So Allentown started its new Eastside school building. Guess who is behind it all? J.B Reilly. Anyone surprised? Pat Browne facilitated the initial sale of the property with J.B and the city. Those two buddies have been magically involved in big deals for years. J.B. getting rich, not paying taxes on buildings. Thanks to the NIZ. I wont harp on J.B too hard because maybe all his business endeavors are legit and his love for rebuilding Allentown isnt just about the money. It does seem very suspect tho, he and Browne are always involved in huge things.
Anyways,
School officials are so ecstatic to have a new elementary and middle school facility.
Here comes the quotes
“Today marks an extraordinary moment in the Allentown School District,” Superintendent Carol Birks said.
“This milestone represents the culmination of decades of hopes and dreams for the East Side of Allentown,” she said.
Um I used to live over there. Not once was it my hope or dream to have all this construction done. Let alone all the woods being destroyed, and the traffic this will cause.
The state hospital was a great building in its day. It gave a place to treat the mentally ill. When they closed it, and basically pointed all the patients towards center city. It was like a zombie apocalypse on Hanover Ave.
The Allentown K-8 Academy will suit roughly 1200 students.
“This is one of the most substantial educational investments in the East Side of Allentown in decades."
State Sen. Nick Miller
Nick, I believe the Executive Charter school is doing very well. I guess its an investment, since the kids dont start skipping school and dropping out until 9th grade.
“We want our students to do more than memorize facts. We want them to learn how to think critically, create boldly and innovate fearlessly. This new school will be the engine that drives that transformation.”
Andrene Brown Nowell, school board president
Your very hopeful Ms. Nowell. Arent all schools supposed to promote critical thinking and creativity? Thats like the basics of school.
42% of students got that problem wrong btw. Weird.
“Today, we break ground on a building,” Brown-Nowell said. “Tomorrow, we will begin the work of breaking new ground on education.”
What's this breaking ground going to cost tax papayers. I liked the ground the way it was when it didnt cost me anything.
As we know
J.B Reilly, bought the 195-acre site for about $5.5 million. Then he robbed the school district when he sold them 16.7 acres for 15million.
City Center President J.B. Reilly said the school will “anchor” the new development and be “truly transformative” for the East Side. Blah blah J.B. Btw who the hell goes by Initials for their name anymore? Its so lame. Like me saying I'm H.A.
Reilly said the school "is going to kick off a very meaningful community-based project,” which will also bring health care, retail and retail spaces — and more than 1,000 housing units.
What I BELIEVE he meant to say was, I'm going to get richer off of the school district and residents of the East Side. You could have easily donated that land for free to ASD and made back your 5.5 million on other projects there.
I feel like these school officials believe they just discovered water. This school will be no different than other schools. It will just be new. Why hasnt anyone stated the tax burden this will cost? The fact that with all this building will probably require more emergency services. I understand J.B wanting to build things, great, but how will this affect the East Side?
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4 comments:
Well, now the Ritter School Building across the street can be converted into something else, like a low-income rental housing developer's dream.
St Elmo street storage also was sold to renew Raub middle school. They can't teach in the current buildings what makes school board think a new building is going to change allentowns transformative designs what with all the empty lofts downtown?
You will definitely need a homeless drop in center, or even better a homeless shelter over there. The school will be ideal and the new zoning code would likely greaze the skids for that to happen. And trust me, it's going to make the east side a much better place to live. Just as ours will in West Park. Feel the joy!
The whole Northridge project is a perfect example of how corrupt and poorly managed Allentown has become. The City sat by idle and let JB Reilly's engineers design a suburban style apartment building community right out 1950s Eastern bloc/Cold War Soviet Union. They let him throw in a suburban style office complex as well. Any other local government in this region would have insisted that the developer pay for a planning consultant to represent the City on a project of this scale to ensure a well designed and properly integrated community. Allentown basically accepted the engineers design and some elected officials even celebrated the plan design. I'm only surprised City Center didn't throw in a couple warehouses. So many missed opportunities with Northridge. The scam perpetrated on ASD was the icing on the cake for City Center.
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