The recap of the council meeting was thus:
The homeless issue again was the main topic. The mayor wasnt there, of course. Probably in Hawaii or wherever there is a stupid race and free selfie sticks.
Once again nothing is being done about the homeless except talking about it. Almost every council member spoke about how this is inhumane. Inhumane - but we will continue to do nothing. "See you next evacuation where we will go through this exercise once again". I say every Council member but I really mean 6 out of 7. Other than "present/here" and "yes/no"
I don't think Natalie Santos has ever said a word at council. Quiet as a church mouse.
Then they all started congratulating each other for pausing any action and deciding to work with the mayor Frequent Flyer. What a joke. You people are adults arent you. Why are you praising a bad thing? Why aren't any of you doing anything but talking ?
Cece Gerlach, Miss "I am still Amending.". Wanted to amend like 50 things on the homeless bill. Do it right the first time and stop sitting down the day of the meeting to finally review - it shows. I could only imagine if the lights went out at a council meeting. They all would sit there and look around having no idea what to do, Napoli would be reminding everyone to get a chaser ticket and look on the back for a coupon for savings at one of his businesses.
Everyone else: Mike!!! Mike!!! Take a vote on what we should do. Sadly, they definitely couldn't figure out what they wanted or needed.
Then here comes Verizon Frank chiming in after every comment with his own spin. He needs a rule book on procedures. Shut up and wait for comments. He then says he was at the homeless camp again. Still looking for your phone or was that a cover up for a job interview so you can get out of this administration? Good for you if it is the latter-doesn't take much time to see the ship is sinking.
This is the most inept council I have ever seen, and I remember the days of Roger Maclean and Daryl Hendricks. They council alright. Just cant make anything happen.
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24 comments:
Truly embarrassing. Claim it such a big problem, yet postpone addressing atleast another month. Im tired of hearing about this. Not you Abe, your great. This topic.
I don’t know why we keep expecting greatness out of the Council and Administration. They have perfected the art of doing nothing.
I sure do hope Verizon Frank is as cleared by the mayor last night. He agreed to legislation by June 1st and no future evacuations. If not he will be in great trouble when Tuerk gets back from his latest global jaunt.
The reality is that no one in the administration cares about the homeless. The mayor has been evacuating and targeting homeless since before he was in office. Council will never get together and if they do and actually come up with legislation, Tuerk will veto.
I think CeCe is really screwing this homeless bill up. Amending things just to pass something. Council seems clueless on how to handle this problem or basically an issue with the city.
Your use of the word ‘Inept’ to describe Allentown’s leadership is spot on! What’s most sad about Lehigh Valley’s biggest city is that it’s been suffering from inept leadership for decades.
I once lived in Allentown for more than 25 years, owned 2 properties there, was employed within that city for nearly 40 years. After finally selling out and leaving that mess called Allentown I quickly realized one really doesn’t need to live and pay taxes in such a poorly managed, lazy and confused place.
If you can, stay in the Lehigh Valley but re-locate to some other municipality nearby. There can be greater satisfaction conducting your daily life OUTSIDE the borders of Allentown. Don’t let outward appearances fool you, Allentown is yet another American dead, Liberal/Democrat led city.
ABE I couldn’t agree more with your article. This council and mayor need complete change, your articles are spot on and have gained my viewership.
The City shouldn't spend a dime on homelessness unless and until the suburban townships and boroughs pay their fair share of this regional problem. Allentown property owners should not be fully responsible for paying for solutions, just because homeless people wind up in the City. With Josh Seigel as the County Executive and with the suburban townships now electing all Democrats to their boards of supervisors and school boards, its the perfect time for Allentown to demand a regional solution and seek payments from all the other municipalities in the county to house LEHIGH COUNTY's homeless population.
7:34 - The suburbs and county shouldn’t pay a dime - it’s Allentown’s “solutions” that are making the problem worse.
In government, you get what you tolerate and you get what you fund. If the city keeps wasting money by making it easy to be homeless, they will draw more homeless. Not just from the suburbs, but from other cities and states.
The city should have a zero tolerance policy towards the homeless. No encampments, no allowing them to sleep in public parks, etc.
Find them, register them, warm them or feed them for a night with the condition that they go into a treatment facility for their underlying problem (drug abuse, alcohol abuse, mental illness, etc). Transport them to those facilities. After that, no more handouts. You can’t remove personal responsibility from the solution, or you are not really serious about solving the problem.
And no more handouts to non-profits that set up in residential areas and perpetuate the problem. Any facilities for rehab in the city should be in commercial or industrial areas (not even adjacent to residential areas) or outside of the city limits. And the only criteria for any facility that treats the underlying problems should be how many people they solve the problem for, with bonuses for how quickly they can do it. No payments based on how many people served, as they will keep them there forever at taxpayer expense.
In addition, any policy adopted or vendor contract approved by City Council should have an automatic six month expiration date, and can only be renewed if the homeless population is decreasing, not increasing. Otherwise, what is being done is just making the problem worse.
The Mayor is putting up speed bumps throughout the city to get to zero roadway fatalities. I don’t think speed bumps are the right answer but we can all agree with the goal. Nobody wants to see ANYBODY killed in traffic.
That same goal (zero) should be adopted for the homeless in the city, and city policy should align with and report frequently on the progress towards that goal.
sounds like you’ve solved the problem. who knew it was so simple! when are you running?
Oh I see...register them, feed them and make them go to a treatment facility. Wow problem solved! I agree with 7:34....register them, feed them and give them a one way LANTA Pass to South Whitehall or Lower Macungie.....
I agree. If Allentown becomes too “accommodating”, we will become the new Homeless destination point. The Governor needs to push to reopen State Hospitals.
Same old sack of shit sold to the public in a froot loop colorful sack!)$? Most normalZ with any sense would never fall for this shitstewZ flavorful package seeing as the sewage water is adequate drinking water too!)$?
There needs to be a stop on this characterization that homeless means mental problems that require institutionalization. It is unfair and quite discriminatory.
Allentown will always be an attractive location over the suburbs - the infrastructure and support doesn’t exist on the outlying areas. Allentown needs to address how they handle the influx and the solution is not to get money from the townships surrounding Allentown.
I posted this elsewhere Abe, hope you don't mind me reposting it here. Are Allentown's leaders merely replicating failure?
When will our local leaders realize there are No local solutions to the nation's homeless problem, simply because any local solution will lead to that locality quickly becoming a homeless magnet. Examples of this have played out for at least the last decade in many cities and towns nationwide. The end result is that both the homeless and the local municipality attempting to help the homeless end up in in far worse shape due to the influx of homeless and the municipalities inability to adequately deal with them no matter how altruistic their intentions. Clearly, the problem is too big, too complex, and too expensive. Therefore those seeking solutions for the homeless should instead be demanding state and national officials step up and finally come up with state and national solutions. Why don't they? The cynic might say because the local politicians want the issue for personal political gain, those not so judgemental might say it hasn't occurred to them.
Either way, the only real solution to the many aspects of Allentown's and the nation's homeless are state and national solutions. Only the states and federal government have the funding, expertices, and authority to facilitate real lasting solutions, such as the homeless sorted according to their needs, treating them for the causes of their homelessness, and in some cases institutionalizing for treatments until conditions such as mental illness and addictions are remediated. Clearly no single city or town has the means to do this, and in light of over a decade of the clear failures of those who tried, why are our local leaders merely trying to replicate proven failure here in our already very beleaguered Allentown?
It is a council of nitwits. But who is to blame? These people were elected. The nitwits who elected them are the straight party voting Dems and the west enders. Republicans have fielded candidates in the city, they are routinely thrashed.
Scott it's all about head count and even counting the same head two and three times at different services locations. Than the local authority reeps federal funds for the same three heads in one hence there getting three times the money for the same one person. Administrative costs for the fashionable savior of homelessness has become a very profitable industry locally. The local originator have become land holding flippers as well as a rentable blight industry that only cares for one thing there profitable pension program made off of these human lives.
9:40 a lot of so called non profits are doing quite well "helping" the homeless when really what they are doing is facilitating it while padding their own pockets. These NGO's need to be audited and performance audited, and most of them eliminated. Many of them are frankly just job centers for partisan activists.
Find them, register them, and warn them? Move them to camps outside the city limits? Do you read what you write before hitting post?
Your diatribe has clear elements of a fundamental communist approach to dealing with those deemed “unnecessary” and “unattractive”.
Hermano Cubano Tuerk would be so proud of your recommendations to fix this very icky situation.
You should contact him and let him know of your ideas. He travels a lot on taxpayer dollars so you may have a delayed response. You definitely have a 6-figure salary in his cabinet.
One more thought, anyone who truly cares about the homeless should stop demanding those who have repeatedly demonstrated ineptitude, to do something. They can't! What they could do is draft, and pass a resolution to the governor directing him to come up with a state solution to the homeless crisis that involves real remediation to the causes of homelessness. This would involve supervised care and treatment for the majority of homeless who afflicted by mental health issues, drug and alcohol addictions. This would shift the spotlight to where it belongs, onto our state and national leaders. I believe even our dumb and dumber city council could do this, as Ce-Ce wasn't in charge of it.
Agree 💯 with you, Scott. The city leadership has no clue how to approach complex issues like this. They know how to collect taxes and spend them. Everything else is outsourced.
How many studies has Allentown done that had recommendations that were too difficult for anyone to wrap their brains around and execute? How does Allentown still outsource most Public Works, HR, CED, and Finance operations?
Inept leaders and lazy staff that were most likely hired due to a friend or family connection in each department.
Until the city Voters start putting the right leader in the Mayor’s office and demands quality staffing, they will never be able to draft legislation directing assistance from the State and Federal levels. The taxpayers will continue to pay multiple times for low quality services
9:07 - Do you actually know how to read? I said to take put them “in commercial or industrial areas (not even adjacent to residential areas) or outside of the city limits.” Emphasis on the “OR”. The point was that the city doesn’t send them to residential areas to weaken our existing neighborhoods.
I also wrote “warm” them”, not warn.
Big difference when you actually read what was written and not what you think.
4:20 - It’s been shown that an overwhelming majority of the homeless have an underlying issue that causes their being homeless. It’s most frequently addiction (drugs, alcohol, etc) or mental disorder.
The point is to get them real help quickly to get them out of their homeless condition.
To do that, you don’t accept homelessness as being an acceptable way for a human being to live. You get them real help that is designed to solve their problem, not perpetuate it.
Scott - Our Governor is too busy running for president to develop a program that actually helps the homeless.
Hell, he’s probably too busy running for president to hold a news conference about the issue and PRETEND to care about a solution for the homeless.
Council works with Mayor. They all cover up for each other. I have gone to City Council meetings and I can remember that anything that got brought up ..... I have yet to hear of any positive or any outcomes. I only see how they just approve funds for their unnecessary crap they come up with that have nothing to do to better these neighborhoods and what benefits the people for safer better living and reduce crimes they do not speak of in news of what's going on in Allentown.
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