“I was seventeen years old when I came over here to the southside, and now I’m 70 years old, so I’ve been living here for a long time. I thought it was beautiful here. […] When I first came here, I saw this house, and I said ‘This is going to be my house.’ It was a lot of work, but I love it. It’s a good place to work.”
[What do you see in the future, here in Bethlehem?]
“More restaurants. Lots more restaurants. And more festivals.”
— Jesus Velez Fontanez
“We lived in Allentown for more than 35 years, and we see difference in Bethlehem and Allentown. It’s vibrant in Bethlehem, and it’s growing a lot. A lot of new things happening, for the good I believe. The community itself, the arts, the people […] People are willing to try different things here.”
[Any concerns for the future here?]
“Not really. Only the parking!”
— Jenny Lim
“When we were starting this shop, we decided on Southside Bethlehem because we all felt a connection to the Bethlehem area, and Southside just felt right… the area, the community, the other small business owners, our landlord’s freaking awesome, so we just right of the bat felt good. Everyone welcomed us as if they’d known us for years.
[Concerns for the future?] “If I could be very honest… I have mixed feelings about the things that are happening in Southside Bethlehem right now, like the overpriced housing… it kind of stinks for the people that have been here for years, those that don’t have a lot of money get put on the back burner, made secondary compared to those with. I’m hoping for good things, I’m hoping we can keep Southside what it is.”
— Melanie Lino
“I spent the first 14 years of my life pretty much all the time on the South Side– that was my entire world. When you’re a kid, all you know is that people on the North Side think that your side of town is dangerous or not a great place to be. I remember that created a sort of sense of pride among my classmates and me, when we were at Broughal– that we felt like we were the underdogs, the downtrodden ones, and so we had to represent ourselves.
“We have so much diversity in terms of our population. We have beautiful outdoor spaces and lots of trees and green space, but then within a five minute walk from my house, I have a commercial district. I can buy groceries at walking distance from my house. I can take my dog on a walk down the Greenway. And so many of these little elements makeup what urban planners or academics think of as the ideal community, and we have it all right here in our little town. You don’t quite identify it when you’re younger, but as I started to get older, I realized what a cool thing we had here in Bethlehem.
[Concerns for the future?] “I think the scariest thing about change is when we feel like we have no control over what’s going to happen to the places that mean so much to us and the people that mean so much to us– our community. And that’s why I do what I do at this job, because I think we need to make sure that wherever we’re going, it’s something that everyone has a voice in and really feels a part of.
— Anna Smith
So happy to see these faces here. More! More!
Your interviewees painted an accurate picture of South Bethlehem. Thanks for this article and keep ’em coming!
Yeah.
It’s so great to see the “real people” of South Bethlehem.