One thing you can argue about (and we HAVE argued about) is whether a stadium actually transforms a city or not.

In terms of generating redevelopment, Lancaster’s Clipper Magazine Stadium has been a mixed bag. There are a few people/organizations that would say, yes - we’re here (in Lancaster’s Northwest) because the stadium is. Others would say, well, the stadium is part of the overall revitalization effort; a big contributor to the sense of change in that neighborhood, though of and by itself, not the game-changer that many thought/hoped it would be.

And indeed, there are still a surprising/alarming number of vacancies in the general vicinity of the stadium. I’m told that in part that’s because some people/organizations who have property to lease simply have asked too much for it.

Still, I maintain and will continue to maintain that the Stadium had been a big net gain for Lancaster County on the whole. It adds an amenity - minor league baseball - that wasn’t here before, improving the quality of life for a lot of people. It gets a lot of people to come into the city who otherwise wouldn’t have. But you can’t say, “The stadium has solved the city’s problems,” because it hasn’t. It’s helped goose things in the right direction. No more. But no less.

Which brings us then to this, Chester’s plan to build a $115 million pro soccer stadium that “backers promise will help transform the struggling city of Chester”:

The stadium will stand on the riverfront just south of the Commodore Barry Bridge, and be the anchor of a $500 million development that backers say will help revive downtrodden Chester. The stadium - to seat 18,634, expandable to 21,600 - is to support millions of dollars worth of entertainment, retail, residential and commercial development. The big question has been whether the sour housing and lending markets would force cutbacks in that ancillary development.

Developer Rob Buccini, a team co-owner and the cofounder of the Buccini/Pollin Group, said yesterday that the stadium project would be built as intended, except for changes in the percentage of housing units to be sold and rented. Asked if the plans for the ancillary development would be revised if the economy continued to falter, Buccini responded, “How much worse can things get?”

Government officials say they will honor their funding commitments to the stadium project. The state has promised $47 million, and Delaware County Council $30 million.

It’s an interesting project in that the ancilliary development is being built along with the stadium. No waiting around and perhaps waiting in vain, as has been the case here; but it also ups the price tag enormously. And if it fails…

Yet it strikes me that Pennsylvania’s cities have no choice but to gamble this way. Particularly those that are worse off than Lancaster, which includes most Pennsylvania cities. Where taxes are already high and the bulk of spending goes toward public safety - cops and firefighters, as is the case here - you’re hamstrung to do anything else; and where the city is deteriorating and few things attract new homeowners or businesses willing to invest enough to make a difference, the choice it to either slowly drown - as so many cities are - or roll the dice, with public money where public officials make it available.

There are plenty of legitimate arguments against this; they’ve been leveled here, as well. But the problem is that however valid they may be regarding this specific project or that one - overall, what is the alternative? If a city like Chester doesn’t do this - what does it do? How does it revitalize?

Now seems to be an extraordinarily risky time for a city like Chester to stake so much on such a big gamble. (But then, some might say a similar thing about projects closer to home…) But officials there - and everywhere else - take that risk because they feel they have no choice.

If, on the broader statewide level, we should stop taking such risks - then there has to be a choice. A comprehensive choice. A solution to the decline of Pennsylvania’s cities. Chester, and cities like it, don’t have one. Projects like this - and the sense of momentum they hope it generates - then becomes the only choice.