By Bakari Height, LNS Transit Organizer
The public is invited to join young organizers and Asian Americans United for a solidarity rally on Sep. 7, 2024 at Noon EST at Philadelphia City Hall to protect Chinatown against unwelcome development.
Chinatowns hold a special place in what it means to be a diverse city. However, Philly’s Chinatown is once again being the target of a proposal of community-destroying amenity that is now using public transportation as their pawn. The owners of the Philadelphia 76ers are proposing a new basketball arena on many blocks of the existing Chinatown neighborhood in Central City Philadelphia. While the existing arena sits next to every other major sports team stadium at the end of one of SEPTA’s subway lines, the owners mark Chinatown’s more centralized location to all SEPTA’s transit lines as a reason for this relocation. While some labor unions support this decision, equating it to jobs, there is a movement to halt these plans which include young organizers.
I took a walk with Vivian Chang, the Executive Director of Asian Americans United one balmy August Sunday afternoon so she could show me the interconnectedness of her community. There was a fire station, a community center, a realtor, and of course, many tasty restaurants – all so authentic and some decade-long standing.
We need transit that supports our communities, not transit that destroys them.
LNS is hosting these organizers on Friday, September 6th at Noon EST