Chinatown's Project H.O.M.E.

Project H.O.M.E., an organization that provides shelter and assistance to low income residents, has joined the Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation to build a low-income apartment building near 8th and Arch. The building at 810 Arch Street will occupy a former surface lot donated by the Philadelphia Housing Authority. 

Philadelphia is getting more than just a handsome apartment building in a neighborhood desperate for development, Center City is getting a badly needed resource for those struggling to get back on their feet.

Chinatown, City Hall, and Neglect

In discussions surrounding Philadelphia's growth and development, Chinatown is largely ignored. It's considered dirty, poor, and crowded. However much of the statistical research that paints Chinatown as an impoverished ghetto ignores the fact that much of its largely immigrant population are elderly or self employed.

Philadelphia claims to embrace immigrants, but when they don't fit into what we think Center City should be, many would rather relocate them if they don't come to the city with loads of investments.

Americans approach culture enclaves in a uniquely specific way. Outside looking in, we often find them interesting, but when they deviate from our isolated comfort zones some begin to view them as too Chinese, too Italian, or too gay. Of course xenophobia only exposes itself behind the anonymity of message boards, so people vocally express their discomfort with neighborhoods like Chinatown by calling it out as dirty or citing bias statistics to justify their anxiety.

The truth is Chinatown is bighted. But the city views Chinatown as an onlooker. Household trash is dumped around public trashcans, unpermitted street vendors go unchecked, and illegal parking is ignored throughout Chinatown North. This would run rampant and does in any neighborhood ignored by the city.

Despite being boxed in by the Convention Center, The Gallery, Market East Station, and the Vine Street Expressway, Chinatown's population continues to be one of fastest growing in Center City. As more residents move into Chinatown it's reputation won't get any better until the city begins to work with the neighborhood, truly accepting it as a part of Philadelphia.

The city that once attempted to drive an expressway off-ramp through the heart of the neighborhood and drop a baseball stadium just north of Vine Street seems to hold onto the notion that Chinatown has no place in Center City. The city eviscerated the Furnished Room District, Franklin Square, and the Tenderloin in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. Chinatown is the sole survivor of a Philadelphia that City Hall once wanted to forget.

Fortunately the Chinatown Development Corporation has a hold on what's left between 9th Street and 11th Street, much to the chagrin of city planners who don't understand how an ethnic enclave should be addressed by a modern city.

While the city continues to push growth and private development, wildly advertising subsidies for sites like Cira Centre South and potential investments in the Delaware Waterfront, the city has mentioned nothing of the PCDC's Eastern Tower and Community Center at 10th and Vine.

The tower stands to alter the skyline of the city and bring more residents and businesses to the struggling Callowhill neighborhood. Although the city has supported residential developments on the Parkway, Franklintown, and the Schuylkill River, neighborhoods that succeed on their own, they've expressed no interest in the ETCC which is poised to bridge multiple neighborhoods, dilute the visual impact of the Vine Street Canyon, and improve a Chinatown long neglected by City Hall.

Chinatown Community Center

This is hot. No, it's downright sexy.

Whether or not the neighborhood north of Vine is historically part of Chinatown, its influence is evident.

With Callowhill pushing for the conversion of the Reading Viaduct into a park, Chinatown is the only neighborhood in this enclave attempting to bridge the expressway's divide.

Uninspired caps bridge most of the divides at each intersection, but a beautifully landscaped park has already been installed on 10th Street two blocks north of Chinatown's newly restored gate.

The Philadelphia Chinatown Development Community now plans to build a 23 storey tower including residences, offices, and a community center just above the expressway.

The center will include a parking garage, and although zoning requires 100 spaces, the developer will apply for a reduction. Given the number of parking spaces available in the vicinity, the developer should try to get an exemption.

The Perfect Storm

A turf war is brewing in the neighborhood north of the Vine Street Expressway between Philadelphia's Chinatown community and Callowhill's loft-living yuppies. The s***showdown has spawned so many rumors and so much hostility from both sides, it's impossible to determine what exactly was proposed and where we landed. The only thing that seems to be clear is that it has nothing to do with money and everything to do with marking territory.

The Philadelphia Inquirer lauded Maria and John Yuen for going up against the Callowhill neighborhood and successfully blocking a proposed Neighborhood Improvement District. The NID would have added a 7% tax to the residents in the Callowhill neighborhood in exchange for maintenance services.

Or was it for the maintenance of the proposed but uncertain Reading Viaduct Park? Or did it exempt the park? Both sides are spewing so much propaganda, it wouldn't be clear to anyone signing a petition.

The problem at the center of the entire debate seems to be the park which was used to sell the NID to Callowhill residents, and used to oppose it to Chinatown residents. It's likely the NID would have passed if the park had never been proposed in the first place. Whether for or against to the park, neither side seems willing to admit that it's highly unlikely we'll see the viaduct redeveloped in any way anytime soon.

What is clear is that the Inquirer's headline is misleading if not downright wrong. Callowhill NID Foes Went Up Against Powerful Forces and Won. Obviously the powerful forces at play were those opposed to the NID if they managed to gather enough signatures to kill it.

In NIMBYism on top of NIMBYism, Maria Yuen even created NOVA, the North of Vine Association, to represent the same neighborhood that the Callowhill Neighborhood Association already represents instead of joining the CNA to work with them.

Some opposed to the NID have even claimed the area north of Vine to be historically part of Chinatown that was cut off when the Vine Street Expressway was built. In fact, Vine Street had divided the two neighborhoods prior to the expressway's construction. Historically the neighborhood north of Vine was known as the Tenderloin. Before the expressway divided the two neighborhoods, Chinatown was exponentially smaller. Opposition seems to be attempting to rewrite history to make its case. Chinatown's growth is great, but the direction in which it would have grown is irrelevant to history.

Unfortunately, the reluctance of both sides to compromise will ultimately harm this area. I don't think the NID is the way to clean up Callowhill. We already pay enough taxes, and there's no reason to add another layer on top of federal, state, and city taxes. The money is there to clean up all of our neighborhoods, we just mismanage it. Many in favor of the NID seem to be confusing their property value with how much it costs for it to exist. A NID may raise the resale price of their home, but unless the NID makes some dramatic improvements, the increase will be to cover the new tax, not because their property is more valuable.

Even if we want to create an Improvement District, other neighborhoods have Business Improvement Districts which tax businesses, not residents. Callowhill lacks the business for this to make any realistic impact.

I don't agree with the way this NID was defeated. Was it Democratic? Yes. Did both side abuse the hype over a pipe dream to make their case? Absolutely.

Philadelphia doesn't have to be expensive to be clean. We all want our property value to go up, but we want it to go up because it's more valuable, not more expensive. Unfortunately the voice in Callowhill seems to confuse the two. At the same time, the voice on behalf of Chinatown is willing to engage in the Democratic process, but unwilling to engage in our Capitalistic process, and the conflict at Vine Street seems to be brewing the Perfect Storm of American Ideology.

10th Street Plaza

At the north end of Chinatown, perhaps the more visible end as it's seen from those exiting 95 onto Vine Street, a poorly utilized concrete park has been transformed into a proper entrance, and destination attraction, for Philadelphia's rapidly growing Chinatown.

As businesses and residents move north of the Vine Street Expressway, two foo dogs will welcome pedestrians and drivers to Chinatown at 10th and Vine.

Six years in the making, the 10th Street Plaza was started by the Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation and cost $300,000.

Although mostly complete, the plaza will soon be home to a statue of Lin Zexu. From Fujian, in return for erecting the monument to Zexu, a Fujianese association will provide the plaza's required maintenance.

Chinese Night Market

Move over Italian Market and Reading Terminal, Chinatown's bringing some competition that tests the limits of Philadelphia's conservative business hours that sometimes conjure up the term "Blue Law".

John Chin, executive director of the Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation (PCDC) has proposed bringing a nighttime taste of Asia to the streets of Philadelphia.

Late night outdoor markets are popular all over Asia where vendors peddle cheap eats and outdoor entertainment in bazaars into the wee hours of the night.

Other U.S. cities have attempted to bring the East to the West in places like San Francisco with limited success. However, Philadelphia's Chinatown lacks the touristy gentrification that plagues the Chinatowns in New York, DC, and Los Angeles. This authenticity might be beneficial in creating the genuine grit needed to make these Chinese Night Markets work elsewhere.

Think Big Trouble in Little China.

In a city where most grocery stores are closed by 7 or 8 o'clock, Chinatown's independently owned and operated shops are routinely open much later, and many restaurants serve patrons well into the morning.

Keelung Night Market in Taipei, Taiwan

Before long, club-going Philadelphians might not be headed to Pat's at 2am for a cheese steak, but headed north on 10th to David's Mai Lai Wah for steamed dumplings or late night street vendors on Race for fried grasshoppers or cuddle fish.

Will a night market - a Chinese staple - open in Philadelphia's Chinatown?