Did Batts trash Hendricks because he is a retired cop? Or is it because Hendricks has refused to give Batts $1.2 million for his Promise Neighborhoods nonprofit? That's a pretty big ask for a City with a $7 million deficit.
Batts likes to portray himself as someone who was "empowered" by going out and getting an education. Actually, he didn't go anywhere. He was in the can when he got his education. He already had a master's degree and was working in human services and with children when he was picked up as a drug kingpin, in 2007, with five kilos of cocaine, 50 pounds of marijuana, six guns and $50,000 in cash. I have serious reservations about whether he belongs in the nonprofit in which he is involved now.
At this time last year, Batts got up in the face of an Allentown parking enforcement officer. "You obviously don't know who I am," he told the uniformed officer.
I know who he is.
A criminal.
No city, especially Allentown, is helped by demagogues like Batts and Siegel They will tell mobs what they want to hear while ignoring real problems like that $7 million deficit. Allentown needs someone who will tell people the truth, however unpleasant it might be, instead of lies. It needs someone who understands finances and who can turn things around.
That person is Allentown businessman Nat Hyman, who has made a career turning abandoned buildings into affordable housing, and with no government assistance.
As Mayor, Ray O'Connell was the best choice as someone to succeed disgraced Edwin "Fed Ed" Pawlowski. O'Connell is a decent and honorable man who understands people. He's even nice to me! I went nuts at his ridiculous tax hike, but he has been a cheerleader for the Queen City when it really needed one.
Going forward, Allentown needs someone outside the City's bizarre political hierarchy.
That person is Nat Hyman, who has always been regarded with suspicion by Allentown's apparatchiks.
It's no secret he disdains most members of City Council, and the feeling is mutual. That's actually a good thing. A divided government prevents both legislative and executive branches from overreaching. Daryl Hendricks, Julio Guridy and Ed Zucal have lots of institutional knowledge and would be assets.
But is Hyman running?
I talked to him Friday night, and he told me he's thinking about it. If he decides to run, he will announce after the Presidential election. I'll have more to say then.
He does not need to run. But Allentown needs him to run.
27 comments:
He's got my vote !
Unlike the NIZ, Mr. Hyman has transformed a lot of downtown Allentown with no government assistance. I just moved into his newest project, The Bindery, and it is beautiful! If he can do this for downtown , I'm sure as Mayor he can do it for all of Allentown.
Nat Hyman was the ONLY one to step up and try to save the state hospital by putting up his own money. Schloshturd didn't want him to get it and now they are ripping it down. Let's vote out Schloshturd and vote in Hyman.
Will volunteer to help his campaign.
I met Mr. Hyman when he spoke at a crime watch meeting. I expected him to be unapproachable but he was really down to earth. After the meeting I went up to him and told him that my son, Brian, who has spina bifida, really admires him and loves the buildings he builds. Brian always points them out when we drive by. I told him that Brian would love to meet him some day. Mr. Hyman looked at me and said "let's go". I couldn't believe it! He followed me over to my house and spent an hour talking with Brian about everything. Brian still talks about it to this day. Growing up my mother always told me that you get the measure of a person by what they do when no one is looking.
The prison abolition movement is a network of groups and activists that seek to reduce or eliminate prisons and the prison system, and replace them with systems of rehabilitation that do not place a focus on punishment and government institutionalization.The prison abolitionist movement is distinct from conventional prison reform, which is the attempt to improve conditions inside prisons.
Supporters of decarceration and prison abolition also work to end solitary confinement, the death penalty, and the construction of new prisons through non-reformist reform. Others support book-to-prisoner projects and defend the rights of prisoners to have access to information and library services. Some organizations, such as the Anarchist Black Cross, seek total abolishment of the prison system, without any intention to replace it with other government-controlled systems. Many anarchist organizations believe that the best form of justice arises naturally out of social contracts or restorative justice.
Patrisse Cullers of Los Angeles, a co-founder of Black Lives Matters is an advocate of prison abolition .
The prison abolition movement in the United States endorses three basic theses:
"Today’s carceral punishment system can be traced back to slavery and the racial capitalist regime it relied on and sustained."
"[The expanding criminal punishment system functions to oppress black people and other politically marginalized groups in order to maintain a racial capitalist regime."
"They imagine and build a more humane and democratic society that no longer relies on caging people to meet human needs and solve social problems."
Proposed reforms and alternatives
Proposals for prison reform and alternatives to prisons differ significantly depending on the political beliefs behind them. Proposals and tactics often include[citation needed]:
Penal system reforms:
Substituting, for incarceration, supervised release, probation, restitution to victims, and/or community work.
Decreasing terms of imprisonment by abolishing mandatory minimum sentencing
Decreasing ethnic disparity in prison populations
Prison condition reforms
Crime prevention rather than punishment
Abolition of specific programs which increase prison population, such as the prohibition of drugs (e.g., the American War on Drugs), gun control[citation needed], prohibition of sex work, and alcohol restrictions[citation needed].
Education programs to inform people who have never been in prison about the problems
Fighting individual cases of wrongful conviction
Bernie: why would Hyman want to deal with the cesspool that is Allentown? Hyman may be a really smart and talented guy but how can he get anything done in Allentown if he has to work with the mental midgets on city council?
If he runs and the idiots of Allentown miss this opportunity and don't vote him in, then they deserve what they get.
He is the smartest, most qualified candidate for Mayor Allentown has ever had, at least in my 74 years.
@8:47
Beam me up Scottie
Have you seen the huge Allentown sign he had painted on American Parkway? It's awesome!!! And he did it with his own money. No City involvement. That's probably why it got done so fast. Hyman has done more for Allentown than anyone that I know.
@ Dennis P. We already have examples of "decarceration" in combination with defunding and "reimagining" the police. Record crime! Rikers island has the least amount of inmates incarcerated in the facility since WWII. Combine that with the elimination of the plain clothes street crime unit and NYC is now experiencing its highest crime rates in decades.
In Philadelphia, DA Krasner continues his push to "decarcerate" and support criminals over the police, the result is Philadelphia is on course to break the 2007 murder count of 391. As of today Philadelphia has already had 230 murders. Shootings in Philly are up across the board.
As far as prison conditions go, all inmates in PA state prisons have access to prison libraries, law libraries, gymnasiums, exercise yards, and a wide variety of self improvement and reentry programs. Every state prison in PA has a school, and most offer classes related to the trades and food service industries as well. The policies concerning solitary confinement have been overhauled over the last 5 years, and only the most dangerous inmates or people who need to be protected from general population are confined in such a manner these days.
The proposals you put forth will make us all less safe, but the people that will be most affected by it are the very people you profess to help, and that's the low income inner city folks. People need to be held accountable for their actions, and some people need to be totally removed from society because they are a danger to the general public.
Anonymous July 21, 2020 ... What i presented here was the thought that was out that a lot of Black Lives Matter personnel may promote ... I am not implying that I am endorsing them in total or part. And don't imply that I do ...
Anonymous 7 21, 2020 -- Other than be wrong I my total or part creation or acceptance of what I presented, your comment was a very good critique of what is coming down in regard to these proposals ... And you may be right that these proposals raise question whether adoption of these proposals would make us more safe or less safe,
I saw Mr. Hyman speak a few years ago at a chamber of commerce event. It was in the PPL stadium and there were about 1,000 people there. He was as good a speaker as any I have ever seen. Calm, smooth and clearly very bright. Heads above anyone else speaking that day. He clearly articulated some good ideas on how to turn Allentown around. I think he would be a great Mayor.
Dennis, so noted and thank you. This is what we need to do as a country. Have a civilized conversation of what is going in our cities. There seems to be a total breakdown of societal norms in Portland, Seattle, and other cities. Chicago is a war zone. As far as BLM, I believe that some of what they are promoting is open for discussion, but defunding, or in some chapters, abolishing the police is total insanity! It seems they are more interested in promoting a political ideology than promoting racial equality, but that is just my opinion based on what i am reading, and looking at the 3 females who founded the organization back in 2015 who readily admit their Marxist beliefs.
We do have racial problems in this country, and we can always become better people by listening and talking to others, but defunding and vilifying our police is not the answer.
We need someone tough enough to rebuild the whole corrupt structure in city hall that still remains from Fed Ed and Guridy. I think Hyman is the only guy who can do that.
You're right Bernie, Allentown needs Nat Hyman to run. Clearly, He doesn't need the job but hopefully he will do it for the good of the city. I know he likes a challenge and Lord knows that fixing Allentown is a challenge !
Anyone with a brain will vote for Nat
To anonymous at 8:50. To people with dwarfism, the term "mental midget" is really offensive. Just trying to raise awareness for anyone here who cares.
Great idea, I hope he registers as a Democrat and gives is a try. Something has to change soon, Allentown can't be allowed to be run into the ground. I still think a place like Allentown can be poised for success over the next 25 - 50 years if they could just get a handle on the crime, escalating taxes and loss of those middle class working families that care for their children and take pride in home ownership. Extremely bold, creative and innovative approaches to public education in Allentown will be needed. Disband ASD all together and send each child a check to go to charter schools, parochial schools or other regional public schools.
Unlike others on this forum that write Allentown off as a cesspool, I think it can still be a great place if someone (Hyman?) who knows what they are doing can take over the day to day.
Hyman wins 100%. Guridy has zero shot. He thinks the Latinos will carry him in but they don't even like him and Hyman will pound him with 20 years of votes on Council and always voting with Fed Ed. His siding with Siegel and Gerlach on the police matter sealed his fate. And Siegel is just a joke.
Hyman needs to set up a campaign headquarters with easy accessible parking and good street lighting.
What organization does Ce Ce Gerlach work for ?
I was at a zoning hearing when he presented plans for one of his renovations of industrial buildings into apartments where nearly half of the units of efficiency or 1 bedroom apartments were planned to be less than the minimum zoning requirement of 500 square feet. This will clearly lead to overcrowding. The right thing would have been to make fewer, more liveable apartments. I fear that becoming mayor would lead to conflicts of interest between his role as a developer and overseeing the administration of building standards and safety.
Ray must go - he is part of Allentown'S problem
Hyman has no shot. He sent out threatening mailers to tents, during the height of the first wave of the corona virus in spite of the no-eviction order
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