{"id":209410,"date":"2025-09-08T05:21:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T05:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/209410\/"},"modified":"2025-09-08T05:21:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T05:21:09","slug":"grays-ferry-community-healthcare-workers-rally-against-chop-parking-garage-construction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/209410\/","title":{"rendered":"Grays Ferry community, healthcare workers rally against CHOP parking garage construction"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\"09-06-25-no-chop-garage-rally-chenyao-liu\"\/
\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tPhiladelphia community members gathered to protest a planned parking garage for CHOP employees.
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCredit: Chenyao Liu<\/a> \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Philadelphia community members and healthcare workers gathered on Saturday in Grays Ferry to protest the Children\u2019s Hospital of Philadelphia\u2019s plan to build a 1,005-vehicle garage for employee parking.\n<\/p>\n

The \u201cNo CHOP Garage\u201d rally took place at a vacant lot at 3000 Grays Ferry Ave. \u2014\u00a0the site CHOP has tapped for the site. The rally\u00a0was organized by the No CHOP Garage Coalition, and co-sponsored by Penn\u2019s chapter of the American Association of University Professors.\u00a0\n\t\t<\/p>\n

In a statement to The Daily Pennsylvanian, AAUP-Penn said that they \u201cstand in solidarity\u201d with Philadelphians from Grays Ferry and the Committee of Interns and Residents.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cLeaders of local institutions which exist for public service must understand that the people of Philadelphia are partners in decision making,\u201d the statement read. \u201cThis community will not stand idly by when service of corporate interests replaces service of public interests.\u201d\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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\u2019s largest oil refinery, whose legacy of pollution residents say still impacts community health today.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cGrays Ferry suffered from the refinery for years,\u201d Tameeka Outlaw, a member of the No CHOP Garage Coalition, said at the rally. \u201cNow, 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.\u201d\n\t<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Credit: Chenyao Liu<\/a><\/p>\n

Tameeka Outlaw, a member of the No CHOP Garage Coalition, spoke at the rally on Sept. 6.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s traffic study was conducted during the Christmas holiday rather than peak commuting hours and was \u201cnot a true picture of what the traffic looks like on Grays Ferry Avenue.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope that they do listen and decide to go elsewhere because the people are here, and they\u2019re going to stay here,\u201d Outlaw said.\n<\/p>\n

Another speaker categorized CHOP\u2019s actions as \u201cincredibly callous.\u201d\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all deserve a transportation system that lets everyone get where they need to go, including young people, elders, people with disabilities, people who can\u2019t afford a car, safely and without creating toxic air pollution that causes asthma and cancer and leads to the climate emergency,\u201d the speaker said.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

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.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cCHOP says since July 2024, they\u2019ve held 10 community meetings,\u201d the speaker said. \u201cI 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\u2019t know. They thought it was a done deal, and they heard about it in passing.\u201d\n\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\tSign up for our newsletter<\/p>\n

Get our newsletter, DP Daybreak, delivered to your inbox every weekday morning.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Credit: Chenyao Liu<\/a><\/p>\n

Grays Ferry resident Maggie Foster held her daughter while listening to speakers at the rally.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cat risk.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\u201cNever did we imagine that a 1,000-car garage would be built in our backyard \u2014 and by a children\u2019s hospital,\u201d Foster said.\n<\/p>\n

Rally leaders urged residents to keep calling Philadelphia City Council President Kenyatta Johnson, who represents the district, to oppose the development.<\/p>\n

The Daily Pennsylvanian is an independent, student-run newspaper. Please consider making a donation<\/a> to support the coverage that shapes the University. Your generosity ensures a future of strong journalism at Penn.<\/p>\n

Donate<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Philadelphia community members gathered to protest a planned parking garage for CHOP employees. Credit: Chenyao Liu Philadelphia community…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":209411,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5377,5229,8432,24255,210,50,1448,2830,1311,80,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,45998],"class_list":{"0":"post-209410","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-advocacy","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-beats","11":"tag-front","12":"tag-health","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-pa","15":"tag-pennsylvania","16":"tag-philadelphia","17":"tag-politics","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-united-states-of-america","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","22":"tag-us","23":"tag-usa","24":"tag-west-philly"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115167002126569042","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209410","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=209410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}