Here's a positive development out of Philadelphia. For the past two years, the developers behind the Foxwoods Casino in CT have been trying to build a new casino right in the heart of Philadelphia's Chinatown. Of course, this got the local AAPI community upset:. 

Many who live and work in the city's small but vibrant Chinatown were dismayed and angered, but not surprised, when state and city officials backed a proposal to move a planned slot machine parlor to their doorstep.

The now-eight-block neighborhood has battled mega-projects for decades, but this one has some leaders worried the most. They fear it could change the character of their community, hurt business and, even worse, feed an already serious problem with compulsive gambling.

Over the past 50 years, Chinatown lost 25 percent of its land as a result of public projects from the creation of Independence Mall just blocks away to the building of an expressway and convention center. It has kept out a baseball stadium and a prison.

Now, the battle-hardened community is staging protests, crowding City Council chambers and organizing a petition drive to keep out a 3,000-slot-machine casino. An estimated 600 people marched from Chinatown to City Hall for a hearing last month.

"We're just tired of having to fight these battles over and over again," said Deborah Wei, principal of a 400-student charter school built on land where the stadium would have risen. "We are a small community that's been disproportionately hit by these projects."

Well, it seems the efforts of the local AAPI community are paying off. The casino developers have now been ordered by the city's gaming regulators to relocate to a different site.

Pennsylvania gaming regulators granted a two-year extension of a casino license for the long-stalled Foxwoods Casino Philadelphia project Friday, ordering that it be built as originally proposed at a downtown riverfront site approved in 2006.

State Gaming Control Board members were “emphatic” that the developers not return with alternate plans for a casino elsewhere in Philadelphia, Doug Harbach, a spokesman for the board, said.

That basically ends discussions on the casino being built in Chinatown. The local community reacted:

Executive Director of Asian Americans United Ellen Somekawa is thrilled Foxwoods will not open in her neighborhood but:

"We recognize that the news that Foxwoods can't open in Center City as a good thing. But at the same time we really plan to continue to support efforts to keep casinos out of Philadelphia and want to cease the thing of neighbors being played off of each other."

Somekawa says community groups can make a difference and she leased office space at the proposed center city casino location:

"We thought that it was a really good public opposition and show of strength that we were able to open an organizing center right in their face."

She says the groups will remain vigilant.

For me, there are two issues here.  One is that these casinos are obviously targeting our community:

Foxwoods in Connecticut is a major destination for Asian-American gamblers. In 2006, it estimated that at least one-third of its 40,000 daily customers were Asian. Its nearby rival, Mohegan Sun, has estimated that a fifth of its business comes from Asian spending.

Second, and more importantly, is how local governments throughout the country have historically treated their Chinatowns.  Beyond the wholesale destruction and burning down of these ethnic enclaves in the 1800's and early part of the 1900's, cities have constantly moved Chinatowns and uprooting businesses and residents in the name of gentrification or other developments. With no political clout, we just had to accept it. It's great to see a local community finally standing up and succeeding.