4 ways Matt Tuerk can help Allentown turn things around
Matt Tuerk, Allentown’s new mayor, has his work cut out for him.
In a poll of city residents this spring by Muhlenberg College and The Morning Call, most residents said they believe the city is a good place to live. But those who say it’s headed in the wrong direction (46%) outnumbered those who think it is improving (29%).
Here are some ways Tuerk, a veteran economic development official, could steer Allentown into a better future.
Partner with the school superintendent
Tuerk will take office in January, not long after the start date for the Allentown School District’s latest superintendent, John Stanford.
While a mayor has no authority over schools, Tuerk’s job will be to improve life for city residents. And that means improving schools.
He should build a relationship with Stanford and team with him to fight the district’s uphill battle.
With a united effort, they should lobby the state to change its funding formula to fairly pay for public education. The vast majority of state funding is doled out using an outdated formula that does not consider current needs.
And they should work to market the school district to Allentown families, urging them to stay in city schools instead of fleeing to charter schools.
The district budgeted $58 million for charter school tuition last school year. That’s expected to rise to $86 million by 2025-26. That’s unsustainable.
In the spring poll, residents did not have a favorable view of city schools. Forty-eight percent rated them as “not so good” or “poor,” while 30% rated them as “excellent” or “good.”
Improving the school district’s image will be a challenge.
Reinforce the police department
Allentown has had a revolving door of police chiefs. Tuerk must create an environment for the current chief, Charles Roca, to stay for a long time.
It’s important for there to be continuity at the top. That makes it easier to build relationships with the community, which is essential to fighting crime.
The mayor must resist calls to reduce funding for the police. He must support Roca’s plans to expand the department, both in manpower and technology.
Roca wants to hire more officers to bring the city to its full staffing level of 222, which would qualify the city for a federal grant to hire six more officers.
He wants to expand the city’s network of surveillance cameras and consider other technology such as acoustic gunshot detection.
Engage the Latino community
As Allentown’s first Latino mayor, Tuerk is in a unique position to build bridges and address concerns of the growing Spanish-speaking community.
Tensions are high following allegations in a lawsuit that a Lehigh County 911 operator could not understand a Spanish-speaking caller and hung up the call about an Allentown fire where two people died. County officials have rebutted the allegations.
That prompted some Latino community leaders to confront county officials and allege they haven’t done enough to engage the Latino population.
Most of the county’s Latino residents live in Allentown. The city government is the one they relate to the most.
Improve other neighborhoods
Much has been made of Allentown’s revitalization, but that renewal is limited to a few city blocks around PPL Center.
The Neighborhood Improvement Zone taxing district allowed those blocks to bloom with restaurants and tall office and apartment buildings. But beyond Hamilton Street, not much has changed.
The mayor must work with City Council to find a way to boost neighborhoods, too. A few long-awaited redevelopments along the Lehigh River finally are moving ahead, but that’s largely because they received NIZ funding.
The mayor should aggressively use a new redevelopment tool that council authorized this year.
The legislation allows the Redevelopment Authority to operate as a land bank to take control of vacant properties and direct their reuse. Land banks can acquire tax-delinquent properties at county sheriff sales without competitive bidding.
Tuerk also could borrow an idea from his opponent in the mayor’s race, Republican Tim Ramos, to encourage home ownership.
Ramos had proposed a five-year tax abatement for residents who buy multi-unit homes and restore them to single-family homes.