Showing up at the T-Mobile call center in Hanover Township, D’Amore attempted to meet with T-Mobile vice-president Brian Brueckman to talk about the company’s notorious anti-union policies, on behalf of the Communications Workers of America. He recorded a short video, posted to YouTube, to call out Brueckman for refusing to even meet with the CWA reps.

Is this Roger & Smith-style political theatrics? Of course. That’s 21st-century politics, for better or worse. The more important point is that D’Amore is right: T-Mobile employees have the law-given (and hard-fought) right to organize, and with the same freedom that T-Mobile’s German corporate parent’s employees enjoy. It’s a very poorly kept secret across the political spectrum that the U.S. right to organize in the private sector has almost disappeared—even with a slightly more friendly National Labor Relations Board under Obama. Many American companies have for three decades now willfully violated the law on the cost-benefit calculation that relatively puny fines outweigh the costs to their profits. The private-sector unionized work force is now seven percent—down from 26 percent in the late 1970s. (Public sector unions have done much better, and they’re very often a problem, because they have much better bargaining power. That’s a different story.)

Why shouldn’t D’Amore identify himself as the City Council president on the video? He is, after all, defending a longstanding and bitterly won right enshrined in law. He deserves our thanks.

Next year’s spending plan of $412 million is about $22 million less than this year’s budget. In the run-up to Tuesday’s announcement, Cunningham announced $7 million in programming and personnel cuts.

But the savings didn’t offset the damage caused by the recession.

The county predicts revenue, derived mainly from property taxes, will be down $5 million and health care costs will go up for employees and retirees. The county must also pay more to fully fund pension payouts due to losses in the stock market.

Cunningham also called for property reassessment, which the Call curiously leaves out. I agree with Bernie O’Hare that the politically risky reassessment move is the right thing to do:

Both Counties have gone too long without re-assessment. It often works to the advantage of wealthier landowners, but is politically unpopular because most people think it will hurt them. Yet it’s the best way to ensure all properties are taxed fairly.

An announcement on the former Disney CEO becoming the chairman of the Tribune Co., is imminent, a person familiar with the talks has told TheWrap. “Right now, it’s going to be Eisner,” the person said. “The lenders are going to try to take the company. It’s the only way they are going to get some of their money. But they’re not ready yet.”… The announcement could come as early as next week, after the Labor Day holiday, the person said.

The Tribune Co. could use a little pixie dust.

I finally made it to Island in the Sun, the Jamaican place that recently relocated from Whitehall to the old Spooner’s space at 921 Hamilton.

I felt like I was cheating on Winston’s, the temple to Jamaican food on Seventh Street. Still, I must admit: Island is really good and cheap. $4.50 for a Chicken Jerk lunch special.

Cosmopolitan (22 North Sixth Street, Allentown) will be opening in just a few weeks, and will feature the Lehigh Valley’s only honest-to-goodness celebrity chef. Bryan Sikora co-founded popular Philadelphia restaurant Django and Kennett Square’s phenomenal Talula’s Table, often called “the hardest reservation to get in the country,” where reservations require a full-year’s wait.

It’s not too often that the Valley gets to enjoy cooking by the kind of chef that hangs out with Martha. Whose restaurant was profiled on NPR. And who’s so serious about farm-to-table cuisine, one supplier made a variety of salad greens for him, and then coined it the Sikora mix forevermore.

The Park Department is being pressured by the environmentalists to create a Riparian Buffer, a no mow zone along the creek. That program dovetails with the departments reduced manpower situation very well. As well meaning as that effort may be, it is essential that the Boat Landing and other WPA Constructions be exceptions to that program.

Is Molovinsky right that calls for riparian buffers are to blame? I’m not sure, but it doesn’t really matter: He’s right that preserving WPA treasures like this should be a top Parks priority.

“Cosmopolitan”, a new fine dining establishment located in the heart of the “Arts District” of Allentown PA. An elegant four story facility featuring Ballroom seating for 140 plus and rooftop dining…. follow us as we put together finishing touches.

Judging by the photos, it’s pretty blinged-out.

A second proposal would create stiff fines of $1,000 for property owners who add rental units without city approval or rent them out after the city designates their buildings as unfit for habitation.

The illegal conversion penalty should in fact be much higher. Lots of dollars, through de-conversion grants and Redevelopment Authority (disclosure: my wife is director) acquisitions, go to returning legally converted apartments back to single-family homes. Many of the center city’s problems stem, of course, from rampant conversions in the 1970s and 80s.

Another thought: it’s good (and pretty rare these days) to see that (some?) city councilors coordinated the ordinance proposals with the mayor.

LVCI’s has some objections—alarmist ones—though he has some good additional suggestions, including recognition of good landlords.

Already publicly released, the 2009 audit was presented to council Wednesday by Larry Shaub, an accountant and partner with Reinsel Kuntz Lesher. The security issue was the audit’s only substantial criticism of the financial practices of the administration of Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski.

This came five paragraphs into a story bizarrely hooked to a longstanding data security issue. The Call piece, in discussing the city’s financial distress, also fails to contextualize last year’s deficit—even relative to the Valley’s two other cities, let alone the nationwide Great Recession plunge in municipal revenue.

I actually think that Ed Pawlowski’s fiscal stewardship—including upticks from the ratings agencies, and despite the too-long delay in admitting a revenue problem last year—is his most impressive accomplishment. He entered office with an Afflerbach-supplied fiscal noose around his neck.

That’s according to 24/7 Wall Street. A desolate urban landscape. I wonder if King Edwin will list this with his other campaign propoganda [sic].

Stay classy Bernie.

UPDATE: Nasty, misinformed schaudenfreude in LV Ramblings comments, including this reflection:

It will be interesting to see the reaction of Sangria’s al fresco diners, when the droolers come looking to bum a butt, or a baby mama starts slapping the shit out of one of her older ankle biters, or gunfire erupts from a tricked out Lexus or…

The inclusion of Allentown–a city that has maintained its population since 1950, unlike many many other rust belt cities in the Midwest and Northeast, where half the people or more have left—is so patently absurd, such uninformed nonsense, that I’m embarrassed to even mention it.

The Tribune Co.’s plan to emerge from bankruptcy has unraveled in the wake of an independent report concluding that talks leading up to the company’s 2007 leveraged buyout bordered on fraud, attorneys said Friday.

The report released last month by a court-appointed examiner forced Tribune and its creditors to rethink a settlement agreement that formed the basis of its reorganization plan.

At a preview for invited guests Thursday, Meireles unveiled the restaurant’s 6,000 square-foot space, with its hardwood floors, orange and brown color palate and floor-to-ceiling windows that give diners a view of the hustle and bustle outside. The restaurant offers valet parking and seats 350, which includes outdoor seating for 150 people.

My fingers are tightly crossed.

Additionally, tonight I have the privilege to check out Sangria, the new restaurant at 9th and Hamilton in the Butz building in downtown Allentown. I don’t know what to expect: there’s no website on the invitation to preview the menu, no Twitter presence or Facebook page, very little publicity. I did sneak a peak at the interior on Monday. It design looks striking and modern. Looking forward to checking it out. Allentown needs another nice restaurant downtown to complement Bay Leaf, Robata and Made in Brazil. With the BrewWorks doing well and Island in the Sun (Jamaican) moving in 1/2 block to the West, the city is developing a nice core of diverse restaurants.

The paintings, drawings and sculpture of world-traveled artist Gregory Coates (who makes his home in Allentown) will be featured in a show at Cedar Crest College titled Honne Tatemae.

Lower Macungie Township commissioners broke the law with “hurried and secretive” zoning changes that bolster David Jaindl’s plan to develop hundreds of acres of farmland, a group of township residents have alleged in Lehigh County Court.

The new superintendent plans to break the big middle schools and high schools—where test results were worse–into smaller academies. I continue to hear very good things about the guy. He is quoted in the Call story referring, at least obliquely, to the elephant in the room: uneven school funding.

Zahorchak said Allentown and other districts must continue “gentle but relentless” pressure for a more stable and fair stream of funding to achieve increasingly tough testing standards. The Valley shed more than 150 teaching jobs this spring.

The story finally appeared today, and only because the city’s Republican boss repeated the charge. This is the equivalent of story-laundering, and it’s too bad: the Call transformed a story about facts into a he-said, she-said partisan tussle. By waiting to peg the story to the GOP’s Bob Romancheck, the paper practically begged Pawlowski to dismiss it as “political nonsense.” No one would accuse the reporter, Jarrett Renshaw, of going soft on the Pawlowski administration, so it’s my hunch that editors up the chain sat on the story, until it could be safely published as someone else’s charge–the journalistic equivalent of ventriloquism.

Regardless of Romancheck, regardless of O’Hare, this isn’t a partisan story. Yes, O’Hare has been unfair to Pawlowski in the past, and clearly took a dislike for the mayor a long time ago. But all of that doesn’t matter, since the facts that O’Hare uncovered are damning in themselves. Shooting (or, in the Call’s case, speaking through) the messenger misses the point.

I initially defended the mayor. When O’Hare’s charges were in effect confirmed by the mayor’s rush permit acquisition, I was completely deflated. We haven’t heard from the mayor yet, but I don’t see how the failure to get permits can be explained away. “Political nonsense” certainly isn’t good enough.

Why does this matter so much? It matters because the mayor has pushed hard on systematic inspections, code enforcement, the pre-sales inspection and the like. These are good policies. As mayor, he should have gone out of his way to follow the law that he expects the rest of us–for good reason–to follow too. It’s his obligation to exceed the letter of the law (or ordinance), since he’s asking the city’s residents to abide as well.

I don’t care if Romancheck, a Republican, is the one to say it. He’s right. There should be an Ethics Board hearing. This isn’t about politics.

Our group of six happened to be there on a Tuesday night, which is open mic night. Some truly talented acoustic guitar players performed their own tunes and familiar covers. Plus, a rockin’ duo brought the bar to life with song and foot-stomping when they pulled out their banjo and washboard. What a hoot! The country in the city…and all the cityfolk got into it.