Ed Rendell to attend Kickstart Chester Event
Apparently Ed Rendell is showing up today to lGov. Rendell and state officials are expected to announce a stadium-funding package today that will bring the Philadelphia region within striking distance of securing a Major League Soccer franchise for the 2010 season he is meeting today in the old Chester Electric building which is literally 500 yards next to the site of the proposed soccer stadium in Chester, Pa….
Apparently the former Philly Mayor has voiced his support for the Soccer Stadium before.
If you aren’t sure of where the stadium would sit. It would be in the shadows of the Commodore Barry Bridge. Only about 500 yards from a Waste Management Incenerator that leaves a small film of dust on my car every day. And only about a mile from the Trainer Facility which belches countless tens of thousands of tons into the air.
Should be a great site for guys to spend 90 minutes running around outdoors in. Ihope they get good health insurance.
Location aside though the stadium got a big nod John Smallwood of the Daily News about 6 weeks ago
What’s so great about Chester Pa you ask? Well if you are a Delaware Reader you are all to familiar with Buccinni Pollin Group right?. You know those guys that are forcing eminent domain in Wilmington to get some waterfront (waterviewable more like it) property they feel should be theirs.
Guess who owns the building right next to the site that the stadium would be against? That’s right? Would you be shocked to find out that they are the same company trying to get public tax dollars to hel pay for the stadium they want a piece of?….. Well you shouldn’t be
Did you also know that Chester has a Harrah’s Racino? NO?!!!! Why it’s located 200 feet. YES 200 Feet from the Chester Pa State Prison. You can literally and I’M NOT LYING, throw a stone from Harrah’s and hit the prison walls.
Awesome huh?
Pissing on our parade, huh DV?
I’m gonna rent The Football Factory just to get ready! 🙂
if you mean keeping it real by speaking out about the exploitation of a poor community that is being prayed upon by greedy developers and Casino’s then sure
Tell it to the people who live near Jacobs Field or Camden Yards….I don’t think they’d agree with you….
Caaaahmon Attics! Caaaahmon Attics! Caaaaahmon Attics!
Football Factory is right! Our crew will be lead by A.C. the Turk! Take a look at Ali Sami Yen in Istanbul! They don’t call it Hell for nothing. We can only hope to be half this good.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6x5MMITGxs
I hear the vending booths will sell the carbon canisters to fit your teams personalized gas mask
are you comparing Camden yards to Chester VC?
I’m comparing the proposed stadium development to similar once run-down areas elsewhere. Before either one of those stadiums were built it was all dilapidated warehouses and residences….
I’m not saying it will cure what’s wrong with Chester, but it’s a start….
That’s it, Dorian! We’re going to Istanbul!
The most run down thing close to Camden Yards was the Warehouse which is now an anchor of the site. The houses across Redwood St are in a neighborhood called Otterbein, which is Baltimore’s original $1 per house urban development neighborhood. Those homes were worth a pretty penny before the stadium got there. I wonder though if the better comparison is with Frawley stadium in downtown Wilmington which is a perfectly nice place to go but does not seem to have sparked any additional interest yet.
cassandra m
drive through the area within a mile of the proposed soccer stadium…
there is no comparison to Wilmington. Baltimore City Close to Gay st maybe compareble.
Oh and drive through in the day time 7omph to be safe
the areas you are comparing don’t have garbage incenorators and oil refinerys down wind though VC
Jeebus dude, come off it!
Why don’t they build the stadium on a game reserve somewhere in Montana?
At least it will fit into your environmental criteria….
that would kill animals though and harm trees 🙂
About your Harrah’s point –
When I was on the Alcatraz tour back in September, we did the night tour (highly recommended, BTW) and heard some great stories. The audio complement had accounts from former prisoners, guards, etc., and one prisoner mentioned the worst part about being locked up there was that you could hear everyone having a good time on the shores of SF, along with smelling Ghirardelli’s and other familiar sounds and whiffs of freedom….
Psychologically, that must be a bitch to deal with….
DV is just bitter right now
VC,
Psychologically, that must be a bitch to deal with….
for me the part that is a bitch to deal with is that when I go to a casino I want to forget about the plight of society. I want to dream about winning and being a millionaire.
I don’t want to be reminded about the people that are prayed upon for their SSI checks when I enter the place and the second I leave it.
I just feel the juxtaposition of a Casino and Prison literally a 100 yards apart is apalling and is a microcosm of what happens when capitalism goes horribly wrong
DV is just bitter right now
says the guy that wears a Tony Stewart hat and bright orange home depot jacket on days other than race day
“for me the part that is a bitch to deal with is that when I go to a casino I want to forget about the plight of society. “
I guess you never had driven through to Atlantic City before. 😉
sober? no
I’ve been back there, DV — it is a way home from the airport when 95 is backed up. It is a scary drive and I can’t believe that the casino is back there.
But waterfront Chester is supposed to be the Next Big Thing — there isn’t much undeveloped urban waterfront left on the East Coast and developers want it.
I think the soccer team would give Chester a boost, but to think a stadium will spur development is incorrect. What happened in Baltimore is the exception, not the rule.
Studies of stadium development show that creation of full-time jobs is short-lived and minimal. Most of the FT jobs are in the construction of the stadium, parking lots, etc., but when that is done, 95% of the jobs are part-time or seasonal, particularly with a minor-league outfit like MLS.
I’d love to see MLS come to Chester, but I can’t see this as a key in any turnaround there. There are far too many problems that can’t be fixed by a stadium, casino and the like. The city needs new housing, new industry that brings hundreds of jobs for the long term and adds substantially to the tax base, new/improved schools; the list goes on and on.
And even if this stadium happens and I head to a game there (only 10 minutes up Philly Pike), there’s no way I’m sticking around to eat or do anything else in Chester.
Studies of stadium development show that creation of full-time jobs is short-lived and minimal. Most of the FT jobs are in the construction of the stadium, parking lots, etc
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Ever go to NCC Councilman Bob Weiner’ s Economic Development Sub-committee? (rhetorical, btw) Weiner/Clark et al’s vision for the future of our county is construction jobs. Not much else but the short term but the construction industry puts money into the pols pockets.
No wonder Rendell was sniffing around Chester.
The short-term-development0-only paridigm is not always the case, though I’m aware of the studies mentioned.
Given that the only thing Chester’s received by the state/fed over the past 50 years is a major interstate rammed through the center of the city (effectively creating two separtate towns), I’m happy they will be given this opportunity.
If it works, great. but if not, hey I still have a hometown team to root for….
“They don’t call it Hell for nothing. ”
Dorian, does that mean there’ll be stabbings of opposition fans too?
There are far too many problems that can’t be fixed by a stadium, casino and the like. The city needs new housing, new industry that brings hundreds of jobs for the long term and adds substantially to the tax base, new/improved schools; the list goes on and on..
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The plan for this area is far from just a stadium. The development will include the stadium, a convention center, apartments, townhouses, retail, and parking. This will create 2,600 construction jobs and 800 ful time jobs once built, resulting in more than $500 million in development into the area and over $19 million in annual tax revenue. Also, the developers have agreed to also set up after school recreational soccer programs, summer camps, and clinics, as well as set up soccer programs at chester High School. I don’t thin this is a bad deal in the least, especially since most of the site is brownfield.