Story by Asha Prihar of Spotlight PA<\/p>\n
This story first appeared in PA Local, a weekly newsletter by Spotlight PA taking a fresh, positive look at the incredible people, beautiful places, and delicious food of Pennsylvania.\u00a0Sign up for free here<\/a>.<\/p>\n BETHLEHEM \u2014 Christmas and industrial history aren\u2019t all this Lehigh Valley city have to offer.<\/p>\n For J. William Reynolds, a lifelong resident of the city of 75,000 and its mayor since 2022, Bethlehem stands out \u2014 and thrives \u2014 because of its togetherness.<\/p>\n Yes, the holidays are a big thing here \u2014 it\u2019s had the\u00a0self-adopted name of Christmas City<\/a>\u00a0for some time, and been the setting for a Hallmark movie titled (of course)\u00a0Miracle in Bethlehem, PA<\/a>. And the world-famous Bethlehem Steel Corporation called the city home for nearly a century and a half, as it fortified the United States\u2019\u00a0skyscrapers, bridges, and warships<\/a>.<\/p>\n But Bethlehem has layers, its mayor insists. As part of our \u201cMeet a Mayor\u201d Q&A series, Reynolds, a former teacher and City Council member, spoke with PA Local about the commonwealth\u2019s seventh-largest city, which has experienced lots of growth and change since its christening on Christmas Eve, 1741.<\/p>\n This interview has been condensed and edited for length and clarity.<\/p>\n PA Local: Can you describe Bethlehem in three words?<\/p>\n Reynolds: Community, family, and opportunity.<\/p>\n What was it about Bethlehem that made you want to lead it?<\/p>\n I think growing up here, one of the things you realize about our community is that it truly is a community. When you look at our institutions, when you look at our schools, our churches, our business groups \u2026 we\u2019re a city that\u2019s been built for 300 years on this idea that we\u2019re stronger together. You just find a lot of people in Bethlehem that are very optimistic, very positive, and want to make a difference in the world. I don\u2019t think you find that everywhere. And I thought there were a lot of opportunities for our city moving forward, and that\u2019s why I wanted to be mayor.<\/p>\n Bethlehem is known as the Christmas City. Could you explain why that is, and how Bethlehem keeps up that reputation to this day?<\/p>\n We were founded by the Moravians, which is a sect of Protestantism, almost 300 years ago in 1741. And obviously with our name, we have kind of inherited this tradition of Christmas. But we have very much tried to expand that in 2025 to this idea of, the holiday season is about community. It\u2019s about the idea that like the best of us is when we\u2019re spending time together, when we\u2019re celebrating together.<\/p>\n So absolutely, there is an economic benefit to be branded as the Christmas City. But more than that, it\u2019s really a reminder during these months in November and December about what our community is about all 12 months of the year. And that\u2019s the idea of working together to create joy and understanding that community is really at the center of what makes a place the place you want to live.<\/p>\n How are November and December in Bethlehem different from any other months?<\/p>\n We have a lot of holiday traditions \u2026 but there\u2019s just a certain charm that we have that makes people want to come to Bethlehem, makes people want to shop in Bethlehem \u2014 but also just take in what those what those concepts are that we think of in the holiday season, which is that we want to spend time with family, with friends, and just think about how grateful we are.<\/p>\n What do you wish people who aren\u2019t from Bethlehem, or maybe haven\u2019t been here before, knew about it?<\/p>\n We are much more than just this kind of post-industrial city. Last couple years \u2014 I think probably four or five years in a row now \u2014 we\u2019re in\u00a0the top 100 places to live<\/a>. We have this very blossoming economy. We have this incredible demand to want to locate here, to want to start a business here. And I think when people think about Bethlehem, they have this idea about what Bethlehem was in Bethlehem Steel. And that\u2019s a rich part of our heritage, but in 2025, we\u2019re much more diverse than that, we\u2019re more inclusive than that idea of just being an old steel town.<\/p>\n If you had to pick just one, what would you say is your favorite local holiday tradition?<\/p>\n It would probably be coming to\u00a0the tree lighting<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 especially now that my wife and I have a two-year-old. So we\u2019ve been able to add that to our tradition list.<\/p>\n What is a fun fact most people don\u2019t know about Bethlehem?<\/p>\n I would say probably people often associate us with the Moravians, which is the church, but the majority of people in the city are not Moravians. So there are a few Moravian churches, but the majority of the city is not of the Moravian faith.<\/p>\n What\u2019s your favorite Bethlehem hidden gem?<\/p>\n I don\u2019t know how hidden this is, but it\u2019s definitely to go for a run in the City of Bethlehem. It\u2019s one of the things that I like to do the most, is run through the neighborhoods \u2014 run in the South Side, run in the North Side, and just take in all of our different neighborhoods.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s say, hypothetically, I\u2019m a first time visitor, and I\u2019ve only got two hours to spend in Bethlehem. Where would you recommend that I go? What\u2019s my itinerary?<\/p>\n You might want to start here and get this great view of South Bethlehem and just kind of see what\u2019s at the center of the city.\u00a0[Editor\u2019s note: This interview was conducted at Payrow Plaza, where City Hall and the public library are located.]\u00a0But if you got two hours, I\u2019d probably go one of two places. I\u2019d either go to South Bethlehem and walk along the\u00a0Greenway<\/a>, which is an old rail trail that we\u2019ve turned into just this amazing connector on the South Side, or I would go and I would walk through our downtown here on the North Side. We\u2019re a\u00a0[UNESCO] World Heritage Site<\/a>\u00a0now \u2014 we were the 26th World Heritage Site in the United States \u2014 so, I probably would just take a walk down\u00a0Main Street<\/a>\u00a0to get an idea of some of our history.<\/p>\n Is there a particular Pennsylvania city, borough, or township you think we should feature in future \u201cMeet a Mayor\u201d installments?\u00a0Let us know<\/a>.<\/p>\n BEFORE YOU GO\u2026\u00a0If you learned something from this article, pay it forward and contribute to Spotlight PA at\u00a0spotlightpa.org\/donate<\/a>. Spotlight PA is funded by\u00a0foundations and readers like you<\/a>\u00a0who are committed to accountability journalism that gets results.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Story by Asha Prihar of Spotlight PA This story first appeared in PA Local, a weekly newsletter by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52949,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120],"class_list":{"0":"post-52948","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-allentown","8":"tag-allentown","9":"tag-allentown-headlines","10":"tag-allentown-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}