Let’s take a walk down the block.

Today, we’re at the entrance to White Stadium, steps from Walnut Avenue in Jamaica Plain.

Cars whiz by in the distance and airplanes fly overhead as birds chirp in the many surrounding trees.

In the middle of them used to sit the white art deco structure, which was built in the 1940s.

White Stadium once seated more than 10,000 people. It was the site of a Black Panther rally in the 1960s, a funk and soul concert series in the ’70s, and — until the stadium’s demolition earlier this year — Boston Public Schools athletic events and graduations.

These days it’s a massive construction site with scaffolds and bulldozers.The nearby basketball courts are gone. Green tarps keep park visitors out. The stadium is being renovated to make way for a professional women’s soccer team arena.

The decades-long fight over the future of White Stadium comes down to two camps: Those who back the current plans for the arena and those who worry that it will privatize public land.

Resident Renee Stacey Welch has lived in nearby Dorchester since 1975 — or as she says, before it was fashionable.

“I remember people thinking this was a horrible place, it was the ghetto, no one wanted to be here, but this park was our oasis,” Welch said .

Welch is the head of the Franklin Park Defenders, a group of local residents who have teamed up with the Emerald Necklace Conservancy to oppose making White Stadium the home field of Boston Legacy FC.

They contend that there wasn’t enough community input on the project and that it is moving too fast. The city has held multiple public meetings to discuss the project, but Welch argues the city is moving forward with their plans despite objections from some residents.

The group is also worried that the team’s use of the stadium will make it less accessible to the public in an area that is already underserved. They sued to stop the stadium’s construction, but the Suffolk County Superior Court blocked that effort. The group is fighting that ruling and proposing an alternative concept for the renovation.

Welch, whose family is West Indian, said the stadium also poses a bigger threat. She worries about what that could mean for the neighborhood as she knows it.

“My grandfather and my mother came to this country in 1968. They used to come watch concerts in this park. They used to clean up this park,” she said. “This is another way for them to steal our culture.”

Under the soccer stadium plan, Boston Public Schools would continue being responsible for its upkeep.

While the renovated facility would be for the PWSL team, the city says it will prioritize its use by BPS and the community.

Boston Unity Partners, which owns the team, is covering more than half the project’s $200 million dollar bill. The City of Boston is covering the rest. Boston Legacy FC originally planned to play its inaugural 2026 season at White Stadium, but last month announced construction of the new stadium will not be completed in time. Instead, the team will take the pitch at Gillette.

Mayor Michelle Wu is a leading proponent of the project. During a press conference in April, Wu said the soccer stadium would bring badly needed new facilities for BPS students to use in Boston Legacy FC’s off season.

“I will not apologize for investing nearly $100 million into this community, into Black and Brown communities, into our students, and into the BPS,” she said. “We deserve this and we deserve to have the opportunity that generation after generation has passed us by.”

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The last major effort to renovate the then-crumbling stadium lost momentum after former Mayor Tom Menino left office in 2014.

That’s why folks like Beth Santos are in favor of bringing professional women’s soccer here. Santos owns Ula cafe in Jamaica Plain, and has lived in the neighborhood since 2016.

She and a neighbor, Dot Fennell, are rallying BPS parents and students to support their cause.

“I think a lot of people who are very excited about the stadium also really, really love this park and wanna preserve green space,” she said.

But she said she sees the park as underutilized, and the stadium could draw Bostonians from all over the city.

She says she understands concerns about gentrification.

“There’s a very real possibility that we’re gonna have an awesome park and a place people wanna go to, and it’s gonna increase property values,” she said. “So how do we make sure that we’re still maintaining the integrity of this neighborhood and the neighborhoods that are surrounding here, so that they can also enjoy something that is wonderful, too? And that’s the fight we should be having.”