A Story Worth Reading: Allentown Grants

Signs-closed_sign There is a story in today’s (Sunday, May 2) Morning Call, written by Jarrett Renshaw, that is a “must read” for anyone who is interested in the politics and the future of Allentown. Titled, “Mixed track record on grants for Allentown businesses”, you can read it for yourself by clicking on the live link.

It’s a fascinating and discouraging portrait of a city hall and an administration that has become for all practical purposes, a theocracy.

No need to do a recap. I’d rather you read it for yourself. I will close with the one overriding impression that remained with me after I read the story: If I were one of the city workers who has been laid off, I’d be furious.

6 thoughts on “A Story Worth Reading: Allentown Grants”

  1. Pamela Varkony

    Katie, you’re welcome. I appreciate that you took the time to read it.

    And yes, “theocracy”: I even looked it up in Merriam/Webster’s before writing it to make sure I was using it correctly. To Wit: “Government of a state by officials who are regarded as divinely guided”.

  2. Scott Armstrong

    It is worth noting that the money wasted in these poorly thought out and applied grants was our tax dollars. Draw the necessary lesson from this story that government cannot be the engine of economic growth. It can however destroy it.

    Scott Armstrong

  3. Pam, it’s just more of the same and very depressing. I like approaches like CACLV’s Rising Tide fund, but these government grant programs (like KOZs, Pawlowski’s other big giveaway program) just don’t work.

    Also, the cavalier way in which this whole process was run makes it appear that this is nothing more than a slush fund.

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