The latest in a series of posts on the Southside

Such good news! (Reminds Gadfly to wonder what’s happening lately on the Banana Factory renovation front.) The Morning Call online article linked below has a great image gallery at which you should look.

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selections from Ryan Kneller, “First four vendors, including a brewery and Mexican eatery, announced for Bethlehem’s Riverport Public Market.” Morning Call, January 19, 2021.

The first four vendors of a highly anticipated public market on Bethlehem’s South Side have been announced, and they are likely to make your mouth water.

A start-up brewery, a local winery, a Mexican restaurant and a micro creamery have signed on to occupy the Riverport Public Market. The center is set to open later this year at the site of the former Starters Riverport restaurant at 17 W. Second St., the market and principals of Ashley Development Corporation announced in a Tuesday news release.

“Before the pandemic, experiential concepts were among the strongest performers in both the retail and [food and beverage] world,” Natalia Stezenko, the market’s design and project manager, said in the release. “The pandemic has put those concepts on hold, and many experiential players that were thriving will simply not make it through the crisis without help. But, we see the public market model as the vehicle which can lead a resurgence of the experiential retail and F&B economy.”

In terms of a tentative opening date, the development team is “optimistic for November,” Stezenko added.

The forthcoming market’s vendors include:

Soaked Winery: Soaked Winery aims to create an environment “where everyone is welcome and where the stuffy heirs of wine snobbery fall by the wayside.”

Jealous Star Brewing Co.: Jealous Star Brewing Co. is the brainchild of restaurateur Ramiro Bravo, brewer Brendon Velasquez and Tim Kiss. The brewery, whose name is derived from Norse mythology, will focus attention on hand-picking ingredients catering to each style of beer.

TYT Lite: TYT Lite will be a new fast-casual Mexican concept from Ramiro Bravo, owner of Tacos Y Tequila in downtown Allentown and Palmer Township. TYT Lite will have street tacos, burritos, burrito bowls, quesadillas and nachos on the menu for your on-the-go authentic Mexican cuisine fix.

Batch Microcreamery: Established in 2019, Batch will open a third location at the upcoming Riverport Market in Bethlehem. The micro creamery, which also has locations at the Downtown Allentown Market and newly opened Trolley Barn Public Market in Quakertown, offers super premium, hand-crafted ice cream that is made on-site.

Riverport Public Market, occupying a two-story, 24,000-square-foot space, will feature 24 food and beverage vendors and create “a vibrant new place to celebrate local food and craft culture,” according to the release.

In addition to showcasing unique, freshly made food and other high-quality selections from artisans, the market will host a variety of cooking classes and events featuring instructors ranging from in-house vendors and local chefs to nationally known cookbook authors in a demonstration kitchen.

The latest in a series of posts on the Southside

At the December 15 City Council meeting Anna Smith called in to support the “pending ordinance” resolution regarding the new ordinance regulating student housing, especially around Lehigh University.

This is a long-awaited ordinance designed, among other things, to protect Southside residential neighborhoods around Lehigh.

Anna devoted most of her supporting statement on the ordinance to her “personal perspective” as a Southside native and resident.

And in doing so Anna provided what Gadfly finds to be a wonderful definition of “neighborhood” and of “Southside” neighborhood.

You may have seen and heard her words yesterday in a business context, but now Gadfly encourages you to luxuriate solely in this vision of a residential quality of life separate from restaurants and parking garages and casinos and waterparks — a Southside many of us need to know exists and that must be preserved.

Listen to Anna’s excitement (4 mins.):

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I’d like to contextualize this policy change from my personal perspective.

I want to talk to you as someone who loves everything about South Bethlehem and who has spent the majority of my life living and working on its streets. I moved back here after 8 years away and decided to invest in the neighborhood that made me who I am, much in the way that my parents decided to invest in the Southside 33 years ago. Not because of ArtsQuest, or the Southside Arts District, or Lehigh, although those are all important aspects of our neighborhood’s character that make the Southside a great place to live. I moved back here because I want to raise my Latina daughter in a neighborhood where she won’t be the only kid speaking Spanish, and where she’ll hear Spanish on the street just as often as she will hear English. I invested in my neighborhood because I want my daughter to grow up like I did, with friends and neighbors of all racial backgrounds and socioeconomic levels. I came back because I believe in our public schools and want my daughter to be able to walk to Donegan Elementary in a few years. I moved back because I wanted to live within a five-minute walk of a playground, a pool, and the Greenway, restaurants, mini-markets, and the woods. I moved back because South Bethlehem represents the best of what it means to live in a true community. Sure, we have some challenges, like any community, but we have so much to be proud of.

And it is so important for our elected officials to understand that—not just at a surface level, or based on their own experiences on the Southside as outsiders, or from conversations with representatives of institutions… We need our elected officials and their staff to make an effort to listen and spend time with residents of all backgrounds that make up the vibrant, dynamic community at work in our Southside neighborhoods. To walk around, like I do, and chat with my next-door neighbor, a single Grandma who gives my daughter a little present for every holiday, and the young Puerto Rican couple with twins next door who always offer us food from the barbecue. The young married couple of women with the pit bulls who hang out on the porch every evening with their next-door neighbors, a black family with kids who race their scooters in front of my house and always ask to pet my dog. The older white man with a disabled son who always keeps the front of his house impeccably maintained and watches over the street. The Mexican family who just moved in this year but have already shown us all up with their holiday decorations. This is what my ideal neighborhood looks like, and where I chose to invest. We need you to understand why this is worth protecting and thinking about, not just today but each time you are asked to consider a policy change that will impact us.

The neighborhoods of the Southside have always had a certain reputation, and most of those who live here have rarely had a say in decisions that are made about it. We don’t have many elected representatives or appointed ones who live on our streets, and we often assume that no one from the other side of town cares about our neighborhoods. But things are changing, and folks from outside the Southside are now paying attention. New folks want to move here, to live or open businesses. Developers want to build, and others see opportunities to make a profit. And I want to be clear: I appreciate the energy and the fact that folks are getting excited about the neighborhoods that I love so much. But we can’t forget what is attracting these folks in the first place—the essential character of our community that has been here for a lot longer than I have. And we owe that to the people who defined these neighborhoods, who invested their time and livelihoods into these streets and homes, who send their kids to local schools, who watch over neighborhood parks and walk the Greenway to work every day. The families who opened businesses decades ago in a different economic climate, and who have won the love and support of generations of residents. Please remember them. As our Southside evolves into the future, we need to plan for the long-term and be proactive, lest we risk losing the very heart of our community and what makes it truly unique, and irreplaceable.

***That’s Anna and family at Saucon Park.

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Anna and her mother are dual “Sirens of the Southside.” Remember that her mother Kim Carrell-Smith has exhorted us to keep South Bethlehem funky!

The latest in a series of posts on the Southside

Selections from Louis Gombocz, “Planners approve changes to regulate off-campus student housing in South Side Bethlehem.” WFMZ, December 10, 2020.

A zoning amendment to regulate off-campus housing for college students in Bethlehem is one step closer to becoming adopted.

The Bethlehem Planning Commission voted 4-1 on Wednesday afternoon to recommend to city council changes it made regarding the creation of two student housing overlay zoning districts at the edges of Lehigh University’s Asa Packer Campus in South Side Bethlehem.

It grandfathers in existing housing in the zoning areas with a maximum of five students per residence.

Newly-built student housing with a maximum of three occupants per unit would be permitted in most commercial neighborhoods located farther north near the Lehigh River.

“This is not an attempt to create affordable housing or to reduce the number of students on the South Side, but an overall way to manage housing better,” Heller commented.

She explained the changes are “proactive” in regard to the future development of student housing and ensuring it is compatible with the surrounding community.

Casting the only dissenting vote to the changes, planning member Matt Malozzi said the student housing overlay zoning districts are merely an extension of Lehigh’s campus, and the few homeowners still living in the area will be gone eventually.

James Byszewski, managing partner of Fifth Street Properties, said the boundaries proposed in the ordinance are not indicative of where students actually live off campus. He also questioned how the city plans on enforcing who lives where, depending upon whether or not a resident is a student.

South Side resident Anna Smith applauded the city’s three-year-long planning effort to stabilize the area’s housing stock, especially as there are increasingly more developers and property buyers investigating opportunities near the university.

The latest in a series of posts on the Southside

Kim Carrell-Smith (9 mins.)

We want a vibe that’s not just generic every place. Steel and glass is a lack of identity. History is how Bethlehem has branded itself already. History is a great way to create a sense of place. 30-year resident, I have a lot of feelings about this Southside stuff. We have a great stock of historical buildings, and I would encourage you to figure out some way to enhance those historical streetscapes. Historical guidelines don’t square with the zoning ordinance. Need to start with changing the zoning ordinance. Can’t have towering buildings that overshadow the sidewalks. For many folks darkness is perceived as unwelcoming. We need to think about things like height and shadow. We have great streetscapes, we just need to tweak the buildings we have. The other thing we need to think about is historical vistas. Vistas provide a validation for life and work. Gives us identity. Distinctive. No franchises. Cultivate small businesses. We want smaller locally owned businesses that can serve local folks. Places to buy socks and underwear. What about sports facilities. Like Iron Lakes — drop off kids, then go shop. We don’t often serve youth in South Bethlehem. More places for kids to stay occupied. Need well marked walking paths and well marked parking to bring people in to the core. Greenway is starting to show us that that works. Need affordable housing, not just luxury apartments. We don’t need to serve student population, but empty-nesters and people like that. We need affordable housing for families, for young people. Arts District people working hard. Please help us keep what makes this distinctive. And don’t turn us into every other place in the United States. No franchises, anonymous glass. We’ve got cool stuff now to improve upon. Cool, eclectic, and kind of funky place. Keep South Bethlehem funky.*

* We need a vision for South Bethlehem, something we can define in a word or phrase on which we can focus our thinking. Kim has used that term “funky” before in presentation at Council. It’s vision that resonates. What does “funky” mean to you? Interestingly odd. Unconventionally stylish. What place comes to mind as an example of a funky place? Gadfly thinks we should pursue this vision.

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Gadfly says try to keep your body still while listening. That’s what I’m talking about.

“Funky Town”

The latest in a series of posts on the Southside

Larry Eighmy (5 mins.)

We want to have some new overlay, new development, on top of the old while preserving it. Zoning codes are regressive, we want to think about being progressive. [History of plans over last 20 years.] Wonderful things. What we have now is a position of strength. We have created a success. Parking. Commercial. We’re trying to create vibrancy. What we need to do going forward is celebrate our successes, continue to do the things that we have done, and then think a little bit differently about the component Esther Lee talked about [the Black strip on buildings on Brodhead]. Need to push out the industrial base by Perkins. Critical. Change of Hill to Hill bridge. Lehigh-New St corridor. Big things. Lets say what can do. Instead of dictating what we can’t do, let market take care of what we wnt to do. We have “great” problems. This is critical time for this conversation.

Roger Simon (3 mins.)

Allow higher buildings closer to Lehigh campus. Might relieve pressure of students living farther afield and developers outbidding homeowners. Preserve scale of 3rd and 4th Sts. as much as possible. Keep taller buildings uphill.

The latest in a series of posts on the Southside

Carolina Hernandez (3 mins.)

Bethlehem is chosen home. Keep South Bethlehem “funky” (Kim Carrell-Smith’s line that we’ll post later). Don’t make it like Miami. Relatives and friends who visit all love it. Incredible diversity, history, beautiful facades. This is what people fall in love with. South Side Proud. What makes us unique should be amplified not shut down. Walkability. Greenway. Don’t bring in what makes us sterile. Enforce historic nature. Take care like we did the North side. Amplify the beauty of this community. Recognize the power, the privilege, the history, the prestige that it is to be a part of this wonderful community.

Margarita (5 mins.)

Bethlehem reminded her of her small town in Puerto Rico. Wants to continue to have that kind of feeling. Realizes too that we need to move forward and progress. Detriment holding on to the past. Can build places that resemble other places but that are modern on the inside. Can architects keep it at a reasonable height and build facade to be historical. As opposed to all glass and metal. Keep facade of how the buildings were way back. Attract even more tourists. Parking garage with businesses on first floor but park appeal open with hanging plants and trees on second floor. No high rises. Not like New York. Parking here is terrible. Join parking and nature.

The latest in a series of posts on the Southside

Esther Lee  (4 mins.)

Building heights are out of line. Makes plea for “the Southside Black strip.” Across from the Comfort Suites on Brodhead. Find a way to restore this section. The first Black folks who came to Bethlehem had businesses right there. Building heights are humpty-dumpty. Traffic is upside-down. Need to do something about homelessness, housing.

Anna Smith (4 mins.)

Tracked vacancies in her former job and wherever there was new development, there was persistent vacancies long past construction. Simultaneously, we see storefronts like George’s Light-Lunch in persistent demand, never off the market — beautiful, historic facade. The demand is there on these streets. The issue is that business owners who live on Southside to serve Southside, the numbers just don’t work for them in new buildings. The historic buildings offer smaller, more accessible storefronts more accessible to people who were unable to attain bank financing. Women, POC, immigrant entrepreneurs unlikely to receive financing. If want to support business that serve local community, if we want to serve the core of our community (Southside now 43% Latino, 10% Black), we need to offer affordable options. None of the new developers have been able to offer that. We need to think about what types of business owners are actually able to start businesses in our neighborhoods. Because it is those business owners who have made the Southside the kind of place that people want to invest and come to. Agrees with Esther Lee — Black strip — that’s the way to go.

The latest in a series of posts on the Southside

Lou James, President of the South Side Historical Society (12 mins.)

There are many good things being done, but SBHS has many concerns. Grateful to the City, Sands, Wind Creek, Arts Quest, etc., in preservation efforts. Many residents impacted by change going on. Traffic bumper-to-bumper. Many properties that were once affordable have been bought up by outsiders hoping to cash in. House rates and values have tripled. People looking for affordable housing have to look elsewhere. Beautiful row and single family homes are disappearing or becoming run-down, left to rot, as owners wait for development. Need to encourage housing that is affordable to the common person. Could be made a model for small town revitalization like Northside. Emphasis on history is the way to do it. Beautiful storefronts on 3rd and 4th streets — could this be outlet for destination shopping? Small town atmosphere is better. We’re stuck on bigger is better. People moving here from New York and Philadelphia moving here to get away from that atmosphere. New construction is beautiful but out of proportion. Emphasis needs to be fitting in to the community. Church project at State and 4th is model example. SBHS supports that endeavor. Must be way to re-purpose buildings instead of tearing them down. Modern is beautiful and understandable that developers want to make money but must be respectful of our history. Once gone can’t be brought back. Not against progress but must eye any project for preservation of rich history. Building height. Against small skyscrapers that are monuments to developers. Tall buildings defeats purpose of historic district and destroys neighborhood atmosphere. Auto-Zone proposed at 5 Points is stupid idea. Need homeless shelter badly. Need affordable housing for working class people.

The latest in a series of posts on the Southside

The latest in a series of posts on the Southside

This was Gadfly’s kind of meeting on the future of the Southside historical district last night.

40+ people giving ideas.

That felt like a real tonic in this period of destructive politics and pandemic.

(And speaking of such, Gadfly reported the Lehigh University spike yesterday. The news today is that Lehigh has gone totally online in reaction. Sigh.)

Upbeat. Looking to the future.

Gadfly is not sure of the genesis of the study.

But you may remember as he does the poignant letter from the South Bethlehem Historical Society worrying about heritage-damaging development in the Southside.

And Gadfly has reported in the past several times of “conversations” between Councilpeople Negron and Callahan on their different visions of the Southside.

But recently we have seen action on the student housing problem around Lehigh.

And now this.

Good news.

Gadfly will report on some of the discussion, but, for now, he’ll just mention a few things that he heard that float to the surface: there is a discrepancy between Zoning regs and the Historical Commission guidelines, a 14-story building would be allowed under current regs, the Historical Commission guidelines are “shoulds” not “shalls,” Litzenberger and Rooney buildings grandfathered in not license for other tall buildings, AutoZone proposed for 5 Points.

Ugh.

Work to be done.

The latest in a series of posts on the Southside

Zoom meeting

ref: Christina Tatu, “Bethlehem wants to know from residents what they think the South Side should look like.” Morning Call, November 18, 2020.

ref: Kim’s shout out!

Damn pandemic.

We can’t put “butts in the seats” these days.

But we can put our “boom in the zoom”!

We have a voice.

We used it recently for the pedestrian/bike bridge.

We’re being asked to contribute ideas on the future of the Southside.

We’re being asked to use our voice.

Beat the pandemic.

Lets put some BOOM IN THE ZOOM tonight at 6:30!

Zoom meeting

The latest in a series of posts on the Southside

Zoom meeting

ref: What should the historic core of the Southside be like in 15 years?
ref: Christina Tatu, “Bethlehem wants to know from residents what they think the South Side should look like.” Morning Call, November 18, 2020.

Gadfly:

More voices, more power; more “butts in seats,” more power.

The latest in a series of posts on the Southside

Zoom meeting

The latest in a series of posts on the Southside

Gadfly wrapping up for now coverage of the Community Development committee meeting on regulating student housing (click “Southside” under topics on the sidebar for previous posts).

6 of the 7 Council members attended this committee meeting and spoke after the resident input.

Councilwomen Van Wirt and Negron spoke explicitly of getting the proposed ordinance to Council ASAP.

Councilwoman Crampsie Smith was the most eloquent of the bunch in supporting the proposal.

“The Southside was a melting pot . . . rich in diversity  . . . If we don’t do something like this ordinance, we are putting a nail in the coffin of the origins of the city and the ideals and values on which it was built, and, worse, we are utterly disregarding all the immigrants that sacrificed so much to form that rich community that is and still could be the Southside.”

The latest in a series of posts on the Southside

Gadfly loves your voices.

Democracy in action.

Here is a menu of public commentary at the Community Development Committee meeting October 22, commentary in favor of the proposed ordinance to regulate student housing in the city.

The issue is the life of a neighborhood.

Important issue.

Check out these models of citizens making their case.

What is the problem this proposal addresses? (Smith 1 min.)

How was this proposal developed? (Smith 1 min.)

What kind of neighborhood is it, and what kind of danger does it face? (Moglen 1.5 mins.)

What’s the effect of student rentals on a neighborhood. Why don’t people like to live near students? (Jennings 1 min.)

What has increased student housing done to your neighborhood? (Evans 2 mins.)

How does a first-generation immigrant see the Southside and this proposal? (Malek 1.5 mins.)

If this ordinance is passed, can everybody finally relax? Job done? (Grubb .5 mins.)

Those brief clips above cannot capture the good oratory of the Bethlehem residents pleading their cause at the meeting. Please take advantage and listen to the full comments from these models of active citizen participation.

Kim Carrell-Smith (5 mins.)

Justin Collins (3.5 mins.)

Julie Cordero (2 mins.)

Anne Evans (5 mins.)

First Terrace resident 1 (2 mins.)

First Terrace resident 2 (3 mins.)

Dana Grubb (3.5 mins.)

Alan Jennings (5 mins.)

Ham Malek (5 mins.)

Seth Moglen (5 mins.)

Tony Pompa (3.5 mins.)

Marc Rittle (3 mins.)

Anna Smith (5 mins.)

The latest in a series of posts on the Southside

So much going on nationally, right?

But Gadfly doesn’t want to lose sight of the important proposal to regulate student housing in the city of particular importance to the Southside that was discussed in an open meeting of the Community Development Committee October 22.

Quantitative public interest in this proposal was high. The quality of comments at the meeting was very high.

About 20 residents called in, overwhelmingly in favor of the new ordinance. Gadfly covered the few negative comments  a week or so ago.

Gadfly supported the proposal in a series of posts leading up to the meeting. Click Southside under Topics on the right-side sidebar.

And at the meeting itself Gadfly called attention to the potential — finally — for a kind of marriage of a long line of resident agitation on the one hand and a long line of verbal commitment to supporting affordable housing by Council on the other in a specific proposal that could be acted upon (2 mins.).

Gadfly likes to give primacy to arguments opposed to him, but logically he should have started with the City’s presentation of its case for the proposal.

Therefore, he’ll call your attention now to these introductory remarks by Director of Community and Economic Development Alicia Miller Karner in which she lays out the timeline of events from 2014 when she took office to the present (10 mins.).

Karner said that presenting this proposal before a Council committee was not the usual process, and she seemed to indicate that a public hearing might be held in the future. So Gadfly is not sure of the future process, for Council members talked of getting the proposal before Council quickly. Perhaps Council would hold the public hearing since the Zoning Board has already passed on the proposal. In any event, Gadfly was surprised that there was not more comment October 22 from business interests and that there was no Lehigh University voice either. So maybe we’ll hear more later.

But Karner laid out a helpful timeline of events and meetings and consultants beginning in 2014 when she took office. For instance, she described meeting quarterly with Lehigh from 2014 to 2017, a time in which 200 new rental licenses were issued in that area. She described various, shifting Lehigh University announcements, signals, and plans. She described how confusing Lehigh messages about their plans spurred investors. She described a 2018 consultant report that pointed out that the proliferation of rental signage (see Gadfly’s Tour de Rentz) was an unintended message that families weren’t welcome as well as an invitation to criminals. She described the City’s “vulnerability” to decisions out of its control and described the proposal as a solution to an issue that has “dominated conversations in my office for six years.” There are now 623 regulated rental units in the area.

Karner laid a good ground work for discussion of details of the proposal in which both she and Planning director Darlene Heller then engaged.

Gadfly will post about public support for the proposal by beginning with perhaps the most unusual, the most striking example of that support — from a resident who left the city because of the conditions the proposal is designed to address.

We know articulate Murdock Saunders already from appearances on Gadfly describing the conditions of and the dangers to his upper Hillside Ave. residence.

“Meet the ‘Bethlehem Residents for Responsible Development'”
July 17, 2019

Now, however, Saunders has regretfully moved away, a casualty of the rental creep. “Don’t let more families like us leave,” he counsels Council (1.5 mins.).

The latest in a series of posts on the Southside

proposed ordinance to regulate student housing

Overview of Student Housing Ordinance (1)

video of October 22 Community Development Committee meeting

So now let’s begin talking about the Community Development Committee meeting last Thursday on a proposed ordinance regulating student housing.

Gadfly has spent much energy on this issue. If you missed all that and are shamed and sorry, click “Southside” on the right-hand sidebar.

This issue of regulating student housing has been in the air for decades, is almost as old as Gadfly #1 Stephen Antalics, and Gadfly is glad to see it finally “on the table,” and is in favor of its passage.

Public comment was of as high a quality as Gadfly has ever seen it — what Gadfly loves about being a gadfly is amplifying and archiving resident response. It’s usually a joy.

About 20 residents commented at the meeting, the overwhelming majority in favor of the ordinance.

But following Gadfly’s desire for balance and hearing all sides, let’s begin with the three commenters who opposed the ordinance.

Gadfly always wants to know and to weigh positions contrary to his own.

We should understand and respect those positions.

Southside landlord (1) (7 mins.)

A man whose name I couldn’t get but who is associated with a business that owns many properties in Bethlehem doesn’t see the need for the ordinance, though he doesn’t go into detail about the reasons why, indicating that they have been expressed before. If there is to be an ordinance, however, he suggests some changes, such as a problem with the definition of student; if there is to be limitation outside the boundary, there should be enhancement within; the boundaries should be expanded; changes in signage regulations. Changes on these subjects would make the ordinance more practical and more enforceable. Council should ask itself these questions: “What is the real issue we are trying to solve?” “Is this ordinance the best way to solve that problem?”

Southside landlord (2) (7 mins.)

A multiple property owner since 2003 (couldn’t catch his name).  “What problem is this ordinance trying to solve?” Parking? Noise? Litter? Overcrowding? Affordable housing? Development? Design? He’s still not clear on the problem its attempting to solve. Perhaps the purpose needs to be honed to effect meaningful change. Broad scope means tough to enforce. Affordable housing seems the main issue, and he’s 100% in agreement. But there is no affordability crisis in Bethlehem. Prices rising nationwide, nothing here specific to Southside. Drill down to the facts. Dozens of homes for sale now in South Bethlehem with mortgages less than rents. He is (was?) part of a City committee on affordable housing. Consultant came up with proposals, and student regulation was not one of them. The City committee has not discussed any of the consultant’s proposals. Only 5% of City rentals are student rentals and are inspected annually, while some of the others have not been inspected for decades. Who’s been advocating for those others? Many in substandard conditions. Ends with defense of students.

A DeSales student (2 mins.)

Wants to move off campus to further maturity by providing for himself. People he knows have been robbed by residents. So it’s not fair to assume that college students are causing problems. Wants to further his life experience in college and regulation will limit that possibility.

to be continued . . .

The latest in a series of posts on the Southside

Gadfly will be providing more detail on the meeting. But when, Gadfly, when?

Selections from Christina Tatu, “Bethlehem considering ordinance that would limit student housing for the sake of neighborhoods.” Morning Call, October 23, 2020.

South Side residents are urging Bethlehem City Council to swiftly approve a zoning amendment regulating off-campus student housing, saying families are being driven out and real estate prices are being driven up by developers snatching up properties to house college students.

City Council held a special meeting Thursday to hear public comments on the proposal, which was unanimously approved by the Planning Commission in August. It provides a student housing district that city officials said would protect neighborhoods and keep students to more appropriate areas.

City officials have been working for several years with South Side community organizations, property owners and landlords to prepare the amendment. The district would be on the northeast and northwest sides of Lehigh University’s campus, bordered on the west side by Eighth Street to the south, Hess Street to the west and Cress Street to the north; and on the east side by Thomas Street to the south, Pierce Street to the east and East Morton Street to the north.

The new zoning would limit housing to five students per residence in those districts, while three students per residence would be allowed in the central commercial and limited commercial districts to the north of campus. Outside of these areas, city officials are recommending only two college students be allowed in a dwelling unit.

Landlords who already operate student housing outside of those districts could continue to do so as long as they maintain their annual licenses with the city, said Darlene Heller, the planning director.

Anna Smith, a former director for the Community Action Development Corp. of the Lehigh Valley and the owner of a home on Ridge Street, said that in 2018, property sales were up 34% near Lehigh’s campus and prices went up 18%. But the percentage of new owner-occupied homes was low.

“We heard stories from neighborhoods that had previously housed only a handful of students, but where out-of-state buyers were going door-to-door hoping to buy entire lots of homes to demolish and build luxury student townhomes,” she said. “Since 2018, we have seen prices continue to rise with single-family homes now selling for upwards of $300,000 or more to prospective student housing buyers, who will rent them out at up to $1,000 per bedroom.”

Although student housing has been a part of the community for a long time, events over the last couple years have shifted the balance and left longtime residents concerned about losing their family-oriented neighborhood, Smith said.

Murdocc Saunders said he sold his Hillside Avenue home in the South Side last month. It was the only home his sons, ages 6 and 10, knew. He decided to leave after several students moved in across the street and the house next door was turned into student housing.

“My kids still miss their home,” he said. “As someone who still loves the city of Bethlehem, we still come back. … But don’t let more families like us leave. We want to be there and if there was a house in the right community in south Bethlehem, we would be back there next month.”

Speaking against the ordinance, James Byszewski, of Fifth Street Properties, said he doesn’t think it’s fair that it targets students. He also believes it would also be difficult to enforce.

“By limiting it to students, you open yourself up to a list of challenges when it comes to fair housing,” he said.

The latest in a series of posts on the Southside

In a lengthy Community Development Committee meeting last night, City officials laid out in detail the proposed ordinance to regulate student housing around Lehigh University, approximately 20 comments from the public were received, heavily weighted in support of the ordinance, and six of the seven City Council members made comments or had questions about it. No vote was taken. The meeting was for the purpose of providing information and gathering comment.

Gadfly is hung over this morning from the combination of the long Council meeting followed by the presidential debate and will provide reports on the various commentary in due course.

The latest in a series of posts on the Southside

Bud Hackett is a Bethlehem resident who raised 4 kids in the City. He recently became very interested in quality of life issues in the city and hopes to offer a balance to the approach City Council is taking.

ref: “A plea for affordable housing”

Gadfly:

• Yes, we all want free or reduced price stuff, including food, housing and medical care. Where is my application for a reduced price new car? I’ve never had a new car.
• The single most important factor in the increased cost of housing is government regulations.
• Just whining about “we want better priced housing” is — just naïve.
• Another significant factor in housing cost is the unprecedented influx of new people coming to this community from NY & NJ – pushing the price of housing up. Is that in the best interest of our community?

Is your approach another income transfer from higher income to lower income? Is that really fair?

Bud

A follower asks Gadfly to remind you that you can still call in to City Council tonight if you haven’t signed up beforehand: (610) 997-7963. Wait for the committee chair to ask for call-ins.

The latest in a series of posts on the Southside

view CDC meeting on YouTube tonight 6PM

call-in number: (610) 997-7963

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Gadfly’s not getting much done today.

Feels like a Limbo-day, to coin a phrase.

Just waiting.

Waiting for the presidential debate tonight, of course. Lot of anxiety about that. Hard to focus on anything else.

But waiting also for the Community Development Committee to pass on the student housing reduction ordinance. Important decision there.

Did you decide what you are going to do?

• add your name to a letter to Council from affordable housing advocates throughout our community: CLICK HERE to read and sign.

and/or

• speak at tonight’s Community Development Committee meeting in support of the proposal: you can sign up in advance or call (610) 997-7963 when the chair asks for public comment. If you would like to sign up to speak, email the following information to the Bethlehem City Clerk’s office (cityclerk@bethlehem-pa.gov) no later than 2:00 PM on October 22, 2020 (a) name; (b) address; (c) phone number; and (d) topic of comments. If you are signed up to speak, the Committee Chair will call you from (610) 997-7963.

If the ordinance passes tonight, the journey is not done. Still has to go to full Council. So the support letter will stay open for signing till then. Pass the word.

In the Limbo mood, I have been thinking about public discussions “we” have had about affordable housing.

There have been some memorable ones.

Take the City Council meeting of August 22, 2019.

Classic.

Stephen Antalics demands an answer from the “silence of the Lambs” to his argument for a zoning change such as the one that is in front of Council tonight. And Councilwoman Negron thanks him “for keeping us on track,” confesses that she has lost sleep after hearing residents talk of their problems, and announces that she is “not going to go anywhere till something is done.”

Wow!

Powerful moments.

There is great stuff in the Gadfly archives. He hopes some future Bethlehem historian will use it to learn about who we were at this moment in time.

But Gadfly’s most moving affordable housing memory occurred at the end of the May 2019 Nitschmann School meeting on Martin Tower.

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Originally posted June 12, 2019

The scene:

Remember the long night meeting on the Martin Tower demolition at Nitschmann?

30-some speakers. Some very animated.

Things wound down.

Discussion fatigue enveloping the hall.

The Mayor made concluding remarks, thanking all concerned.

There was generous applause.

There was the rustle of exiters.

It was over.

We were done.

When an elderly gentleman — oblivious to the fact that last call had been given and the lights were going out — approached the stage-left mic.

To make a plea for affordable housing.

And received the loudest applause of the night.

• I’ve been here in the Valley since 1965.
• It’s getting to the point that we can’t afford it.
• We can’t afford what the new housing costs.
• I would like to see at least a portion of this property [Martin Tower] be put into something that elderly people who don’t have the strength . . . the money . . .
• We could move . . . but then we have our doctors here. We can’t afford to drive back and forth.
• You talk about luxury apartments . . .

One minute and ten seconds. But unforgettable to Gadfly.

The sun was setting on his life.

The sun was setting on the meeting.

But the audience was roused from Tower torpor, mightily aroused.

Gadfly wanted to run for office so we could act on that plea.

Let’s keep that muffled elderly voice and the vigorous chorus of audience support in mind as we think about what the City can do to remedy the lack of affordable housing.

There is a problem, and “we” know in our guts something has to be done about it.

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Latest in a series of posts on the Southside

view CDC meeting on YouTube tonight 6PM

call-in number: (610) 997-7963

On July 31, 2019 — when he was young and the pandemic was not on the prowl — Gadfly took it upon hisself to cross into the devil-land of student rentals on Hillside Ave.

The occasion was proposed development on First Terrace. Remember that?

The idea was to see for hisself.

To go to the primary source.

Not listening to griping neighbors.

And he conducted a Tour de Rentz. (Isn’t that cute? Rentz = Rents. Gadfly was much funnier then.)

Because of the student housing regulation before the Community Development Committee tonight, and for which we are hoping that you will sign a supporting letter and/or call in tonight — this very amateurish Tour deserves re-running.

Gadfly remembers that while he was touring lower Hillside two cars stopped and the drivers jumped out confronting him with questions to his purpose.

Gadfly was not properly credentialed. As if needing permission from the warlord landlords.

The only voices Gadfly heard on this hot summer day in this Southside ghost town of lower Hillside were the representatives of the landlords. Suspicious. Worried. Of little ol’ Gadfly.

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Gadfly had to see for himself. He had long heard tales of Southside woe from Olga Negron and Stephen Antalics. He recently heard resident fears of the spectre of “lower Hillside” spreading upward with devastating impact. There was even talk of “existential crisis.” How could this be?

Time for Gadfly to follow his own principle. Time to look at the primary sources.

Gadfly’s Tour de Rentz starts at the foot of Hillside Ave. (approx at 531 Hillside Ave.) alongside the Zoellner Arts Center Parking Garage. It proceeds up Hillside past Thomas and Selfridge, turning on Stoneman, and ending on First Terrace.

Join him. The videos linked below are only a few seconds each.

If you know this neighborhood at all, you probably know it speeding through in a car. Let’s slow down. The Tour de Rentz is on foot.

1) Foot of Hillside Ave: looking up the hill, student housing as far as you can see. Just about every house “signed.” The few beautifully full trees left may be an indication that at one time this was a handsome tree-lined street.

2) North (east) side of Hillside: we begin moving up on “lower Hillside,” the heavily dense student-housing section that residents of “upper Hillside” fear is in their future.

3) South (west) side of Hillside: Gadfly is struck by the long string of interesting looking houses. One can easily imagine that they were once comfortable family homes.

4) Farther up on the south (west) side of Hillside: Gadfly admits to being something of a “romantic,” but he was taken by the look of these houses — big living room windows, nice porches, once tree-lined. And the porches up high. He talked with a guy perched far above the sidewalk as he passed — lord of all he surveyed. Gadfly had to crane his neck. A feeling of the first floor on the second floor. Interesting.

5) Turning right off Hillside, south on Thomas, uphill into the Lehigh campus: Gadfly quietly orgasmic at the beautiful double that meets him. What an interesting twin. A sense of size and sturdiness. Gadfly quietly admitting to himself that he expected not to be impressed by the original quality of the homes. Gadfly quietly feeling shame at what has happened here to what once were “homes.”

6) Turning left off Hillside, north on Thomas: looks like an apartment house, was this relatively newly built? Looks out of place with surroundings. Looks clean and nice — but out of place. Doesn’t seem to blend.

7) Back up Hillside again: encountering a “pod” of rentals on the north (east) side, a whole block that collapsed from familytude. Gadfly imagines the male householder drifting down to the Sokols for a brew or two.

8) Turning right off Hillside, south (uphill) on Selfridge: 4 out of 5 houses on the block are rentals, the corner property owner looks to be holding on to a cute house. Gadfly imagines tension in that corner house.

9) Turning left off Hillside, north on Selfridge: look at the fence and stone work on the double next to the corner house. Interesting. Gadfly getting more of an appreciation for the art of building houses on hills. Steep hills.

10) We reach upper Hillside: now predominantly homeowners, but rentals have made a breach. A kind of border crossing here. Gadfly wishes his camera had lingered more on the northside homes along Hillside here.

11) Upper Hillside: (Lousy video.) Not dominated by rentals. Yet. Solitary rental property on the right with trash in front faces well kept, flowered home with a guy gardening on the left. Not a pretty composite picture. Like a spot on a lung of this stretch of neighborhood.

12) Turning right (south), uphill, off Hillside on Stoneman: houses owned by Lehigh Properties, of the recent case about a 40-student dorm on First Terrace before the Planning Commission.

13) Gadfly quizzed separately by an adult and two students about what he was up to. They are fidgety, guilty looking. Suspicious of me. And a bit snarky. Gadfly thought it best not to incite by filming the encounters. Gadfly life expectancies are short as it is.

14) Turning right off the top of Stoneman on to First Terrace: this the spot where Lehigh Properties wants to build a 40-student dorm, knocking down 4 homes to do so. Remember that residents made a determined argument against the proposal in front of the Planning Commission to no avail — but that the Mayor broke the norm and effectively shot down the proposal. But what alternative lurks?

15) Farther along on First Terrace past the 4 houses proposed for demolition to build a large dorm: privately owned homes, signs of care for the houses, signs of domesticity, flowers, gardens, neat lawns, this is a neighborhood. So clear that the proposed dormitory development was dead wrong. Did the developer have any regard at all?

16) Farther yet on First Terrace: view across the Valley, unfortunately not video’d, an exhilarating top of the mountain feel. More clear signs of home care, more clear signs that this is a neighborhood — clear signs of the domestic life endangered by the rental scourge creeping up from below.

Please forgive Gadfly the poopy camera skills. He could name one faithful follower who should have had the job.

sign the letter of support here

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