North Philly Revolts in Face of Temple University Football Stadium Plans

"Protesters shut down a Temple University town hall meeting called to discuss plans for a controversial football stadium within 10 minutes of its start [last week], reports Julia Terruso.

According to a second article by Terruso, the "forum was the first public meeting Temple had held since announcing plans to build a 35,000-seat stadium on campus two years ago." That long lack of engagement with the community "might have doomed" the town hall meeting before it began," according to Terruso.

The stadium plan would spend $130 million to build the stadium; the university would also fund a special services district, run by a community board. Temple University owns the land on which the football stadium would be built.

Philadelphia Inquirer Architecture Critic Inga Saffron also provided follow up coverage of the heated town hall meeting, providing insight in the motivations of the "grandmotherly residents" who orchestrated the town hall meeting protest. "Part of what drives the opposition to the stadium, [Ruth] Birchett said, is the feeling that their North Philadelphia neighborhood is being ignored, not just by Temple, but by their elected officials," explains Saffron. Saffron has already publicly criticized the project's planning.