Allentown’s Latest Masterclass in Compassion: “Pack Up, Move Along, Try Not to Drown”

If you ever needed proof that Allentown’s homelessness strategy is basically a rotating scavenger hunt designed by people who don’t care about the homeless, behold the City Council and Mayor’s eviction saga.

Tuerk is in California this week at another “conference” according to a post on Facebook.  ON THE TAX PAYERS MONEY.    PLEASE TRY AND PUSH THE REMOVAL OF TERM LIMITS. #yourdonein3yearsorless

I like the end "nice city mayor." I hardly think any visiting mayors would say the same. Curious but why is his left hand doing a reverse pepper grinder???  Tattoo was probably free if you give a happy ending.  I'll be here all weeek lmao

Anyways

The only standard with this mayor is that he will be out of town on a business trip or conference when a crisis happens in Allentown. Why do we even have a mayor in this city? I find it convenient that our self-described loser “Punk Rock Mayor” is in California during Coachella? 

The controller better pay closer attention to his travel reimbursements. Coachella tickets are not an authorized expense.

People have lived peacefully by the waterway for years, which in Allentown time is basically since the earth’s crust hardened. Suddenly in the last few months and rather shockingly the city has discovered the area is a “high flood risk.”

Amazing how the flood risk only becomes life‑threatening the moment someone decides it’s time to print a notice and slap it on a retaining wall?

The latest evacuation has residents ordered to uproot their lives in 10 days. We have been waiting for answers from the administration and Finance Director related to the budget for 8 months, but timelines only matter when Pee Wee decides to attack his enemies.

Oh! and the YMCA shelter? Closing Wednesday.

Perfect timing.

It’s like the city looked at the calendar and said, “What if we shut down the only warm beds and evict people at the same time? Efficiency!”

Where are the people supposed to go? The city’s answer basically translates to “Not our problem, but please remove all personal items so we don’t have to pretend we didn’t throw them in a dump truck.”

The notice even warns that anything left behind will be “considered abandoned.”

Right — because the real tragedy here would be a tent left unattended, not the fact that people are being shuffled around like human pushpins on a corkboard.

Residents say they’ll likely move together to another patch of land until they’re evicted again.

In Allentown, homelessness isn’t a crisis — it’s an American Gladiator obstacle course the city keeps expanding…all because the Mayor has moved his target to the homeless population. That should be a very welcome relief to the city staff.

Cece has claimed that there are resolutions, proposals, and calls for emergency action floating around — they sound great on paper and on social media, but other than talk about action, what has Council done but throw money at the situation? This is not an attack on Cece – I know her roadblocks to correcting the situation are put up by the people on the dais and mayor himself. They have had months to put a plan in place. A plan and a response should have existed before the eviction notices were taped up like yard‑sale flyers. 

There is some talk of action on the horizon and although I am not a fan of County Executive Siegel, I must applaud him for introducing a declaration of emergency to call attention to the homelessness crisis in the county; time will tell if there is just talk or real action out of the declaration. Matt Tuerk chooses to post notices to vacate and ignore the crisis. We all know that Tuerk will be there at a press conference standing next to Josh when/if the county announces next steps. Tuerk will never miss a media opportunity and an opportunity to hijack someone else’s accomplishment and package it as his own.  

But hey — why solve a problem when you can just relocate it every few months and call it “public safety”?

Part 2. Maybe Ill add memes to this section later

Recap of the council meeting:

So I wrote this part before the meeting.  I am going to bet council comes up with some grand resolution to help the homeless but it never gets implemented.   That they all feel awful for these people and somehow Ripple get money out of this.  Somehow they will push the blame somewhere else.  Affa will thank Chief Roca for something. 

What did we miss tonight?

Bill 29 – Borrowing $5.05million for capital improvement, including a fire station that is being replaced.

Bill 30 – More promotions! An S10 Project Coordinator is now a S14 Project Manager.  

“Project Coordinator (s10) with a total budgeted salary of Seventy-Three Thousand One Hundred Ninety Dollars ($73,190) is replaced with Project Manager (s14) with a total budgeted salary of Eighty-One Thousand One Hundred Twenty-Three Dollars ($81,123).”

R57 – Homeless Crisis that Tuerk exacerbated 

Kane – Had absolutely no idea what the resolution even said – great start to your time as Managing Director. Publicly stated that he had “glanced at it” but didn’t “read it”. Couldn’t even speak clearly, probably because you are following your boss’s mantra of just not caring. You said that the city administration shares the concerns…yet, the administration has really done nothing but bully and ignore. Don’t believe me? Look to Vicky Kistler and she can tell you about how she has continued to FAIL the homeless. She may be just executing the directives of her corrupt and incompetent leader. Mr. 

Kane: You struggle to bullshit like Matt Tuerk does each day and that is a good thing. In fact, it is something that he has mastered. UPDATE: Found out later he lost his cell phone at the homeless encampment.  

Gerlach – Thank you for being a champion for the homeless but where have you been pushing the administration to keep the funds from being “tied up in a legal process”? It is great to be vocal from time to time, especially when you are trying to get elected to PA House, but I suggest you follow through in the future. If you are to be elected to the PA House, you realize that you can’t wait for someone to do something. You didn’t know the camp was there – but you knew the actions that the Council committed to were stalled.

Affa – Thank you for bringing light to the fact that this administration does not communicate with the council. This government is broken and Ms. Affa should be applauded for bringing attention to the dysfunction. She asked “why?” because Mayor Tuerk, Vicky Kistler and the administration DO NOT like homeless.

VP Dr. Mota – “It is inhumane!” Amen. She underscored the broken communication between the administration and the council.   

Pungo – It is unfortunate that we have to have another issue to address the broken communication. The council and administration need to act. Request the administration push the sweep.

Binder – Thanked Kane for being there – which is more than Matt Tuerk typically does. Asked Kane to explain what happened. Kane mentioned that the administration supports everything in the bill. Do they? They did nothing but hold up the money and action. Maybe he should ask the Civic Innovations Manager, Michaela Boyer, to tackle this problem? Mr. Kane claimed the city did not know and the Public Works and Police Department unilaterally acted without the administration knowing? Seriously? Sounds like a blame game to keep the administration’s hands clean. More BULLSHIT! Tuerk and the Administration directed last time for the city to handle the homeless issue. They were acting based on your directions. Binder was the hero tonight! “Get the mayor on the phone….he can make the decisions” Kane was deflective and afraid to call Tuerk at Coachella.

Napoli - Didn’t even know if they had the right document. 

Hanlon – looked to be downloading music from Apple iTunes the entire time.

This was outright sad.  I feel for these people.  I think Kane is now a fraud.  You had your chance, and came up way short. Hey I lost my phone too.  I was hiking in truth canyon over the weekend.  

Chaos and its only mid April

It's summer, and the streets are alive with the usual suspects: dirt bikes, those loud little ghetto scooters, and the three-wheeled machines blasting Spanish music with LED lights screaming for attention. You know the ones—folks who seem to have dropped their life savings on making sure everyone notices them. People crashing into cars and leaving the scene.

Last night took it to another level. I stumbled into what felt like a Fast & Furious scene right on Lehigh Street—street racing in full swing. (Dom probably wouldn't bother showing up; he's way too cool for this crowd.) It was intense, and honestly, I'm hoping I don't wake up to headlines about a car flipping and killing people one day. If this keeps escalating, a tragedy feels inevitable.

On top of that, two pedestrians were hit by cars just yesterday. It's not even May, and people are getting struck left and right. 

Hey Mayor Tuerk, whatever happened to that Safe Streets initiative and your big Vision Zero talk? You know, the one promising to eliminate fatal accidents by 2030.

I also got swarmed by about 30 dirt bikes and scooters while driving on Union Blvd. I was alone, and it was genuinely unnerving—loud, unpredictable, and overwhelming.

Ive been told by a few people they have seen 100 cars taking over the Sheetz and Wawa on Lehigh Street, with similar gatherings at Woody's on the Southside and the Wawa on Union Blvd. These spots basically shut down: you can't even get gas easily, and it scares off regular customers.

What’s being done about these flash mobs? Appears nothing as always. 

How about more patrols in these hotspot areas like Lehigh and Union, and actually delivering on those safety promises instead of letting them collect dust could make a difference before someone else gets seriously hurt. Anyone else seeing this ramp up this spring? Like I need to ask.

Empty Catch Phrases

We keep hearing the phrase “affordable housing” like it’s some magic spell that’s supposed to fix everything. Our leaders love saying it — it sounds good, it gets applause, and it makes it seem like they care. But when you look around, nothing changes. It has become rather evident that the administration and the council use affordable housing as a buzz word to get people to pay attention to their campaign. It sounds caring. It sounds proactive. It also requires zero follow‑through if you just keep repeating it loudly enough. It’s basically the political version of “I’ll start my diet on Monday. 

What has Tuerk or Council done to address the housing issues in Allentown? Absolutely nothing. We should not be at all surprised by this, after all Tuerk and Council are self-serving and have not done much for the community so why should housing be more than another political tool to garnish votes? It’s almost like the whole thing is just a slogan to win over lower‑income voters. And honestly, that’s exactly what it feels like. Because if keeping promises was part of the job description, half of these people wouldn’t have a job at all.

We’re told repeatedly that “affordable housing is coming.” Meanwhile, rent for a basic one‑ or two‑bedroom is already around $1,300 or more. A mortgage on a $250,000 house? That’s easily $1,800 a month — if you can even get approved, and if anyone is building a house for that price anymore. Spoiler: they’re not. Builders can’t make a profit on it, so they don’t bother.

So why do local leaders keep acting like they’re about to deliver some miracle solution? There’s barely any land left to build on in the city. And the new homes going up on the state hospital property? Let’s be real — they’re not going to be anywhere near affordable for the average Allentown resident. Not even close.

If the city is going to talk nonstop about affordable housing, then actually do something about it. Otherwise, maybe stick to the stuff they do seem to enjoy — flag raisings, festivals, awkward photo‑ops, and events that look good on social media but don’t fix anything. 

Oh, and let’s not forget the shiny $150 million Police, Fire, and Health complex that sailed through with unanimous approval. Amazing how fast money appears when it’s a project the city really wants.

But when it comes to anything that would actually ease the pressure on residents — like real, accessible housing options — suddenly the wallet snaps shut. Suddenly everything is “complicated,” “in review,” or “years away.”

It’s funny how priorities work. Big, shiny projects? Absolutely — those get green lit faster than you can blink.

Community relief? Oh, they’ll talk about it nonstop, parade it around like it’s the top item on the agenda… but show any real interest in actually doing something? Not a chance.

Just my thoughts. What’s yours?

DROP it like its Hot!! Please Read

So I saw some comments maybe a month or so ago on a police pension DROP and also some yesterday. I had to do some digging.  What I heard is the mayor offered the police a DROP pension. So, for those that do not know what it is (including myself) or how it works, I will explain from what I gathered.

Basically say an employee retires on Jan 1 2026 with a pension of $50,000. The employee does not collect the $50,000 but instead the money is put into a retirement fund, like a 401k.  The city does make some money off of this $50k and the employee is normally capped at a max percentage return say 3-5%. Anything above the 3-5% is the city's however the employee is guaranteed not to lose any money. The employee continues to work at the salary they left at say $75k.  

DROP programs usually last around 2-5 years that someone can benefit from it, but that depends on what is negogiated. When the employee decides to retire a 2nd time, their $50k which has accumulated $50k a year plus interest has to be rolled into another account or that money can be taken out early with normally a 10% penalty. Example.  $50k x 4 years in the drop = $200,000 adding say 3% interest, roughly another $50k (my math isnt 💯  fyi) , said employee after four years would have $250,000 in an account. Or said employee was basically making $62,500/year drop pension plus 75k salary or $137,500  a year for four years.  Aka double dipping in my opinion.

The program is used to keep senior employees or experienced ones. Or in this instance is it for Chief Roca since the mayor has openingly said he wants his "yes man" to be chief as long as he is mayor. However, at what cost? 

Lets 1st look at the raises coming up since Apd's contract is up at the end of the year.

The average officer after 3 years makes over $100,000. Those eligible for the DROP mostly have 20 years of service and have obtained some rank.  So the $100,000 is for patrolman and with those with rank making significantly more. Starting officers make around $70k I believe. A 3% raise per year (which most police contracts are. Fire got 3% and SEIU im hearing got 5%) is roughly $3,000 per guy per year. $3000x200 officers on the force. Thats atleast $600,000-$800,000 a year for tax payers to cover. That doesnt account for the 3% thats added to all overtime.  SEIU's raise probably cost the tax payers $450,000 a year and dont quote me on this, but I am told that each employee got 2 checks each for $1500 as part of their contract. Good for them tho, they deserved it. 

Just a thought. Remember when the water plant had to be sold just to cover the city's obligations to the pension fund. Anything else left to sell if this goes through?

Back on track, the 4% property tax increase for 2026 generated about $1.5 million for the city. So basically the tax increase was gobbled up by the union raises. 

I am figuring the Police DROP Pension will cost tax payers  approx. $885,000-$1.2 million a year since the city loses state funding for the pension when officers enter the DROP program. This number could be more. But I highly doubt the finance department will tell council the cost.

*please note all my numbers are not 100% accurate, but they arent far off at all.  Simply used to give everyone an idea so don't chew my head off.

So I understand needing or wanting to keep older senior officers for their experience, but the cost doesnt seem obtainable in a responsible sense for the city. Plus does anyone think according to my sources Chief Roca getting a $125,000 pension plus his $170,000 salary is right?  That would essentially have him making close to $300,000 a year under the DROP. He could leave after 4 years in the DROP without counting interest at $500,000 in his DROP account.  Is he worth that? Or can't he get another job and has no choice but to stay?

Don't forget the $50 million police station that is getting built which at this rate will cost over $70million. Or the Fire department and health department that is proposed at another i dont know 60-70 million.

Where the hell is this money coming from?  Is the tooth fairy dropping Mayor Tuerk millions?

Without some serious budget cuts, the city is looking at atleast an 8% tax increase next year to cover a DROP and to pay for the new station. 8% is probably low, but expect tax increases of atleast 5-12% each year for the next 4 years. Will be interesting for the 1st year councilmen to have to vote on a huge tax increase just to save the city.  

I just explained where alot of money will be going and I am letting out more expenses they need to cover. The city will be broke.  But honestly I feel that at this point is the mayor’s goal.

Little story: I have a friend who worked a union job where there was a DROP program. He told me the DROP keeps alot of sluggish people. Mostly, the people who have little to know skills besides what they are currently doing. Or it helps those that are financially irresponsible. Either way, it really isnt keeping the best employees. He stated he was amazed by the amount of surgeries people had once they were in the DROP. He stated sick time abuse or personal leave  was sky high and basically anyway to not come to work was the goal.  The reason why was because people didnt care if they got fired. THEY WERE ALREADY RETIRED!! Also, they were guaranteed their pension no matter what!!

Lastly, I am not sure how SEIU and AFD would fare if APD is given a DROP since they just signed new contracts, but I imagine they will want one as well.  Atleast the greedy firefighters will.

Some of the recent pensions, which are close to 90% of their salary.  Something is not right.

https://allentownpa.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=A&ID=1385249&GUID=8DD66DB9-3524-4568-8C15-E4CB0A0CD617

https://allentownpa.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=A&ID=1385251&GUID=07701725-460D-4B27-B58F-6DBB1C8692C9

Here's also why the city is going broke.  

https://www.allentownpa.gov/Portals/0/files/Departments/Finance/Budget2026/Final/000-04%20Police%20Final%20Book%20-%20Amended.pdf

Look at some of these salaries.  Two public safety analysts making over $80,000 due to a $4500 raise from last year.  What exactly do they do??? Analyze where crime is? Those positions should be outsourced to a data company.  Waste. 

The police raises and budget is insane.  I do support the police, but lets be honest, they are the cause of some of the city's financial issues and like AFD they continue to want more.

Now compare all I said to your job. Ridiculous right?  I work part time and am semi retired, but my career did not offer pensions this high. Drain the swamp.  

Word of the Day: Ice Cream

Word of the Day: Ice Cream — Because the Mayor Finally Picked Something as Soft as His Leadership”

While some cities get infrastructure and others get fiscal responsibility.

Ours gets… a “Word of the Day” series from a mayor who genuinely believes the public wakes up wondering what vocabulary he’s blessing us with next. 

Recently, he’s taken to social media to unleash a catastrophically stupid “Word of the Day” series…

Because apparently nothing screams “competent leadership” like a man who treats basic vocabulary as if he’s discovered fire. 

A sorry attempt to make him appear to be smart and capable leader, but it is much more like another cheap cry for attention. Poor Matt is really hung up on not being popular in life and we get to sit here listening to his cries for attention.

Today’s word? “Ice Cream.” Bold choice for a man whose biggest accomplishment this year was remembering his TikTok password. 

Tomorrow’s is rumored to be “Ass Clown,” which is fitting for exactly who we have running our city. It is quite bold for a man whose approval rating could fit on a Post‑it. A mayor so convinced of his own popularity that he’s basically running a one‑man circus, starring himself, directed by himself, applauded by… himself.

It’s almost impressive, really — the sheer confidence of someone who thinks the city is clamoring for his linguistic leadership. Potholes? Still there. Budgets? Still wobbly. Snow plan? Let’s not even go there. But by all means, let’s gather round for today’s inspirational adjective. 

He posts like he’s the main character in a town that’s mostly just trying to get to work to afford his tax increases without hitting a crater the size of a Ford Focus.

But hey — if nothing else, his social media has taught us a valuable lesson:

When actual accomplishments are scarce, content creation becomes a form of cardio.

And this mayor?

He’s training for a marathon.

Tho the Easter Bunny may have skipped the Tuerk residence,  the Tooth Fairy did not.

Easter Egg Dud

Did anyone go to the Mayor's Easter egg Hunt?  I did.  What a horrible showing.  Where was everyone?

I remember years past, hundreds of kids would show up.  Lots of great prizes and fun. 

Do kids have no interest in doing egg hunts anymore, or is it just the Mayors egg hunt?

Considering Midway Manor had a good showing I am thinking it was just the above mentioned. 

Who is in charge of organizing this event?  They dropped the ball this year.  I am just so surprised a free event did not draw 100s.  Its Allentown.  So if its free, everyone should be there

.. no????  

I took some photos of the event.  Maybe this is why it wasn't well attended.