The scam reported in the article titled “Former Newark Mayor Warned about Charges,” published in today’s edition of The New York Times, has been the practice of the City of Easton, Pennsylvnaia, for years.

Easton through its Redevelopment Authority, Parking Authority, and Northampton County Tax Office buys properties at sheriff’s and set-back sales delinquent in property-taxes and steers these properties at fire-sale prices to developers like Schy-Rhys Realty, owned by the partners who own Pearly Baker’s Ale House, Jonathan Davis and Greg Schuyler.

The City of Easton sold these properties to Schy-Rhys even though at least one competing developer bid more for them, with more money going to reimburse the City of Easton, the Easton Area School District, and Northampton County for the delinquent taxes.

The City of Easton through its Redevelopment Authority and Parking Authority are currently acquiring properties in the same manner in the Bushkill Creek Corridor as political patronage to the primary beneficiaries of this development project, Arcadia Properties and its Riverwalk project and Lafayette College, the western and southern borders of whose campus adjoins the Bushkill Creek Corridor along the northern banks of Bushkill Creek.

The entire southern bank of Bushkill Creek in the corridor is privately owned by Easton Cemetery, a National Historic District whose northernmost section is bisected by State Route 22, the stretch known as “cemetery curve” - not only because it bisects the cemetery grounds, but also because its the site of many fatal accidents.

Should PennDoT decide in the future to straighten this street of SR 22, it would need the Bushkill Creek Corridor between N. 13th and N. 4th streets for that purpose.

Two of these properties, currently under development, are located at 437-439 Northampton Street.