Philadelphia community members gathered to protest a planned parking garage for CHOP employees.
Credit: Chenyao Liu
Philadelphia community members and healthcare workers gathered on Saturday in Grays Ferry to protest the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s plan to build a 1,005-vehicle garage for employee parking.
The “No CHOP Garage” rally took place at a vacant lot at 3000 Grays Ferry Ave. — the site CHOP has tapped for the site. The rally was organized by the No CHOP Garage Coalition, and co-sponsored by Penn’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors.
In a statement to The Daily Pennsylvanian, AAUP-Penn said that they “stand in solidarity” with Philadelphians from Grays Ferry and the Committee of Interns and Residents.
“Leaders of local institutions which exist for public service must understand that the people of Philadelphia are partners in decision making,” the statement read. “This community will not stand idly by when service of corporate interests replaces service of public interests.”
Speakers at the rally emphasized that Grays Ferry has long endured the consequences of industrial zoning. For decades, the neighborhood was home to the East Coast’s largest oil refinery, whose legacy of pollution residents say still impacts community health today.
“Grays Ferry suffered from the refinery for years,” Tameeka Outlaw, a member of the No CHOP Garage Coalition, said at the rally. “Now, you are bringing 1,000 cars in and out of the neighborhood every day, exhaust a heat island in hot weather, more food, restarting the unhealthy environment.”
Credit: Chenyao Liu
Tameeka Outlaw, a member of the No CHOP Garage Coalition, spoke at the rally on Sept. 6.
Residents warned that the garage would funnel thousands of cars through an already congested area bordered by I-76, factories, and residential streets. Outlaw, noted that CHOP’s traffic study was conducted during the Christmas holiday rather than peak commuting hours and was “not a true picture of what the traffic looks like on Grays Ferry Avenue.”
“I hope that they do listen and decide to go elsewhere because the people are here, and they’re going to stay here,” Outlaw said.
Another speaker categorized CHOP’s actions as “incredibly callous.”
“We all deserve a transportation system that lets everyone get where they need to go, including young people, elders, people with disabilities, people who can’t afford a car, safely and without creating toxic air pollution that causes asthma and cancer and leads to the climate emergency,” the speaker said.
Organizers also accused CHOP of misrepresenting community support. One speaker held up a letter that CHOP claimed local Registered Community Organizations had signed off on the project in exchange for grant funding. The speaker argued that many residents only learned of the plan recently and that promised benefits were either inaccessible or insufficient.
“CHOP says since July 2024, they’ve held 10 community meetings,” the speaker said. “I personally have walked my little flat feet from 33rd and Reed [streets] all the way over, up and down every block. And guess what I got. [Residents] didn’t know. They thought it was a done deal, and they heard about it in passing.”
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Credit: Chenyao Liu
Grays Ferry resident Maggie Foster held her daughter while listening to speakers at the rally.
Maggie Foster, a Grays Ferry resident, talked about her experience moving to the neighborhood to raise her young daughter. She said that CHOP is putting the community “at risk.”
“Never did we imagine that a 1,000-car garage would be built in our backyard — and by a children’s hospital,” Foster said.
Rally leaders urged residents to keep calling Philadelphia City Council President Kenyatta Johnson, who represents the district, to oppose the development.
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