Brian presented the report to City Council, but then on April 24 he went directly to the Bethlehem Parking Authority board meeting to present his report.
Listen to his 3-minute pitch accompanying delivery of the report — good stuff!
I wanted to suggest to the City that they integrate electric vehicles into their fleet.
Even with initial cost considerations . . . the significant savings in fuel costs and the significant savings in maintenance costs would actually make it very cost-comparable to including electric vehicles in the Bethlehem fleet.
Even in the cost comparison of the fuel comparison here, there is even more significant savings to be made.
Bethlehem’s undergoing a Climate Action Plan, and we are trying to reduce emissions in the City, and electric vehicles are a very easy way to do it.
There have been studies that urban pollution, especially from cars, has a notable negative impact on the development of children’s brains.
We are actually improving the health of our residents.
Anything that we can do to incentivize electric vehicles to clean up our air, to clean up our cities is going to be a [health] benefit.
And there is economic impact.
Your non-tax dollars at work
It’s Friday, June 7, do you know where your local Climate Action Plan is?
There are 2 air quality (“dust”) reports from Martin Tower, per Bob Novatnack.
1) Air quality report paid for by developers Wagner/Ronca et al, done by a private firm and to be finalized and released to Bob Novatnack this week. As soon as he receives it, he will make it public.
2) Air quality report from PA State Department of Environmental Protection, which they will release only through a Right-to-Know request. Not sure when that one would be finished and RTK-able.
(8th in a series of posts on Wind Creek Bethlehem)
Dana Grubb is a lifelong resident of the City of Bethlehem who worked 27 years for the City of Bethlehem in the department of community and economic development, as sealer of weights and measures, housing rehabilitation finance specialist, grants administrator, acting director of community and economic development, and deputy director of community development.
Gadfly:
Some elected officials really need to put on their big boy pants and stop whining about how little deed transfer tax Bethlehem will receive. Yes, it was even less than I expected after consultation with a few in the business world who have been involved in similar kinds of business transactions, and the Mayor is taking the right approach. It’s a bigger picture issue. After all, the Sands and now Wind Creek Casinos are in business to make money, not lose it. The proposed development by Wind Creek will bring a nice boost to Bethlehem’s tax coffers over time. The TIF will be expired so the benefit will be immediate when construction is completed. Yes, the Mayor definitely has the right approach.
You thought I forgot about our year-long discovery of H.D., didn’t you?
We continue to learn about this Bethlehem-born writer (1886-1961), the “Lehigh Valley’s most important literary figure,” as the plaque at the entrance announces to our library patrons.
Listen to this rollicking 10 minutes from the April 29 talk by the delightful Liz Bradbury for a powerful understanding of what made H. D. and Imagism, the poetic movement she was associated with and helped define, so special.
Liz contrasts H. D.’s poetry with that of Agatha Christie, Richard Aldington, and Ezra Pound with specific regard to a principle that poetry should capture a “fresh active, moment in time.”
(Aldington, Pound, and H. D. are thought of as the founders of Imagism.)
Liz will make you laugh. She reads with gusto. You can’t miss how different H. D. is!
Linger on Liz’s charged readings of these poems.
Storm
You crash over the trees,
you crack the live branch,
the branch is white,
the green crushed,
each leaf is rent like split wood.
You burden the trees
with black drops,
you swirl and crash,
you have broken off a weighted leaf
in the wind,
it is hurled out,
whirls up and sinks,
a green stone.
Oread
Whirl up, sea—
whirl your pointed pines,
splash your great pines
on our rocks,
hurl your green over us,
cover us with your pools of fir.
Heat
O wind, rend open the heat,
cut apart the heat,
rend it to tatters.
Fruit cannot drop
through this thick air–
fruit cannot fall into heat
that presses up and blunts
the points of pears
and rounds the grapes.
Cut the heat–
plough through it,
turning it on either side
of your path.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court granted discretionary review to determine whether a zoning ordinance that defined “family” as requiring “a single housekeeping unit” permitted the purely transient use of a property located in a residential zoning district. This question arose based on the increasingly popular concept of web-based rentals of single-family homes to vacationers and other short-term users (usually for a few days at a time). The Supreme Court concluded that pursuant to its prior decisions in Albert v. Zoning Hearing Bd. of N. Abington Twp., 854 A.2d 401 (Pa. 2004), and In re Appeal of Miller, 515 A.2d 904 (Pa. 1986), the purely transient use of a house is not a permitted use in a residential zoning district limiting use to single-family homes by a “single housekeeping unit.”
Let’s chew on that last line again: “the purely transient use of a house is not a permitted use in a residential zoning district limiting use to single-family homes by a “single housekeeping unit.”
What else can than that mean than Airbnb in the Northside Historical District is not permitted.
Can we look forward to the end of Airbnb in the Northside Historical District?
The Gadfly family recently stayed in an Airbnb-type house for an extended stay in South Bend, Indiana, for the graduation of a granddaughter from the University of Notre Dame. It was a lovely stay. It beat the hell out of us all staying in separate hotel rooms.
The previously rather run-down neighborhood around campus is undergoing a change as dilapidated homes are being demolished and new homes are replacing them, new homes expressly built for Airbnb-type purposes.
Thus, that situation is quite different than what we have.
Nothing against the home-sharing industry. Fine in South Bend. It is actually kind of creating a “neighborhood” there. Home owners are for the concept.
(7th in a series of posts on Wind Creek Bethlehem)
“The role of a developer is to make money. Harsh but true. They don’t care about anything except the goal of making money.” Kate McVey
Well, those items on the “wish list” from the Casino Transfer Tax on the City 2019 budget p. 278 — some very dear to the heart of Gadfly followers — ain’t gonna happen. As foretold by follower Dana Grubb a few posts back, the windfall for the City was nowhere near what the City was hoping for and tentatively planning for. Nowhere near. Noooowhere near.
CM Callahan previewed the official bad news at Council on Tuesday. Listen to his tight-lipped tone:
“Tell Wind Creek I’m very disappointed in their start in the City of Bethlehem. It’s their legal right to use loopholes to lower the tax . . . [but] you can tell the representatives from Wind Creek that that’s not a neighborly thing to do. . . . [They said] they wanted to come in here as good community partners . . . I’m very disappointed in what I’m hearing.”
The good thing is the proceeds from the CTT were not built into the City budget. They are “extra.” They are a “windfall.” So in that sense at least, no harm has been done. Just that no extra good is being done either.
Mayor Donchez looks on the good side. The very major development that is the next step in Wind Creek’s plan. That’s what mayors have to do.
Seeing a price tag of $1.3 billion when the Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem sale was announced in March 2018, Bethlehem’s eyes lit up like a Christmas tree with what it thought could be a realty transfer tax jackpot of up to $13 million — as much as $6.5 million to the city and $6.5 million to Bethlehem Area School District. But it turns out, it appears to have been dealt a bad hand.
They indicate the city and school district are each in line for about $246,580, while the state is slated to collect about $493,160 in transfer tax, according to a review of public documents by The Morning Call. Mayor Robert Donchez said he has not received official word as to what the amount will be but is aware it could fall far short of the $6.5 million his administration once discussed.
While the casino transfer tax wasn’t budgeted, the city planned to spend the money on a list of deferred projects, such as street maintenance and City Hall improvements, that have been on its wish list for a decade.
The difference between the city’s initial projections and the expected transfer tax boils down to how the deal was structured, which allowed for only the value of the underlying land to be computed in the transfer tax calculation. To enable Las Vegas Sands Corp. to sell 100% of Sands Bethlehem’s operations to Wind Creek, the minority owners, Bethworks Now LLC, had their stake in the facility transferred into a ground lease. Wind Creek, which owns the structures and improvements on the site, entered into a lease with the ground landlords, said Arthur Mothershed, Wind Creek’s vice president of business development.
Bethlehem City Councilman Bryan Callahan conveyed his disappointment in the tax total at Tuesday’s City Council meeting. From what he was hearing, Callahan said at the meeting, the city could expect in the ballpark of $150,000 in transfer tax, which he took as a disappointing start to Wind Creek’s tenure in Bethlehem. “To use loopholes in the law, to say you’re leasing property versus owning it, that’s one thing,” he said, looking at the mayor. “But they want to come in here as good community partners. I was hearing great things. I hope the No. 2 Machine Shop goes through, but I’m very disappointed in what I’m hearing, and I hope you could relay that to the officials at Wind Creek.”
“It’s more important to develop that [property] as a destination site, which will bring more jobs and [property] taxes to the city. We can’t lose sight of that.” It’s that type of investment, Donchez said, that will have a longer lasting impact on Bethlehem than the one-time revenue that comes from a transfer tax.
Kate McVey is a concerned citizen, 30-year resident of Bethlehem, professional organizer, dog owner, mother of two children, been around, kosher cook . . . explorer.
Gadfly:
I have been thinking a lot about citizens’ comments about development, both southside and northside. They want developers to honor history, to have a conscience, and to think about what and whom they hurt when they destroy existing communities. They want developers to have a heart, and so would I, however that is not the world we live in today. I am a realist, and I realize that that is not the role of a developer. The role of a developer is to make money. Harsh but true. They don’t care about anything except the goal of making money. That is their business. I have to admit I don’t care if what they develop is ugly, cookie-cutter, and goes against all new thinking and trends about development. The market will eventually catch up to them . . . create something ugly, over-priced, cheaply constructed, and something that will not hold up . . . their creations will ultimately fail. What I do care about, and I believe they should be held accountable for, is the environment. What needs to be addressed because of the amount of land they want to pave is the flooding of the Monocacy (I doubt that they will pay for permeable pavement), not to mention the eroding/pollution of a valuable trout stream. Sierra Club is all about the pedestrian bridge, but what are their thoughts and concerns about all this development/pavement?
Hope you’ve heard the good news by now: The Great Southside Sale raised $23,000, plus we served a no. of other partners with redirected donations, including New Bethany Ministries (food for food pantry, and toiletries, cleaning supplies and detergent), Hispanic Center of the LV (food for food bank) Bethlehem Community Schools (school and art supplies), Nativity Thrift Shop (some of the clothing left after the sale), Touchstone Theater (textiles for the upcoming Unbound festival), and the Bunny Brigade (soft textiles for a large no. of rabbits rescued in Milford)! We also served on-campus constituencies with things like books for the First Gen Initiative at Lehigh, and a couple of other programs. Sale leftovers were picked up at the end of the day by Green Drop, for Purple Heart, a program that supports veteran services
But it isn’t so much about the money raised and the partners served, although all that is terrific and makes us all really happy. We also saved TONS of great reusable goods from the waste stream, and we created a fabulous community event that allowed Lehigh students to give back to the community they live in. All customers could find great items that everyone could afford to buy with dignity, and in a kind of a festival atmosphere. It’s the most cheerful, exciting place to be on the first Saturday in June. Community volunteers work alongside Lehigh’s administrators, students, faculty and staff: an 89-year-old folded and chatted with an 18-year-old student and a local school principal, a community volunteer and local college student sold huge numbers of rugs in a matter of two hours with the Lehigh provost; a cafe worker explained to a teacher how to keep the tables tidied up, a retired nonprofit employee folded linens with a retiring anthropology professor, a Community School coordinator hawked refrigerators with a top Lehigh administrator, a local artist sold furniture with a History professor, and the Vice President for Finance pushed shoe and book sales as her husband kept sporting goods moving . . .
And the customers cheered, chatted, and bought, with huge smiles, and exclamations of joy. One customer was spotted buying a new pair of shoes, and as he left he put them on and threw his old ones in the trash can. And you can’t imagine the smiles on the faces of the student and Lehigh Student Affairs cashiers, as well as Carolina Hernandez, the director of Lehigh’s Community Service Office who oversaw the front area of the sale, and me, sale co-founder, who held down the back. We still haven’t stopped smiling.
During the course of Move Out (roughly 4 weeks time), we had over 85 individuals contribute over 1200 volunteer hours total. On the day of the Great South Side Sale itself, we had over 75 individuals that contributed over 450 hours in total to make the event such a success. Kind of remarkable that all this work could be done by such a small group of volunteers, relative to the tons (literally) of goods we processed!
And we managed to sell nearly every stick of that mountain of furniture collected this year, which astounded us. Green Drop’s pickup only made up half of a small truck, in all . . . after five very large trucks were filled to go to the sale. Amazing!
Hoping folks may want to participate next year. I’ll be happy to let you know ahead of time when we start recruiting volunteers.
Many thanks to those who shopped, donated, and volunteered for this great cause. Here’s to another great sale in 2020!
Gadfly apologizes for the long delay in posting info on this excellent Northside 2027 meeting. The projects feels far along. You will find here a series of goals now, each with several sub-points. It is very interesting reading. Chew on this, and perhaps we’ll come back and look at specific recommendations. What jumps out at you?
The Introduction:
Councilman Reynolds, above, introduces the April 10 meeting of Northside 2027, focusing on the way the developing plan is built on community input , a fact very clear from the presentation that followed.
The presentation:
You can coordinate the slides with the audio and follow the presentation quite well.
Recap
2:43/slide 4: October 11 2018 Community Kick-Off
5:03/slide 6: Preliminary Vision Statement
5:33/slide 7: Plan Themes and Priorities Emerged
6:29/slide 8: November 2018 Residential and Commercial Area Tours
7:44/slide 10: Community Meeting #2 and Working Groups
10:07/slide 11: Groups Met Again
10:18/slide12: Community Survey Response
12:50/slide 14: Neighborhood Assets
Foster a Safe and Vibrant Public Realm
13:50/slide 15: Goal 1: prioritize multi-modal safety and connectivity between neighborhood assets
18:36/slide 18: Goal 2: enhance and beautify the public realm to create a sense of space
Foster Economic Vitality
20:34/slide 20: Goal 1: implement physical improvement to the Broad Street commercial corridor
23:40/slide 22: Goal 2: implement physical improvement to the Linden Street commercial corridor
26:15/slide 24: Goal 3: support existing businesses and attract new ones
Support the Housing Market
27:55/slide 25: Goal 1: support home owners and renters
29:40/slide 26: Goal 2: enhance quality of life for all residents
Support Residents through Services, Out-Reach, and Community Development
31:31/slide 28: Goal 1: leverage existing neighborhood assets to expand availability of resources
33:06/slide29: Goal 2: build community cohesion
Building Blocks of a Neighborhood Identity 34:10/slide 30
Neighborhood Constraints and Opportunities 35:10/side 31
WHO? We are looking for singers, dancers, musicians, poets, acrobats, actors, children, adults, elderly, people with disabilities, all ethnic and racial backgrounds, all genders, anyone who cares about the community of the Lehigh Valley!
WHEN? Saturday, June 8. Time slots available are 10-11a (kids age 5-12 only) / 11:30a-1:30p / 2:00-4:00p
WHERE? Moravian College, Haupert Union Building, Arena Theatre. Please note that parking is limited: some street parking is available, but otherwise, we recommend Moravian College parking lots: there are a few guest parking spots in lot J, as well as free availability in lots A and B
HOW DO I PREPARE? Wear comfortable clothing, and be ready to move to the best of your ability and comfort level. If youre comfortable singing, be ready to sing. If you are specifically interested in auditioning for Prometheus Redux, please prepare a one-minute contemporary monologue.
HOW DO I SIGN UP? Email emma@touchstone.org with your preferred time slot and any additional questions you have about the process!
Auditions: Saturday, June 8, 10-4, Haupert Union Bldg, Moravian College
In 1998, after an almost 150-year history building this nation, Bethlehem Steel shut down steel-making in Bethlehem. To help the community work its way through that traumatic change, Touchstone created Steel Festival: The Art of an Industry.
Now, as 2019 approaches and with it the 20th anniversary of that extraordinary event, we face a challenge of a different and perhaps more daunting nature: who are we, now that the Steel is gone? What are the challenges ahead, and what will hold us together as a community, as we address the task of shaping our future?
Partnering with the City of Bethlehem, Touchstone has held hundreds of hours of meaningful conversations throughout the community around these questions, and from these conversations and the creative ideas they’ve fostered, the design for this new and singular festival, Festival UnBound, has evolved. For 10 days in October, all eyes and ears will focus on Bethlehem’s flourishing SouthSide Arts District as the people of Bethlehem and environs celebrate and engage in a festival that will draw over 10,000 participants and attendees — arriving for music, theatre, parade, street performances, and spirited dialogue.
Thematically, Festival Unbound’s series of original art performances and happenings, created in collaboration with the City of Bethlehem leadership and scores of regional, national, and international artists, focuses around three principle concerns and challenges that face us:
The Strength in Diversity
Health, Environment, and Interdependence
The Primacy of Youth
Join us in October 2019 for Festival UnBound, as we forge a vision forward– through art– for Bethlehem, our home by the river.
(the latest in a series of posts on Neighborhoods)
Bruce Haines is a Lehigh graduate who returned to Bethlehem after a 35-year career at USSteel. He put together a 12-member Partnership to rescue the Hotel Bethlehem from bankruptcy in 1998 and lives in the historic district.
Gadfly:
I watched the May22 meeting on video, & I didn’t hear the Southside Historic District gentleman upset about any issue with the Northside. Rather what I heard is that the city is letting developers walk all over the SSHistoric Commission recommendations for the sake of growth.
As a Northside Historic District Champion, I don’t really believe there is any issue between the 2 sides of the river.
I think it is healthy that each side has its own identity & the city itself has divided it into the SS Arts & Entertainment District & Moravian Historic District. The marketing of each separately is healthy & trying to meld it into some amorphous blob to make us the same is a huge mistake IMO.
Each district marketing its strength is very healthy, & white Christmas lights on the Northside & color on the SS is part of our unique identity & heritage.
No animosity between North & Southside today IMO—that is old news!
Our message to the General Assembly is clear: The need to overhaul Pennsylvania’s charter school law is real and urgent. School districts need better tools to hold charter school operators accountable to families and taxpayers.
The commonwealth has an ethical and moral responsibility to its public school students to ensure charter schools are held to the same state academic standards as district schools. It also has a fiscal responsibility to taxpayers to ensure funds invested in charters are a good investment and are safeguarded against misuse. Current charter law falls woefully short on these fronts and many others.
HB 356 and 357 create more risk for students, local districts and taxpayers. We vehemently oppose these bills. The legislation would undermine local control by allowing charter schools, including the poorest performers, to expand without the authorizing district’s knowledge or approval. These new and unbudgeted expenses would wreak financial havoc for the school districts that would have to absorb them.
Newly proposed charter legislation also frees charters from oversight that is necessary to ensure they are meeting academic standards. They make it harder to close underperforming charters and allow unfettered expansion of charters — even those with failing performance — without regard for their ability to successfully operate. The proposed standard charter application form lacks information on an applicant’s experience, finances, past performance and operational ability, all of which are necessary to meaningfully assess whether the applicant can sustain a school that meets the needs of the very students it aspires to serve.
Two other bills, HB 355 and HB 358, would correct questionable charter school practices such as staffing boards with family members. They set clear conflict-of-interest provisions, require schools to follow accepted accounting standards and promote budget and operating transparency. These changes are welcome and long overdue, but do not offset the harm to school districts from the overall charter package.
School districts statewide are proactively advocating for significant amendments that promote high-quality charters. Real charter reform must require greater accountability. It must set clear performance goals for charter schools and hold them to the same need-based special education funding model as school districts. It must also give authorizers the tools needed to ensure charter operators are living up to their promise and providing our students the education they deserve.
Pa. Attorney General Eugene DePasquale is often quoted as saying that our charter school law is the worst in the nation, but this article passed on by Dr. Roy earlier indicates California and New Jersey vie for that honor as well.
The Los Angeles Times published an expose of a wealthy couple who have pocketed millions of public dollars running charter schools across Los Angeles. Clark and Jeanette Parker founded Today’s Fresh Start Charter School in 2003 and quickly expanded it into three campuses. They eventually began paying themselves high consulting fees and $800,000 annually to rent buildings they own, all with taxpayer money. They now live in a 7,700-square-foot home in Beverly Hills with an estimated value of about $15.3 million.
NorthJersey.com dropped a bombshell five-part investigative series with the point blank headline: “Millions of your tax dollars have disappeared into NJ’s flawed charter school experiment.” The highlight of the series is deep dive into the nationwide web of investors, developers, and Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) — which get massive tax breaks — cashing in on charter school buildings. Some familiar faces appear: Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street banks.
Charter schools, as we reported last time, are part of Allentown’s severe budget woes. Fortunately, as also reported last time, BASD has avoided a tax increase for now, though Lehigh Valley Academy is proposing a new $50 million campus.
Though the quality of the three charter schools in Bethlehem is fine and they are free from the corruption that is pervasive elsewhere, Dr. Roy continues to lead the charge for badly needed legislative change.
It hit him hard. A man, an organization, fighting for their neighborhood.
An all too pervasive theme in Bethlehem. (Don’t think this is simply a Southside issue.)
The letter portrays so well on a local level the truth of Faulkner’s famous quote.
We know on a national level some people are still fighting the racial issue that prompted Civil War.
Here the tension is between North and South Bethlehem.
Our Mason-Dixon line is the Lehigh River.
I have heard over the past 18 months Stephen Antalics chronicle at Council meetings bits and pieces of the troubled relations between our river communities rooted in the past. It appears, as Stephen recently tells us once again, even in the history of the Christmas lights. (We need a single coherent account of the North-South Bethlehem relationship. It would be required reading for Administration and Council.)
Over those 18 months, I have been more than bothered more than once by the way Stephen’s attempt to keep our history in front of us has been flicked off – even visibly – by assembled City leaders.
I kind of get it. It’s easy to think of Stephen as some dogged ancient prophet from the CAVE era who has somehow lived into the present to plague us with unpleasant reminders of nasty doings and portents of doom.
But he’s right. Attention should be paid.
The truth is in James’s letter.
It’s the voice of a section of the City that feels it’s being snuffed out in the name of progress.
Snuffed out by a City that purports to value history.
Gadfly gets it.
Gadfly believes in the absolute value and necessity of community.
Gadfly believes that “good conversation builds community.”
The James letter cries out to be a topic for good conversation.
Gadfly will be eager to hear if the letter is answered.
But by whom?
When it comes to Northside-Southside relations over the past 18 months that Gadfly has been watching the City, the interactions between Councilman Callahan and Councilman Negron stand out.
Addison Bross is a retired Lehigh University English prof.
Gadfly:
Only recently have people begun to think realistically about the multi-faceted COST of participation in combat — in the game of killing other human beings.
Setting aside considerations more commonly regarded as “humane,” this phenomenon has its actual economic effect, although — SOMEHOW — its quite real price (e.g., the budget-item of caring for MORALLY INJURED veterans in our medical facilities) has yet to figure in our spreadsheets when we count the cost of war.
Here are a couple of interesting items that start to introduce the topic of moral injury ~
THE MORAL INJURY PROJECT — Syracuse University
MORAL INJURY is the damage done to one’s conscience or moral compass when that person perpetrates, witnesses, or fails to prevent acts that transgress one’s own moral beliefs, values, or ethical codes of conduct.
Within the context of military service, particularly regarding the experience of war, “moral injury” refers to the lasting emotional, psychological, social, behavioral, and spiritual impacts of actions that violate a service member’s core moral values and behavioral expectations of self or others (Litz et al., 2009). Moral injury almost always pivots with the dimension of time: moral codes evolve alongside identities, and transitions inform perspectives that form new conclusions about old events.
> http://moralinjuryproject.syr.edu/about-moral-injury/
[M]y principal concern is to put before the public an understanding of the specific nature of catastrophic war experiences that not only cause lifelong disabling psychiatric symptoms but can ruin good character.
— Jonathan Shay, Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character (Introduction”)
(The latest in a series of posts on City government)
As Gadfly reiterated in a recent post on CM Callahan, “One of the goals of the Gadfly project is to help us know our Councilpersons better, especially when it comes time to vote. Council meetings are now on video, so residents can judge for themselves.”
But Gadfly would like to italicize another thread concerning CM Callahan from the May 22 City Council meeting.
That thread had two parts. CM Callahan offered a challenge to both the public and to his fellow Council members.
1) Fact-Checking the public
In two sections of the meeting, CM Callahan referred to recent inaccuracies by two specific clearly identified residents in public comment as well as a cluster of resident inaccuracies from several months before as context for his conscious decision to now act — seemingly on behalf of Council — as a kind of “fact-checker” (Gadfly’s term, not CM Callahan’s), thus challenging the public to be more accurate.
Listen to the first part of this audio or watch the first part of the City video beginning at min. 1:23:40.
“I think what we need to be in fairness to everybody and openness is that when things are said and stated during public comment that are untrue, and incorrect and false, I think it’s incumbent on us to try to correct the record.”
“I have decided in the last couple months – and I don’t want anybody taking anything personal that I ever say here because we obviously have, there’s some people on Council that have some disagreements and some a lot more than others – and I probably . . . about two months ago we had a bunch of people coming up and just stating false facts . . . and I just decided that at some point things have to be corrected and for people to come up and say false things and that just aren’t true or unfactual, I just thought that from this point on during New Business I’m going to use that time to hopefully correct the record, and hopefully it challenges people who come up here and speak to be more accurate in what they say.”
Gadfly and Gadfly followers should welcome fact-checking. We are on the outside. We often (but certainly not always) speak from a position of ignorance. We seek truth.
But let’s realize that this is a tricky business CM Callahan is entering on, and we need to ask him to be very, very careful:
although describing himself “a gentle teddy-bear as much as possible,” CM Callahan sits at the Head Table.
CM Callahan has the bully pulpit, the microphone.
CM Callahan has authority, has power, is by virtue of his office intimidating.
CM Callahan will have — under normal practice at Council meetings — the final and only word on the “facts.”
the potential for the “chilling effect” on free expression the Supreme Court has warned about or completely closing down public participation is real and great.
though CM Callahan repeatedly affirms in a “bring-it-on” kind of fashion that he welcomes debate, there will be no debate with the public as he does his fact-checking during the New Business section of Council meetings.
Gadfly hopes that President Waldron and the rest of Council are alert to the perils in this self-conferred role of “Fact-Checker-in-Chief” that CM Callahan has taken on.
2) Sunbathing with Council members
For CM Callahan is challenging his fellow Council members as well as the public.
Listen to the second part of this audio or watch the second part of the City video beginning at min. 1:23:40.
“And I think that’s true for us on Council too. I welcome the debate. I think that instead of having phone calls behind the scenes, talking, we everyone on this Council is in agreement that sunshine is a beautiful thing . . . I want to have that debate. We can have disagreements. We can call each other out. If you think I’m saying something that’s unfactual, you can say it. I don’t mind it, I’m not going to take anything personal . But that’s how I want to proceed in the future. I don’t want anyone to take anything personal. But I think it’s better for the City and Council to have those discussions here in open court versus behind-the-scenes, behind the scenes phone calls. I just think it’s a healthier thing to have that discussion where the public can hear it.”
Being an outsider, of course, Gadfly finds this all kind of mysterious. What exactly is happening behind-the-scenes?
UWGLV hosts AmeriCorps VISTA members to help accomplish our goals in education, food access, and healthy aging. We need your help to get our word out there about the 9 full-time AmeriCorps VISTA positions and 5 Summer Associates positions we have available for the upcoming 2019-2020 year. I have attached a search flyer Vista that you can share throughout your network. This is a great opportunity for any individual, new graduate, or alumni to help make a difference in the Lehigh Valley. Please help us spread the word to recruit energetic and community-driven individuals. The deadline for applications is July 1st, 2019. If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact me [Jen]. Thank you so much for your assistance!
“Community” — There’s that Gadfly aphrodisiac word again!
(26th in a series of posts on Walkability and Bikeability)
Such a beautiful day! Did you do some exercise? Were you walkers and bikers taking advantage?
The goal for lots of Gadfly followers is a Bethlehem walker- and biker-friendly.
We can’t just talk the talk. That goal can’t just be political gabble.
So take a look at this — June 12, 3:30 PM, Broad and New. Party time!
And how many of you are Tail on the Trailers? 165 miles in 6 months. May 1 – Oct 31. About a mile a day. About 30 miles/month. Can be done anywhere.
Gadfly plans to double the challenge — 330 miles. But he lost two weeks in May because of a couple family obligations. So he’s behind now. Only 42 miles instead of about 60 in May.
“Who goes with me?” as the great Walt Whitman ended one of his most powerful poems.
There were aspects of the Martin Tower demolition that were contentious.
Gadfly’s pee was warm over lack of direct attention by the City to long-term health effects from the “dust.”
A follower said Gadfly sounded “agitated” and “furious” at the Nitschmann night meeting. (You can play the tape.)
But one thing Gadfly readily acknowledged at that meeting as did everyone else before, during, and since the demolition was the absolutely outstanding work done by Robert Novatnack, Bethlehem’s Emergency Services Coordinator, who led the project from the City side. Mr. Novatnack was given an award by the County and at the May 22 City Council meeting received a particularly eloquent citation from the City (kudos to the author!). You can listen to that well-deserved citation on the City video beginning at min. 59:30. It is really excellent.
Everybody please take a moment and nod thanks in the direction of City Hall to Mr. Novatnack for a job selflessly and tirelessly well done. There is something in his very gentle and genial voice that gives you confidence that all is under control.
But Gadfly would like to call attention here to the interchange between Councilwoman Van Wirt and Councilman Callahan that framed Mr. Novatnack’s presentation and, rather awkwardly in Gadfly’s mind, temporarily halted the presentation of the citation.
Gadfly has said before that the dynamic between these two councilpersons is worth paying attention to.
PVW made three points:
1) the air sampling results should be posted online for citizens to look at
2) she was quite sure (personal inspection) that there was cement debris swept down into the Monocacy and we must do better in the future protecting our natural resource
3) speaking as a physician and explicitly answering an argument made by the demolitioners about the safety of the “dust,” she observed that “imploded cement particulate from cured concrete . . . is incredibly different from what is spewed out from our cement plants [like Casilio].”
PVW’s tone – to Gadfly’s ear, and you can judge for yourself – was firm but fair.
She certainly was not accusatory toward Mr. Novatnack:
“I do think that you handled a difficult situation . . . with grace and patience, and I thank you for the good job you did with that.”
“Mr. Novatnack has been very responsive all the time to all of my concerns.”
“This is not on you, Mr. Novatnack . . . this is not you doing it better, but I think we as a community . . .”
“I really do admire how you’ve handled all this, handled all my concerns . . . Thank you for your patience with me particularly and helping the citizens understand what was happening.”
“You are very responsive, attentive, and patient.”
“Thank you again for your good work.”
Councilman Callahan, admitting to an “angst in [his] tone right now,” then temporarily halted the reading of the citation for the purpose of 1) questioning PVW’s “awareness” ( a term used three times) of certain facts since she is only a recent resident of the City and 2) decrying her lack of questioning before “stoking fear” (a phrase used three times) among the residents – a behavior irresponsible by public officials.
A point of order halted BC’s train of thought.
Gadfly felt BC was out of order. Gadfly was very troubled by BC’s response to PVW. He found it both condescending and erroneous.
To Gadfly, PVW’s comments made perfectly clear that she knew about Casilio and that she was probably making a pest of herself asking questions.
To Gadfly, “stoking fear” might be thought of as insulting. PVW is a physician, and she made a comment about the particulates and public health danger in her professional capacity.
BC’s point of PVW’s short 4-year residence in the City as implying lack of standing in the Martin Tower discussion reminded Gadfly of BC last year claiming higher authority to speak about the Southside since he has lived in Bethlehem longer that Councilwoman Negron.
PVW sounded like a responsible public official to Gadfly.
One of the goals of the Gadfly project is to help us know our Councilpersons better, especially when it comes time to vote. Council meetings are now on video, so residents can judge for themselves.
But Gadfly thought he would italicize this interchange, as it were, as another one especially illustrative of the nature and temperament of these two Councilpeople (see post #60), who literally sit at opposite poles of the Head Table.
I reviewed the potential Christmas light examples at city hall on Thursday, May 23rd. I expressed my opinion to those most concerned that the key to the entire project should be uniformity over the entire city., thereby duplicating “Unity,” the original theme of the lights in 1937. People viewing the lights north and south of the city should have the sense of a continuum, a sense of equality of display. To repeat or to somewhat duplicate the present scheme of white lights north of and colored lights south of the river would be an unconscious insult, as Peter Crownfield and others have suggested. White citizens on the north and minority groups on the south, a subtle example, but unintended, of a a racial divide. Carefully avoid this trap. The contrary subjective opinions of any individual groups must be ignored. It is a total city effort!
(16th in a series of posts on Memorial Day)
Addison Bross is a retired Lehigh University English prof.
Gadfly:
Only recently have people begun to think realistically about the multi-faceted COST of participation in combat — in the game of killing other human beings.
Setting aside considerations more commonly regarded as “humane,” this phenomenon has its actual economic effect, although — SOMEHOW — its quite real price (e.g., the budget-item of caring for MORALLY INJURED veterans in our medical facilities) has yet to figure in our spreadsheets when we count the cost of war.
Here are a couple of interesting items that start to introduce the topic of moral injury ~
THE MORAL INJURY PROJECT — Syracuse University
MORAL INJURY is the damage done to one’s conscience or moral compass when that person perpetrates, witnesses, or fails to prevent acts that transgress one’s own moral beliefs, values, or ethical codes of conduct.
Within the context of military service, particularly regarding the experience of war, “moral injury” refers to the lasting emotional, psychological, social, behavioral, and spiritual impacts of actions that violate a service member’s core moral values and behavioral expectations of self or others (Litz et al., 2009). Moral injury almost always pivots with the dimension of time: moral codes evolve alongside identities, and transitions inform perspectives that form new conclusions about old events.
> http://moralinjuryproject.syr.edu/about-moral-injury/
[M]y principal concern is to put before the public an understanding of the specific nature of catastrophic war experiences that not only cause lifelong disabling psychiatric symptoms but can ruin good character.
— Jonathan Shay, Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character (Introduction”)
Addison