The Stadium Stompers are back, after months of silence.
Lining the street shoulder-to-shoulder, protesters from Stadium Stompers, a campus group dedicated to stopping Temple’s plans for an on-campus stadium, blocked traffic on the Cecil B. Moore intersection of Broad Street.
“The stadium will cause pain. It will cause disruption. It will cause traffic problems…the stadium will cause a problem in this community,” said one organizer.
Protesters argue Temple’s $1.25 million traffic study, in addition to the stadium, is a waste of money. That’s why they decided to stop rush hour traffic. Temple Senior, Cornelius Moody, a longtime member of Stadium Stompers, explains “we’re doing our own traffic study where we show that it’s clearly it’s very inconvenient for people to have traffic disrupted and that’s exactly what the stadium would do,” he said.
The university, however, says the Stadium Stompers have the wrong idea. The $1.25 million won’t only be used for a traffic study, it’s also for “designs, usage options and other feasibility studies.”
Despite this fact, protesters like Denise Ripley, who has lived on Jefferson Street all her life, wants the University to listen to her demands. “I’m scared again for the same type of reaction because Temple is doing it again, they don’t have no respect for the residents,” she explained.
The University released this statement about the group yesterday:
“Temple continues its careful efforts to consider the future of a university stadium. That decision will be made by what is best for the university and the North Philadelphia community.”
The Stadium Stompers meet twice a month at the Church of the Advocate. Their next meeting will be next Wednesday. They say they have plans for more protests in the future.
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