In the Lehigh Valley's two biggest cities have new leadership administration's that came into office on the promise of doing things differently.

I want him to focus on cleaning up the streets.

Housing is a big problem for that.

I'd like to see that worked on diversify the businesses a little bit, make it more accessible.

People are still suffering for the pandemic, you know, I mean, some people still need help.

Tonight, PBS 39 proudly presents first 100 days mayor's on the move.

Now, here's your host, January Hill.

Hello, and welcome.

I'm Jeffrey hill of his early days in the White House, former President Barack Obama said this.

The first 100 days is going to be important, but it's probably going to be the first 1000 days that makes the difference.

Here in the Lehigh Valley, New mayors of Allentown and Bethlehem are rolling out their plans of action for Matt Turk and William Reynolds.

This week marks their first 100 days in office.

And tonight, we'll ask the mares how they're setting the tone, and how the reality of the job compares with their expectations.

PBS 39 and 91.3 WL VR are proud to bring you this program live from the university Public Media Center in Bethlehem.

We're so happy you could join us.

Also, we're pleased to again present this live show in Spanish in real time.

Our interpreters are in the studio next door watching and translating along as we go.

You can watch the Spanish language version right now streaming on the WL VR Facebook page.

The English version is streaming on our PBS 3039 Facebook page, and making the night even more special.

We are delighted for the first time in over two years to welcome a studio audience.

I'll be a limited one, some of whom will have an opportunity to ask questions of our guests, the mares.

Now they're still early in their tenures and we want to get to this while they are still early in their 10 years and we have a lot to cover and much more to get to.

We'll start in just a few moments with Allentown Mayor Turk.

Then have a conversation with Mayor Reynolds of Bethlehem.

A little later, we'll bring both mayors together to address some regional concerns and answer questions from Facebook and our studio audience.

Now to kick us off, I'd like to introduce my colleague, Hayden Mittman.

He spent time last week speaking with residents in Allentown and Bethlehem.

Hayden, welcome.

Hi, Jen.

It's great to be here.

Matt Turk made history when he became Allen, town's first Spanish speaking mayor, and the first mayor with Hispanic heritage.

This is a city where the majority of residents 68,000 are Latino.

A few days ago, I spoke with residents in Allentown, about what they see as the most pressing issues and where they feel a tension should be focused.

And I was kid Allentown was, you know, kind of broken, like, it's improved over the years.

So like, you know, we still need work in certain spots, but everything is, you know, it's improving over time, I think there is such a lack of housing, there's a housing insecurity for so many right now, I would love to see something be done.

In that regard.

We have really great apartments around here now, but like, they're not affordable to everybody, you have to make sure there's also options for people who can't afford the rent and can't afford, you know, like, people have mortgage payments that are less than renting for like, a single person apartment.

And that's backwards.

Like, that's the stuff that we need to change who are the people they leave in the streets, you know, they have a place to we can be in safe for them to you know, when it comes to whether a change even the hard on the call, you know, they have to have a place to do they can, I guess leave enough?

One of the things is, like the guys with the motorcycles, the toilet bikes and all that they drive, with no, with no lights, no, they lose respect to the stop signs and lights and everything, trying to make everybody in dangerous, you know, it just I think that will be something will be better for us to to make the seat a little bit more safe there, you know, or he can't do much about the crime or nothing like that.

But if he could, you know, maybe put more law enforcement in certain places, you know, I mean, where the crime is high, but I do like the fact that you're taking care of the park for the kids.

I like that.

And it's trying to start doing stuff for the kids.

If the kids have somewhere to go, where they can, they don't have to worry about reading on the streets or getting subject to getting lost in the streets.

What an interesting, you know, you got to interest kids, if you can spark their interest.

I guarantee you there'll be more kids focus on building a career, opposed to get lost in the streets.

They got to work on the parking situation.

And here's the thing, someone like me, five $10 parking, that wouldn't bother me but for a lot of people, it's just like, I want to dine down here.

I want to do stuff down here.

It's just like the the lack of parking spaces, the spaces there but it's just it's not it's not public space.

The city is moving in a great Objectory a great direction.

And I think that, you know, to continue in that direction, but just always remember that the youth of our future and without them, you know Allentown, it will be okay.

But they'll move forward without us knowing that they're a part of it that that there's a number in it.

We are the marrying Spanish people here in Arlington.

So it's great to have him.

Because if it's somebody who doesn't speak English, he can come in and communicate with him and express his feelings is hit stars or whatever.

So he can will be able to understand.

I think it's great to have a by language, Mayor, I mean, it's only the first 100 days.

I haven't seen much.

I can't comment on that.

But you know, there's folly.

Lots to be done still.

And you know, but they're definitely heading in the right direction.

Joining us now is Allentown Mayor Matt Turk.

Mr. Turk, thanks for being here tonight.

I always start in Spanish in Allentown.

Fair enough.

So let's start with this.

What has it been like to be mayor?

It hasn't met your expectations changed your expectations about the office?

What's the first few months been like, ah, we've been busy.

We've been doing a lot.

We set some expectations for what we do in those we set expectations for what we do in our first six months.

And we were reviewing the first 100 days with our transition team.

We're going down the list of what we wanted to accomplish in six months.

And we've done a lot of this stuff already.

So expectations were that we would be able to get some things done.

And we've met a lot of them.

Any surprises, any, anything that really was just not what you were planning on?

Every day was a surprise.

Honestly, one thing that we anticipated, I knew that there were fantastic people working in the city of Allentown.

I knew that the people that I have an opportunity to work alongside were talented and dedicated, and had huge hearts and cared about our city.

But I was surprised at just how compact or how much they cared about the city that they love the city that's at the center of the Lehigh Valley that the level of caring and the level of skill that is present among the all of the 800 employees 800 plus employees at the city of Allentown.

That surprised me in a really positive way.

Just this afternoon, you removed someone from the Allentown Youth Council, Mr. Oscar Ortiz of the Ortiz Ark foundation.

This in response to what appeared to have been him speaking a racial slur in Facebook video.

Did you speak to Mr. Ortiz, and what happens next?

So as soon as I saw the video, the first person that I called I, I thought maybe maybe I'll call somebody else or check in with somebody who's connected to him.

And I felt like that was inappropriate.

And I called, called Mr. Ortiz himself and asked him what happened.

And he gave me some backstory, he said, there's more to the video than than what you see.

And I said, Yeah, but the words that you use are totally unacceptable.

You cannot do that and be a member of a member of a body of the city of Allentown, and specifically, Mr. T served on the youth council.

And I asked him, How are you going to explain why you use that word to African American youth and Allentown and that's when I came to the decision that I just could not continue to serve on that council.

Now, we're gonna have some more time to talk about race and equity and inclusion tonight.

But this really raised the question for me about the issue of we hear about colorism in Allentown.

And is this something that you feel like, you know, the city needs to address the communities need to address I think it's something that all communities around the country need to address Allen towns diversity, we're 54% Latino city, we are about 10%, African American city.

It's incredibly different.

It's from what it was in 1970.

So I'm a statistics guy, I go back to 1970 often had 109,000 people in the city at that time.

Now we have 125,000.

But in 1970, it was 97.8%.

Wait, we have changed significantly as a city and demographically over 50 years.

And while the population has changed, incredibly, the institution's haven't quite kept up.

So one of the things that I want to do as mayor is lead those institutions into the new era into an era of recognizing that the diversity that's present in our city is really the strength of our city.

You know, Allentown has changed a lot in recent years.

And the last two years have been I think, particularly hard on the city.

As you know, residents and businesses have been hurt by the impact of a global pandemic.

Allentown maybe was struggling before how does the city recover?

So the city recovers by coming together and focusing on health.

We have the it's really Alan Tillman's challenges were present long before March 13 2020.

We had We were coming out of the previous administration, that previous Ed poskim administration, which ended with his sentencing, and that did a lot of damage and left a lot of trauma in our city.

So we already had those issues, we had historic issues, again, going speaking to our rapid demographic change that hadn't met by institutional change coming out of that, and then having the pandemic really knocked us for a loop.

But what I've always found is that when you get knocked down like that, it really gives you an opportunity to reassess and figure out what's going on.

And what we recognize is that our Health Bureau in particular in the city of Allentown is one of our sources of tremendous strength.

So focusing on Social Determinants of Health as we move forward in the city of Allentown, recognizing the built the impact that the built environment has on our communities, the impact that public safety has on healthy outcomes, not just our healthcare system, but our educational systems and economic systems as well.

Those are what will drive our way forward in Pennsylvania's third largest city.

You mentioned trauma when you spoke about the pandemic.

And I think there's also trauma is an issue that we know in violence.

How challenging is it to look at how trauma is impacting residents across the city?

Is it something that you think about, we think about it all the time.

So we look at violence as a as a disease, and a disease that requires cure and treatment.

We don't look at it in a military metaphor, we're not fighting crime.

We're helping people get through that those traumas.

And we work.

We do that by working with traditional folks, the police department, to engage our community and get them over that illness.

But we also rely on our healthcare partners, on our nonprofit partners, our faith groups, our community groups to bring everybody together and move them forward.

Let's shift gears for a minute because I'd love to talk a little bit about the American rescue plan.

What kind of money has Allentown gotten from the federal government?

What's left of that?

And do you have top priorities for how to spend it so I can speak specifically, we get those funds in two tranches, we received a total allocation of $57.1 million.

We got the first half of that at the beginning or the middle of last year, we'll get the second half of that in July, so about $100 million.

It'll be a total of 57.

Oh, yeah, total effect total, I wish seemed like a lot for a city the size of Allentown, it doesn't seem like a lot, but it's going to meet a lot, it's gonna have a tremendous impact, because we're going to imply that or apply that in an intelligent way.

We've already committed about $29 million of those $57 million to a variety of projects, including infrastructure projects, we're purchasing a couple of ambulances are fixing some roofs, we're rebuilding a pool, we're rebuilding a data center, and we've replaced some lost revenue.

What we want to continue to do with the additional funds is dedicate some of that to aid to impacted industries and tourism, dedicate some of those funds to long term affordable housing capital, a affordable housing, and dedicate some more of it to replacing lost revenue in the city of Allentown that allows us to provide the level of government service that our residents had come to expect.

Now speaking of service to the residents, thinking about public safety.

You mentioned that earlier, and you've said that you think the city needs to hire more police officers?

How many police officers do you think you need?

And what's it gonna cost?

Well, you heard that from our friend Eric in the video.

So in the northeast, cities, over about over 100,000 in population have about 26.

Patrol, sworn officers per 10,000 residents, city of Allentown has about 18 sworn officers per 10,000.

So when you do the math, we're about 80 to 85 officers short, and those officers really can be dedicated to community outreach toward assisting people who are in who are suffering from traumas who are having mental health issues.

That's where we can dedicate our time and energy.

We don't we focus on patrol, we focus on investigation.

But a lot of the work that has to be done is building the relationships with our communities that will result in healthy outcomes.

So speaking, let's get into some specifics here.

You know, we had a pretty warm day today.

It's starting to feel a little bit of like summer, but I think in this region, sort of the siren song of summer is fireworks.

And I'm wondering, you know, it's really a quality of life issue for Allentown friends that I know who live there to have talked to me about it.

We've done some stories about it here.

What can the city do?

So one thing that we can do is help everybody in the region understand that it's not just Allentown and the the siren song I don't know if it's your questions, but the siren song or to be the companion sollen to fireworks at dirt bikes.

That's my next question.

I bet.

Those quality of life issues in this are not unique to the city of Allentown.

They are quality of life of life issues that affect our friends in South Whitehall Township.

They affect our friends in Whitehall here in Bell For him, those are regional issues that require intelligent approaches and regional approaches.

So one thing that we've done with dirt bikes, I'm gonna jump over fireworks for a second.

But we pulled together dirt bike taskforce that brings together mayors and police representatives from neighboring communities Saulsbury, Whitehall, South Whitehall, to help put our heads together and how we're going to address this issue.

And one issue that is common to both dirt bikes and to fireworks, do we need help for our legislators, that's where we that's how we can address some of these issues.

Right now, the laws associated with illegal firework usage or illegal dirtbike riding, don't give our law enforcement official friends a lot of power, to put it into that activity.

Ultimately, those activities are people trying to have a good time, but they're having a good time and expensive, literally everybody else in the region.

So what we're trying to do is find ways to engage the those folks are looking to enjoy themselves in ways that are maybe not as not as much of a nuisance to to the rest of the community.

So do you think residents in Allentown can expect something different this summer?

Or is it still a work in progress, it's still a work in progress that we have already seen some movement.

So what we had over the course of the winter was an opportunity to think, to strategize to collect intelligence and to take different approaches.

And that's what the Allentown Police Department has already begun to do.

We hope to see more quiet on the streets.

One of my favorite Mayor stories for the past 100 days was just a couple of days ago, I was walking home down Hamilton Street, and I saw some young men in a car at 10 at six in Hamilton, booming music, and I just politely turned to them.

And I gave them the light, turn it down a little bit.

They leaned over, they conferred, they turn the music down.

And then one guy said, My torque, and I just gave him the Thank you, right, and just that what we're looking for is civility.

We're looking for some level of engagement with our community where we respect each other.

And I think we can get there, I think we can take little baby steps, at least toward a more civil and engaged environment.

It sounds like in some ways, you're really talking about connection.

And I think, you know, thinking about as you started speaking, when we opened tonight, you started speaking in Spanish.

And you've really made an effort to introduce bilingual communications from your office and you're sending out news releases that are bilingual.

You speak Spanish in your press conferences.

That said, we know that in just the last year residents voted to keep English as the official language for Allentown.

I'm wondering if you've encountered any friction around this.

What the experiences has been like of rolling out a more bilingual communication strategy?

Well, first, I want to say thank you to my translator Cornell's gracias.

He thought you don't siendo la la la vie Soto.

I did.

We haven't seen a ton of friction in that respect.

One story.

So right after the election, I went to my favorite donut shop and Allentown Marion donuts, you gotta shout them out.

And I met a woman at the counter.

This is like day one after the election.

And she said, Oh, you're mad.

Tarik, you won?

And I was like, yep.

And she's like, you're not gonna make us all speak Spanish, are you?

And I was like, No, we speak Spanish and English and Allentown.

I start with Spanish whenever I can.

I think we heard from our friend green bed who just opened a restaurant on Hamilton Street.

So communicating his pleasure was seeing a Spanish speaking mayor.

I think that the people of Allentown I think honestly, the the referendum was very poorly worded.

I think a lot of people didn't know what they were voting for.

It's something that we need to continue to attack, we need to put that that racist heritage be up behind us.

I think it's a vestige of another era in Allentown.

But we're well beyond that.

Now.

I think al Antonians recognize the beauty of the city with all of our different cultures.

And it's it goes beyond just our Latino culture is it's our Syrian cultures or Kenyan culture or African American culture.

There's a really powerful dynamics in the city of Allentown.

And I think our people are bracing it.

So I have one more question for you for this segment.

And that is so community action of the Lehigh Valley has been arguing for the city to buy one of the mothballed elementary schools, either McKinley or Cleveland, and turn it into a community center.

What are your thoughts on that?

Is there enough youth recreation opportunities like this kind of a community center might provide?

So I turned it back to our in 2090.

We passed a 10 year community and economic development plan called Vision 2030.

And it had a host of different initiatives that the plan asked the city of Allentown to to employ, and one of them was the development of youth centers.

This was a catalytic action that would improve life across the city of Allentown So I'm strongly in favor of converting those sites into community centers and sites like that around the city into community centers.

Ultimately, that decision will weigh in the hands of the owners of the property, the Allentown School District.

And there's a process involved that will get those properties into productive use.

But yeah, we're incredibly supportive community action has a track record of an amazing track record of success in lifting up communities here and we have ally whether it's through the Sixth Street shelter, or CDC and Allentown or CDC here in Bethlehem, they have helped people here in the region.

So I'm confident that if they have the ability to acquire a property like that, that the city can do everything it can to help them create new opportunities for our youth.

And that's and you know, I think we heard our friend Eric there, or I can't remember the gentleman after him, talking about the city, the future of our city is really with the youth.

That's another part of our 2030 plan is an investment in youth and empowering youth to just to make the decisions for the future of the city of Allentown.

Okay, actually, I'm gonna throw one more question at you because I couldn't help but notice when you came in that you're wearing sneakers, are you going to run out of the studio?

Are you are you preparing for a marathon?

We were talking a little bit about that before.

One of the things I did when I was running for mayor is I ran every street in the city of Allentown.

So I there was like 440 miles of streets.

I got to see the main streets, the alleys, the backyards.

I'm always running around.

I'd be running the Lehigh Valley half in a couple of weeks here with my friends from the Lehigh Valley Road Runners in St. Louis.

So I'm always on the run.

I think that's sometimes I feel compelled to run from meeting to meeting just to stay on brand.

Thank you so much for answering these questions and sharing your thoughts.

We're going to continue with the first 100 days mayor's on the move on PBS 39.

This program is being simulcast on our radio station 91.3 WL VR, and streamed on Facebook and our website at PBS 30 nine.org.

I remember, you can watch the Spanish language version of the show right now on the WL VR Facebook page.

Our interpreters are in the building, following along and translating in Spanish as we speak.

Now, as we move to the next segment, I want to welcome back Hayden Mittman.

Hayden, what do you have for us?

Thanks, Jen, what a nice interview you did today with Matt Turk.

William Reynolds is no stranger to betheme government.

Before he was elected mayor, he spent 14 years on city council.

And just like I did now in town, I wanted to get a sense of what people in Bethlehem feel about their city.

And what they see are the main issues with my partner on camera, Jeff Frederick, we spoke with residents around paler Plaza, and Bethlem area Public Library.

The people are very nice here, I enjoy the atmosphere nice and quiet and serene.

I just enjoy it.

I enjoy the activities, they have a lot of activities out here that you can do.

I've been here for 18 years now.

Even though it's a city, there's kind of a small town feel to it.

People know people, you feel like you're part of a community.

I really like how I can walk to so many things.

I walk downtown to Main Street to restaurants, I walked to the library right now I'm walking to a frame shop, I can walk to a coffee shop, pretty much everything clothing set Moravian bookstore, which is great, we need some more attention a better environment for the homeless population and people that are living in halfway houses.

I think the city has kind of somewhat shied away in the past, was really getting a handle on that.

I know from you know from other people, I think, probably some lower cost housing.

I know they said the housing prices have really shot up for a lot of people.

And it would be nice, you know, for younger people to stay, if there were places for them to afford.

There are a number of people on on city council and in the mayor's office that apparently are not as fond of the police department, as I would have liked them to vape based on their comments in the past.

And there are a number of other things.

In that vein, there is a big trash problem.

In some areas, the litter is just awful.

The trash column is just really bad.

I don't know where the assistance comes from, for like the YMCA and senior center centers to give us more activities and things like that.

So yeah, that's what I'd like to see.

I'm hoping that this mayor will continue with the task forces that we had started and try to, you know, involve, you know, people like myself, retired and also educated people with the children to to really get them To know the city as it exists.

I want to now welcome Bethlehem Mayor William Reynolds.

Mayor Reynolds, great to have you with us tonight.

Great to be here.

So I'm going to sort of start in a similar place as I did with Mayor Turk.

Now, you served on city council for many years.

What is the view like from the mayor's office?

And How's it different from city council?

I think it's a lot different on city council, you get phone calls, yet emails to try to pass along a problem.

But when you're in the mayor's office on the second floor, it's about solving those problems.

And you learn that on day one.

And, you know, we've it's been a bit of an adjustment, but I think my time on city council, the relationships I've built within city hall have been beneficial these first couple of months.

Tell me what the adjustments been like.

I think it's been exciting.

I think there's a lot going on.

And you know, Bethlem has seen this incredible revitalization.

The Comeback we've had from the closing of Bethlehem Steel has really been unmatched throughout the country.

With that being said, anytime in life, you have success.

There's challenges that come with that.

And we have challenges with affordable housing with homelessness with helping our community recover from the pandemic.

So we're really trying to continue to do both things, solve those problems, but also utilize that formula.

It's worked so well for us over the past 25 years.

Now, we talked about your history and city government.

What surprised you in this shot?

I think the thing that surprises me the most over the first three months is that how similar everybody in the city of Bethlehem has as far as what their vision is the vision that we have laid out as far as investing in our neighborhoods, affordable housing recovery from the pandemic traveling people downtown.

That's the vision that you get in almost any neighborhood in the city of Bethlehem.

So we've been a little bit surprised just how uniform that is.

When we talk to people, when we go to different to committee meetings out in the neighborhoods, people are looking for the same thing, a high quality of life, a continuous continuing over economic revitalization, and handling some of those systemic issues that are affecting not only Bethlem.

But the Lehigh Valley's region.

Let's talk about something this may not be what you would expect for your first question.

But it's been on my mind as a resident of Bethlehem, the city and the historic Moravian area is up for bid nominated for becoming a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

I mean, this would put Bethlehem on the same list as the Great Wall of China.

And I'll tell you, when I go to Main Street to go to the restaurant, or maybe do a little shopping, I can't find a place to park now.

What are you going to do with all those people?

So one of the things we're talking about right now is how are we going to deal with not just the people that are coming here for World Heritage, but just the people that want to live in the city, we have a great problem.

Everybody wants to live in the city of Bethlehem, our population over the last 20 years is only increased about 5%.

But our jobs have increased about 30%.

So what that means is you have a whole lot of people living in the city of Bethlem, working in the city of Bethlehem, and other people want to come here.

So we take a look at parking it is how do you create new parking structures?

Where are you going to put the cars but also how do you create more sustainable communities?

How do you create more walkable communities where people might not be able to have to have a vehicle in the future, and you're saving those vehicle spots for people that are coming from outside of the city.

And that's really the kind of formula we look at.

We look at every neighborhood, how do you create a live work and play neighborhood where people want to raise a family and it's safe?

Now, we've seen a whole lot of development on the south side of Bethlehem.

But advocates and as you've mentioned, have raised concerns about affordable housing.

Do you think people are obese people being pushed out of the city?

And how do you strike a balance between the development of like these beautiful properties and and making it still be affordable for people who've lived here for generations?

Yeah, one of the things that I always say is, I mean, the Bethlehem deal has always been the American deal that if you come here, if you work hard, there's a place for you.

It's always been a city for everyone.

You could come here, and there's a place if you weren't making a lot of money if you were, you know, kind of middle income or high income earner.

And it's very important to us that we keep that deal going forward.

When you're talking about affordable housing, it is a local issue.

But it's also a regional issue.

It's one thing that Mayor Turk and I talk about a lot is that there's not a lot of places left to build in our cities.

And we're going to need to increase the supply of housing in the Lehigh Valley, because the housing market is not just what's going on in Bethlem or in Allentown.

But we are always trying to balance out what makes Bethlehem popular our quality of life with the idea that like the real economic engine that's allowed us to recover is that private investment, it allows us to pay for our police officers pay for our firefighters get the streets clean, get snow removed, and things like that.

So we're always trying to balance those two things.

One of the things we're doing in 2022 is we are investing in affordable housing kind of a strategy study, because there are dozens and dozens of different things you could do.

It could be you know, first time homebuyer assistance, rental assistance, different programs you can do, but finding out what it is that your market requires or what the best strategies are.

That's where we're kind of focusing on because we want to just not just spend money on this issue, but we want to spend in the most effective way possible as we move forward.

And you know, we know that this issue of affordable housing, it is across the Lehigh Valley, it's also across the country.

are you connecting at all with mayors of other cities or other big organizations looking at it from a national perspective and thinking about best practices 2021 We actually went with through NYU with a housing cohort with about 10 Other cities that are like Bethlem throughout the world.

Aren't you and you'd be amazed at how similar the issues are.

There isn't enough supply.

There's a lot of demand.

People want to live in the cities, our biggest demographic in the city bathroom is 22 to 40 year olds, we are attracting young people like we never have before.

But we have these challenges.

And like I said, they are not unique to Bethlehem or Allentown, or the Lehigh Valley, any place where you're seeing economic investment, any place where you're seeing people that want to invest in a business, you're having these issues of affordable housing.

And it really comes down to what are the strategies other than increasing your supply of housing to drive down simple supply and demand?

What are the strategies that are the best for your market, one of the ones that are going to push the needle the most to be able to help as many people as possible in your community.

Now, here's a related question to affordable housing and issues around affording housing.

And that's the issue around unsheltered folks and and homelessness in Bethlehem.

We see folks out on the trails, some of the trails I run, I see that people are camped out.

Bethlehem doesn't currently have a permanent shelter for homeless.

What's the city's plan for that?

You've talked about wanting to put one here?

And what would the city spend on that?

So one of the things we're doing right now is we're going through a study not just about a permanent location for a homeless shelter, but also how do we provide the continuity of services.

For years, we have had private operators through the Bethel emergency shelter that has been allowing people the opportunity to stay there, which has been, they've been doing heroic work there.

It is our responsibility as a community, though, to come up with a community wide solution.

And just like these other issues of affordable housing, it is a regional issue.

If you went to BS in Bethlehem, you will see people there that are friendly, heightened from Northampton from Bath from East and from all over the place.

So we're going to step up and we're going to build a shelter.

And we're going to work on that continuity of services.

Because it's not just what's going on tonight.

What can we do to help people out tomorrow, the day after that, the day after that the day after that, to create that pipeline to be able to move out of the out of being homeless, but it's something that we're working on, we've put we've put things together as far as internally with our nonprofit operators and things like that.

But one thing that Mayor Turk and I have in common is we're trying to make it more of a regional issue, because it really is a regional issue.

It knows no bounds, as far as like how we're going to come up with the solution.

So you know, another regional issue is recovery from the pandemic, you heard, you know, we talked Mayor Turk, and I talked about that.

I'm wondering what the situation is for Bethlehem in terms of funding from the American rescue plan?

How much is the city gotten?

What are your priorities for spending that money, like what's left in the pot?

Yeah, so the key to the as far as recovering from pandemic is understanding that we both can do things in the short term.

And also in the long term.

In the short term, we need to make sure that we help the people that were affected the most, in the long term, we need to invest in the systems that that broke down during the pandemic, the pandemic should have made it obvious to everybody in America that some systems just aren't working.

And people that were in those systems, whether it's health care, or education, or mental health, or housing, we need to find ways to invest in that the city is going to receive over a period of a couple of years, $34 million.

As Mayor Turk mentioned, the first thing that some of that money goes for is lost revenue that helps to pay your police help to pay for basic city services.

We just launched last week, our website called rebuild Bethlehem, that it's gonna allow our community over the next six months to kind of weigh in on what are the priorities that we should invest in with the rest of that money.

And it's not just about that money, we really have a once in a generation opportunity to kind of direct what are our staff gonna do?

What partnerships are we gonna have?

What are people doing in City Hall and day to day basis?

This is really the opportunity 510 20 years from now, not just for the pandemic, but all of these systemic inequities that we have in our society, did we do our job?

Did we turn the ship in the direction to try to solve solve those issues of the long term?

So if this happens again in the future, or it doesn't, we have good systems in place.

Now, you said in your State of the City address that you think Bethlehem is entering like a next great era, yet this and that and that the city is on solid financial ground, but residents have seen some tax increases in property taxes, water rates, stormwater rates, can residents expect higher taxes again this year, so whenever you're talking about city finances, I start with it's the promise we make to our employees.

I am not about to tell our police officers, you have to work for a 0% increase a 0% increase a 0% increase as mayor checks and we have fantastic employees and people come to work for the city bathroom, and we put their name on that contract, what they're doing is we're making a promise to them, that they're going to pay their mortgage, they're going to get their pension, they're gonna be able to help their kids go to college, they're going to be able to have health care.

Every year.

If we're not going to ask our workers to work for 0% increases in the city, we have a roughly $2 million problem.

So on January 1 Every year we need to find $2 million for the next year.

It's part of the reason why we are so strong.

We're so aggressive about economic redevelopment or utilization.

So why Bethlem has been able to avoid a lot of the difficult financial decisions almost every other city.

There's things that other cities have talked about ak 47, commuter taxes, selling off assets that we've never had to do.

So as we move forward, we are going to continue to drive the revitalization We're going to continue these public private partnerships.

And we're going to continue to find ways to keep those promises with our employees.

So you're saying there's basically a structural deficit in place, and you're hoping maybe through economic redevelopment, that that's a way to fix that.

I wouldn't even use the term deficit.

Okay.

Because as I said, it is it comes down to the fact that our the majority of our employees are public safety.

And I think if you went out and asked, I asked people on the street, do you want your police or firefighters or paramedics to work for 0% every year?

Or have to pay more and more in healthcare every year?

They would say no.

So we try to do that through a series of different, you know, revenue enhancers, and the number one being economic revitalization.

Let's shift gears a little bit.

One of the things you talked about a lot in your campaign, you were here for debate you talked about it, then was diversity and equity, and inclusion.

How hard is it now you're in the mayor's office, to really move the needle on systemic racism.

Talk about what you've been up to here.

We are proud that we hired the first director of equity inclusion, and not just Bethlem history, but any of our city's issues.

And Janine Santoro, who's right next to me really leading the way in our community.

As far as a lot of these issues that concern, equity is not an issue of is there a political will for it?

It's about how long is it going to take everybody to get on the same page?

So when we take a look at how we spend money, how we're going to invest in our neighborhoods, what are the conversations, what are the lenses that we're going to see these issues through?

It's all through these issues of equity and inclusion.

And if you talk about Bethlem, you can't talk about equity that talks about the bathroom Area School District, Dr. Roy, the board members, the principals have been talking about equity for I think, probably almost a decade now.

So we are partnering with them as far as how do we not just, you know, invest in people as far as the city is concerned, but also the school district, we need to get past this idea that if something works for you, it's working.

That's not how we look at it.

It's got to be working for everyone.

And it's and that's the lens that we take every day when we go to the second floor and City Hall.

And that's what we're we're looking to do in the community.

Now, you mentioned taking phone calls I I was reading in a blog that the mayor's office is no longer taking phone calls.

Is that true?

And how can residents have access if they don't have like, let's say email or access to them, we get hundreds of phone calls a day.

What happens is when somebody calls for about a pothole, or whatever it is, you go to the service center, and then we'll go to public works or wherever it might be.

One of the things that I learned a long time ago in city council is if you don't do this correctly, you get multiple people working on the same issue.

And we're trying to avoid that.

And years ago, the dancin administration created the service center that allows people to call they got a problem with a water main break a pothole or whatever.

They don't need to come right to me to be able to go right to public works.

But if it isn't an issue, that's a direct service thing, it comes to us.

And then we answer the phone, we call everybody back.

I've got the best staff you could ever ask for between Janine and Angela, Doug Grasso, the director of Mayor initiatives and staff at gel, and they are constantly on the phone constantly putting people not just within city hall, but with our state with our federal representatives as trying to help to solve problems.

Now, there's something happening in the state legislature.

And I don't know if you've heard about this, but apparently they're trying to get the Hershey's Kiss named as the official candy of the state.

I'm wondering what you think about that, and whether you think it should be peeps?

I mean, I love peeps, tough question here.

But I, Mike and Ikes I don't know, I think I mean, just board has been a long, fantastic corporate partner for the city.

And one of the things that makes Bethlem so, so, so unique and special is that we have these longtime institutions, both on the private side, just born and on, you know, on the public side with some of our public schools and colleges and universities.

So yes, if you're asking me what I vote for that yes, I would.

I'm gonna vote for the people on that one.

But okay, maybe not, Matt, not a tough question.

But you know, you might not not everyone's a peeps person.

So let's do one more question.

Let's talk about climate change.

You really worked a lot on this before you became mayor.

What is the plan that you helped to put together before you became mayor, when you were in city council?

How does it look from the seat you're sitting in now?

And what's going to happen next?

Yeah, I would say we worked hard on it.

700 people in the community over 50 institutions.

When we first introduced this idea of climate action plan for the city, in January of 2017.

We had a new president at the time, who didn't want to do anything with climate action and pulled out of the Paris agreements, the word sustainability, I'm not sure he could spell it.

And one of the things that we've looked at over the past couple of years is what does betheme do?

Well, what makes it livable?

What makes it walkable?

And how do we plan going forward to create the most sustainable bethlen?

We can we have an event coming up in a couple of weeks, we're going to kind of talk about like nine different implementation areas and things like that.

The when you when you're talking about climate action, it is a huge, huge topic.

And the number one thing that we wanted to do was get as many people together as possible, all moving the same direction.

And that's kind of been what our what our plan is, as far as our climate action initiative is and you know, we're super excited about how we're going to do that not just on the public side in City Hall, but how we're going to take that out of the community.

So someone that's living on Seventh Avenue or an institution or a business, they all have that role to play.

And they all have an action that they can take to be part of our our local solution in creating a more sustainable and more livable community.

Let me ask you this.

You've mentioned a couple of times, making Bethlehem more walkable.

What does that look like to you?

Why is that important?

Yeah, because it's the way people want to live.

And it's why you want to live in a city.

And we have some streets that were clearly designed for cars and not for people.

And when you when you go to other cities and you walk around, sometimes you can walk half a mile a mile, it doesn't feel like you walk that far, because of kind of the the streetscape and how things are set up.

We have a great city, but there are some streets that just are not good.

I mean, if you take a look at Broad Street, it is entirely too wide.

If you take a look at you know Linden Street, over there in the neighborhood in which I grew up, it's got to turn into a two way street, there's not a lot of traffic, and it splits the neighborhood.

And those type of like kind of physical, geographic things.

They also have symbolic value as far as like people living in different sides and not being connected.

So we're really, really focused on trying to do those things that when you're walking down the street, you're not just thinking about why you like this, but you're feeling something different about what it is in this neighborhood that gives you that sense of place that makes you want to call Bethlem home.

Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts with us.

We're going to move along and let folks know that you're watching a PBS 39 special first 100 days mares on the move.

The program is also being broadcast on our radio station 91.3 WL VR.

I'm Jerry Hill, WL VR news director.

And we're especially proud to be able to present this show live in Spanish for our Spanish speaking audience.

Now, you can watch the Spanish language version right now on the WL VR Facebook page, thanks to our team of interpreters for providing this valuable service.

So let's move on.

And of course, Allentown and Bethlehem have their own issues.

But as we've heard tonight, they also share many of the same so we'd like to explore that a little bit more.

And mer Turk has rejoined us now this is also the part of the show where we are going to take advantage of having our first studio audience into yours and invite them to ask some questions.

But first, I'm going to start with one to both mares.

Philadelphia earlier this week, reinstated its indoor mask mandate, as they've seen COVID cases rising.

I was looking at the state numbers, it looks like cases are up about 41% new cases across the state.

Is this something you've been thinking about and talking about in your administration's?

Could you see something like this here?

Mark, do you want to start?

Yeah, I mean, we listen to the science.

That's that's the that's it at the core of it.

So our we are both blessed to have a Health Bureau in our city.

I talk with our current.

She's actually our Interim Director of Community and Economic Development is the former director of our Health Bureau Vicki Kessler, incredibly sharp, one of the best public health officials in the Commonwealth.

And she and I talk about these things often.

Right now we're watching but we're not ready to make a move like that.

But we're keeping our eye on it always.

Mr. Reynolds.

Yeah, we have a fantastic Health Bureau, our Health Bureau Director Kristen weinrich, has done an amazing job as her staff has, I think we've given out almost almost 70,000 vaccination shots over the past year and a half, and we're going to continue to monitor it.

You know, we saw everybody saw that Philadelphia took that took that step.

Obviously, we're doing everything we can to try to educate people that have those people that are out there that are not yet vaccinated, they certainly need to get vaccinated.

And that would be a good idea to help us move past this.

But you know, we'll continue to monitor it.

We made it we made about it every day, and talk about where we are.

And Ms. weinrich in her department talks with Bethany our school district, and it's something we're absolutely on top of but I think I can speak for Mayor tech as well as like nobody wants to take a step backwards.

So we're going to do we're going to do what's right, what the what the science tells us.

And we're just going to we're going to follow it that way.

If I could add I think that our our health bureaus are coordinating on these things, too.

They talk to each other, there's a network, and we learn from each other.

This is what one of the things that we're paying attention to what other organizations in our region are doing it well.

I'm familiar with the head of both of those health bureaus.

I know that he has moved to a new position.

But we have been talking with them throughout the pandemic.

And they've been a great resource, I think for the community as well through our station.

Let's hear from some of the folks out in our audience.

I want to throw it back to Aiden Hayden, who was in the audience with some questions.

Yeah.

Hi, Jen.

Thanks so much.

This is Peter Brown and the American Red Cross.

He's got a question about the housing crisis here in the Lehigh Valley.

Good evening.

First, I just want to say we really have great working relationships with the Public Safety departments in both the cities and really appreciate that.

One of the challenges that we face particularly when there's a larger incident is that we it's really difficult to find short term or transitional housing for the apartment dwellers or the homeowners who are displaced.

I'm just wondering if If you have any thoughts on that sort of a specific issue, we respond to about 100 fires a year between the two cities.

Yeah, I would start with I mean, that coordination with organizations like the Red Cross is really what often determines the difference between success and failure.

I think that if you go throughout the Lehigh Valley, we have a ton of people who care about these particular issues.

And that is one that absolutely, you got to follow it through as far as it's not just responding to the immediate need, but also as we follow through there.

So it's something that's been on our radar, it's come up with our conversations with our emergency management and emergency response teams.

And it's certainly something that we're looking at, as well as how we can improve that.

And it just ties in to everything else, as far as our systems as far as affordable housing and homelessness, and just recovering to recovering to, to, you know, natural disasters or whatever it might be.

I want to start first by thanking the American Red Cross for the work that they do in the city of Allentown for fire preparedness, getting hundreds of smoke detectors into neighborhoods and into apartments.

So we can decrease the number of fires, our fire department responded to a record number of calls in 2021.

We know that these these create incredible challenges when people are displaced.

The short term housing need that temporary housing need is acute, we see that not just with fires, but but every time that people are displaced from their homes, we're stuck.

And we go into a triage mode.

And we just try and we scramble to figure out what's going on.

And we rely on our partners at the county, we rely on our faith partners and our nonprofit partners.

And oftentimes, there's no good, easy solution to that.

We do need more housing of all types across the Lehigh Valley, and particularly for these crisis situations.

All right, thank you so much for weighing in with your thoughts on that.

We're gonna get queued up for the next question from the audience.

So let's go back to Hayden.

Thank you so much.

This is Darnell Scott.

He's from Promise Neighborhoods at Lehigh Valley.

And he has a question about the role nonprofits play here in the Lehigh Valley.

Actually, hello, you guys are great.

I think you guys are doing a great job also.

And you get given these guys great questions as well.

Most of our questions have been answered.

I have a two part question.

Quick.

I'm sorry.

First is what do you guys plan to invest in violence prevention in the area?

And the second question is, how does the you know you guys plan to invest in community based organizations.

So if I could start the the plan for investment in violence prevention is part of the American rescue plan.

So we do it in a couple of ways.

One, we invest through crisis intervention specialists, we already presently have a crisis intervention specialist on the Allentown, Allentown police department and one from the county, we've got plans for further investments in those Crisis Intervention Specialists through the county and through using American rescue plans from our nonprofit partner at Pine Brook family answers.

We also plan to dedicate a portion of those rescue planning dollars to funding violence prevention programs at other nonprofits in the city of Allentown.

And that ties back to the need for additional mental health resources and focusing our energy and attention on this health resources.

But as you know, the best violence prevention program is economic opportunity.

So continuing to focus on economic opportunity in the city of Allentown, in our region in places like Bethlem, and making sure that people have access to those jobs.

That's a key piece of what we do.

And the analogy I use is like count from one to 10 and a 10.

If that's the gun violence, or whatever it is, like what have we done as a society and one through nine, I taught it out in high school for 13 years, and we were talking about education funding, we were talking about mental health, recreational opportunities, all of these different things.

It is it is our responsibility.

And not just the two of us, but our community to invest in those things to kind of reduce the systemic likelihood that that, you know, we're going to end up with a gun violence incident.

And then as far as work with our nonprofit community, one of the first things I think you learn as the mayor is that oftentimes what is the determining factor about success is how many people you get in the same room moving the same direction.

And our nonprofit community in the Lehigh Valley is doing great work.

And it's our job not to tell the nonprofits what to do or what to focus on.

They know that it's how do we provide the support?

How do we not just bring them into City Hall?

But how do we go into their place?

How do we come out into the community, and that's one of the things that we are really trying to do in the city is find ways to support the nonprofits, on their terms, and in the neighborhoods in the traditionally underrepresented communities with people that are trusted in our neighborhoods that we can then work with on these kinds of community wide and regional wide goals.

Thank you so much for your question.

I'm going to throw another question out to you guys.

We've talked a lot about communities and we've talked a lot about connection now.

Your campaigns are behind you, but we do have a pretty heated primary campaign season going on with candidates for US Senate with candidates for governor, and it's been every bit as divisive and driven with rhetoric that I think some would argue is divisive and divides our communities.

What do you think you can do as mayor's?

Do you think first of all, do you think that this is damaging to communities?

And what can be done to repair that fabric?

So the question I have, so just so I'm clear here.

So the question as far as negativity, like in the Lehigh Valley, yeah.

Well, I mean, you know, I think we're hearing we're hearing I think we hear a lot from the national stage that's being played large in the Lehigh Valley.

But I also hear about neighbors who aren't friends anymore.

Don't shovel each other's walks anymore.

You know that this division writ small one on one in Arkansas, one challenge that we have in the Lehigh Valley is the idea that we've had, we have people here, and rightfully so that have been here for a long time, that have a lot of pride in that their parents and their grandparents, their great grandparents were here.

And over the past 20 years, we've also seen an incredible amount of people that are moving to Lehigh Valley, that want to be part of our quality of life want to be part of our institutions, and the culture and identity of the Lehigh Valley, and our two cities has changed.

And I know Mayor Tarik.

And I know that we just lean into that, like that change is something that we want to be a part of that we want to push.

That's what we've always done as a country and as a as a valley.

And that's what we are absolutely a part of, is understanding that the demographics and identity of our region have changed.

And that's a good thing.

One of the things we talk about too, is talking about those common experiences, like what is it about us that is similar people that are same no matter where you are, including in the Lehigh Valley.

And you're right, the lack of local news, and the lack of a lot of things on the local level gives people this kind of like, I'm gonna look at everything through his national identity.

One thing that Mayor Tarik and I talk a lot about is how do we move past that?

How do we see ourselves as a region?

How do we see ourselves as like, and I'm gonna say, speak for myself personally, is like, it doesn't matter to me, if you've lived in Bethlem, for 90 years, or you've lived in Bethlem, for eight days, like you're equally important to us, and we look at it as far as like, if you're coming here, then then then you're someone that we need to come up with solutions for the issues that are facing you in society.

We're a region that is full of neighborhoods, right.

So we can do our part by by pushing for a little bit of civility, asking for people that have grace as they confront the issues that they're facing every day.

That's one of the interesting things we're coming out of this pandemic, with an understanding of is that our neighbors are struggling to, we see that everybody's everybody got dealt a serious blow by this pandemic, everybody's mental health suffered significantly.

So asking for a little compassion as we focus on our neighborhoods, and get people to you mentioned the shoveling the sidewalks, we see that a lot in Allentown.

Not that people are no longer shoveling each other's sidewalks, but that our neighbors come out and help each other out.

They're looking out for their, their their fellow neighbors.

And we continue, you know, continuing to focus on that level of neighborhood engagement, talking about things like mindfulness, in our schools and in our all of our communications, meeting people where they are being present.

That's what we ask people to do.

And that's what we model.

That's how we can get a little bit better to place like Allentown and Bethlehem and then we have our Okay, Mayor Reynolds mentioned you guys talking to each other, I have to ask how often do you talk to each other?

And what do you talk about?

We've seen each other four times.

So so we were at a we were at a breakfast at 730.

They were at a chamber event and we had our kind of mayor's quarterly meeting, you know, after work today, and then obviously here.

But you know, we talk to each other a lot, just because, as we said, a lot of the issues are regional, and a lot of the things that we're dealing with in Bethlehem, Mayor Turks dealing with downtown, and a lot of it is the coordination not just how would you handle this?

Or how would you handle this, but how do we take these issues and put them on more of a regional level?

How do we take the things that we are seeing that our citizens are seeing like affordable housing, homelessness, pandemic recovery, and trying to convince everybody in the Lehigh Valley, this is something that's going to affect you to not just from a moral point of view, but also from a practical and economic point of view.

So we like to have we talked to each other fairly, fairly frequently.

Mayor Reynolds came to my State of the City address in January, I attended his State of the City address in April, and we were both at Mayor Panthers address in March.

And one of the cool things that I saw from Mayor Panto was a slide from I don't even know what era it was Sal looked really young in that picture.

But it was a picture of the mayors of Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton putting their heads together.

And one thing that we've all committed to is getting together on a quarterly basis to just trade thoughts on things that we do face as a region and how we can collaborate and work together.

We've got a good text thread going where we just kind of three mayor's have a text spread.

i There's three mayor's the two of you and Willie as Mayor Panto left out of the text.

No, no, he's got he's in there.

He's he was on the tech side today after we we sat down at one point but there's we do get to talk to each other about a lot of things because our cities do face a lot of the same challenges.

And we there's just a lot for us to learn from each other.

Well, he's got a better job shot than I do and I can learn from his jump shot and he can learn something about running for me No jokes about the sneakers on the text.

I was gonna say no, you're not wearing the sneakers here.

So I'm not I think we should move on before.

I want to fit in one more substantive question before we're just about out of time.

Unfortunately, you both talked about changing demographics in the Lehigh Valley.

One community we haven't talked about is the LGBTQ plus community here in the Lehigh Valley.

What do you think needs to happen here to make this place feel more inclusive?

Well, so there's a lot that that needs to be done still.

But one thing that we did early on in the city of Allentown 20 years ago, it was we passed anti discrimination language that changed the way that we do that across the Commonwealth, Allentown led and pushed Philadelphia to pass its own anti discriminatory language.

And we saw that happen across the Lehigh Valley.

Mayor Reynolds and I both earlier this month, or I guess, last month, raised the transgender flag on a day of visibility for the transgender community.

It's having leaders speak openly about inclusivity.

It's having leaders speak about seeing members of our community, and helping doing everything we can to make them feel welcome, and to communicate to all of the residents of the Lehigh Valley that's important to us and to our communities.

That's part of the work that can be done.

We also need our legislators to step up.

We have about 30 seconds.

Mayor Reynolds, did you want to Yeah.

Bethlem has been a leader in this regard as well.

We have our Human Relations Commission, we have extended benefits, same sex partners, every time that as I like to say every time one of these issues arises on the culture, cultural front, Bethlem stands up, we are allowed about it.

We believe that Bethlem is a city for everyone.

And you know, we're going to continue to work with Allentown and Mayor Tarik and making sure that we push for that inclusive, not just to cities, but also inclusive Lehigh Valley.

i Well, thank you both so much for sharing your candor and your humor and your visions for the city.

This has been just a great conversation.

It's been wonderful to have a live studio audience.

Thank you so much for being here.

So I want to officially thank both mayor's for sharing their thoughts as you move past your first 100 days in office and closer to the first 1000 I'd also like to thank my colleague, Hayden Mittman and our studio audience again for their participation.

And finally, we want to thank you, our viewers and listeners for joining us tonight and taking an interest in our community.

For all of us here at PBS 39 and 91.3 WL VR Have a great night.