Published by The Bethlehem Gadfly
Edward J. Gallagher, Bethlehem immigrant, retired, nearly 50 years as Professor of American Literature at Lehigh University, known as "Dr. G" and "Conan the Grammarian" to students, whose virtual world avatar "EdwardScholarhands" stares at you here, has reinvented himself as the Bethlehem Gadfly.
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You could make the argument that traffic calming measures were implemented on Broad Street between Center and Main over the past 40 years. You can also make the argument that island barriers, trees and the ultimate traffic calming measure, closure of the street between New and Guetter did little to make the corridor more “vibrant”.
In fact, despite what has been done to the section, Broad Street is a woeful underachieving downtown corridor. It has none of the Victorian charm of Main Street and the retail action is… well, missing in action. Instead of finding a way to make the Boyd Theater an anchor that could bring feet to the street after six PM, the city raised meter rates, extended the time on metered parking to nine PM and allowed the “developer” to destroy the building.
I would suggest that creating a unifying architectural theme and enacting business-friendly decisions would be a real start to getting this moribund corridor back on its feet, before it’s too late.