-Times librarian - will make copies of these articles available for a modest fee.
To one and all: Thanks for all the comments on a "picture post." Anonymous, I understand what you are saying when you point out that many of the LV's residents did not have to move here, but doesn't that acknowledge that rampant develoment is part of the problem?
ReplyDeleteI don't think three major floods in the span of two short years can be explained as an Act of God. Overdevelopment and poor municipal planning are also big factors. Another very big and as yet undiscussed factor is global warming. According to "An Inconvenient Truth," one of the effects of global warming is dramatice changes in ourt weather. Sudden and very heavy outbursts of rain is one of the examples cited in the movie. And before you trash the movie, do me a favor and check it out. It's very solid factually.
Dear Mad:
ReplyDeleteHow tractor trailers are to blame for flooding is beyond me. But I take it you support higher taxes to pay for better storm water management.
Or, more likely, by "doing it right" you mean locking the big gate behind you before anyone else can build a house within 50 miles of yours. Talk about unethical! It's ethical when YOU can build where YOU choose, but it's unethical when ANYONE ELSE makes the same choice! Now THAT'S an act of greed!!
Also good to know that local planning commissions are responsible for the rainfall, instead of the forces of nature or acts of God. Because, I agree that "rain happens." That happened to be my point, which you happened to miss in your rush to establish yourself as a civil engineer/Native American expert/attorney specializing in zoning ordinances. Dumb ass.
And I will believe that not one Native American's moccasins ever got soaked when their teepee was flooded when you point me to the documented, published source that you based such an idiotic statement on.
As for not "following the law," is that your half-assed, uninformed, knee-jerk, talk-around-the-water-cooler opinion or is that based on relevant case law that you can cite for me? Usually, the courts grant developers the right to build because local zoning ordinances or planning commission decisions are stacked against them in DEFIANCE of the law.
Finally, Mr. Mad Expert, how many rivers, creeks, and tributaries have DEVELOPERS built/constructed/created in the Lehigh Valley that caused all of this flooding? When you can name one developer who spent millions of dollars to run a single STREAM anywhere near one of their developments, I will take your silly assed side and blame the developers for the flooding. If you can't, I guess YOU'RE the one who's all wet.
Impact fee this!
I think that global warming is a bunch of nonsence that some tree huggers dreamed up to prevent us from turning the state into a parking lot----our destiny
ReplyDeleteI'll be interested to learn what the results of the study (to be performed by the Army Corps of Engineers) reports regarding flooding. Yes, it's an act of nature, but we didn't have flooding like this when hurricanes and storms hit 15-20 years ago. There was some (small streams and tributaries) but the Delaware didn't consume Easton and points south every 6-10 months.
ReplyDeleteThere has to be a reason why and hopefully we can identify that cause.
To Anonymous 8:26 AM: I don't just hug trees. I once got a few of them to pose for me. Maybe I'll post pics one day if you're good.
ReplyDeleteAs fas as the parking lot is concerned will it be paid or fre?
In his December 11, 1988, article, Express staff writer Anthony Salamone wrote:
ReplyDelete"The Phillipsburg proposal [for a state of New Jersey Transportation and Railroad Museum] includes a two-phase project built on land owned by the town, Conrail, New Jersey Transit and individuals. Part of the 70-acre tract included the Delaware River Park along the Belvidere-Delaware tracks."
How did these 70 acres fall into the hands of Phillipsburg native, attorney, and developer Michael Perrucci? Did the fact that he is a law partner of former New Jersey Jim Florio play a role?
The two are up to their eyeballs in the so-called Highlands Act, a controversial project opposed by elected officials in Warren and Hunterdon counties.
Salamone wrote recently about a Highlands Act meeting held at the Harkins Hollow Country Club attended sponsored by Perrucci and Florio and sponsored by Salamone's boss Martin Till and endorsed by Greater Lehigh Valley Greater Chamber of Commerce two top officials, Anthony Iannelli and Marta Boulos Gabriel.
Billy Givens said...
ReplyDeleteSalamone's recent article describing the meeting at the Harkins Hollow Country Club in Harmony Township, New Jersey, was published June 21, 2005.
The articles first paragraph reads: "Warren County needs a knockout punch to reach a point where at least the county southern end can become a viable economic-development partner with the Lehigh Valley."
This has taken the alchemy of "regionalism" too far, beyond Northammpton and Lehigh counties to include Warren County, Hunterdon County, and, in fact, all of New Jersey, under the GLVCC's Easton Council, whose president Easton's District 2 representative on Northampton County Council, J. Michael Dowd.
"It takes bullies to change people's mindset," Salamone's article continues, quoting Paul Pierpoint, one of four panelists who participated Tuesday evening in "Uniting a Region," a meeting organized by the law firm of Florio & Perrucci and The Express-Times.
Pierpoint, who is community education dean at Northampton Community College, noted the school's former president, Robert Kopecek, stressed for years that a strong employee base would offset closings at Bethlehem Steel, Ingersoll-Rand and other major emloyers.
Marta Boulos Gabriel, continues Salamone, vice president of the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce' Easton council, said during the chamber's 13 mergers over the years, the region's largest chamber has found that "local control is important, and we give them that."
The fact is that Gabriel and the GLVCC have taken over all local chambers like TRACC through a series of ruthless power plays.
The panelists also included Kerry Wrobel, president of Lehigh Valley Industrial Parks Inc. seemed to agree that local control can run in harmony with regionalism.
Former Gov. Jim Florio, who kiced of the meeting, noted instances of by-state cooperation, including the Port Authority of new York and New Jersey.
People (at the meeting) also mentioned LVEDC and the Delaware River Joint Toll bBridge Commission as catalysts in establihsing a regional group that would incorporate Warren County's interests.
DRKTBC Chairman Philip Mugavero said he thinks the bridge agency would be open to participating in a regional group.
"I think we're on the verge of undergoing a major change as far as commerce, economic development and transportation," said Mugavero, a former Phillipsburg mayor.
"The average person thinks it's about time that the leaders of the community get together and start thinking more globally and trying to come up with ideas to imp;rove the region."
At a May 2005 meeting at Warren County Community College, Florio and his law partner, Michael Perrucci, offered their services to landowners angry about their inclusion in a sweeping preseration zone. Although it was billed as an inforation session, one farmer said it sounded more like a sles pitch.
This meeting was reported in the August 14, 2005, edition of The Newark Star-Ledger in an article by reporter Steve Chambers, who covers land-use issues.
Chambers may be reached at schambers@starledger.com or (973) 392-1674.
11:10 AM
PA Gov. Ed Rendell, U.S. Senators Arlen Specter and Rick Santorum, Northampton County, the City of Easton, the Lehigh and Northampton Transporttion Authority (LANTA)and Lafayette College are literally subsidizing the destructive flooding in Northampton County and its seat Easton.
ReplyDeleteGov. Rendell has given Arcadia Properites at least $1 million in taxpayer grants to develop luxury condominiums and trendy boutiques in the Delaware River and Bushkill Creek flood plain on Larry Holmes Drive behind the Northampton County-owned Gov. Geo. Wolf building, the parking-lot property that the county has already subdivided and sold to Arcadia Propeties at a fire-sale price.
U.S. Senators Specter and Santorum have come up with $2 million in federal funds for the project.
Nothampton County and LANTA have also kicked in hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars for the project, and the City of Eaaton has pledge another $150 thousand.
These government officials have also heavily subsicized or lent their support to Bushkill Village, the new urban community planned for the Bushkill Creek Corridor flood plain between Larry Holmes Drive and 13th St. and including the busy, congested intersection of College Drive, the 200 block of N. 3rd St., the 200 and 300 blocks of Snyder St., all of Bushkill St. between Larry Holmes Drive and Pearl St., Mevins Court Drive, Route 611 at the Easton interchange, and Bushill Drive.
Arcadia Properties has already retreated from its grandiose plan to build luxury condos in the HubCap Store building at the intersection of Snyder and N. 4th St. because of flooding, but is now looking to Lafayette College's deep pockets to bail it out (no pun intended)of its finncial losses incurred through poor planning, business investment decisions, and greed.
As I read these comments, I can feel the love of conflicting opinions. Who Are You? the deaf dumb blind kid, sure plays a mean blogball.He is not necessarily one with a simple mind,,and is merely proclaiming, "Don't you, Forget about me". Meanwhile, long term residents, mainly senior citizens ask, "will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I'm 64?"
ReplyDeleteBut to paraphrase my favorites:
I was floatin on a corner in Easton Pennsylvania,
such a fine sight to see,
there's a girl, woo-hoo
paddlin up in a canoe,
stoppin' by to take alook at me
Come on Ba---by,
Don't say may----be
I gotta know if your life raft,
is gonna sa---ve, me
I may lose, or I may win, but you can bet the developers'll be back again.
so grab the sides I'm climbin in, so you can sa---ve, me
Apolgies to the Eagles
They paved paradise and put up a parkin'lot
ReplyDeleteWith a pink hotel, a boutique, and a swingin' hot spot
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you got till it's gone
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot
They took all the trees, a put em in a tree museum
And they charge the people a dollar and a half to see them
No, no, no, don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got till it's gone
They paved paradise, and put up a parking lot
Hey farmer, farmer, put away your DDT
I don't care about spots on my apples,
Leave me the birds and the bees - please
Deon't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got till it's gone
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot
Hey now, they've paved paradise to put up a parking lot
Why not?
Counting Crows - Big Yellow Taxi
What surprises me is that a few pics and about 3 sentences would provoke such a response. I love it!
ReplyDeleteanybody ever hear about manifest destiny? Why don't all you suffering enviornmentalists sell your cars and turn your paved driveways into earth worm farms?
ReplyDeleteI did and they all drowned.
ReplyDeleteDear Mad:
ReplyDelete1) You just conceded my point that Native Americans suffered from flood damage BEFORE a single paved road was ever built;
2) You also conceded that all of the development that you demonize is not "against the law," because you couldn't cite even 1 case to prove your egg-sucking point;
3) You also conceded that not 1 local developer built any of the streams, creeks or tributaries that are now overflowing from the recent rainfall;
4) You admit that tractor trailers aren't REALLY the cause of run-off, roads are the real cuplrits and should be eradicated from the face of the earth (how simplistic and enlightened!).
If you can manage to remove both feet from your mouth and pull your head out of your ass at some point in your life, you might actually learn to think for a change before your "tiny penis complex" kicks in and you post even more ridiculous statements.
P.S. I was the kid who kicked your little gay ass in school and stole your lunch money, faggot. And I taught your wife to do all those things you like in bed.
You sir, are not fit for public discourse. Grow up. And this is coming from a 25 year old.
ReplyDeleteDear lvdem:
ReplyDeleteSo sorry. Did not know that you were not aware of the 1st Amendment.
Given the fact that you are 25 and still jacking off, I can forgive you this one time.
We've experienced much more flooding in the last two years than in the previous 100 years. it is logical to question whether we are in some sense resposnisible. Paved surfaces induce water runoff. Rampant development and alteration of our natural sloping also plays a role. Also, global warming has altered traditional meteorological patterns.
ReplyDeleteWe need to plan for future flooding or move. Levees, dredging, and intelligent municipal planning is necessary.
Now I'll go back to what's left of my worm farm.
"Ad hominem attacks will get you nowhere"...
ReplyDeleteI happen to agree.