I refer to it as the two faces of Chester.
I talk about it a bit in my print column today.
One face is the gleaming 18,500-seat PPL Park, which will open its doors Sunday as the Philadelphia Union plays its first game on the Chester waterfront.
It’s a day many people thought would never come.
And it cannot come fast enough. Because the other face of Chester is the angelic visage of 2-year-old Terrance “Pop” Webster. He’s one of four people gunned down on city streets in the last week.
You wonder how the two images can co-exist.
The challenge for Chester is to take all the progress, the magnificent strides that are taking root along its waterfront and ensure that it spreads to every neighborhood.
If its citizens continue to live in fear, with gunshots taking a daily toll, no amount of soccer stadiums will make Chester a Major League city.
It owes its citizens at least as much as those who will arrive on Sunday to watch the Union.
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