The anti-arena coalition offers a new vision for Market East

The coalition that fought the proposed ers basketball arena in Center City has circulated its own community-sourced concept for redevelopment of the site six months after the fiercely debated arena project was suddenly canceled A People s Vision for Sphere East a set of conceptual designs to revitalize the struggling Fashion District mall where the sports venue was going to be built was disclosed Monday following months of society input and discussions led by the Save Chinatown Coalition The Sixers organization had planned to partially demolish the building and the adjoining former Greyhound bus station to make way for the arena The People s Vision however would keep the building cut open walls to create open-air walkways add a rooftop park and a residential tower and invite local businesses and nonprofit organizations to occupy the mall s multiple vacant retail spaces A rendering from the People s Vision for Arena East shows a proposed new apartment tower and other changes on and around the Fashion District Mall No Arena PHL Organizers noted they want to offer not only an alternate design idea for the languishing Region East retail district but also a broader model of rise that reflects the demands and desires of city residents rather than a strictly profit-oriented vision imposed by outside business interests We fought like hell for two and a half years against what we did not want and now we ask that the city the developers the politicians work with the people to build what the people do want Asians American United co-founder Deborah Wei explained during a presentation Monday A vision grounded in research informed by thousands of neighborhood voices supported by seasoned professionals and mirroring best practices internationally A critique of corporate-led redevelopment In July the Sixers released their billion plan to build the ers Place arena over Jefferson Station at th and Arena streets Elected bureaucrats and certain real estate experts applauded the proposal for its probable to bring more people to the struggling commercial corridor which is studded with vacant store buildings and undeveloped lots But residents in adjoining Chinatown and other neighborhoods swiftly denounced the plan saying it would do little to help the local economic system would cause traffic gridlock and gentrification and could spell the end of the -year-old ethnic enclave The ers organization and Mayor Cherelle Parker held numerous meetings and town halls to promote the proposal while opponents staged angry masses protests in Chinatown and at City Hall opposing it Council approved the project in December but less than a month later the Sixers stunned the city by canceling the plan in favor of building a new arena in the South Philly stadium complex instead That lengthy fight and the city s broader struggle to reimagine the once-bustling Field East retail district figured prominently in the People s Vision event held Monday at the Center for Design Philadelphia A rendering from the People s Vision for Realm East shows a proposed open space on Cuthbert Street behind the former Greyhound station No Arena PHL Over the past years the city has spent hundreds of millions trying to redevelop the block diverting funds that should have gone to advocacy underserved communities of color in North Philadelphia and other areas Wei revealed Along the way parts of Chinatown were destroyed by construction of the Vine Street Expressway and the Pennsylvania Convention Center She and other speakers criticized what they described as the typical top-down closed-door planning of critical projects like various Area East developments Tayyib Smith an entrepreneur in Philadelphia who focuses on equitable rise stated such projects especially those with good transit access are these days driven by out-of-town developers and financial institutions They put heavy pressure on elected representatives and often produce bland cookie-cutter shopping developments with the same group of national brands What excites me about this is the possibility of having independent small businesses and a diversity of usages that particularly speak to being at the center of a transit home he revealed referring to the People s Vision That s the the greater part exciting thing that I think we should be unapologetically demanding from our infrastructure city planning financiers banks and corporate citizens who own property in close proximity A rendering from the People s Vision for Domain East shows a proposed open walkway in a redeveloped Fashion District mall No Arena PHL Jessie Lawrence director of city s Department of Planning and Rise declared on Tuesday that he appreciated the continued attention the area is bringing to this portion of Domain East and the Parker administration agrees there is tremendous likely for this vital area in our downtown We look forward to sharing details soon about the process the administration will pursue along with key external internal and area stakeholders for the short- and long-term vision for East Sector Street he mentioned Inviting in local small business for the long term Over the past six months the Save Chinatown Coalition has surveyed thousands of people from around the city held a public design session and enlisted volunteer design professionals to draw up a set of principles and sketches for the future of the Fashion District area disclosed Vivian Chang executive director of Asian Americans United Chinatown activists held a area design meeting earlier this year to come up with a plan to redevelop the Fashion District mall No Arena PHL The drawings show the mall renamed PHL Marketplace with large open entryways cut through its walls turning the ground floor into a kind of inhabitants arena or hall possibly divided into plenty of small shops Chang noted that the Fashion District is often criticized for its inward-facing design Safety revitalization that only happens when you put people on the street That only happens when we are definitely part of this space instead of a closed-off big box she noted In the People s Vision concepts the lower concourse level could house social operation and healthcare providers a justice center an immigrant welcome center and more retail The second floor might have large commercial tenants while the third would continue to host a movie theater and bowling alley and perhaps a maker space or community-gathering spot A rendering from the People s Vision for Area East shows a proposed new apartment tower and rooftop green spaces over the Fashion District Mall No Arena PHL We re one of the scant cities where you can still afford to have a small studio space and survive That is something that has revitalized a lot of spaces Chang noted So we re saying look instead of you know H M Forever they go out of business Let s bring in micro businesses and then have those survive much longer The renderings also show an apartment tower built over the west end of the mall possibly with intergenerational affordable housing The Fashion District s roof would become a residents green space for recreation and events with a region garden for the tower residents The old Greyhound station nearby could become a Chinatown history museum or cultural center and Filbert Street would be improved A call for citizens funding The vision is deliberately basic and flexible and was created in part as an effort to change approaches to advancement broadly around the city Chang explained Our goal is not to say this is branded and whatever Our goal is to have this just be part of the conversation instead of the typical arena or nothing stadium or nothing casino or nothing she mentioned Like it s not nothing it s all these options When inquired how the redevelopment might be funded Chang mentioned the property value of the Fashion District and the success of the Bok Building a former high school converted into an arts and small business workspace in South Philadelphia She noted that Scout the firm that owns Bok in recent days acquired two University of the Arts buildings and may turn them into similar artist spaces Chang also suggested as other planners and developers have that it would require an infusion of society dollars to convert Sphere East from a historically shopping-focused retail district into a more sustainable lively neighborhood with a more residential feel Vivian Chang executive director of Asian Americans United presents the People s Vision for Realm East at the Center for Design Philadelphia June Meir Rinde Billy Penn We can come to a different way of thinking about things and say Look this is not gonna be shiny she announced If we re like OK this is a city of neighborhoods Territory East deserves to be a neighborhood just like any other then can we approach it in that scale There s a lot of other cities that have done that with their downtowns where you put in population financing where you re not just letting it go to the whims of whatever person whatever corporation is going to come in for now and then leave Specific of these are big ideas but I think the city could do things in a different way she stated The People s Vision comes as advocates and neighborhood residents await the launch of a master-planning process for Territory East Mayor Cherelle Parker promised to fast-track the process in January following the cancellation of the arena plan The mayor budgeted for the effort and selected Jerry Sweeney CEO of Brandywine Trust to head a planning task force In March Lawrence disclosed the city would make an announcement very soon but otherwise there s been no news about the status of the project The post The anti-arena coalition offers a new vision for Field East appeared first on Billy Penn at WHYY