Hey there is wall on MLK by the park I want to talk about. Just kidding.
How about the proposed 1000 apartments down by the waterfront? This would be a combined effort by the Lehigh County and Allentown Planning commission. Could you imagine what high rise apartments would look like?
Then the amount of services they would require especially once they turn into low income apartments. Fire calls, loud music, prostitution.
Is this a good idea? Will these apartments attract the right clientele that will actually take care of their places? Is this the idea of affordable housing in Allentown.
The city needs if anything, if possible single dwelling homes. Maybe 1500sqft or so, with a little yard and driveway priced around $300k (which probably is a low price) That is about as affordable of low income housing as it will get. They need to development more of a tax base.
Jamming 1000 apartment units into the city will not help generate taxes as much. Also how many of these apartments will have children. What if these apartments house 400 more students, which is certainly a low number. Can the district all of sudden support an influx of that many kids? No it cannot.
Luxury apartments won't work either because Allentown isnt attractive enough for people to want to spend $2500-$3000 a month for an a apartment. If of course the waterfront were developed with nice restaurants, running trails along the river, some reputable businesses etc. Then maybe I could see more wealthier people wanting to live there.
I like the idea of building living spaces, but lets not just throw up high rise apartments because their is a housing shortage. I think in the long run the idea could turn out to go not as planned.
I saw this online. Im dead.
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13 comments:
Allentown needs decent people NOT more places to stuff them!!! Traffic is insane enough already and traffic enforcement has never been at a lower level. My street sounded like a racecourse all night last night, but no police to be seen or heard from. Disgusting!!! The things they concentrate on are not the problems. Allentown has people problems, period!
Affordable housing is dog whistle for “occupants who will vote for free stuff and keep us in power”. This is billeting for the free shit army.
These buildings will be run by professional management companies with good tenants, security, landscaping, clean premises etc.. The bigger problem in Allentown are the individual slumlords running converted multi-units in central Allentown. These buildings generate crime, blight, over-crowding and lots of kids in the schools. The slumlords running converted houses don't screen their tenants and they don't rake the leaves, shovel the snow, pick up the trash/litter generated by the tenants or cut the grass/weeds.
I like this post, however will anyone actually listen? I agree we need single dwelling homes not more apartments
Some of the slumlords in the city are employees of the city and council (current and former). Why would you enforce the rules when you make them?
There is a different set of rules for properties that are owned by employee and council landlords. Even the process to purchase a property differs for certain city personnel.
Too bad the land development process isn't run by referendum so that average everyday citizens could decide "what is needed". Right now the professional developers in the private market are providing what the marketplace actually demands. The era of homeownership may be drawing to close in many of our lifetimes and people still need a place to live.
Yes, its a big club and if you're not in it, look out!!! A while back everyone in my block was cited for not shoveling snow... little did we know they quietly changed the time frame from 24 to 12 hours. The next block wasn't cited... city properties there and heaven forbid the city should cite itself... the big club takes care of itself.
The whole of Allentown PA is nothing but one big slumlord that also imports there bedbugs via by management on there persons be it themselves or agents contracted not following proper protocols going from one infected apt to the next? Therefore transporting there insurable perils while infecting entire building and many many units as well as multiple subleasors living in efficiency apts and one bedroom apt. This is a givin with management having knowledge of and stating, "I'm not risking my life for this building" that is a breach of lease contract on management.
I pity the independent landlord... he must accept what he can get just to pay the bills. Plus, if the landlord is naive enough to accept section 8, he is screwed by that system!!! The section 8 tenants can destroy an apartment and the owner can't evict them easily, PLUS the owner must continuously repair (and pay) repeatedly for the same damage by the same tenant ... such a crock!!!
A little known fact is some of the code enforcement officers scare the crap out of the older owners and then buy the property on the cheap.
The Waterfront? Matt's new zoning codes are the real cause for concern, it will balloon the population and increase density in the downtown and surrounding neighborhoods. The zoning board is already rubber stamping single family homes into multi units. Rooming houses, why not?say hello to them, and backyards turned into dwellings is now codified as A-Okay! Don't worry about the riverfront development, the core of the city is going to go from bad to worse. One wonders how this debacle of zoning revision slipped by the NIZ investors. Things are going to get even dicier around Hamilton.
I have heard that code enforcement is a mafia and accepts bribes and intimidates the elderly.
Seems to me like the entire city needs an overhaul starting with the mayor.
Not all landlords are left with paying for damages at the hands of the tenants. Some of them are lucky enough to be connected with the right people in city hall. Grant money is a powerful tool. The best thing was seeing the Trump administration pull back on grants.
It is funny to hear Tuerk say that the city cannot function without grants and try to blame the Trump administration for the shortfalls in finances.
Contrary to Mr Armstrongs assertion, the river front apartment buildings were all filed under the old zoning code.
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