A rare special meeting of Bethlehem's Planning Commission, scheduled for Thursday afternoon, has been canceled. The Board had been scheduled to review an 80-bed behavioral health hospital at Center and Dewberry streets, proposed by Arcadia Healthcare. A special meeting had been necessary because otherwise, the plan would go into effect by operation of law. But Arcadia has just notified the Cityit is withdrawing its plans.
The property, owned by Abe Atiyeh, has probably seen more plans than any five-acre tract in the history of the world. It's zoned institutional and is supposed to be a cemetery, but Atiyeh decided he wanted to put an assisted living facility there so residents could look out the window and see their future homes at the nearby graveyard.
Zoners said why the hell not.
But Abe changed his mind. Instead of assisted living, he decided he wanted to build luxury apartments. This worried Bethlehem's faux progressives, who worried that Abe would pack the place with poor people. They love poor people, but think they belong in Allentown.
Zoners agreed with the faux progressives, and said No.
Abe was swinging and missing. Across the street, he wanted to put in a residential rehab for people with substance abuse addictions. People like me. Now, faux progressives teamed up with Holy Mother Church and fought the project. They professed to love people hooked on drugs and booze, but they belong somewhere else. Not near rich people or a Catholic high school.
Zoners agreed with the progressives again, and said No.
Abe figured he'd show them. He'd pack the block with cRaZy people. He put "Psychiatric Hospital Coming Soon" signs all over the lot and lured a hospital for the area, which is zoned for hospitals.
Faux Progressives and Holy Mother Church love cRaZy people, but they belong in Allentown with Fed Ed. They want to build a wall around the tract and make Atiyeh pay for it.
The fact that plans have been pulled indicates that this was just a bluff or a deal is in the works.
We'll see.
3 comments:
Luxury apartments=Section eight housing in about three years. Everyone knows the drill.
I have it on good account that a hog rendering plant was next on Honest Abe's wish list...
VOR
@3:53 Bingo. There is a fairly new dump in East Allentown called Summit Ridge, originally named Hillside Valley. The Ponzi schemer who built it billed it as "luxury apartments" and is sitting in federal prison. He put in faux cherry cabinets and granite counter tops to lure the unwitting. The residents complain that living next to Northern Southern is not "luxury" (who knew?), and within a few years that will be Sec 8.
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