Democracy 101: Callowhill Nid Foes Went Up Against Powerful Forces ... And Won

THE ANGRY crowd in City Council chambers in September held up signs blasting "Taxation Without Representation," but Paul Levy wasn't concerned.

The influential head of the Center City District was there to talk up the plan to establish a Neighborhood Improvement District in Callowhill that would add a 7 percent property tax to pay for services like sidewalk cleaning and tree planting.

More than a dozen of the districts have been set up across the city since Levy's organization launched 20 years ago, usually with overwhelming support.

"We've never seen one rejected," Levy said.

But opponents from the Callowhill and Chinatown North communities maintained that politicians weren't prepared for their sheer determination to defeat it.

And they certainly weren't prepared for Maria and John Yuen.

The couple - he's a Chinese-American engineer, she's a Korean-American city cop - are now credited with helping to pull off a major upset after gathering enough signatures to kill the plan.

It's believed to be the first time a Philadelphia community rejected an NID.

The Callowhill NID was for the area roughly between Vine and Spring Garden and 8th and Broad streets.

It was seen as a precursor to converting the abandoned Reading Viaduct train trestle that runs through the neighborhood into a park modeled after New York's successful High Line.

But Maria Yuen said that the additional tax was too big a burden.

"Everybody agrees we all want to live in a beautiful place with clean streets and green parks," Maria Yuen said. "But with this economy, the priority has to be jobs. People need to put food on the table."

New power players

In the realms of politics and power in Philadelphia, unknowns like Maria and John Yuen aren't expected to win a stare-down against longtime former City Councilman Frank DiCicco and Paul Levy.

But what the Yuens lacked in power they more than made up for with passion, observers said.

"They are extremely passionate about the well-being of the neighborhood," said Harry Pollack, owner of a cleaning products-packaging business on 10th Street near Callowhill.

"They care very much about democratic principles, about what's right and what's wrong."

The couple garnered praise for continuing to gather petitions even after their home was one of about 90 carved out of the district in what the Yuens saw as a blatant attempt at "dividing and conquering" the opposition.