At Gerlach's announcement, her event started with a rendition of John Legend's "Take it Slow" instead of the national anthem or God Bless America. The scene was decorated with a few blue and white balloons, although there was no indication what they signify.
Gerlach portrayed herself a a voice for those who are one small step away from financial disaster. She described the majority of Allentown as "beyond one paycheck away. They are one flat tire ,.. one unexpected emergency [away] from losing it all." She said she would seek out corporations who want to hire people with felony records and who would pay a living wage to boot.
She never said how she'd manage to achieve this lofty goal.
He had blue and white balloons at his announcement, too, for some reason.
Maybe they're running for Mayor of Penn State.
If you're running for Mayor, Josh, it's about you. I have no idea what he said, but he released a Youtube video that shows him strutting around the downtown in slow motion, posing with hands on hips, giving a dirty look at two patrol cars parked along a street and talking to Patrick Palmer, who incidentally was Ce Ce Gerlach's rally.
These two candidates have the same base, which is largely made up of transients who never vote. They will almost certainly cancel each other out.
Allentown's problems won't be solved by hiring people with felony records, paying a living wage, or demonizing the police department. Allentown is already paying a very high price for decades of implementing policies that favored one group over another, instead of policies that benefitted everyone in the city.
ReplyDeleteThey've catered to groups that supposedly work to combat poverty yet somehow never manage to reduce it (looking at you CACLV), and kept addressing the low-income housing "shortage" in the city to the point that everyone's home in the city is now worth less in Allentown than it would be anywhere else in the county.
Allentown has a shortage of high-income earners, and it's about time the city tries to reverse it. The most obvious is a local earned income tax that's much higher for residents than it is for non-residents. Why would anyone you manage to attract to the area move into the city and pay a higher wage tax than they would if they lived just 10 minutes from center city in places like South Whitehall than Salisbury (where they can have better schools to boot)? And that's just one, glaringly obvious issue.
Both Gerlach and Siegel are current elected officials in the city, and we've already seen what they'll focus on. Gerlach even has the dubious experience of helping to bankrupt the Allentown School District before moving on to do the same to city finances.
Neither is what Allentown needs, and I can only hope that voters oust them from council when their terms are up in addition to rejecting them as Mayor. Speaking of which, does anybody know when their council terms are up? Is it in 2021 or 2023? If 2021, will they be resigning their council positions to run for Mayor? They should.
“a champion for our quality of life.”
ReplyDeleteThis is an excerpt from Matt Tuerk's Mayoral candidacy announcement. As a Republican, I'll likely jump on board with this guy, who I know very little about, but who has some relevant experience and comes across as a conventional candidate with something to offer all residents. These other Democrat candidates (Siegel and Gerlach) seem inexperienced, self-serving and would not represent citizens of Pennsylvania's 3rd largest city very well.
City of Allentown is in good hands with these two.
ReplyDeleteYou have one candidate who chants fuck the police and gives out the home phone number of the sitting mayor
And the other facebook lives a suicide victims tragedy for her own promotion.
Allentown deserves what it gets if they vote them in
Joe Hoffman for mayor
ReplyDeleteHas anyone confirmed: 1.) is Ray O'Connell definitely NOT running? 2.) Is there any hope of Nat Hyman running?
ReplyDeleteAllentown needs a more experienced Mayor with an executive management background and an emphasis on the continued delivery of quality services for to all residents. Under a Gerlach or Siegel administration, I'd be very worried that the quality of services all residents enjoy such as police, fire, snow removal, street cleaning, code enforcement etc. would deteriorate as they pursue their own personal political agendas.
ReplyDeleteI would want the new Mayor to recognize the amazing success of the NIZ and not sneer resentfully at this unexpected success as Gerlach seems to do. The changes downtown are so amazing. I'd prefer a Mayor who welcomes new affluent residents into the City as opposed to radical policies that would chase out the City's existing affluent residents. The City needs real diversity and a strong tax base.
Amazing success of the NIZ? I sure don’t see what you see. That’s been a money loser in terms of new tax revenue.
ReplyDeleteAmazing success of the NIZ?
ReplyDeleteJust take a walk on Hamilton Street and see active businesses, new construction, young professionals, office workers, the hustle/bustle and upbeat vibe. The recent pre-pandemic street food/beer/music festivals took me back to the days of Super Sunday. You have to go downtown on a post-pandemic hockey night, the energy is incredible.
I'm not sure if the NIZ was intended just to make money on the short term. Ten years ago Hamilton Street was empty sidewalks, depressed, trash ridden and hopeless. I often argued Allentown was the largest city on the East Coast without a decent cup of coffee. Now there's 4 or 5 great coffee places. Maybe much of the improvement is psychological at this point, but I'm optimistic. Just look at the plans for the waterfront! 10 years ago this area was an abandoned, decrepit brownsite. Now there are plans for a commercial, office and residential complex with bike trails, boating and a waterfront park. You can be as pessimistic as you want, but I think Allentown is on the cusp of an exciting rebirth (unless Gerlach and Seigel types take over).
I just watched Siegel's video on Youtube. Good lord......
ReplyDeleteAllentown elects him, they'll get what they deserve. The problem is, so will the rest of the Lehigh Valley because Allentown's shit-show does not stop at their borders.
What Allentown really needs, is a population that respects the police, believes in family values, understands that the Constitution guarantees opportunity, not results. There is no leader who can solve these problems, any leader who tells this population the truth will be run out of town. they deserve someone like CE CE.
ReplyDeleteOMG, can you imagine if one of these totally unqualified whackos won? Please Nat run!
ReplyDeleteFools rush in where Angels fear to tread.... Or is it "Send in the Clowns?"
ReplyDeleteI was at Siegel's kickoff event and I saw an energetic candidate with lots of well-reasoned policy ideas to make Allentown a better place and more of a leader among PA cities of a similar size. After decades of mismanagement from older Allentown politicians, I don't get where this distaste for younger candidates stepping up to lead is coming from.
ReplyDelete4:30, Oh, I don't know, maybe it's his arrogance and condescending behavior. Maybe it's his blatant opportunism. Maybe it's his hypocrisy. Maybe it's the complete lack of moral fiber he showed when he doxed Mayor Ray. In my case, it is all of these. On top of that, his ideas are shitty. This is a boy who wants to raise the sales tax in LC and impose an earned income tax.
ReplyDeleteI looked into Josh, the hatred is just outlandish. He's not condescending or arrogant. Is it because he's informed on issues, it just sounds like a lot of people are insecure that he knows what he's talking about. Sure, it was a mistake to release the number, but he apologized for it. It's time to move on, people make mistakes, we can't hold it over him, no candidate is perfect. We'll all human and sometimes do things in the heat of the moment. You act like he led people directly to his house.
ReplyDeleteAnd you simplify is idea for a regional tax sharing plan, and don't appreciate that it's obviously flexible. I read it, and I don't see the big deal, especially if it was just a moderate sales tax. It seems like a great way to fairly distribute the burden of financing local government. It's really common elsewhere. It's not like that's the final plan. His ideas aren't shitty, and that's far from his only idea. He's got tons of policies, try looking at other things he's talked about. If you don't like him that's one thing, but let's actually look at every candidate as a whole.
Siegel is well spoken and informed, if you disagree with his policies and political ideology that's fine, but don't insult him. He's one of the most informed and articulate candidates I've ever seen.
I also don't think there's enough attention paid to this Matt Tuerk guy. If you watch his videos and his speeches, he's just another empty suit with no charisma or reason for running other than he feels entitled to the office. He's backed by all the people who broke Allentown. Charlie Thiel is as corrupt as they come and his choice of Thiel to run his campaign says all we need to now about him.
ReplyDeleteSecond, of all he's just another candidate with vague promises of a better Allentown, he has no plans. He's a walking cliche, with no passion. He has no plan to fix Allentown other than more economic development and with the NIZ I don't see what more he could add. It's not the like the city was really struggling in that regard. It's clearly got some kind of growth, the NIZ has brought in like a billion dollars.
7:53, no he is everything I said he is. Anyone looking at his most recent YouTube video would have to agree about being both arrogant and condescending. The dishonesty has been part of his single year on council. He will lose this race and be defeated when he seeks re-election
ReplyDeleteAnother attempt to tax the suburbs to pay for the cities mismanagement, Its about time these cities enact policies to make them self supporting.
ReplyDeleteNovember 16 @ 12:32 PM and 4:30 PM. Thanks Josh and Cece for your clueless and misleading comments. I imagine many of Bernie's readers have not even drove through downtown Allentown on a Saturday evening or Sunday afternoon BEFORE the pandemic and witnessed blocks of empty streets on mild sunny days. Who are you propagandists trying to kid? The mayor, city council and current departments heads are just frozen in place and doing nothing but passing time and collecting paychecks. They may have had good intentions but have found that with many Pawlowski cronies having easily survived the FBI probe, they are now gutless having lost the moral compasses of their youth along with their will to resist. Reilly and Browne "rolled the city" in broad daylight and not a soul in the city or county resisted as the fish began rotting from its head. Let's just cut the BS here as Allentown's rich and glorious past is nothing but good reading on Facebook. Such a terrible loss for the county.
ReplyDeleteNeither of these freshmen CouncilPersons are ready to lead an entire Allentown. They hate police in a city where public safety is a major fabric holding things together. Once you tear down that fabric we are in trouble.
ReplyDeleteThe city will not be able to retain good public safety employees and or entice good people to work here due to their hatred towards public safety.
Gerlach does not listen well and well Siegel is just a flip flopper using anything and everything for his own ambition.
Flip flopping Siegel
Running for City Council”
“Allentown Police force has done a significantly amazing job at managing to do great community policing efforts working with children, we need to maintain that.”
As a freshman City CouncilPerson
“Finally, it’s time for a historic and massive divestment from the police and reinvestment into the community. The system is sick and broken, it can’t be repaired, it needs to be replaced.”
I yield my time to Bernie.
To understand the failure that is the NIZ, just take all of the years the NIZ has been in effect, total all of the tax dollars (NEW to Pennsylvania) that have been created by this project.
ReplyDeleteNext, take the amount of annual tax dollars going to Pennsylvania from the same NIZ area before there even was a NIZ scheme. Multiply by the same number of years used to determine both totals.
Pennsylvania (YOU) is hundreds of millions of dollars behind the original amounts it was already receiving, and growing! The NIZ is a huge failure and will remain so well into the future.
Siegal's release of the mayor's private phone number was not a mistake, it was a vindictive measure in order to intimidate the mayor.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that he cannot be trusted with confidential material gives every person, especially every business person pause on whether or not she/he wants to do business with his potential administration.
You have to wonder when dealing with him if another "mistake" will happen and you will have a mob at your doorstep for political means
I am not against their candidacy, what I question is their preparedness for the responsibilities of governing. Their track record so far is lacking
ReplyDelete