Allentown Mayor Matt Tuerk, Bethlehem Mayor J. William Reynolds and Easton Mayor Sal Panto Jr. announced a three-city coalition to tackle regional issues in the Lehigh Valley.
The mayors met regularly throughout 2022 and concluded that they needed a more formalized partnership.
In their presentation for the coalition, their three goals were to advocate, educate and partner to tackle the three issues of housing, homelessness and sustainability.
“The Lehigh Valley’s issues with affordable housing, homelessness and sustainability know no boundary lines,” Reynolds said. “You can do whatever you want within your city or within your municipality, but to create the most progress, you need to include the people that live next to you.”
Reynolds said his goal is to make housing more available in the Lehigh Valley and drive down the cost of available housing.
Tinku Khanwalker, leader of the Allentown Environmental Advisory Council, said there is substantial intersection between affordable housing and sustainability. The Allentown council is advocating for more energy efficiency programs as a way to reduce costs for those who cannot afford their bills.
“I’m glad that affordable housing is a focus area because we do want to see action,” Khanwalker said. “We have a strong focus on our low-income communities and, for the past several years, have been looking at a way to bring an environmental justice lens to the advice that we give to the city.”
Khanwalker said Allentown has old housing, so a large percentage of income goes toward energy bills that could be significantly reduced with updated appliances and the implementation of renewable energy sources.
Bethlehem’s Climate Action Plan, released in April 2021, has served as the city’s strategy for addressing climate change in Bethlehem.
Political science professor Breena Holland was involved in the early stages of the plan and said there were many people who could not participate due to the pandemic.
“The only thing I have seen come out of it (Bethlehem’s Climate Action Plan) was modest changes to installation requirements in a solar ordinance,” Holland said.
Reynolds said while some matters such as zoning and city ordinances are city-specific, there were other parts of Bethlehem’s plan that are more effective when applied across the Lehigh Valley.
After a couple years of implementing Bethlehem’s climate plan, Reynolds said he thought this partnership of banding together the cities would be more effective.
He said many of their institutions are based in the Lehigh Valley rather than in Bethlehem.
“It made a lot more sense for me to approach Mayor Panto and Mayor Tuerk and say, ‘Why don’t we try to build a Lehigh Valley Green Ribbon Commission where we get our institutions, our businesses and our educational partners on board with the idea of working towards a more sustainable Lehigh Valley?’” Reynolds said.
Reynolds said he wants the coalition to be permanent to avoid the issues that come with administration changes after a mayor’s term.
“Oftentimes, the public interest or the public good has to take a step back while somebody new comes in,” Reynolds said. “What the three-city coalition does will hopefully set that partnership up so there are initiatives being worked on across administrations and a continuity of interests among the three cities.”
Luis Campos, the chief administrative officer for the City of Easton, said he supports the Lehigh Valley in continuing a group approach to local issues.
He said he is glad the three cities are aligning themselves on the topic of affordable housing.
“It is the backbone of us building more affordable housing units because it provides the developers a credit that allows them to sell units or rent units at a lower price,” Campos said.
Khanwalker said the Allentown Environmental Advisory Council will finalize their 2023 goals on Feb. 27.
According to their 2022 annual report, the Allentown council has been working with nonprofit Promise Neighborhoods of the Lehigh Valley and started a pilot program they are hoping to ramp up into a full program with a focus on under-resourced neighborhoods.
Khanwalker emphasized the importance of Lehigh students and the broader community getting involved in these valley-wide action goals.
“One of the things that I would really love to see coming out of this is significantly ramped up engagement across the communities: from our colleges and universities, from our schools, from our neighborhoods, for everybody to roll up their sleeves and say ‘We’re going to work to make the Lehigh Valley a more sustainable place that cares for its own and helps those who are currently under-resourced and need greater assistance,’” Khanwalker said. “That’s the kind of place we are going to live in.”
2 Comments
Why is Reynolds trying to act like he is the Mayor of the Lehigh Valley when he lacks respect from his own subjects in Bethlehem!!
While our Mayor says he wants to address homelessness, one has to wonder how city hall’s involement will only hinder the ongoing efforts of city non-goverment agencies dedicated to this issue. Of course putting four or five city NGO’s in a room to come up with solutions does not give the mayor his photo op or ribbon cutting he so desires. With local NGOs already knowing what needs to be done, but lacking resources, the city puts itself in their sandbox dangling funding over their heads so local politicans cans share in the limelight. This is partisan politics based on the exploitation of our homeless population. This further demonstrates our mayor’s willingness to inject the city into areas that are not truly the responsibility or function of city government.
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