News & Media

What does Allentown want for Christmas?

December 14, 2010  |  CUNA Staff

This is not your usual Christmas list, but the CUNA Local Organizing Committee of Zion's United Church of Christ is asking valley wide residents what they want for downtown Allentown.  "We are not sure if Santa will accept such a survey, but we have to at least try", joked Gail Pileggi, CUNA leader and member of Zion UCC.

Gail, along with other members of the downtown CUNA local organizing committee sponsored by Zion UCC are taking the months of December and January to examine the downtown corridor from Walnut to Linden between 5th and 12th streets of Allentown.  

Kicking off their assessment a team of leaders are gathering on the front steps of Zion UCC (620 West Hamilton Street downtown Allentown, Tuesday December 14th from 12 noon to 1 pm to survey passers by.  As an added bonus they will be passing out free coffee and cookies to those who visit. 

The group intends to use the survey findings to develop a "snap-shot" of downtown Allentown that will hopefully add to the growing understanding of people's perceptions, feelings, and perspectives.  "The city and businesses have done a lot of great work to improve downtown, we want to acknowledge this and make sure we do our part to help," explained Ana Colon, downtown resident and CUNA leader from Sacred Heart Church.

In addition to surveying people downtown, CUNA leaders are also conducting the survey in other key areas outside of Allentown such as neighboring municipalities and education institutions.  The hope is to create a diverse cross section of people and opinions that will provide detailed and geographic based information. 

Following the compilation of the data, CUNA leaders from Zion UCC will produce a document of their findings that will be shared publicly.  "Our members and downtown residents want to involve the public in continuing conversations about improving the downtown.  We hope that the results of this survey will be helpful not only in our efforts to strengthen the neighborhood, but also will be helpful to the other positive initiatives already underway," explained Reverend Bob Stevens, Pastor of Zion UCC and CUNA president. 

 If you are interested in taking the survey please contact the office of CUNA at 610-434-1260 or click here to download the survey.