ALLENTOWN, Pa. — The city of Allentown held a “free” State of the City address Tuesday night ahead of Wednesday’s ticketed event.
The intimate event was held at Inkwell Art Studio.
“It’s like the dry run for the State of the City address. (Wednesday) we’re doing the big Chamber thing. (Tuesday night) I’m going to get an opportunity to do it in a smaller setting,” Allentown Mayor Matt Tuerk told 69 News. “We have a pretty good handle on things in Allentown. Now we can tackle some of the bigger issues that we face like housing, safety, the higher order of those same issues.”
Tuerk also pointed out concern over those leaving the city.
“We’ve seen tremendous turnover in our population in just a short amount of time, and people don’t have a strong connection to our city, so to me the greatest challenge that we face is finding a way to bring people in to get them engaged with the life of the city so that we can help write our future together. We all have a responsibility to welcome newcomers to the city and make sure they know how we do things in Allentown and also invite them to challenge the way that you do things to bring their perspectives,” Tuerk stated.
Tuerk said his biggest challenge is figuring out where to apply limited resources.
“We have all of the ambition in the world, we want to do everything, we’ve got lots of ideas, we have to decide what’s going to have the greatest impact,” Tuerk said.
During Tuesday’s dry run, Tuerk asked the audience about the issues important to them.
“There’s a lot of homes that are inhospitable. How are we going to hold those landlords accountable for those types of living conditions,” asked one resident.
Another resident voiced her concern over staying connected.
“As a small business owner and just someone who wants to go out and do things in Allentown, it seems like it’s really hard to know what’s going on,” she said.
The Allentown Chamber’s State of the City with Mayor Matt Tuerk takes place Wednesday at 11:00 a.m. at Archer Music Hall. The event is sold out.