So Sad

The first fire fatalities in Easton since 2001, no less tragic.

I blogged about the home on the right, if only in passing. this block of Spring Garden has some formerly stately twins, all now somewhat run down or in various states of repair and or decay.

The next twin to the right still has the tarp on the roof from Hurricane Sandy and a Board of Health placard on the door. that makes at least 4 homes uninhabitable on the block; there's another one across the street.

Could it be perhaps among the death and sadness that something good can come from this?

Perhaps everyone will take responsibility for making sure their home is safe?

Perhaps Landlords will take responsibility for making sure their properties are up to code? (this building is owned by

ELLEN M MOSKELLA  1564 FARMERSVILLE RD
BETHLEHEM, PA, 18020-9741
	Code REQUIRES a central fire alarm system in apartment buildings! I know this because when I bought my twin which was zoned as a two family, I was required to get such a system. but as I was deconverting to single family, this requirement no longer applied.

PLEASE, if the apartment you are living in seems unsafe, or if you don't have smoke detectors, do something about it!
Call Codes!
 610-250-6723
Call the Mayor!

610-250-6610

some other links:
http://eastoneccentric.blogspot.com/
http://easton.patch.com/groups/police-and-fire/p/2-dead-in-fire-on-spring-garden-street

The City is Making Progress

This Article in todays' Express Times is a follow up on what properties the City is making progress with. I won't bother with the Armory (I'll believe it when I see it) but 51 S. Warren I would love to see fixed up.

This picture I took of the property in August 2010 when I first blogged about it. It looks the same now. The report points out one BIG problem in Easton: out of town landlords! Faceless companies don't care about neighborhoods, and unless the City goes after them, they can't be bothered to move on these things.

Mayor Panto is Paying Attention

Here's an article about how vacant properties are being targeted by the city.

There are a few properties on this list that I have posted about here before. Coincidence? Maybe so; it doesn't take a rocket surgeon to see ugly. But I must commend Mayor Panto for taking this issue seriously. getting rid of blighted properties is in everyone's best interests so I hope they can make some progress on this.
I wouldn't mind if he maybe posted here and thanked me :)

No Street Sweeping for You!

You may be aware that, to much fanfare, it was announced in January (and probably earlier) that the street sweeping program would be expanded to include the West Ward. To quote the Director of Public Works David Hopkins:
''We're expanding it in all wards of the city''

I guess I took that to mean the whole West Ward (silly me).

Now take a look at the recently released route map.

You'll notice, that if you live north of Wood Ave on 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th or 12th St, or on Jackson, Bushkill, or Spring Garden (and all related alleyways), well, No street sweeping for you!

I of course, in my naive ignorance, thought there was an oversight. No, there isn't. Again, to quote Hopkins, from an email I sent:

"we spent a significant amount of time selecting proposed routes for each neighborhood and just cannot fit any more road miles into the current proposal. We are going from 8.8 miles to 35.9 miles of sweeping which is extremely aggressive. Therefore, unfortunately your section of the west ward will not be included at this time, however we can look at including your area for future expansions".

The good news for us is that we won't have to be concerned with any alternate side of the street parking restrictions or the related parking tickets. Of course, the city loses out on the ticket revenue, but I'm sure they'll make up for it with some other frivolity.

One is the loneliest number

Easton sure has lots of ugly utility poles. This one is not even one of the worst; future posts may explore the best of the worst leaning, cracked, overloaded poles in the city.
But for now, take a gander at this one. If all goes as planned, it will soon be festooned with a proper cobrahead streetlamp! This pole sits at the confluence of the humble thoroughfare known as Sassafrass St. and N7th St. Being as it's an intersection, the powers-that-be have finally agreed that there IS in fact, suppoosed to be a streetlamp there.
I would like to give a grateful shout out to Mayor Panto, Councilwoman Elinore Warner, and Public Works dude Dave Hopkins for making this happen.
I hope to update this post soon with the AFTER photo. It's all up to Met-Ed now.

West Ward gets a cool mil

So, Mayor Panto has announced that they are pouring/wasting/directing $1million to perform 'green' rehabs. here's the Morning Call link:
http://www.mcall.com/news/all-a6_3housing.6991586aug18,0,6791479.story

Great news, if it actually amounts to anything appreciable. Really, if you live in the West Ward (I really do HATE that designation, reminds me of the lower 9Th of New Orleans) you KNOW how much work would need to be done to improve the area. And anyone who pays have a bit of attention knows how much opportunity for graft and waste exists with such a govt program (weed & seed, anyone?)
There will be no fixing of what ails the WW until they fix the CORE issues:
1. absentee landlords
2. more rentals than owner-occupied housing
3. too many residents per block
4. apathy
5. ignorance

First off, absentee landlords. I'm sure there are some responsible landlords, but you wouldn't know it from the properties around here. One house across the street moves a new tenant in every few months; they all complain about the landlord.
Second, when you have more rentals than owners, there is no pride in ownership. Now, many renters do have enough self respect to take care of the property, but if you're just renting a run down clapped out apartment for $400/mo, you ain't going to care about how it looks.
That leads us to the 3rd, that being too many people! These neighborhoods were here before cars. The streets are small, the houses close together. So, if you stick 2 families in a house each with 3 drivers, and the property is only 21 feet wide, well, you're going to run out of room.
But, does anyone really care? Does anyone think about these problems? That's points 4 and 5. People that rent don't care about the community; they have no vested interest in the area or property. If they don't like it, they just move on.

OK, rant off.