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Monday, September 29, 2008

Chinatown Ready To Fight Casino Relocation
Anti-casino protests like this started more than two weeks ago in Chinatown.

Mayor Nutter, City Councilman Frank DiCicco and state Rep. Mike O'Brien have a meeting scheduled next week with the Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corp. to discuss the proposal to move the Foxwoods casino from the Delaware Riverfront in South Philly to the Gallery in Center City.  From the talk at a PCDC meeting tonight, the community is very much opposed to the idea.

John Chin, PCDC's executive director, called the proposed casino a "very, very bad idea" for Chinatown.  Chin is concerned that the casino's investors have not shown any plans for what they hope to do at 11th and Market streets.  "Time is on our side," Chin told about 60 people gathered at Holy Redeemer Chinese Catholic Church. "We can fight this and drag it out for a long time."

George Yep, owner of the East Asia Noodle Co., said traffic is already a problem for his business.  He offered up $500 on the spot to help PCDC hire an attorney.  "Fight this all the way," Yep said.  His wife, Cecelia Moy Yep, recounted the many fights Chinatown has faced for survival, from the expansion of the Vine Street Expressway to the construction of the Federal Detention Center.  The community stood up to then-Mayor Street in her first term and defeated a proposed baseball stadium in the neighborhood.  "It seems like very 10 years we have another battle," Moy Yep said. "And it's because Chinatown is adjacent to the central business district.  That works for us and it works against us."

The meeting will be on Thursday, Oct. 9 at 7 p.m. at Holy Redeemer Chinese Catholic Church at 915 Vine streets.

UPDATE:  Mayor Nutter will not be attending this meeting, according to his administration. Instead, senior staffers to the mayor who deal with casino issues and city planning will attend.
Posted by Chris Brennan @ 9:37 PM  Permalink | 8 comments
Comments   
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 1:25 AM, 09/30/2008
    Market Street is not ChinaTown. It is none of their business. It is an area zoned for skyscrapers on top of a major regional transportation commuter rail nexus. Who the hell do these people think they are dictating the property rights of a commercial corridor that is as old as the city. There have been giant department stores that brought crowds of people to Market street and then decay. Now, that area is being developed again for the greater good of the city. There are whole areas of the city where people can move to if they want to be in a segregated ethnic enclave. There are a great many Chinese supermarkets in the Northeast on Adams Avenue. There are plenty of places that Chinese, Koreans and Russians immigrants have found in the city in overwhelmingly residential neighborhoods that do not face commercial development of galactic proportions. But Center City on Market Street? Are they really shocked to see development there? Do they really think that they have been economically marginalized because they can not afford the real estate prices for the second largest city on the East Coast during it's greatest period of rebuilding? Most people can't. They have been replaced. The German baker on Rittenhouse Square is gone for a lux tower. Leary's used books is a fond memory. The Dock Street warehouse and food distribution center has moved to South Philly and will move again to the Air Port area. Strawbridge and Clothiers, Lits, Snellenberg's and all of the Horn and Hardarts restaurants, all gone with the wind. And as Philadelphia reinvents itself as a Global City, the Chinatown activists who play obstructionist politics will find themselves very alone when a real land grab comes to their doorsteps. The city needs real change not fabricated victimization.
    — Fernando08
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 7:28 AM, 09/30/2008
    Way to go! Give them hell Chinatown.
    — an observer3
  • Comment removed.
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 8:32 AM, 09/30/2008
    It is not uncommon for it to take 30-45 minutes to drive across town. Each and every new skyscraper adds hundreds of cars while nothing is done to accomodate worsening traffic. In my neighborhood alone numerous new condo conversions approved with hardly any parking have put hundreds of cars on the street so that long time residents can't find parking space. Anyone going to the convention center by car knows the congestion that exists in the Chinatown area. The concept of adding ten thousand cars a day would be a nightmare. Bad, bad idea. Sure the Gallery sucks. It sucks because old people don't feel safe, workers don't need a subway system that goes nowhere and shop owners are tired of spending three days a week presenting their shoplifting experiences to the police. To quote a former shop owner, "I spent more time with the local detective asssigned to our area than I did with my husband".
    — ritaf
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 8:35 AM, 09/30/2008
    Fernando08 doesn't seem to understand that a slots parlor is very different than a department store or luxury condo. A slots parlor is a predatory business designed to exploit the local population. The machines and the entire environment are designed to be addictive. Get-rich marketing targeting low to moderate income people. Terrible, just terrible. Yes, we need change, but not like this. This is a predatory industry and it needs to be located far from neighborhoods.
    — NotADoneDeal
  • Comment removed.
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 12:59 PM, 09/30/2008
    They were wrong about the stadium. It would have been an amazing addition to Center City and that neighborhood.
    — Echo
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:55 PM, 09/30/2008
    The Gallery is literally at the edge of Chinatown. It will affect the 4,000-5,000 Chinatown residents along with everyone who uses the Gallery to hop on SEPTA to get to work, school, and home. Most people don't realize that the Gallery is a social hangout for students after school and on the weekends. Do people not realize that if this casino is built that we will have even more addicts around that area? Nutter was quoted to saying that he will not put a penny in for increasing the police enforcement around that area if the casino is built.
    — av265


8 comments
About The Philly Clout Team
PhillyClout
Chris Brennan, a native Philadelphian and graduate of Temple University, joined the Daily News in 1999. He has written about SEPTA, the Philadelphia School District, the legalization of casino gambling, state government, the mayor, the governor, City Council and political campaigns.
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David Gambacorta spent a small eternity writing about cops, drug dealers and serial killers. Now he’s writing about power and politics ­– which sometimes reminds him of the old crime beat. He joined the Daily News in 2005. And yes, he knows you’re not quite sure how to pronounce his last name. E-mail tips to gambacd@phillynews.com
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Catherine Lucey joined the Daily News in 2002 and has written about murderous drug gangs, political protesters and Harry Potter. After covering the 2007 mayoral election, she moved over to the City Hall bureau where she has been reporting on the Nutter administration.
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Jan Ransom, a native New Yorker, joined the Daily News in 2010 after graduating from Howard University. She has since written about the difficulty of filing police complaints, tax deadbeats and life after violent home invasions. She joined the Daily News City Hall Bureau in 2011 and has plunged headfirst into reporting on administration budget battles and City Council shenanigans.
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