Philadelphia Chinatown Wins Stadium Fight
November 24, 2000
API community credits organizing, coalition-building
By AsianWeek Staff and Associated Press
Mayor John Street abandoned plans to build a stadium for the Philadelphia Phillies in Chinatown and instead backed a less contentious site in South Philadelphia.
Street’s decision to push for a ballpark in Chinatown had been criticized by many Chinese American residents who were concerned that it would destroy their neighborhood, and by lawmakers who said the location could add as much as $350 million to the bill for site preparation and other costs.
“The decision is a tremendous victory for the broad coalition that has vigorously opposed the plan since it was announced in the spring,” said Paul Uyehara, of the Stadium Out of Chinatown Coalition.
“Forces in the API community, neighborhood groups, religious, labor, ethnic, political and others were able to mount an effective and sustained campaign. We were able to quickly and clearly demonstrate the unity and strength of the opposition in Chinatown and the entire regional API community,” he added.
“We worked very, very hard but at the end of the day we were never able to reach any consensus,’’ Street said.
The mayor said he still preferred a Chinatown site for the Phillies but finally abandoned it last Monday after becoming convinced it was unworkable.
“Mayors don’t always get what mayors want,’’ Street said. “I couldn’t get them to where I wanted to be.’’
In its 30 years, Philadelphia’s Chinatown has faced numerous obstacles since its population began growing.
The immigrant neighborhood with just a handful of restaurants and one grocery store was seeing its first influx of families in the mid-1960s. Many had children attending the Holy Redeemer School and Church, which became a local community center and meeting site.
Then, the city proposed an eight-lane highway that would bulldoze the school and cut Chinatown in half.
“I think we saw it as a plan to get rid of Chinatown,” said Cecelia Yep, one of the founders of the Philadelphia Chinatown Development Coalition in 1969. “It was the only thing good in Chinatown at the time. We thought it was a fight for survival.”
Holy Redeemer was spared, though the pared-down expressway still cut through the center of Chinatown.
The partial victory would repeat itself many times over the next 30 years with a federal prison, commuter rail tunnel, downtown mall and convention center. Each was built with much compromising, and now they form a circle around Chinatown’s current core of about five city blocks.
The proposed stadium had been the latest thorn in Chinatown’s side. Neighborhood activists like Uyehara say the move would have been too much for the community-on-the-brink to bear.
“No one could ignore the 30 years of development attacks that have chipped away at Chinatown and walled it in,” he said. “The stadium would have been a fatal blow.”
Philadelphia is not alone. Chinatowns across the country are under attack either from urban revival — which is making the areas less affordable for the immigrant population — or from downtown development, such as new sports stadiums.
“Overall, all Chinatowns are not doing well,’’ said Peter Kwong, an Asian American studies professor at Hunter College in New York. “Traffic is bad, parking is not to be found. People are leaving because of downtown problems. That’s not just the Chinese, but it’s other groups as well.’’
Boston’s Chinatown is also the red-light district, and at the mouth of an expressway tunnel. In Los Angeles, people are leaving the troubled downtown Chinatown to settle in suburban Monterey Park’s Chinese American community. Washington, D.C., saw its Chinatown swallowed by the new MCI Center. It remains, but barely.
Chinatowns usually cater to new immigrants, with many unskilled workers who don’t speak English. When the new Americans get skills and better jobs, they move out of Chinatowns for a better quality of life. That makes Chinatown necessary — but also vulnerable.
“Usually the least powerful political group is the Chinese,’’ Kwong said.
In Philadelphia, 70 percent of Chinatown’s 4,000 residents speak no English, but the area also serves an estimated 250,000 Chinese Americans in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware, according to the Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation.
“Chinatown is a symbolic center not just for the people who live there, but for the Chinese American community as a whole,’’ said Debbie Wei of the Chinatown Coalition. “What happens to Chinatown becomes a symbol for what happens to us as a community.’’
Street said he will recommend to City Council that both the Eagles and the Phillies stadiums be located in South Philadelphia, creating “a sports complex that’s very different from any other complex in the country.’’
The Phillies ballpark would be at the corner of Darien Street and Pattison Avenue, across the street from the proposed site for the new Eagles stadium. The plan would increase the number of parking spaces at the sports complex from more than 15,000 spaces to as many as 23,000, officials said. Both stadiums would afford views of the Center City downtown area.
“I think it’s a great relief and about time the mayor came to his senses,’’ said Mary Yee, a committee co-chairman of the Stadium Out of Chinatown Coalition. “I think the traffic and parking issues are certainly less troublesome there. There wouldn’t be that impact on the quality of life since the residences are farther away there.’’
Street was joined at the news conference by officials with both teams.
“We think it will be an outstanding site for the vision we have for our stadium,’’ said Joe Banner, executive vice president of the Eagles. “The access will be good and our opportunity to create the experience we’re looking for, so we are very pleased and excited to move forward with this site configuration.”
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