No, not the cartoon character Charlie Brown, fine a kid as he is. I'm talking about a more mature person of the same name, Bethlehem's chief of parks and public property, who for many years has been just about everybody's favorite city employee. And why not? During his tenure with the city he has done his best to satisfy all the needs of all the citizenry to the fullest extent possible. In fact, he says the biggest stress of his job has come at those moments when he has realized he can't help everybody.
I had my own encounter--a pleasant one--with Charlie Brown a few years ago. Looking at Musikfest's street planters, I decided it would be great to have flowers on the streets on the South Side. Specifically Fourth Street, where I was then living in a concentration of shops and restaurants.
Charlie was agreeable, and had a dozen or so planters delivered to my street and placed where I indicated.
But I guess my idea was before its time. The planters looked great until night fell. Then the vandals struck. I spent a couple of terrified nights out on the street, trying to frighten them away. But no one can be everywhere at once, and the terrified can hardly intimidate those who strike terror.
The original idea may still be ahead of its time for Fourth Street. Somebody, maybe the then-South Side Merchants' Association, tried to put flower plants around the sidewalks in moulded concrete urns. Heartbreakingly, the vandals struck again. And again...
Most recently, at least as far as I know, came the major depredations involving the Miles of Mules project. Various mule sculptures on the South Side were battered, knocked over, blown up...
Apparently it will be a while before a thing of beauty is a joy forever, at least in Southside Bethlehem. But I remain grateful to Charlie Brown for making my part of the experiment possible. And that seems to be characteristic of the man, as practically everybody who has dealt with him testifies. If you have wanted to do some worthwhile thing, he has wanted--and, if possible, acted--to help make it a reality.
This paragon of public servants is set to retire within a few days. As Shakespeare put it, in another context, "When comes such another?"
Not soon,I fear.
Enjoy your retirement, Charlie. And may future public employees be inspired to follow your example of service.

Sorry I haven't posted for a few weeks. I am working on a full-sized book on the history of South Bethlehem. Not being a natural Type A personality (for better or worse), I find it hard to do two or more things at a time. Especially when, as experience teaches me, it is hard to establish the pattern of working on a book.
But here is where we are with the school situation, as I gather.
Superintendent Dr. Joseph Lewis and the board will not hear of putting out a request for proposal as a means of saving Broughal Middle School. Yet he and they seem to want to use something like a request for proposal as a means of selling the real estate that underlies the present Nitschmann Middle School.
Or perhaps the RFP really is not necessary. Perhaps it is already known who would wind up with the real estate in question. Who can tell?
Meanwhile, Bethlehem schools have not been performing up to the standards of the state, and of the No Child Left Behind Act. To me this is a piece of legislation designed to see to it that no child ever, EVER has any fun in school; but never matter. "The Feds" have ways of punishing states that are not up to snuff regarding schools. So Governor Ed Rendell is getting a little irritated with lagging districts, and hinting that if they do not get their acts together administrative heads might roll.
He isn't annoyed just with the Bethlehem Area School District, of course; but Bethlehem happens to be part of the group of districts that annoy him.
Then there is that group of citizens out there, organizing in the hopes of putting a new, more responsive majority on the school board.
Clearly, Dr. Lewis and the school district could use some good public relations. Seeing that, he has taken on a $78,000 public relations coordinator, justifying this expense by pointing out that the new employee has been his administrative coordinator, for the same salary, so it really isn't costing the district any more money.
Could he not foresee that this move would anger everyone? Both taxpayers who would argue that the position isn't really necessary, and that the money could be used to hire a couple of teachers (or just plain saved), and teachers and administrators who see themselves paid less than someone who is not a college graduate. Then, too, what half-competent administrator needs $78,000 of "administrative assistance"? The question inevitably DOES come to mind.
Poor Dr. Lewis. It is enough to make a man head for the Advil(R), or Tylenol (R), or whatever he takes for a headache.

Here are some views on Bethlehem from the demographically, geographically confused website at http://www.city-data.com/city/South-Bethlehem-Pennsylvania.html.
The forum question is "North Side or South Side," and the first to post an answer has definitely been here, although he/she is confused about some specific details. In general, he/she is not fond of the place. Here are excerpts from that posting, which seems to have been made in late 2006:
"The north side of Bethlehem is more 'upscale,' with higher rents and less crime...Fountain Hill used to be lovely, but is in the same league as south Bethlehem...If you are a Latino you will probably feel very much at home in South Bethlehem. If you are used to crime, noise, and loud music, and siesta-style living, then South Bethlehem is probably for you." (My, my, when do all those siesta-style livers get time to commit all that crime? My comment, not the forum poster's.)
He/she also is down on Lehigh University and its students, noting that the police will clamp down and clear up a student disturbance, but will not pursue the matter owing to the economic power of the university.
He/she loves Musikfest (spelled here "Musicfest"); but on the North Side-South Side question comes down heavily against the South Side, writing "...don't walk through South Bethlehem at night, and don't drive through unless you have to." The conclusion of this post is, "Bethlehem Township is also more upscale, and would be good to check out."
Fortunately there are two other posters. One goes to the defense of Fountain Hill, which indeed has always had a different feel from Southside Bethlehem; and the other points out Southside Bethlehem itself has greatly improved. Myself, I don't know. I lived for years on the South Side without feeling greatly threatened. I walked through the neighborhood at night and by day,and I have always found the place fascinating. What's more, I'm still alive.
Anyway, it's obvious that the City of Bethlehem and its neighborhood are the subjects of intense discussion in the rapidly encroaching outside world. As I find more interesting commentary I'll share it with whoever is reading this.

Discovering what others really think about you can be amusing, aggravating, or both. One way or another, it is almost always thought- provoking.
With that in mind, I dived in among the search engines, to see what people were saying about Bethlehem. I figured--correctly--that there must be a lot out there, and that much of it would be advice offered to the seeming horde of people who want to move here.
I went first to a website with the difficult url http://www.city-data.com/city/South-Bethlehem-Pennsylvania.html. (If anyone reads this and decides to check this out, correct me if the url is wrong.
These things drive me crazy, as they do many people.)
What attracted me about this site in the first place is that it seems to be both geographically and demographically challenged. The little map it shows does not appear to be about Bethlehem, PA at all. The north side is labeled New Bethlehem, Main Street runs north and south and joins New Bethlehem with South Bethlehem, and even the names of other streets on the map are not accurate.
But it gets better, because we go on to demographics. Under "Races In South Bethlehem," it claims that 99.3% are white, non-Hispanic. with the remaining 0.7% Black. (This is the term used by the site.)
As to the ancestries of these residents, here's the alleged breakdown: German, 37.8%; Dutch, 12.6%; Irish, 11.9%; Italian, 7.0%; United States, 6.1%, and French, 4.1%.
On the basis of these data, only one conclusion is possible. Whoever compiled this website has never been to Bethlehem, PA, and knows nothing about it.
Its forum posters HAVE been here, though; and they have posted a range of views. I intend to exam some of them in the near future.

Near the notorious Five Points, on Wyandotte St. on the South Side, there is a McDonald's of devastating ugliness. Something which, if memory serves me, former Mayor Don Cunningham insisted on leaving us as a gift.
I now realize that, in planting that particular structure there, the company may have been trying to placate us. It is, after all, "historical" McDonald's, the famed Golden Arches, going all the way back to, maybe, the '50s. With the metal-clad apartment house that stands nearby, it is the classic example of what you would not want at the gateway to your city. And, like it or not, the Five Points IS a gateway to the City of Bethlehem. Moreover, right across Wyandotte St. merchants and entrepreneurs are struggling to redeem and revitalize the once-thriving Wyandotte St. shops.
In the context of these things, the Golden Arches are an eyesore. I have nothing against the occasional Big Mac or Egg McMuffin; but I hope that someday soon these things will be served up in a more reserved building on the same site.
The Five Points McDonald's also may be an example of a "cash-strapped" city (the newspapers always use that expression)in a desperate charge to get every vacant piece of ground, and some that are not so vacant, built up with just anything that pays taxes.
But, hold on. And I DO mean, literally, hold on. Many of the best, or at least most interesting, pieces of real estate in the city are tax-exempt. Schools. Universities. Parks. In many cases, putting them on the tax rolls would effectively destroy them. And that, in turn, could cut to the heart of what we think of as Essential Bethelehem.
Besides, there is the Casino Factor. Wasn't income for the city one of the key reasons for people,including this writer, to reluctantly support the Casino idea?
If we were right, money from that source should be along relatively soon. Meanwhile, City Council should go relatively slow with development-for-the-sake-of-taxes. Bethlehem might lose-or gain-something it had not counted on. Something that either cannot be replaced, or that cannot easily be disposed of.