PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Vivian Chang works on a narrow Philadelphia street that would have been consumed by a Phillies stadium had Chinatown activists not rallied to defeat the plan in the early 2000s. Instead of 40,000 cheering fans, the squeals of young children now fill the playground at Folk Arts-Cultural Treasures Charter School, which opened in 2007.
“We’re standing right where the baseball stadium would have been,” Chang said in late September. “And now it’s 480 students — a lot of immigrants, a lot of students of color from across the city.”
Chang, 33, leads Asian Americans United, which flexed its political muscle during the stadium fight and is now experiencing déjà vu as it tries to stop a planned $1.3 billion basketball arena for the Philadelphia 76ers at the other edge of Chinatown.
Mayor Cherelle Parker hopes a glitzy, 18,500-seat arena can be the catalyst to revive a distressed retail corridor called Market East,…