Historic Downtown Needs Streetscape Improvement

Almost four decades after Bethlehem City Council invested in Victorian style streetlights and brick sidewalks, Bethlehem's historic district is due for a makeover.

The foresight of the mayor and city fathers back then gave Bethlehem an advantage over other Lehigh Valley downtowns helping Bethlehem survive the tough economic times.  

Undoubtedly, events such as Musikfest and Celtic Classic along with the 100-plus events staged each year by a very active merchant association have helped enormously. But the backdrop of a quaint historic downtown setting can not be duplicated and has a lot to do with Bethlehem's Downtown remaining in tact.

Tourism in our downtown has resulted in many corporations locating in Bethlehem or the Greater Lehigh Valley. Few can argue that Bethlehem has become the cultural center and a place residents want to bring their out-of-town guests to show off what the area has to offer: Unique shopping, dining and entertainment venues with world-class events in an unmatched and safe environment.

The wear and tear of 40 years and the many intrusions made by countless events and millions of visitors has taken its toll. As a downtown business and property owner, I am very pleased to see a business such as Liberty Property decide to re-invest in Bethlehem and help make the necessary makeover possible.  

The is designed to be done in up to six phases and will result in a much more user-friendly and safer streetscape for our pedestrians and drivers.

It is my hope that property owners and businesses in the downtown will follow the lead and be part of an ongoing program to not only support this project financially, but also to take a step further and form a Downtown Improvement District on the north side of town.  

The idea of an improvement district has been the subject of much discussion on both sides of Bethlehem during the last three or four years. The goals of such a district would be to not only do infrastructure improvements and maintenance but also business recruitment and marketing of the downtown and the events taking place.

Manhattan would be a good place to look for an example of successful improvement districts with more that 20 different districts operating next to each other.  Not only does this kind of arrangement result in success for the included businesses, it also results in increased property values, full occupancy and reduced taxation for the public. 

In conclusion, I would like to express a sincere "thank you" to Bob Kiel from Liberty for engineering this contribution and hopefully helping Bethlehem get its much needed streetscape improvement.  

My challenge is on the record to all property and business owners in our downtown to get on board and help make this plan a reality.