LOW KEY BATTLE FOR THE SOUL OF PENNSYLVANIA

I used to live in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, just north of PA-15. But I didn't live there long enough to be able to give you any in depth or worthwhile first hand accounts of the area. Noah, on the other hand, has spent a great deal of time in the district and has very strong and vivid opinions that he suggests as an addendum to the story that ran yesterday. I'd like to add that this is Noah's opinion; I have none. I was struck by how this vision of the area is the polar opposite of the way Democratic candidate Sam Bennett views it. Her whole life in Allentown has been devoted to helping like-minded residents upgrade and beautify the city. Her nonprofit company, Properties of Merit is based on the premise that "well tended neighborhoods are safer neighborhoods" and she has been working to help upgrade Allentown's beautiful and charming neighborhoods with the goal of helping shore up people's dignity, self-respect, pride and hopes for the future.

ONE MAN'S IMPRESSIONS

by Noah

I have spent a lot of time in the Allentown/Bethlehem area. Among other things, it's a land of bargain stores and really obese people who have lost all self-esteem. I've been to an IHOP in Allentown and watched 400 pounders (NO exaggeration) who haven't washed their hair in weeks
waddle in and order a big stack of pancakes. It's so depressing.

The IHOP is in the same mall as two different dollar stores, not that  I don't use them. I get things like batteries and envelopes there. I've been in Bethlehem on Saturday mornings and seen that the local Goodwill is, sadly, the busiest store in town, with people either buying or selling the furniture they haven't chopped up for firewood to heat their homes. All of those good union steelworker and rail jobs that built the middle class and provided money for education of youth and a healthy future for the area are long gone and it doesn't look like new job opportunities have arisen. I hope that is changing but it doesn't look like it. Yet, Bethlehem is the home of Lehigh University, an excellent college, especially for engineering students. The school probably keeps the town going. For those who can afford them, there are a few decent restaurants in the area, just a few. There's also quite an impressive Lehigh Medical/Hospital complex in the area which must be kept very busy, at least by those who can afford the costs of health care. As for those who can't, I suppose the Repugs would say they can just eat cake. Sharpen up the guillotine, I say!

Emmaus is strange. It appears to be a town that at least tries. There are some nice, modest looking homes and mom and pop type stores of various kinds, well kept up, but, get off the main drag and you'll see poverty. The most interesting thing is the local road between Allentown and Emmaus. It's
lined with new car dealerships, including BMW and Lexus and the like. I don't know who's buying the cars, but I don't think it's many people in the towns I have mentioned. I've eaten at the Emmaus Diner a few times. Saw a 350 pound guy at the next table buttering a bagel before he put on CREAM CHEESE AND JAM. [And your point?] At the same time, I saw a guy in the parking lot who was so fat, he literally could barely walk. I felt so bad. The check out counter sells home-baked goods, in case you didn't get enough! Oh well, it's obvious that the home baked goods make a little money for the people who make them. It augments whatever income they have.

If you go to Easton, you will see that about every fourth or fifth building is empty and has an old "For Rent" sign in the window. There is one reason to go to Easton though. It's the PEZ Museum!

What I have seen of the district is that it has been sucked dry, as has Reading, a little further west, but that was a mafia town. In spite of what I have just described, western PA is much worse. I have made the cross state drive many times. Virtually whole villages just abandoned. Crumbling buildings with only the local church being kept up. The local church is often a PALACE. Johnstown, for example, is a land of rusted out, empty factories and women with broken front teeth. There's a lot of
sadness, frustration, unhappiness, violence, drinking and crack in these places, yet, there are good people there. They try. Still, the best economic week they have each year is, no doubt, in June when a national biker "convention" comes to town. Johnstown and the surrounding area, by the way, is in Rep. Murtha's district. There are two big reasons for the poverty in the Johnstown area, factory closings/jobs shipped overseas and floods.

Between Johnstown and Pittsburgh (which has made somewhat of a comeback; nice place), you will find towns like McKeesport. That place looks like it was nuked, a town of vacant, bulldozed  lots, truly the extreme, sad rust belt. The busiest place of business in so many of these PA towns is the local bar, which may even be physically falling apart. You see lots of cars in the parking lots, before noon! Lots of human misery and despair. Young people get out as soon as they can, leaving just their elders who are now dying off. Yet, so many victims in these towns vote for candidates and a party that does nothing but harm to their interests and the interests of their children. People like Repug Rep. Dent do things like set up immigrants, legal or otherwise, as targets for their frustrations. They voted for Reagan and his deregulation. Then they voted for Daddy Bush and more of the same.
Then they split their votes for either Dole and more deregulation or Clinton and his NAFTA. Then they voted for Dubya and his tax cuts for the wealthy and his culture of death. Like I said, no self-esteem.
It's been beaten out of them. It's the worst of times without the best of times.