Community gathers with ideas on the future of Market East

Community engagement meeting lays out plans for Market East

A community engagement meeting was held in Center City to gather ideas for the development and revitalization of Market East.

PHILADELPHIA - A community engagement meeting was held in Center City Monday to form ideas for the development and revitalization of Market East.

What they're saying:

The set-up inside the Center for Design Philadelphia in Center City highlighted food, small businesses, art and culture.

"It’s kind of a tasting of what could happen in the space. So, we have Bubblefish and we have these local art vendors," said Allison Lau, Co-Chair of the Save Chinatown Coalition's technical planning committee.

"What we want to happen is actually a truly community-led or community-engaged process in the development of this space," said Lau. 

She says the community will not be left out of plans for Market East this time as she says they were previously during the now-failed Center City Sixers arena project.

"So much of the history of Market East has been meant to serve the developer community and maximize profits. But yet so many people use this area of the city," she said.

Dig deeper:

The Monday night community engagement event held, was called 'A People's Vision.' 

It’s for Market East, which includes the massive Fashion District.

"At the same time we were fighting the arena, we sought to support a civic process to engage people in imagining this contested space," said Deborah Wei, co-founder of Asian Americans United.

Those who attended heard from a panel of experts representing the perspectives of developers, small businesses, design and architects and non-profits.

They also got a visual look at ideas for Market East from a previous session months ago.

Some of which included ideas for green space and affordable housing.

"A lot of it was about representing the diverse communities of the city," said Lau.

Community members are glad to have their voices heard and look forward to more opportunities like this.

"I would like to see a major performing arts center with a performing arts venue as well," said Benita Junette Brown of North Philly.

Max Delafosse-Brown of South Philly says green space and transportation improvements are on his wish list.

"We're talking about getting more people into Center City and Market East, so what would that look like for public transportation," he said.