Over at Lehigh Valley News Briefs, Jeff Ward suggests that the Da Vinci Science Center, just might be a big, fat boondoggle. He notes it has fallen far short of its projections of 400,000 visitors, $33 million in economic development and 287 jobs in 2024. It attracted just 160,000 visitors, which is actually fewer than it attracted when it was at Cedar Crest College. It has pretty much been a flop despite raking in $21.6 million over the last year, most of it in the form of grants from public and private suckers. But it has been an amazing success to CEO Lin Erickson and four other hotshots at the facility. Their combined salaries and benefits alone amounted to $763,695 according to the '990 for the year ending June 30, 2024. The number of employees in 2024 was 128, not even half the 287 projected. So I'd say that it is certainly a boondoggle with no real public benefit.
Northampton County, incidentally, wasted $300,000 on DaVinci when Erickson initially wanted to bring it to Easton. Erickson nearly conned Mayor Panto into spending $30 million Easton does not have for a gigantic 500,000 gallon salt-water aquarium, complete with laser beams attached to their heads. On top of the aquarium, a 100' tall Vitruvian man, minus penis, would stand.
A divided Northampton County Council actually voted to award a $10 million hotel tax grant (over 40 years) to support this facially ridiculous project. "It's insane," said Ken Kraft, who would become Council President in 2018. One of the first things he did was propose and pass a repeal of the grant.
Unfortunately, by the time the county reversed itself, DaVinci had already received $300,000 for a project that never got past the drawing board.
Unfortunately, by the time the county reversed itself, DaVinci had already received $300,000 for a project that never got past the drawing board.
51 comments:
This should be a warning about government grants to ANY non profit institution. There shouldn’t be any such grants.
If a nonprofit serves a legitimate public purpose, they should be able to make their case to the public and find their own donors to fund their operations and building campaigns.
Instead, we too often have too many nonprofits taking the easy route of convincing a handful of self-serving politicians to give them public tax dollars. That is plain wrong.
DaVinci’s plans and projections were always inflated, and unfortunately it landed in math-challenged (and fiscally-irresponsible) Allentown instead of math-challenged Easton. There are suckers everywhere.
If there are any remaining government grants to DaVinci they should be terminated, and the DaVinci board should remove the director and eliminate the high paid admin positions. That likely won’t happen, which is why the entire DaVinci board should be replaced.
Out of curiosity, who are the fat-cats on the board who have allowed the center to be so mismanaged? Either they’re incompetent or just plain stupid. Either way, that board should probably be purged as well.
Everything being done on Hamilton Street, or connected to it, is to benefit and enhance Reilly's Potemkin NIZ. Moving the DaVinci Center was a corruption, as is moving the art museum from 5th to 10th St. Besides us bloggers, not a peep from the establishment.
DaVinci, Bethlehem Food co-op, the niz, dixie etc,etc- when will our so-called leaders wake up and realize they are not open banks for these
grifters and cons
Ericson is one of the Valley's illuminati. They are generally in the private-public orbit. They live off of others. Like panhandlers, with a screwy plan and a bank account. Of course, pols are told they are rubes unless they back the 'PLAN'
The real problem is it is obvious you are pushing McClure for Congress, even with all his flaws. Now it is obvious you are pushing his hammer, Kraft for president of council, even though his temperament is poor for leadership. Your report is written in a way that makes him a hero. There were some council people who wanted this and were caving to Panto (JUST LIKE McClure). However, there were more on council who called out this stupid plan besides Kraft. You should at least tell the people of Northampton County who voted yes and who voted no. Citizens deserve the whole story, not just a Kraft puff piece. They would be surprised if not enlightened.
P T Barnum was correct.
Nothing changes until more average taxpayers finally understand all County, State, and Federal grants are actually their OWN money being squandered.
I'm beyond getting upset with stories like this. When a gang of thieves is able to take advantage of low IQ politicians (they're ALL low IQ) in an effort to ripoff taxpayers, I salute the crooks. We elect idiots and dishonest grifters. We get what we deserve.
Hopefully NCC learns from this outrageous waste of our tax dollars and doesn’t repeat it by giving one cent to the the “Dixie Scam”
2018, Boscola and Republican Scavello teamed up to stick a pin in the Easton proposed aquarium. They based their argument on it being too close to Scavello’s county proposed water attraction….Kraft hated Easton’s so he was against it….end result..Easton never got it..Scavello never built one. We will never know if it would have succeeded, but thank you to all that killed it.
This sounds sketchy, but I wonder how this compares to other projects that seek local government financing. Both nonprofits (like Artsquest) or for-profit ones like stadiums or arenas. I would assume that most projects always begin with maximizing their projections of attendance and revenue, and take time to reach those goals, if they ever do. I just want to know the Da Vinci center situation in context.
And I'm not sure if the combined salary information is that unusual. Those don't sound like outrageous salaries for executives running an organization with a budget of millions of dollars and serving of order 100,000 people a year.
This was initially supported by 5 Council members - Peg Ferraro, Seth Vaughn, Mat Benol, Glen Geissinger and Bob Werner. So it was supported by 4 Rs and a Dem who represented the Easton district. It was opposed by Ken Kraft and Rs Matt Dietz, Hayden Phillips and John Cusick. Other Council members like Tara Zrinski,, Kevin Lott and Dietz remained skeptical, and Werner changed course the following year when Erickson proposed an indoor "nature dome" containing precisely the same kind of flora and fauna you could see by simply taking a walk. I believe my summary is accurate. I think McClure was never a fan of this idea and I never heard him say a word in support. His people on Council opposed it. Erickson's pipe dreams were initially supported by Panto and Werner, but they grew weary. Boscola and Scavello were willing to pony up $30 million in taxpayer funds if Da Vinci could come up with a project that did not involve a 500,000 sq ft aquarium with sharks shotting laser beams. All of her plans were simply ridiculous.
I call Kraft out when I disagree with him, which is pretty often. But I also point out when I agree.
https://lehighvalleyramblings.blogspot.com/2019/05/norco-wasted-300000-for-dead-davinci.html
https://lehighvalleyramblings.blogspot.com/2019/01/davinci-science-center-pitched-to-norco.html
Executives who make ridiculous projections and miss by a mile should be fired.
If a private sector executive at a traded company missed an earnings forecast by 60%, the stock would fall and heads would roll.
Jeff Ward, Bethlehem
Over exaggerated numbers, supposedly to show success, are quite common around here. After all, the Morning Call will print anything put in front of it so long as it puts certain people and organizations in a better light..
That massive failure of NIZ has cost Pennsylvania taxpayers 10s of millions of dollars. 15 years after it was created, the NIZ remains underwater as an investment.
Bethlehem's Musikfest is another fraudulent success story. To claim an attendance 1.5 million visitors is laughable. A much more reasonable guestimate would be around 400,000. Maybe just 200,000 unique visitors. Hotel vacancies abound most of the week all over the Lehigh Valley.
insert LVPC and their obscene salaries that I voted against but still they received the funding from our future grants ala John Brown and Lori Vargo... Good job county council, keep giving money away to these entities
I do not Hate Easton, i did not support this project because all of the Easton restaurant owners came in and had a legitimate argument against this hand out, not to mention that horrible business plan that they tried to sell me. And bye the way I support Easton establishments with my own $$ all the time at the great downtown restaurants that they have and their festivals etc.
This isn't private sector. There's an expectation that stealing will occur. Sadly, this is much ado about nothing; a dog bites man story. Appreciate your efforts, though.
December 29, 2025 at 12:19 AM
As you probably know, it’s actually worse than you’ve portrayed. There is an entire “Eco-System” of grant-writing consultants working in quasi non-profit/government/academic bureaucratic capacities feeding at the same trough.
Why would you put anything in downtown Allentown...no one goes there unless their employer relocates or an occasional concert or hockey game at PPL Center. The streets are empty 7 days a week and there are few viable businesses that are open or that anyone would want to go to. They cant even keep open a food court smack dab in the middle of hundreds of new apartments. The DaVinci Center facade looks like a Dunkin Donuts and its been plopped down in a dead zone. Even the real DD struggles to attract customers in downtown Allentown. Who would voluntarily go there?? What a terrible idea. They'll have to leave eventually with much less media hype and local promoting.
The sad part of all the information above is that it’s always based upon projection, polling, and speculation.
The towns always roll the dice to hope they will have a successful festival or project , but without people willing to take on the task of support, without local businesses willing to support ,
this is exactly the outcome to be expected. The people of Easton are seeing restaurant business thrive while taxes remain unmoved, parking and congestion concerns are real, yet who knows what financial gains could have happened to improve parking , revenues, and ultimately help cover tax increases , that are surely coming, had the aquarium been built? Sorry for it not happening.
Agreed on Musikfest. How do they count attendance? Still a mystery to me. Christkindlemart claims astounding attendance yet it is listed #5 as a worst rip off attraction. They disagreed, of course. Anything downtown Allentown is a fail.
This is how the NIZ workings were spun up out of no were, the third largest city like and similar to there third world imports and the annual income of the indigent ones!
6:27, Do you have a link to the site claiming Christkindlemart is a rip-off? I've never been there, but one of the reviews I read was unenthusiastic. https://uncoveringpa.com/bethlehem-christkindlmarkt
Your analysis is spot on MM.
Thank you.
And the Easton aquarium project was all located in a flood zone, apparently a small and forgotten detail.
This scam was a transparent farce from its inception.
Who’s the captain of this rotten ship,
Alan Jennings protégés, CACLVs very own, Dan Bosket.
Perfect.
This is your que to step in and ultimately defend all things CACLV. It’s a historic mission of yours, BO’H.
No boondoggle is too small or too big.
I believe PPL president Vince Sorgi led the DaVinci board when it made its decision to move from Cedar Crest and started exploring (shaking down) other locations.
Then Sorgi decided to move PPL HQ out of their iconic building in downtown and into one of Reilly’s office buildings. This will certaimake it easier for PPL to eventually move its entire admin operation from Allentown at a later time.
Not sure where Sorgi lives, but if he still works in Allentown, residents should welcome him. With pitchforks and torches
Why isn’t the Crayola Center begging for public funds?
This is what I said about Jennings in 2023: "Though he likes to portray himself as the champion for those who have no voice, my experience with Jennings is that he has really served a lifetime as a lackey to the rich and powerful. When he was on the NIZ board, he made no appeals for local neighborhoods. He supported two goofy new taxes proposed by Mark Pinsley and Joshua Siegel, including an increase in an already very regressive sales tax as well as a county earned income tax. He was one of lasdt few defenders of disgraced Allentown Mayor Edwin "Fed Ed" Pawlowski."
https://lehighvalleyramblings.blogspot.com/2023/06/tuerk-taps-jennings-for-atown.html
Not a ringing endorsement.
So far as I know, Crayola actually awards educational grants for educators interested in teaching art.
Crayola, the State Theater, and the Sigal Museum received public dollars for their respective buildings.
So CACLVs Dan Bosket didn’t make the wacky ass decision to move the facility downtown. Bosket was only appointed to hold the bag after the ridiculous deal went down?
Allentown is in a shitty location also. Parking is a hassle. They don’t let the cops do their job. The school district is a complete disaster. It’s the last place people want to go, unless it’s a game or concert once in a while.
Lots of patronage mills in PA. Have no fear though we now have the highest paid governor in the country!
https://www.abc27.com/pennsylvania-politics/shapiro-to-start-2026-as-highest-paid-governor-in-u-s/amp/
Allentown doesn’t even have their budget figured out!! Why put anything there!
A portion of the DaVinci Center would have been in the flood zone, but initial plans took that into account as required by local codes. There are more intelligent people in government than you imagine.
Bernie, many thanks for your comments above. I wonder how many Dems keep their opinions to themselves on these characters for fear of retribution or being shut out by their own party. Maybe Dems will do better when they learn to be honest about their candidates and electeds.
I keep hearing how well downtown Easton is doing but look closely and there are more and more empty storefronts especially in the 400 hundred block of Northampton street. Almost a half dozen there. Even in Centre Square and now the first floor of the Alpha building is vacant. This isn’t being reported because of the collapse of the local press. Easton overplayed their hand with three dollar an hour parking and gestapo-like parking agents.
The folks that orchestrated this move are among those associated with these downtown Allentown developments who are complete denial of the long-standing fact that education-minded suburban and rural Lehigh Valley moms with school-age kids want nothing to do with visiting downtown Allentown for any reason.
The only people I know that go to downtown Allentown are visiting a relative in LCP.
The downtown hype train/publicity machine is alive and well. Take Mamma B's resale boutique that was recently poached from South Bethlehem's extremely viable private shopping district to the subsidized first floor of The Hive (NIZ) on 7th Street. Positive spins were run on this story by Lehigh Valley News, Morning Call, WFMZ and Lehigh Valley Style Magazine (to name a few...there's plenty more as the owner is Saquon Barkley's mom). Wait 12 months when the shop goes under because rent deal with City Center expires and there's no customers willing to shop downtown. There will be zero media coverage or nevermind an investigative journalist assessment of the destructive nature the failed NIZ has on viable urban retail centers in the Lehigh Valley.
Poor Dan Boskett was given the short straw. I wonder if Alan Jennings is giving Dan advice.
I trust Ed Meehan is there with moral support.
@1:37 AM
People love downtown Easton. Downtown Allentown is a cultural and culinarily dead zone.
You’re comparing apples and oranges.
I too thought she got a lot of publicity over her thrift shop
Weren't there carve-outs in the gaming expansion bill that benefited the Banana Factory and Slate Belt YMCA? I do think these are beneficial projects but seems there is Power Play +++++ going on in Northampton County tapping into direct formula benefit for Bethlehem, Easton and the County, plus 2 specific projects, and access to addional grants including LSA, Statewide LSA and Monroe County LSA. The rainbow may start in Harrisburg but it seems to arc all the way to Northampton County.
There have been regional suburban businesses poached as well. How can we forget the poaching of Shula's Steakhouse and Sage clothing store from the Promenade Shops at Saucon Valley some 10 years ago? I can remember the excitement surrounding the location of these businesses in the NIZ downtown Allentown, but predictably they both went under after a year or so.
They should include the penis
It would improve attendance
Crayola is financially backed by Hallmark and its diverse companies, they do well without the need of begging for dollars.
100,000 people, or 100,000 visitors? Theres a big difference there. I dont think the official stats are doing that salary any favors.
The true question that has to be asked is who designed and created the NIZ? I’ll give you a hint….it wasn’t Ed Palowski. He was just the fall guy.
Why has the “architect” of the NIZ not only gotten a free pass from the FBI, but he is now Josh Shapiro’s Secretary of Revenue.
This is so deeply validating to read, as a person who has experienced the impact of that organization's woefully terrible decision making. May the pendulum swing back and all things return to balance.
Post a Comment