Latest Budget Update 6/29/09: The Governor’s Revised budget has cut New Communities from $15 million to $10 million. Best guess is that Main and Elm Streets will get $4 million each and Enterprise Zones will get $2 Million but it’s DCED’s call internally how that goes. REMEMBER, last year we were cut from $18 million to $15 Million and now down to $10. That’s a 48.6% cut from 2 years ago.

Budget Update: PLEASE make an effort to contact your representatives in the House and Senate to demand funding for the New Communities Program (Main Street and Elm Street Programs). We are not out of the woods by any means and your voices need to be heard. I’m bringing this back up to the top of the stack as tomorrow (Tuesday, June 23rd) I’ll be down in Harrisburg at a rally with the other program managers at the Capital.

Park Renovations - cancelled. Facade Loan Program - rejected. Program to help fix those bad sidewalks? Have a nice trip! Trees to line your street - don’t sweat it, not gonna happen. Movies? Cut. Graffiti - You betcha! For Rent signs? Get used to it! Parking space near your house. Ha, Ha Ha, that’s a good one. Empty beer bottles in your yard? Why not collect 6 and make a set. Restaurant opening within walking distance - no, that’s a pawn shop or check cashing place now.

Tell your House and Senate representatives to restore Main Street and Elm Street funding in the State Budget today. See their contact info below.

Lisa Boscola

In order to better get the word out on news, projects and volunteer opportunities, we implemented a program called Constant Contact to manage our email interest lists. Please take a moment and go to the bottom of the sidebar on the right and enter your email address and click subscribe.

You have total control and can opt-out or change your list preferences at any time. There are many choices for lists and that list will grow and change over time as new initiatives are added.

Thanks and see you….at the Movies.

Nationally known Planner Jeff Speck visited Bethlehem a few months back looking at the core areas of the North and Southside downtowns to assess the City’s walkability. He returned on May 13th to give a presentation on his findings. His report has ramifications for the North by Northwest Neighborhoods. Click this link to go to the City’s Website and watch the entire presentation!

[Show as slideshow]

Due to expected showers tonight at 6 and 10pm, tonight’s showing of Get Smart at Fairview Park is again postponed until next week. The 10 day forecast looks much better so let’s hope this rain cycle breaks!

The weatherman certainly isn’t helping us with Madagascar. Tonight’s showing is postoned until next Wednesday the 24th at Friendship Park. Check back tomorrow for an upate about Get Smart at Fairview Park.

Movies, Games & More showed Mamma Mia last night at the Bethlehem Rose Garden on 8th Avenue. The weather held up and a good sized crowd filled the benches as well as some who brought their own chairs and blankets.

The Nitschmann Middle School Cheerleaders ran the Snack Shack and did a great job! I think over 100 bags of popcorn were sold in addition to fresh baked cupcakes, hot dogs, soda, water, chips and candy! Good job girls.

The volunteers also did a great job with setup and takedown. We have some repeat volunteers from last year as well as some fresh recruits. Our new mate from Australia happened upon the event last night, stayed and watched the movie and realized that all has to get put away each time so he jumped in and asked if he could help. While maybe not a record fast takedown, it was right up there and everything went pretty smoothly.

There was a friendly family vibe and some singing going on in the crowd. We asked if people preferred the sing along version or regular version and the regular version won by a slim margin. I think alot of people knew the words anyway.

Wrap Up: The last of the trees went in a few minutes ago on Prospect Avenue. More trees will be planted in the North by Northwest Neighborhoods as funding allows. Waiting to hear on some things so keep your fingers crossed!

Wednesday Morning: Trees going in today on Prospect!

Tuesday Update: Work has wrapped up on 4th Avenue between Union Blvd and Prospect Avenue. 4th Avenue is now a tree lined street! When we finish the rest of the NbNW neighborhoods, we will come back around and ask the people who refused trees again. Maybe they will change their minds or sometimes the properties change hands. Some trees went in on 6th Avenue today as well. Saw a truck with cones marked no parking Wednesday up on Prospect so I suspect Prospect Avenue will see some new shade trees go in tomorrow! Those south facing homes will benefit from the eventual shade of those trees.

Monday Afternoon Update! Seems the guys are ambitious today! They got 4th Avenue done south of Broad Street this morning and are continuing down both sides of 4th between Union Blvd and Broad this afternoon! 4th Avenue will be transformed by the end of the day! That is if the rain and hail don’t get them!

Monday Update! Today it looks like they will tackle the east side of 4th Avenue between Prospect Avenue and West Broad Street! Pictures later in the day.

Afternoon Update! Drove by and trees are standing on 4th Avenue. See updated pics!!

No Parking signs are out on 4th Avenue for today and sidewalk cuts have been made. Tree wells will be prepared and maybe trees will go in today as well on 4th Avenue between W. Broad Street and West Market Street transforming this block to a tree lined street and instantly adding to the property values! I counted about a dozen cuts for this block and there are about 50 trees overall in this planting.

[Show as slideshow]

It’s TreeVitalize 1 because we have additional funding from TreeVitalize for another planting on the Northampton County side of North by Northwest to be combined with our next round of Elm Street funding from DCED.

We want your plants! We have identified some spots around NbNW that need some greening. If you have Hosta that have grown too big, too many daylillies and ferns that just keep popping up, we could put them to good use in new homes!

Let us know if you have plants. We want to plant stuff in neglected places, we want to do some front and backyard makeovers, we want to dress up the parks in and around NbNW and more. Keep your eyes on this website and our facebook page for dates to move some plants soon!

While Bethlehem starts from a better place on it’s journey to greater walkability, there are plenty of opportunities to turn what is a pretty walkable place into a fantastically walkable place. Targeting improvements and filling in priority “missing teeth” will give us exponential gains in walkability.

Jeff Speck - Nationally acclaimed planner and walkability specialist visited Bethlehem a few weeks back and checked out Bethlehem from Elizabeth Avenue on the North to Stefko on the East, to 4th Street and Lehigh on the South and out West Broad a ways. Jeff says you need to focus the limited dollars you find for any improvements to make an area spectacular.

Walkability (in short), centers around: giving people something to walk to. Making it safe and them feel safe walking and having interesting stuff along the way that makes the walk seem shorter and lengthening the distance people are willing to walk.

[Show as slideshow]

We have some good areas on the Northside and some good areas on the Southside. Linking those areas and unifying the downtowns will give us exponential gains in walkability. Center to that concept is fixing the Fahy Bridge from a walkability standpoint. The bridge itself is not so bad, it’s the ends that are a problem. On the Northside, the crossing is in almost a blind turn for cars and is very unsafe. The City Hall/Library Complex stands like the Great Wall of China as a walkability barrier. Steps should be built directly up to the plaza and not just any steps but steps designed in a national contest. Think Spanish Steps in Rome. On the southern end of the bridge, you need to come straight up from 3rd Street NOT go around and under through a tunnel that smells bad and has “Kill the Rich” graffiti.

Generally, we suffer from overwide streets and traffic lanes with way too many and too long left turn lanes. It prevents parking (preferably angle) which provides a safety barrier to pedestrians. For NbNW Jeff called out in particular High Street (55ft) and North Street (50ft) as CRAZY WIDE. Both streets should have 10 ft traffic lanes. Use another 10 ft on each side for parking and you have 5ft of space on each side to narrow the street and add a place for trees. The property values would go up $20 grand the day it gets installed. He cautions that’s a big job and expense but would also be a big improvement. Jeff’s presentation was about what to do more than how to pay for it. That’s left to us.

Also for NbNW were some recommendations for West Broad Street. He was amazed that people actually cross the 378 and Broad Street bridge on foot. That’s encouraging as we have a great “something to walk to” with our Main Street. The Broad Street Bridge should have parallel parking and the 60ft wide Route 378 Span should have some planters that go between the cars and the people on foot. Not trees but really nicely planted areas that support some nice landscaping. Going west from the bridge to 4th or 5th Avenue should be angle parking on BOTH sides of the street. Going further West on Broad starting at 5th Avenue to about 12th Avenue should be a planted median with trees and landscaping.

The “missing teeth” of NbNW include the 7/11 at Center and E. Broad. It’s setback and ugly. Over the longer haul, it should be replaced by something that fronts out at the street. Another is the front of the Bank of America Building at Broad and New. The front and sides of that are really bad even with the recent changes. The surface lot on E. Broad a few blocks east from New needs a building. Probably the biggest missing tooth for NbNW is the surface lot on Center Street. The front half of which should be buildings. Jeff also mentioned Elizabeth Avenue and called for removing or shortening the left turn lanes.

Jeff mentioned a unified parking strategy must replace our onsite parking rules which kill cities.  Much of the parking we need could come from on street parallel and angle parking just by removing/reducing left turn lanes on our overwide streets and trimming the traffic lanes down to 10-12 ft vs the 14+ ft that support highway speeds of 70mph.

The Center/Linden one way pair should be removed. Jeff knows it’s probably a $1 million dollar project to do that and yes, it seems like it’s just paint but it’s also Route 512 and PennDot so add at least a couple zero’s to the end of any project that involves a DOT. DOT stands for $$$. By the way, DOT’s call trees Fixed Hazardous Objects. DOT’s plan for cars. We need to plan for people.

Something inexpensive that can be done fairly quickly is filling in missing crosswalks with thermoplastic paint. These are the piano key looking white things you speed over that say people walk here. Jeff also likes the Shared Use markings that say “Driver, there are bikes here and they have just as much right to the road as you”.

So…..great news, much of which we know or feel. Now is the tough part. Getting the stuff that’s cheap to do implemented and finding the money for the heavy lifting stuff. Jeff’s full report will be available soon on the city’s website which we will link here and probably steal a few of the slides as pics.

As I am sure most of you are aware, SB 850, the Senate-proposed budget, was approved 30-20 on Wednesday, May 6, with the vote falling along party lines. While there is no immediate need to consider this vote a debilitating defeat, there is cause for us to be more proactive. The vote essentially puts Main Street and Elm Street on the negotiating block much more so than in the Governor’s original budget. Remember that a true revenue bill must originate in the House of Representatives, so the Senate budget essentially institutionalizes the Senate position that they want to see spending cuts rather than tax increases. It is doubtful that a bill would leave the House of Representatives without including Main Street and Elm Street funding. From there, the House and Senate will enter into conference meetings where the two versions will be debated, negotiated and ultimately compromised on. It is all of our jobs now to make sure that the compromise that is reached includes Main Street and Elm Street funding.

We have a series of documents that you can use to further advance this advocacy effort.  We have letters from residents, letters from business owners and a petition draft which I will shortly post. 

Call your legislators and ask for sit down meetings to discuss the positive impact of the North by Northwest Neighborhood Initiative on the community.