Read about from afar about the opening of Allentown’s arena since I’m out of town. From what I can tell, the concerns about a traffic and parking apocalypse were much ado about nothing. I didn’t see first hand but will Tuesday at the Tom Petty concert. I’ll take pictures & blog.
Couple thoughts. NIZ, hypocrisy & Traffic.
- Last year suburban politicians threatened litigation concerning the loss of earned income tax revenue (earned in Allentown) associated with the NIZ. At the time Commissioner Roger Reis was quoted “We don’t feel any communities should be compelled to pay for something in the city of Allentown.” His board at the time voted unanimously to send a letter to Sen. Pat Browne expressing opposition.Ok, that’s fine. But enter the hypocrisy…. ALL these same politicians who were upset to lose a couple thousand dollars to Allentown are the same people absolutely giddy to accept over 6 MILLION dollars in state taxpayer money to build a strip mall. (a project that would have likely been built someday in some form without state money…)
Personally, I support rolling back most top down subsidies that skew local markets and leave communities strapped with long term liabilities. But in this case it’s pretty much the height of hypocrisy to complain about losing a tiny bit of EIT (which is earned in the city of Allentown) but on the other hand gleefully accept taxpayer money to induce a strip mall. I can’t stand hypocrisy. This is the height of it.
I’d be interested to look at the other NIZ objectors and how much state money they have or are soon accepting to induce development projects. Hanover Township and the Fedex project I suspect would be pretty interesting.
Lower Macungie officials weigh in on NIZ.
- Second, the parking and traffic apocalypse predicted by naysayers didn’t materialize. I think this is why. A city arena with an interconnected street system will always handle event traffic better then a single use suburban arena served by one entrance in and out. Think a system of valves. Yes, we saw a spike before and after the event. But that’s a symptom of success. In Allentown concert-goers have a dozen options to get in and out of town on an already existing grid network. There will be increased traffic on some main routes but a savvy driver can find alternate routes. In a suburban event center the norm is usually one supersized and super expensive road. One way in and one way out. No matter how many lanes we build, the induced traffic will fill the lanes leading to gridlock immediately before and after an event. What makes this worse are 6 lane mega access roads are typically used to capacity only a few days a year. The ROI is very low for these single purpose roads.