4 challengers look to unseat 3 incumbents in Allentown City Council primary

ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Affordable housing and public safety are taking center stage in the seven-candidate Democratic primary race for three seats on the Allentown City Council.

Three incumbents — Candida Affa, Cecilia “Ce-Ce” Gerlach and Santo Napoli — are seeking to retain their seats.

They face challenges from Luis Acevedo, Tino Babayan, Rodney Bushe and Sarina Torres.

Torres is the only political newcomer. Acevedo, Babayan and Bushe have previously sought council seats.

• Seven candidates are vying for three seats on Allentown City Council
• Affordable housing and public safety were among the candidates' top issues
• The 2023 Democratic primary is May 16

Acevedo ran an unsuccessful campaign for council in 2019, while Babayan failed in a 2021 bid.

Bushe applied to fill the seat left vacant last year by Josh Siegel’s election to the state House of Representatives. Council appointed Napoli to fill that vacancy in January.

The May 16 Democratic primary will almost certainly determine who wins seats on the Allentown City Council starting next year. Each of the seven candidates filed to appear only on Democratic ballots; no one filed to have their names on Republican primary ballots.

Acevedo, Affa, Bushe, Gerlach, Napoli and Torres spoke to LehighValleyNews.com about their campaigns and their visions for Allentown. Babayan did not respond to multiple calls seeking comment for this report.

Each candidate who spoke to LehighValleyNews.com pointed to a lack of affordable housing as among Allentown’s most pressing issues.

About 46% of households in the city have a housing “cost burden,” spending more than 30% of their incomes on rent or mortgage payments, according to Allentown’s five-year consolidated plan, published in March 2020.

Hispanic and Black households in Allentown are burdened by housing costs at much higher rates — 59% and 55.4%, respectively — the city’s statistics show.

'Housing is a human right'

Gerlach, who is seeking a second term, repeatedly has pushed for more affordable housing projects in Allentown.

“Housing is my No. 1 campaign issue,” Gerlach said. She said she is running for re-election “so that I can continue to put forth housing policies.”

Gerlach won a council seat in 2019 after serving two terms on the city’s school district board. She said she ran for a seat on council because her “reach on housing would be limited” as a school board member.

“I really saw that many of the challenges that the school district is facing are not even the school district’s to solve,” Gerlach said.

“The school district isn’t in charge of dilapidated housing, slum lords, crime, all of the issues that the kids bring into the schools that cause them to have some challenges learning.”

Gerlach, who ran for mayor in 2021, said she believes “housing is a human right” and called on city officials, including council, to “go all in and declare that housing is a fundamental right of everyone in Allentown.”

Council must then “put policies behind that declaration to actually make it true,” such as establishing inclusionary zoning, which incentivizes developers to include units for low- and moderate-income families in their housing projects.

Developers can opt out of building those units by paying an impact fee, which the city could use to build affordable housing “for working-class people,” Gerlach said.

She said the council also should work on policies to “help people stay in their homes” by using the city’s federal coronavirus pandemic-relief money to make “micro-investments” to support homeowners in Allentown.

'Rehabbing blighted properties a high priority'

Council member Santo Napoli also listed affordable housing as his campaign’s top issue. Napoli is seeking a full term after being appointed to fill Siegel’s seat in January. 

“We all know that there needs to be an emphasis put on attracting more affordable housing in the city,” Napoli said. 

The city should be “encouraging and working with developers who have experience in building affordable housing” and using low-income tax credits to complete projects, he said.

Allentown is behind on its efforts to build affordable housing and needs to “jumpstart” development, Napoli said. He said he would work to build relationships with developers and be “an ambassador for the city.”

Council also should work more closely with the city Housing Authority to “help them help our residents,” he said.

Napoli proposed a program that would see the city partner with community groups and nonprofits to rehabilitate blighted properties and sell them back to families.

That would boost homeownership and property values, “build more of a structure in neighborhoods,” and help to reduce crime, he said.

“Rehabilitating these blighted properties is a high priority for me,” Napoli said.

Fix blighted properties or lose them

Two-time challenger Luis Acevedo said the city council should create a mechanism to fine blighted properties into compliance.

If owners aren’t working to repair and improve their properties within 60 days, the city should take them over and rent or sell them to low-income families, Acevedo said.

“Now we’re resolving two issues at one time: blighted properties are going to go down and low-income families are going to own a house or rent a house,” he said.

Acevedo, who has worked at RJ Walker in Northampton for 20 years, is running on a platform of “transparency, representation and integrity.”

He said he’s seeking a seat on the Allentown City Council to represent Latino residents, who make up more than half the city’s population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

“But I will be the voice for everyone, not just for the Latino community, not just for the African-American community, but for everyone,” Acevedo said.

Acevedo said he wants to help create an Allentown with “more unity” and “more diversity” in city jobs, though he credited Mayor Matt Tuerk for working to diversify Allentown government. 

'Insane' rents in Allentown

Rodney Bushe is seeking a seat on Council after applying in December to fill a vacant seat.

Bushe, who works as a real estate agent, said he entered the industry “not for the profits [but] for the people” after seeing how owning property can “create generational wealth.”

Council should consider rent caps, he said, calling Allentown’s rental rates “insane.”

“We know that throughout the pandemic, inflation has increased greatly, and it has impacted our most vulnerable communities,” Bushe said.

“There’s no reason why a one-bedroom [apartment] in Allentown should be $1,500-$1,600 … when our median income in that area is barely $20,000,” he said.

“How are people expected to live comfortable and sustainable lives when they can't afford a place over their head?” Bushe said.

Bushe said many city residents are working multiple jobs to “keep the roof over their head and food on the table,” causing a “domino effect for everything else in their lives.”

“Folks that are working downtown” should be able to afford “to eat and live downtown,” he said.

Bushe said he’s running for council to repay his community.

“The community has lifted me up out of tight spaces,” Bushe said. “The community reached out to me and they helped me, so it’s only right that I pay that forward and make sure that our residents are living good, sustainable lives.”

‘A lot of empty lots’

Sarina Torres, a small business owner and Kutztown University student, said she is “really passionate” about addressing Allentown’s lack of affordable housing.

“When you have a stable home, you create more of a stable life, too,” Torres said.

As a council member, she said, she would work to direct more funding to affordable housing projects, particularly those that support elderly residents and residents with disabilities.

Allentown has “a lot of empty lots” that could be used for housing projects, she said. Officials could do a better job working with local nonprofits and community groups to help ease the city’s housing issues, Torres said.

“I think there’s actually a lot that the city can do as long as we work together,” Torres said.

'Start neighborhoods up again'

Councilwoman Affa said that if she's re-elected, she would work to help the city get more federal funding for affordable housing projects.

She called for officials to make homeownership more feasible in an effort to revitalize Allentown’s neighborhoods.

“What I’d love to see is affordability in the city so that [residents] could buy homes and start neighborhoods up again,” Affa said.

“It’s just terrible to try to get housing” in Allentown, she said, though she noted “it’s bad all over the country.”

Affa is making her “wisdom” and her experience on the council — and various other boards before that — a major plank in her campaign.

Serving on the council is “a very difficult job” that makes members carry “the burden of [their] decisions,” she said.

“I was on so many committees before I was a businesswoman and then I was on committees for several years before I ran for office,” Affa said. “And I was still a deer in the headlights when I sat up there" the first time.

Affa said members must be strong leaders because the council has to “listen to our constituents but not obey every demand that they have.”

“I want to work for the people," she said. "And I think that I am the best candidate for that. I have the most wisdom, I have the most experience and I know what it's like to have a few people stir and all of a sudden the city's in an uproar.”

Affa said she planned not to seek a third term on council but ran again because “Allentown needs me.”

“I didn’t want to run this time; I was done,” she said. “But I saw the people that were running, and I see what direction the city's going, and I'm not happy with it.”

“This is the first time I’m running this way,” Affa said. “Allentown needs me. They truly need me.”

'Good streets,' good service

Affa said quality-of-life issues such as public safety and “good streets” also are a top priority in her campaign for a third term on the council.

Residents expect good customer service from the city and its police, firefighters and paramedics, as well as the public works department, Affa said.

Affa said the Allentown Police Department needs more police officers so it can “beef up” its patrols. The department is budgeted to have 300 officers but only has about 210, Affa said, adding she’d “love to get it to at least 230.”

If the city’s public works and police departments serve residents well, “the rest will fall into place,” she said.

Residents 'want the simple things taken care of'

Napoli also linked public safety with quality-of-life issues. He said the city can do better to ease residents’ quality-of-life concerns, such as trash and noise complaints.

“A lot of them just want the simple things taken care of,” Napoli said. “They don’t like trash everywhere, they don’t like noise, they really value their public safety.”

Residents who live in neighborhoods “where the quality of life is poor” are led to move out of the city and are often replaced by investors or landlords, he said.

“You end up with transient folks and that doesn’t help long term,” Napoli said.

Napoli said that if he's re-elected, he will also push council to go after “negligent and absentee landlords.”

Youth centers, community response to social issues

Acevedo is proposing new youth centers throughout the city to curb crime and help young residents stay out of trouble.

The centers should be open after school and on the weekends to teach kids how to play sports, as well as respect and responsibility, he said.

“That’s how we start a fight against crime,” Acevedo said.

Bushe and Gerlach are calling for the city to consider new community-based approaches to public safety.

Gerlach wants Allentown to establish community response teams to handle social situations that don’t require an “armed response.”

She said she will “put forth crime-prevention legislation and really help the city move toward a more holistic approach to public safety that actually addresses the root causes of crime."

“Mental health [issues] and addiction and being poor and unsheltered — these are not crimes,” Gerlach said. “These are situations people find themselves in [where] they need help.

“We need to start addressing these social situations with folks who have spent their life in the field and have the education to address the social issues."

The community-response program “is really about helping the police out,” and the city would save money by “matching the right responder to the right event,” Gerlach said.

Bushe serves as a community engagement specialist for Promise Neighborhoods of the Lehigh Valley, an Allentown-based nonprofit that says its mission is “to create safe, healthy, vibrant, inclusive neighborhoods.”

He said one of his “main initiatives is ending gun violence” in Allentown. He also called for mental health professionals to respond to some situations normally handled by police.

“We need to reimagine the way we look at public safety and what we do with policing,” Bushe said. “Not every time that there is a 911 call a police officer needs to be present.

“Let the police do their job and let a professional that does case-management, social work, psychiatry full-time be that person."

‘Planting the seeds’

Sarina Torres highlighted gun violence among young people as one of the city’s top issues. She said it’s “an alarming thing that everyone in Allentown should be concerned about, regardless if you have children or not.”

Torres’ campaign also has put an emphasis on transparency from city officials. She said she sometimes struggles to keep up with what the city is doing because information can be difficult to track down.

“It’s so important for people my age to be able to understand what’s happening in their city, especially because we contribute just as much as anyone else,” Torres said.

Allentown “should be a place where people feel heard and represented throughout our city,” she said.

Torres, who owns Sarina’s Berries, said she wants “to use [her] story as an example” for young people in the city and put her small business experience to work serving residents.

Torres said owning a small business has taught her responsibility and made her “reliable and dependable.”

“You have to be on-point about everything that you do” as a small business owner, she said.

Torres proposed an afterschool program for young people about how to start small businesses and said the city should look at prioritizing small businesses when awarding contracts.

While many candidates refer to their campaigns as being “grassroots,” Torres said her campaign is in the “dirt” phase.

“I say ‘dirt’ because I’m building,” she said. “I don’t have grass yet; I’m just planting the seeds.”

'City should take over parking authority'

Amid months of complaints from residents against the Allentown Parking Authority, Acevedo said he would push for the city to again take control of the agency.

The parking authority is abusing its power, Acevedo said, adding “something’s got to get done.”

“My goal is to get this back to the city and have the city of Allentown have the power of the parking authority, not the other way around,” Acevedo said.

Allentown City Council members — including Affa, Gerlach and Napoli — recently voted to fund a $20,000 study of the parking authority’s structure and what it would cost the city to take over the agency.

Acevedo also called for council members to be barred from serving on the parking authority’s board of directors.

Santo Napoli and Council President Daryl Hendricks currently serve on that board. Affa recently finished a term with the parking authority board.