Envisioning Neighborhood Futures After the Chinatown Stitch

Team: Akira Di Sandro, Ray Ma, Luming Xu, Sijia Zhang, Yixuan Zhou

Client: Philadelphia Office of Transportation and Infrastructure Systems (OTIS)

Instructors: Michael Fichman and Matthew Harris

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Over the past decades, the Philadelphia Chinatown community has been struggling with the negative effects from the construction of large infrastructure projects including the Vine Street Expressway.

In response, the Philadelphia Office of Transportation and Infrastructure and Sustainability brought forth the Chinatown Stitch Project.

While solving the historical issues the neighborhood has been facing, what else might the Chinatown Stitch bring to the local communities?

Use Case

Chinatown Stitch Project

This is a story about the Chinatown Stitch Project in Philadelphia which is trying to reconnect the neighborhood of Chinatown and Callowhill across the Vine Street.

Study Area

The Chinatown Stitch Study Area spans approximately from 8th Street to 11th Street, and from Race Street to Spring Garden Street.

The total area covers approximately 12 acres, encompassing key sections of Callowhill and Chinatown neighborhoods adjacent to the Vine Street Expressway (I-676).

3.36 km²

Study Area

29,503.85 m²

The Chinatown Stitch Area

2.16 km

I-676 (Vine Street) in Study Area

USE CASE

This data-driven story map will provide information about the estimated sales prices of the properties in Chinatown and Callowhill regions generated by the predictive model we developed to evaluate the effectiveness of the Chinatown Stitch as well as to identify potential changes it will have in the neighborhood.

The housing market of our study area will be revealed under these different alternative scenarios listed below:

Scenario 0:

No Build

Scenario 1:

Stitch as a Park

Scenario 2:

More Commercial Space

What can you learn from our story map?

To have some context for the results of our models, we first need to understand the nature of Philadelphia's Chinatown and the Chinatown Stitch itself. We will do so by answering each of these questions: