It appears Mr. Pawlowski will be released this summer. Good for him. Eight years is a long time. Although he has only served a little over half his sentence. Personally there are other people I would like to see in prison.
Let's talk about the former mayor. He is an entrepreneur, a tough mayor, a fair mayor, but was he unethical? Let me start with the bad things. Obviously, he was taking bribes in exchange for things. A big no no in the politics, if you get caught. Did he financially gain from all of his charges? He obviously had some sort of financial gain that led him to a prison sentence. I doubt it was boxes of cash being delivered to undisclosed locations.
But what did he do. Ed used illegal means to get downtown bigger and better. No one can deny the big buildings, the arena, all of the restaurants and the sudden influx of money that came into the city.
In exchange for all the illegal things he did were to better his chances of becoming something more than a mayor. A Senator perhaps. Do I fault him? I mean did he hurt anyone in his endeavor? I dont think so. He went about making a city better in an unethical and illegal manner.
Do I think the city would be better if he was still mayor? 💯. Ed's bad decisions arent as blatantly obvious as the current mayor. His accomplishments were seen unlike the current mayor. He was more liked than the current mayor. Ed was using his position to promote and grow Allentown while building his brand and chances for higher office. The current mayor has done absolutely nothing for Allentown and is working overtime to ruin the city.
We all know that politics is dirty. Will always be dirty. Pawlowski did things behind the scenes. He didn't waste money. He didnt promote friends.
I sort of wish Ed could run again. I could see downtown revitalized again.
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31 comments:
Mr. Abe, Ed Pawlowski had a small part in the arena, and nothing to do with the new buildings, which are NIZ. The NIZ is a product of Pat Browne/J.B. Reilly. Pawlowski thought that people, like yourself, would mistakenly credit him for the NIZ, and he could ride that ticket to a bigger elected position.
The arena confiscated 32 properties, and those owners were very poorly treated by Pawlowski. Pawlowski weaponized the code departments against people who spoke out against him.
As an election ploy, he appointed various unqualified people to various commissions, to get their political support, and that of their peer group. Those unqualified people, while very loyal to him, degraded the various authorities to which they were appointed, and continue to do so until this day.
I love reading the blog, but this time I'll disagree. Ed Pawlowski was a bad Mayor and a corrupt person. You say he didn't hurt anyone, what about his family, all the residents of Allentown and those city contractors who felt obligated to pay to play, many of whom went to jail?? How about all the good/honest people out there that would run for office but are immediately smeared because "all politics are dirty". Ed's decision to sell the water and sewer systems to pay for Afflerbach getting hosed by the police union was devastating for residents. Water and Sewer was the one and only thing Allentown did better than the suburbs. My quarterly water/sewer bill has tripled in 10 years and goes up every single quarter.
It was the contractors choices to get involved. They were greedy, that's their problem. The water plant had to be sold to prevent the city going bankrupt, which is where it is headed. I wouldnt pin that on Ed. I don't think he had much of a choice.
Mike, I think it is hard to say Ed didn't have any input in the NIZ. Or alot of the beautiful buildings we have downtown now.
Pawlowski was a bad mayor but he was better than the current cartoon character we have. The reality is there hasn’t been a good mayor of Allentown for many years. Tuerk is taking it to a whole new level of low. I blame a lot of his failure on keeping the people that were part of the previous Mayor regime’s and not getting them out of the city. Instead, he Moves in lock step with them. In addition, he brings his own level of corruption And problemsnever before seen in Allentown
What is Matt Tuerk gonna sell to cover this out of control spending? He can’t keep raising taxes to pay for his leftist woke initiatives.
Pawlowski and his bullies sure didn't do the people they strong armed out of their properties... ask the woman who lost her building and her beauty shop that went to Emmaus.... ask her what it cost her in actual dollars.... As far as the buildings go.... mostly ugly with little character.
Ooooh! This one is a tough post, Abe.
Pawlowski was bad and it cannot be denied that Tuerk has his problems, but the level of Pawlowski’s bad is known and we are paying for it currently.
We are slowly learning how bad Tuerk is—imagine what we don’t know?
Ed still thinks he did nothing wrong! Wow Allentown needs better, unfortunately we haven’t found much better!!
I see Molivinsky has either corrected me or really hates Pawlowski. Nevertheless, the man has done some good things in my opinion or atleast progress was shown while he was in office. I cannot say this mayor has left any positive change in the city. I mean he talks about affordable housing. Yea just talks about it. That is a fantasy. Kicks the homeless out of everywhere. Does things to jam up traffic. Handles snow horribly. Is giving the unions and his cabinet raises the city can't afford. Appoints friends. I can go on and on. I just feel Ed's intentions were good, but his way of going about getting things done was illegal. Without the NIZ and the Arena there would be no reason to EVER go to downtown.
Abe@5:49pm: my comment @4:04am is very factual. Between being an independent candidate in 2005, and starting the daily blog in 2007, I knew exactly what Pawlowski was and was not doing, up to his conviction. Unless you decide to "come out", I have more creditability by definition. I do not hate Pawlowski. However, it seems as if you hate Tuerk.
Mike is correct, the NIZ wacoup degs Pat Browne's baby. End of story. Ed's involvement was limited to invites to the ribbon cuttings. As for his graft, he was bought on the cheap, no grand schemes just a new man's room in his basement, meals at local restaurants, and other small fry stuff. He wanted out of Allentown because he was delusional enough to think it was his destiny to be more than mayor. As well he understood a lot of outstanding bills were due to come due, and he didn't want to be here when the bill collector knocked on the door. I knew Ed on a personal level, over time I grew to dislike a person I originally thought was the real deal. He destroyed Allentown, Roy laid the groundwork, Ed finished off with a us off with his coup ge gras.
Late night typos, "the NIZ was" Pat Browne's baby"
If you want to know why our Allentown city government is out of touch, dysfunction, and self serving, one need look no further than former mayor, now convicted criminal Ed Pawlowski. When elected as mayor in 2006,his first order of business was to fired or forced to retire anyone and everyone in city hall who questioned his proposals, or refused to look the other way his deals, favors, and schemes. Under Ed, city workers with institution knowledge were either fired right off, or forced to retire. Two examples, Neil Kern City Engineer and Eric Weiss head of Building standards and Codes. These two men, and others in city government had vast institutional knowledge of the city, how it worked, and what needed to be done. There were others who either left of their own accord due to pressure. The rest laid low as retirement was within reach. When these lifers left they were uniformly replaced by outsiders who neither knew Allentown, or cared about it. They came for the job, they weren't from here, most did not relocate here, why should they care? They didn't and it showed. Template solutions became the new standard and these were too often square pegs pounded into Allentown's round holes. City contract didn't go to the best qualified lowest bidders, they when where Ed wanted them to go. This explains the city pool at Cedar Beach pool rehab going way over budget and way behind scheduled. Due to ignorance it refurbished in the same floodplain. The departed city engineers had recommended that when it needed refurbished it should not be done at the current location, but uphill out of the flood plain.
The departed city engineers had recommended that when it needed refurbished it should not be done at the current location, but uphill out of the flood plain. These examples of mismanagement have been the norm since Ed became mayor and the dismal state of our city his true legacy Which brings me to the Allentown Water Works. Allentown once owned and profited from its water system that supplied drinking water to the surrounding suburbs. This was a huge money maker for the city and kept our water rates well below the rates of our suburban customers. In others words, as owners of the Water Works our rates were subsidized by the higher rates of the upscale suburban users. This all ended when Ed selfishly sold the Water Work for a one time cash infusion in order to solve a short tern fiscal crisis (if anyone is interested I can provide details). Of course council, all hand picked by Ed, as was every other office in city government promptly rolled over and approved of the sale. Take a look at your water bill to see how that worked out. But this leads me to one of the worst of Ed's legacies, filling city council, the controller's office, and all of its boards and commissions with Yes men and women. Several of our local state reps got their start by saying yes sir with their eyes closed to anything and everything Ed put in front of them. It was so blatant that Ed even recruited and funded candidates to fill the taxpayer advocate role of Controller. I was accustomed to the Morning Call turning a bind eye to anything and everything Ed did but when he bought and paid for the controller's campaign that stunned me. Anyone who was paying attention knew then, the media was all in with Ed's way of doing business. The only ones to call it out, and with evidence to boot were local bloggers and a few brave citizens. Even with credible evidence of pay to play out there on the new public square of the internet the local media yawned and continued to cheer Ed. Just when we all thought Ed was going to get away with it all the FBI came in and the rest is history. The reason so many still think Ed was treated harshly is because the media failed in its primary mission, to be the 4th estate, to be a check of government. Our local media instead, chose to ignore the evidence in plain sight and continue to cheerlead a deeply flawed and corrupt mayor.
I cannot cheer Ed's early release. Yes others have committed far worse crimes on single individuals and served less time, but Ed harmed our city, in the short and long term. He harmed a city, over 100,000 of us Allentonians, and we live with harm, the dishonesty and a government that truly doesn't care. If it wasn't for Ed, Allentown would by now look more like Bethlehem and Easton, Democratic cities but honestly run. Honestly matters folks, and everyone dropped the ball on that when Ed was mayor, and his dishonest legacy lives on and I fear will remain
Matt is the result of Ed Pawlowski and all the other resulting failures.
7:49. Good Lord. The "contractors were greedy". We expect as much from contractors. However, the public should demand more from elected officials. Shame on you for offering excuses for political corruption!
For a self confessed Christian he certainly doesn't understand contrition.
Abe, Ed made a fool out of Allentown. He was smart enough to figure us out as rubes, lord was he correct! And he had the Morning Call at his back the entire way. This man destroyed Allentown, that is his legacy. Allentown could have easily been so much better than our sister cities Easton and Bethlehem, instead we are the dark hole in the center of Lehigh County. A joke! A place to avoid unless you really want to see a hockey game or something at the Archer. This said, we are a place people drive to only to leave ASAP after what they came to see is over. It pains me to say this, I spent countless hours, days, and years fighting a fight that could not be won to bring good governance to Allentown. Ed was correct to assume we were rubes. Take a look at who populated our council, the school board, our boards and commissions. Can anyone say they are proud of any of this?
Disagreeing with an elected official, calling them out for misdeeds, is not "Hate" it is an essential part of democratic rule. I do not "hate" Matt but in my opinion pointing out the flaws of his misguided schemes(new zoning code and other things) is essential to good governance. There is far to little of this in the city. I agree, as far as I know, Matt is not corrupt, but his vision of the new Allentown could prove even more detrimental than Ed's corruption.
Now that Ed is soon to be sprung, how or will he try to inject himself into the city political landscape... let's pray he keeps quiet!!!
The thing is its far above him in the food chain even Hillary sent his campaign donation back?
Scott, you may not know this :) but I have been taking heat for pointing out Trump's flaws, even being accused of TDS. Some people now won't even post on my blog using their name... can you believe that?
You are 100% Trump deranged—that is why people left your blog. It’s either Parks, stone walls that should just be torn down or Trump. Snooze. 💤
And adding your name to a post doesn’t suddenly make the comment more valid. Some people just choose not to be known. You run a blog and choose to be known.
anon@5:44: Congrats on your 15th year of trolling.
I agree with MM on his comments concerning FED ED !! He done alot of shady shit in past, got caught, but hasn’t apologized to people of Allentown. He ran corrupt city hall, did his time and now should fade away. This city needs credibility in its leadership, trust etc . Unfortunately in mayor Matt we haven’t seen that, I believe everyone is in for tough times under his leadership. That will end in someone else to pick up pieces.
Enjoyed MM chiming in and calling out honest Abe on his wannabe status as a blogger that is really just an anti tuerk vendetta. Bloggers delve deep into insightful analysis and they aren't petty and disrespectful. They offer food for thought. Scott Armstrong, if he could work on objectivity instead of bemoaning a different Allentown than what he has known, circa 1998, could have a credible blog. Hang it up, abe.
16th
9:19, what makes you think I want a blog? As to the rest of your comment, bemoaning corrupt and incompetent government is something far more us us should do. Your snarky comment points out the veracity of what I wrote earlier, the Roy introduced but Ed mastered the tactic of smearing the people who raise legitimate conerns rather than answer or address the conerns. In other words, you are part of the problem.
Mike, you have every right to criticize the president, and anyone you wish. This said, unless your criticism is witty, insightful, or original it becomes dull when it's repeated ad nauseam day after day, week after week...No one has walked away in a huff, we're just looking for something that's interesting to read. Hope you are well, looks like you were down in Florida again. Great vacation spot.
I agree SA , FED ED should never hold public office ever !!!
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