The city of Allentown is getting a 20million dollar grant that the Mayor claims will be used for quality of life issues. The plan is called "Allentown Works." Allentown works?? Since when?
The unemployment rate for Allentown, Bethlehem, and Easton is 4.5% combined. However, this number seems way off unless when I drive center city during the day, all the people I see sitting outside work night shift.
Mayor Tuerk says this will "change the city" and improve lives. Cmon. Is this a joke? They wasted 57million of the ARPA money and what is there to show for it?
This money is supposed to help people get jobs in the city. My question is where? What businesses in town are hiring that can be considered a good job and keep one above the poverty rate? I'll wait???
With 21.6% of people living under the poverty rate in Allentown, maybe it's me, but I dont understand how 20 million dollars is going to get people good jobs and out of this statistic.
Tuerk claims "all eyes are on us." Not sure whose eyes he is referring too.
Somehow this money is going to help people find full time work. What if they arent qualified, then what? Or they just dont want to work? How do you plan on helping them then? Is this going to educate people or teach them a trade so they are more desirable to an employer. And if they are qualifed why havent they gotten these "so called good jobs" already?
Of course the money will go towards non-profit programs. I mean who else gets money in Allentown? We all know how successful the non-profits are.
Tuerk says "the idea is that we can create a model that can trancend Allentown. It can be applicable in the Lehigh County and across the country." Is he serious? Across the country? I hope I am wrong, but damn this guy dreams big.
20 comments:
So 20 million to get jobs for 650 people? So thats $31,000 per person to help them get a job. This is stupidity. No one is getting a fucking job. The non profits are going to suck the money up for themselves.
Doesn’t matter if the Allentown Works plan actually succeeds in creating jobs that, in reality, already exist. Openings are everywhere but remain unfilled. We ALL see that.
What matters most here is our ambitious (/s) public officials now have a new talking point to tout across the region. “Hey, look. We’re doing something to solve a problem!”
Money falls out of the sky, but I made it happen, so credit goes to me and my administration.
No question, existing non-profits (and now a few new ones) are getting a lifeline. Groups similar to Promise Neighborhoods will go into action. New administrators hired, etc. There’s new money to be had for extended daycare or, more likely, to spend at the nail salons around the city.
Can we at least get a few mandatory in-classroom courses on personal responsibility? You know, not just free laptops to take home for movies and video games.
Yes, this taxpayer grows more skeptical by the day.
The best chance for Center City residents to get good jobs are in trucking/CDLs and at the distribution centers in Breinigsville, Fogelsville and Trexlertown. It might not be a bad idea to use that money for CDL training and improved express mass transit out to these areas.
The question is, do some of these able bodied people event want a job? Truth be told, being a live-in boyfriend with an unmarried mother of a couple kids can be parlayed into a pretty good gig for that household.
A few years ago, I read a study that a typical unmarried household can put together a government package of free benefits valued up to about $55 thousand dollars per year. One would have to obtain a real job at a salary of 60-65K per year to justify walking away from a taxpayer subsidized lifestyle. Small corporate manufacturing job wages can’t compete with that
This money is being funneled through self serving NGO's whose self righteous objectives will likely only increase poverty and homelessness. There's where the money is going. Expect negative outcomes with glowing headlines.
Have you ever seen their grocery carts at the Giant??? No shopping list, no budget, just overfilled cart full of whatever they feel like buying! Usually a nicer car and cell phone than you and I have.
“If there appears to be a problem, appear to find a solution.”
Qualifying for this grant is evidence of exactly how far the once great All American City has fallen.
Absolutely no one sitting around without a job in center city is gonna be eager to hop on a bus in the predawn hours to head out to the far burbs for a warehouse gig.
This whole thing is a joke.
@7:38AM
Truck driver school?
You must be kidding.
What?
No welding school?
If this project could produce a handful of professional drivers it would be astonishing.
In this post-COVID economy anyone who wants to work is working and already looking for the next best opportunity.
This sounds like a job for Alan Jennings!
The money should go to cover tuition to Lehigh County Community College. With attendance and grade requirements, of course.
The unemployment rates in Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton in the aggregate mean nothing.
Tease out the numbers by zip code and some relevant information can be gleaned.
Allentown just won in a competitive process that required admitting precisely how desperate the place is.
The Mayor seems too stupid to get the contradictions between the regular party line and the stark reality laid out in the grant application.
Will this money help a couple of individuals?
Probably.
Will it make a difference in the direction the city is headed?
Of course not.
Those few people who actually benefit will use their improved situation to move out of downtown Allentown.
Why not tell people who sign up for the program that if they find and keep a full time job for a year they get 10K cash? If they stay employed full time they get an additional 5K after years two and three.
10:46am Has got it right with the spinz and twistz, feet on the street doesn't make genuine commerce itz all administrative costz. Let one of these poor soulz step out of line and the administration not be able to claim there secess and they will use this same grant monies to stomp them into hell. The administration will claim this to be economic development when fact is found grant money will be found again and again to cover itz failureZ and down right theft of fundZ!
Has it ever been clearer?
The tattooed Mayor is a laughing stock.
“There’s no such thing as bad publicity.”
The mayor is a cartoon character who wants people to think he’s a superhero.
He’s all about PR. It’s what he attempts to do, poorly.
Scratch the service and see the exaggerations and fabrications.
The dope is the punchline of a hundred jokes.
Exactly. That is the goal of every motivated person of any ethnicity living anywhere close to the downtown.
I thought the rising tide of the NIZ was going to lift all boats.
Did I miss something?
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