{"id":207059,"date":"2025-09-07T07:28:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T07:28:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/207059\/"},"modified":"2025-09-07T07:28:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T07:28:14","slug":"grays-ferry-residents-protest-chop-garage-proposal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/207059\/","title":{"rendered":"Grays Ferry residents protest CHOP garage proposal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Christal Heath, a member of Philly Thrive who grew up in Grays Ferry, said the hospital is \u201ctrying to get rich off of a Black and brown neighborhood.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat they\u2019re doing right now, putting this garage in there, they\u2019re getting rich off of our children,\u201d she said. \u201cBecause when they get sick, they\u2019re not going to take them to Saint Christopher\u2019s. They\u2019re not going to take them nowhere else. They\u2019re going to take them straight to CHOP. And I don\u2019t think CHOP needs to build this garage because it\u2019s a health hazard to the whole community.\u201d
\n\"AChristal Heath, a member of environmental justice group Philly Thrive who grew up in Grays Ferry, said she is concerned about the impact the garage could have on children in the neighborhood. \u201cThis is a billion dollar corporation, and they want to come in and put all this pollution in the air in our community,\u201d she said. (Emily Neil\/WHYY)\n<\/p>\n

Michelle Rose, a CHOP pediatrician and neighborhood resident, told WHYY News that she was among 120 hospital employees who signed a petition opposing the garage and submitted it to CHOP administrators this July.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of doctors here today that just stand against the environmental pollution that\u2019s going on and the environmental toxicity that\u2019s being burdened on this community that already has so much burden from the past 100 plus years,\u201d Rose said.\n <\/p>\n

She said the community suffers from higher rates of asthma, diabetes, depression, leukemias and cancers.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe find it abhorrent that a children\u2019s hospital wants to build a giant garage that will bring 1,000 cars to the area that wouldn\u2019t even serve the community, that\u2019s just gonna make all that pollution even worse, trigger more asthma and create worse health outcomes for all the residents that live in the community,\u201d she said.
\n\"ADozens of community members and advocates protested CHOP\u2019s plan to build a 1,005-vehicle parking garage at 3000 Grays Ferry Ave on Saturday, September 6, 2025. (Emily Neil\/WHYY)\n<\/p>\n

Rose said response from the hospital has been \u201cslow, but \u2026 steady.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that because of our voices and because of all the voices in the community, they\u2019ve had such a strong voice themselves, that they\u2019ve opened the door for more meetings, more negotiations, hopefully more compromise, if not just stopping the garage from happening,\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n

The hospital said in a statement that it has engaged with the community in 10 meetings to discuss how the garage would impact residents.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe recognize there have been multiple concerns related to this garage, and we are taking them seriously,\u201d the statement reads. \u201cAs a result, we have modified the project design to include a ground-floor community health space, more greenery and public art, and improved pedestrian features like benches, bike racks, ADA access, and crosswalks.\u201d
\n\"AnThe Children\u2019s Hospital of Philadelphia plans to build the parking garage in a vacant lot at 3000 Grays Ferry Ave. (Emily Neil\/WHYY)\n<\/p>\n

The hospital also said it \u201cis promoting child and community health in the Grays Ferry neighborhood through several community-requested initiatives,\u201d which include five-year grant funding for Grays Ferry nonprofits, exploration of expanded pediatric clinical services in the neighborhood and support for local employment and parking options for residents near the garage.\n<\/p>\n

The hospital previously told The Philadelphia Inquirer<\/a> that construction was slated to begin late this summer, for an opening in fall 2026.\u00a0A spokesperson told WHYY News on Saturday they could not provide further details on the project\u2019s timeline.\n<\/p>\n

More than 1,000 people<\/a> have signed the coalition\u2019s petition calling for CHOP to end the project. Rallygoers said they plan to continue to protest the garage.
\n\"PeopleDozens of community members and advocates protested CHOP\u2019s plan to build a 1,005-vehicle parking garage at 3000 Grays Ferry Ave on Saturday, September 6, 2025. (Emily Neil\/WHYY)\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not going to stop, not today,\u201d Carr, the Grays Ferry resident, said. \u201cThat\u2019s going to continue, because the more you fight, the more we might, you know, get what we need out here, and we don\u2019t need CHOP.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Speakers invited protesters to attend the Philadelphia City Planning Commission\u2019s meeting on Sept. 22 from 6-8 p.m. at Finnegan Recreation Center. The CHOP garage is not on the agenda, but Pitts said he is urging residents to voice their concerns about the project.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to be a meaningful part of the process, not just window dressed as you talk to the community, right?\u201d Pitts said. \u201cBecause you did talk to the community, and we\u2019ve stated over and over again, we don\u2019t want a parking garage here.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Christal Heath, a member of Philly Thrive who grew up in Grays Ferry, said the hospital is \u201ctrying…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":207060,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,64967,35200,1448,2830,1311,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-207059","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-environmental-justice","10":"tag-grays-ferry","11":"tag-pa","12":"tag-pennsylvania","13":"tag-philadelphia","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-united-states-of-america","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","18":"tag-us","19":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115161838913458446","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}