Letter from the Executive Director 

Seasons Greeting from PCDC. We hope everyone has a wonderful 2010. The Philadelphia Chinatown Develop-ment Corporation (PCDC) continues to break new ground in its service to the Chinatown community. We lead ef-forts to obtain affordable housing, ex-pand social services, and increase visi-bility throughout the city. PCDC is coming to the end of its 43rd year of service to the community, and we are pleased to invite you to be a part of our Second Annual Appeal.

As we strive towards our mission to promote, pro-tect and preserve Chinatown as a viable ethnic, business and residential community, we continue to broaden and deepen our impact. In this challenging economy, PCDC rises to meet greater needs and seize opportunities. Not only do we assist increasing numbers of community members to file for unem-ployment, food and medical benefits, we also pro-vide housing counseling and workshops to educate residents for long-term needs. We have further de-veloped our youth programs to offer Asian Ameri-can teenagers positive experience and safe places to meet.

As we expand our community services, we also make strides in neighborhood planning and advo-cacy. We look forward to coming streetscape im-provements for 10th Street as well as the creation of the Vine Street Plaza to strengthen community con-nections north of the Vine Street Expressway.

PCDC asks you to partner with us to work towards the continued prosperity and growth of Chinatown. Please make a donation to our organization so that we can continue in our advocacy and direct service efforts to make the city of Philadelphia a safer place for all. We are accepting donations through our website, www.chinatown-pcdc.org.

Thank you for your interest and support of our com-munity and organization.

Sincerely,
John Chin

Crisis at South Phila. High 

The issue of School violence has been dominating the news in Philadel-phia and making national headlines the past month. The case involved 26 Asian American teenagers who were attacked on the school premise of South Philadel-phia High School (SPHS), assaulted and targeted by other students - some, right in front of school administrators, teachers, school security and other school per-sonal who are suppose to teach and protect these children. How did it come to this? How did a place of learning become a place of fear?

Since October of 2008 I have been working with students from South Philadelphia High School, they were seeking help because six Asian American students were chased down and assaulted by another group of students at a sub-way station near the school. The students were seeking assistance and a voice to help them address the situation after this incident. On the students behalf I began having meetings with the school administrators addressing the on-going issue of school violence within South Philadelphia High. To my surprise, without ac-knowledging the core of the problem, the school administration accused the Asian American students, the victims of these assaults, of not reporting the cases. When I asked the students why they didn’t report the incidents of bullying and taunting these were their responses:

* “I did, but there was no follow-up”
* “The security guards were there, but they never asked me what happened.”
* “The security guards were there when the other students threw food at us, but they didn’t do anything”
* “One of the security guards called me “dragonball””
* “Do you know how my teacher addresses me in class? “Yo, Chinese!””

The testimony that these teenagers have given makes it obvious that adults in the school not only turn a blind eye to the bullying that takes place against the Asian American students, but they set a poor example with their racial slurs towards the Asian American students. This sends a message that it is okay to treat the Asian American students in this demeaning manner.

After hearing this I was stunned. Feeling that the school wasn’t the best place to address these issues, we set up a meeting with representatives of the School District of Philadelphia (SDP). A group of Asian American students and I met with the representative of the School District in December, 2008. This re-sulted in a call for a safety plan to be put in place for South Philadelphia High. Unfortunately the safety plan was never fully implemented, and it failed to re-solve the problem of bullying and school violence. Asian American students con-tinued to live in fear through out the year. Many were robbed and attacked in the bathroom, randomly punched in the hallway, and attacked in the stairwells en route to class. Sometimes these violent acts occurred right in front of adults in the school, be it in class or in front of the security guards.

In an attempt to bring attention to the continuing problem of school vio-lence, it was discussed amongst various community advocates and the Asian American High School students to testify before the School Reform Commission (SRC). Before doing so, it was suggested that we should approach the Regional Superintendent, Michael Silverman first. The result of the meeting with Regional Superintendent Silverman was that he would bring the new principal of South Philadelphia High School to meet with us on a regular basis.

In August 2009, we met with Regional Superintendent Silverman and Principal LeGreta Brown, South Philadelphia High School’s new principal. The issue of school violence was brought to Principal Brown’s attention and that it was a serious concern for the students. The school climate must change and not allow bullying and school violence to persist. The school should implement pro-grams to integrate students from different backgrounds. Principal Brown told us she would look into our suggestions and concerns and agreed to meet with us again in September, at the beginning of the school year.

The School year started and on September 29th we arrived at the South Philadelphia High School as scheduled to meet with Principal Brown. But the Principal had forgotten about our meeting and was otherwise occu-pied. For 40 minutes we waited, before we got to see Principal Brown. We waited because we feared, if we postponed this meeting we may not have had the opportunity to do so in the future. I reiterated my concerns emphasizing if the school did not take action to change the current school climate and inte-grate the students, it would be only a matter of time before the next incidents of violence occur.

The efforts of the students and the Asian American community fell on deaf ears, as no plan was put into place at South Philadelphia High School. It had been a year since our initial meeting with the School District of Phila-delphia. On December 3rd, 2009, 26 Asian American students were targeted, attacked within and outside of South Philadelphia High, 14 were sent to the hospital, and one had to undergo surgery for his broken nose.

The way the School handled this incident brought outrage to the stu-dents, the Asian American Community, and the public at large. South Phila-delphia High ignored the continued violence in the school, and even tried to downplay the incidents that occurred. 50 Asian American students in fear of their safety, decided to boycott the school, because the violence within the school escalated and the school continued to allow Asian American students to fall prey to the violence.

The students’ requested a meeting with School District of Philadel-phia CEO Dr. Arlene Ackerman immediately. It took 12 days for the meeting to happen. Meanwhile the students with the help of community advocates have compiled the documentation of the violent incidents that have been hap-pening in the school that led up to the December 3rd incident.

Twelve days after the boycott, and the School District of Philadelphia still failed to address the core issues; how did the adults within the school al-low school violence to continue, and how did the adults handle the situation. How will the climate change for the better with the same administration in place-the same administration that has allowed these violent acts to escalate? The handling of the South Philadelphia High situation worries me as it sets an example, that even if you continue to allow violence and bullying to occur within your school, and you allow a group of students to continually be vic-timized, there are no consequences to this neglectful behavior. These adults allowed a place for learning to become a place of fear.

On December 16th, the 50 student that were boycotting school went back to school after 12 days, as some of their demands were met: including security cameras; and promise of bringing programs to integrate students from different backgrounds. The struggle continues, as the students wonder what the situation will be like 2 months down the road. Progress has been made within the student body, as African American students came out showing their support for their fellow Asian American students, and invited them back to school. The students have reached out to other youth organizations within the city. Together the youth are building a citywide student coalition made up of students of all backgrounds and ethnicities. As Community organizers, we will be monitoring the school climate and help create a better school environ-ment for all students. I am proud and privileged to work with these brilliant and courageous young leaders. The campaign for a better school environment has just begun.

Xu Lin
Community Organizer

Homeownership

PCDC Places Families in Homes

PCDC’s Chinatown Homeownership Initiative placed 7 first-time homebuy-ers into homes in 2009. We have worked with the Philadelphia Housing Authority the last three years. Now we are working with Asociacion de Puertorriquenos en Marcha (APM). Our clients are buying new twin and sin-gle homes at North 8th & Franklin Streets constructed by APM. The One homebuyer received the loan commit-ment. Two homebuyers signed the agreement of sale and the homebuyer information will be transferred to APM’s selected lender.

The sale price for these house is from $125,000 to $150,000. The American Dream Down-payment Initiative Grant (ADDI) is available for those buyers who qualify.

For more information, please contact our Housing Coun-selor Wendy Lee at 215-922-6156.

Easy Ways to Save Money–Preparing your home for the Winter

One of the easiest ways to put some extra dollars in your pocket is to cut down on unnecessary energy use. Maybe you rent rather than own the house or apartment you are living in. Chances are that you pay most if not all of the utility costs. So saving energy dollars and weatherizing your home concerns you!

On Monday December 14th, PCDC held the annual winter weatherization workshop in partnership with Energy Co-ordinating Agency and United Communities Southeast Philadelphia. This is the 3rd year that Wendy Lee our Housing Counselor has offered this workshop. This year fourteen people joined us in this hands-on conservation workshop led by Ms. Barbara McDuffie of United Com-munities Southeast Philadelphia. The workshop focused on teaching residents methods on how to air seal their home in order to prevent drafts and heat loss through cracks. Residents also learn how to use inexpensive self-help materials such as tube caulk, caulk guns, rope caulk, plastic window, weather-stripping, insulation foam and other basic weatherization materials. Wendy Lee also served as the translator for the workshop. Each year we help residents prepare their home for the winter.

Special Projects

Zoning Remapping Program in Philadelphia is a primer for land use planning in the City of Philadelphia that aims to modernize, update, and improve the City's Zoning Code, and to promote development and protect the character of our neighborhoods. To design a new vision for the growth of Chinatown and protect the residential character at the same time, PCDC will cooperate with staff of Philadelphia City Planning Commission to engage the best possible land use based on
community general interest. If you are interested in participating our following discussion, please visit PCDC’s website or call for meeting notices.

Xin Ge
Special Project Manager

Trash and Tickets
 

The unsightly problem of resident trash placed in public trashcans have been a problem in Chinatown. Business and property owners are the ones who bear the burden of the tickets for trash that do not belong to them. To address this issue, on December 7th, community members held a meeting with officials from the Streets Department, Councilman Dicicco’s office, and Sgt. Anthony Rapone from the Convention Center Police at On Lok House community room.

Here was what was said: 1) for commercial dumpsters, if you have a lock and chain on your dumpster, you should not be receiving any tickets for overflowing trash; 2) it is illegal for residents to place bags of trash out into public areas; 3) place Streets Dept. surveillance cameras in illegal dumping hotspots in 2010; 4) a contributor to this trash problem may be that apartment buildings have inadequate trash plans and trash disposal areas for their residents; 5) discussions of inspecting apartment buildings with 6 or more units, to enforce the regulation of trash disposal.

Hopefully there will be improvement in the trash situation in 2010. A clean Chinatown starts with us. If each and everyone of us do our part to place the trash in bins and keep commercial and residential trash away from public areas, we can all make our community cleaner. We will continue to have community meetings with City Officials to improve our community, please join us next time.

Melody Wong
Main Street Manager

Main Streets 

Year of the Tiger Pin Competition

Since 2007 Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation (PCDC) has produced Chinese Zodiac Pins to celebrate the Lunar New Year. This year is the Year of the Tiger, and we are calling all creative souls to enter into our Tiger Pin Competition. The Pin has been a symbol of the Lunar New Year in Chinatown for the last 3 years. The winning design would be used for all Chinese New Year related promotional items for Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation. It will be the symbol for the PCDC Year of the Tiger 2010 promotion in Chinatown. Entries may be published and featured in our PCDC newsletter and other promotional items. PCDC retains the rights to print and distribute the selected design.

We will start accepting submissions December 15th, 2009.
Deadline for submission is Friday, January 15th, 2010.
The winner will be announced on January 29th on our website.
The top 3 designs and their artists will be featured in the PCDC monthly Newsletter.

Submit your design with the form entry form. (Visit our website)
Submit your design on an A4 size piece of paper and/or electronic format:

Vector format preferred ( .eps or .ai)
Must be minimum 300 dpi and color mode

Your design should fit a circle 2.5 inches in diameter.
The design (art work) must follow the Year Of the Tiger theme and include the following
text:

“www.chinatown-pcdc.org “
“2010 “
Chinese Character for Tiger – “虎”

Please mail to:
Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corp.
Tiger Pin Competition
301-305 North 9th St.
Philadelphia PA 19107
Or Email: mwong@chinatown-pcdc.org

The Merchants Fund Grant Opportunities:

The next grant deadline for The Merchants Fund is Monday, February 15, 2010 (postmarked).
TMF has these core grant making areas for businesses that have been legally estab­lished for at least three years in Philadelphia:

Business Stabilization grants up to $10,000 to help small businesses remain stable, viable and grow in the face of economic challenges and opportunities.
Business Loan matches up to $20,000 to match accredited government programs or bank loans.
Emergency grants between $1,000 and $20,000 to offset unavoidable harm caused by nature or man. The staff must determine if your case fits the criteria for an emer­gency grant. The downturn in the economic climate is not considered a valid reason for an emergency application.

The Merchants Fund selectively awards grants to foster the betterment of a group of merchants on a corridor or in a business district. The application for this grant is not available on the web. Call and we can talk about your ideas and plan an application.

Please visit website http://www.merchantsfund.org/ for printable applications and de­tailed guidelines or contact us directly at info@merchantsfund.org or call 215-399­1339. There are also brief descriptions of past grants on the web site to inspire and guide your efforts.
You could also Contact PCDC Main Street Manager - Melody Wong for more informa­tion : 215 922 2156

Helping with the Community

Volunteering = A priceless experience

Are you ready to change the world? Have you ever thought about volunteering your time to a community organization? Volunteering isn’t just about helping others, it’s a chance to learn new things, meet new people, and have fun. Come share your time, share your experiences, and invest and make a dif-ference in your community. Non Profits like PCDC cannot sur-vive without the dedicated help from our volunteers. PCDC is proud to introduce our current team of volunteers to the community: Judi Wong, Jenn Liu, Amy Au, Lei Zhao, and Kelly Yao.

If you are interested in volunteering with PCDC, please contact Rachel Mak at (215) 922-2156 or visit us at www.chinatown-pcdc.org. We look forward to hearing from you!

Lei Zhao – I was born in Kunming, Yunnan in 1986. When I was five, my family moved to Madison, Wisconsin, where we lived until I was ten. After this we, moved to New York City, where I attended the Trinity School (a pres-tigious private school) with the help of a nonprofit called Prep for Prep. I returned to the Midwest for college, and graduated in 2008 from Ober-lin College in Ohio with a B.A. in Philosophy and East Asian Studies. After graduation, I moved to Philadelphia where I’ve been working for a local nonprofit called Project H.O.M.E., and have been volunteering with PCDC since this past summer. I wanted an opportunity to connect more with the Asian and Asian American community in Philadelphia, and to contribute in whatever way I can to improve their quality of life. Project H.O.M.E. has taught me that helping the least privileged is a necessary part of building strong and vibrant communities for all of us to live in.

Kelly Yao – I am sixteen years old. I am the oldest daughter in a family of four. I have lived in Philadelphia all my life and love it as a hometown. I am currently a sophomore attending J.R. Masterman High School. Besides going to school, I also take piano lessons at Settlement Music School and attend Chinese school on Saturdays. A few of my many interests include reading, writing, playwriting, and playing volleyball. I chose to volunteer at PCDC because I am interested in how the organization helps Chinatown and its people and want to be a part of that.

Hi I’m Jennifer, as a sophomore Geography and Urban Studies student at Temple University, volunteering at PCDC is a wonderful opportunity for me to apply what I have learned in my major and at the same time, give back to my community. Philadelphia Chinatown has been my home my whole life, and living here has allowed me to see firsthand what positive impact this organization has on the people here. Because this community has helped me in so many ways and is therefore such a big part of who I am, I feel that it is very fitting that I volunteer here at PCDC to help out in any way I can. In the future, I hope to help develop and revitalize the urban atmosphere in Chinatown as well as Philadelphia as a whole.

Hi everyone, I am Amy and I have been volunteering at PDCD since October, 2009. I am 21 years old, currently a senior and an exchange student at University of Pennsylvania. I am a 100% Heung Gong Yan (香港人) – I was born and raised in Hong Kong, went to so-called “traditional elite schools” (傳統名校), sat for HKCEE (香港會考), and then took up Anthropology as a major at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (which probably makes me less of a typical HK student since only a few of them would put Anthropology as their first-choice major). Growing up in Hong Kong where food and dining is a “big deal,” I am very much a foodie, who have gone out of the way to reshape my personal interest to academic interest: my graduation thesis is a discussion about American(-ized) Chinese cuisine in the United States.

As my study abroad program takes me to UPenn, Philadelphia Chinatown naturally becomes a perfect locale for my field research. To learn more about Philly’s Chinatown, I try to carry out what the academics have somehow complicated as “participant observation” – that is being involved as “part of the community.” Volunteering at PCDC allows me not only to meet people from the community, but also to learn from them “Chinatown’s goings on.” Although I am here with PCDC till January, 2010 only, I am thankful for PCDC’s having me as their volunteer, and their help and care throughout the months.

Hi, my name is Judi, and I would like to invite you as a volunteer at PCDC. I have been volunteering here for over a year now since when I first came to Philadelphia in September of 2008, from California. You might be wondering why someone would volunteer at PCDC. I believe it is important to be involved in the community that you live in, no matter how small of a contribution you might make, its about the experience you get.

When I first came to Philadelphia, I knew I wanted to get involved with the Chinatown community here in Center City because I felt I could somehow contribute something with my bilingual skills. I first approached PCDC because I felt that they performed a lot of functions in the Chinatown community and helped out the residents more often on a daily basis. I wanted to somehow do that as well. And, to be honest, PCDC was the first organization that popped up on Google when I used the query, “volunteering in Philadelphia, China-town.”

I am also a volunteer at the Chinatown Clinic of the Drexel University College of Medicine (held every Wednesday night at the Holy Re-deemer Church) as a translator for the health professionals volunteering at the clinic. As a public health student, I want to make a difference in the health of the community besides addressing the other social determinants of health (at PCDC). Hospice of Philadelphia, which is an extension of my hospice volunteer work from California is also a place where I volunteer. It is my passion to interact with patients in a setting other than a hospital room that keeps me committed.

I hope you will also volunteer for PCDC, just to see what you are able to contribute to the organization, learn essential community-based skills (such as approaching people you have never met), and adapt yourself to any sort of situation that may arise and requires your leader-ship. I guarantee that you will have a great experience!