Sorry about the long lag between postings. I have been watching the historical development situation here in the Christmas City. Understanding comes slowly, not because I am lacking in intelligence (that, I suppose, is a matter of controversy), but because the people who are laying the plans don't want us to know. They think it is time enough for the average citizen/voter to find out what's in the works when it has happened and nothing can be done about it.
Yet we are talking here about a historic heritage, which is nothing if it is not public property. And valuable public property, at that. The payoff of history is what is known as heritage tourism. People come to visit a place because they are interested in the life that was lived there, and in its relics. They spend money at local restaurants and shops, hotels and attractions, and this enriches the host ecomony. Just last week there was a conference on canals held at the Hotel Bethlehem that brought in fewer than 200 people. Just as expected. But these relatively few people all had a strong professional or amateur interest in canals; and, by and large, they all must have had a relatively large amount of money. So Bethlehem, and the region for some miles around, no doubt profited handsomely from this conference.
(Parenthetically, Historic Bethlehem Partnership had nothing to do with bringing this interesting and economically enriching event to town. When I myself first came here, decades ago, one of my big surprises was that, for the north side historical establishment, history seemed to stop at the bank of the the canal.)
Now, of course, HBP has learned better; and while it still overleaps the canal, it sees the wisdom of operating on the South Side. Or, shall I say, the "Moravian" South Side.
But what would HBP do in the shadow of South Mountain? I have puzzled over this question for some time, while I watched it proceed in its attempt on the existence of the South Bethlehem Historical Society. (There has been a hiatus in that attempt; but I still do not give SBHS much of a survival chance.)
Anyway, word has at last reached me that one of the things HBP is pushing is the greenway, the park that is supposed to run through the town where the spur railroad that began, long ago, as part of the North Penn Railroad carried trains until recently. I like parks myself, so I have nothing in particular against this one. But it is not historical, and the only thing that could make it historical is re-laying the railroad tracks.
Beyond that, I greatly fear that what this park will become is a long, narrow drug market. This is especially true because the proposed park is only 20 feet or from the bus station, where many buses from New York and Philadelphia arrive every day.
Meanwhile, the true heritage of the South Side, the rich multi-ethnicity of it, the joys and sorrows, the triumphs and tragedies, is evidently slated to be ignored and plowed under.
Remember what I said about heritage tourism? Well, if these upscale artists, evidently including HBP, have their way, there will be no South Side heritage tourism because the South Side as it has been will be left an empty hulk.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is exactly like stealing money from the public pocket. A great deal more than money is involved--things like truth and justice--but I start with money as being the common language of our time.