Struggle to save Chinatown from Sixers Arena moves to City Council

Philadelphia 

A special session of the Philadelphia City Council was held Nov. 12 for council members to question representatives of 76DevCorp about their master plan and Community Benefits Agreement for a $1.5 billion basketball arena called “76 Place” they want to build adjacent to Philadelphia’s historic Chinatown. 

With Mayor Cherelle Parker being an enthusiastic proponent of the arena plan, it was not surprising that her staff members were on hand to help the owners’ representatives answer questions or that the event was planned without input from communities that will be most impacted.

For weeks now, members of the No Arena in Chinatown Coalition have visited council members’ offices almost daily, urging them to consider various aspects of the proposal and expressing concerns that they were being rushed into making a decision without having examined all the information. 

This tactic seems to have paid off in that most of the council members subsequently asked detailed and probing questions in the session. For over four hours, lawmakers questioned Parker administration officials about the agreement reached with the team, transportation to the arena and alleged community benefits.

High on their list was the arena’s potential impact on the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) which already claims to be cash-strapped. In current negotiations with Philadelphia union members seeking wage and benefit increases, SEPTA already says it would have to raise fares by over 20% and make severe service cuts. 

The arena proposal includes plans for SEPTA to build a new facility above the Jefferson Station in Center City. Council member Cindy Bass voiced the growing concern that “SEPTA is saying they’re not paying for these costs. They’re not gonna do it. So the question is, ‘Who’s gonna do it?’” 

Community Benefits Agreement

Council members had questions concerning the $50 million Community Benefits Agreement the Parker administration negotiated as part of a broader deal with the Sixers. Previously, Parker has called the legally-binding CBA “historic” and “the best financial deal ever” for a Philadelphia sports arena. Parker says the CBA includes an array of citywide initiatives and programs and “efforts designed to mitigate concerns raised by neighborhoods that will be directly impacted by the arena.” Yet the plan is short on details about how that will happen, plus community stakeholders never had a seat at the table while the agreement was being fashioned.

Council members at the hearing questioned whether the terms of the CBA — content and dollar amount — were negotiable now that it was up for consideration in the Council. Council member Isaiah Thomas asked, “Is there any appetite from the admin to renegotiate some of these things to put us in a position to be able to find something that is a little more beneficial to the city of Philadelphia than what we have in place right now?” 

Real impact on workers

The arena owners and Parker repeatedly claim the project will increase the numbers, wages and diversity of workers needed for construction and other jobs and services once built. Administration officials told council members that the plan would not pit one nationality against another. Yet in hearings leading up to the council session, arena supporters have pitted construction workers — among the area’s highest paid yet least diverse workforces — against residents of Chinatown. 

In October, existing concessions and service workers at the city’s sports facilities represented by UNITE HERE Local 274 went out on a short strike over low wages and the lack of benefits. These workers — one of the city’s most diverse workforces — have frequently spoken at rallies in support of the SAVE Chinatown movement, pointing out they can’t live on existing poverty level wages paid by Aramark which manages concessions.

Class war pits billionaires against workers

While several council members questioned the representatives for Parker and the Arena, only council member Nicholas O’Rourke framed the issue in terms of class war when he pointed out that the city politicians were wasting hours on doing the bidding of three billionaire Sixers owners while Trump was due to take office in 69 days. O’Rourke asked just what the city’s plan was to protect workers dealing with inflation, housing insecurity, closing schools, an impending SEPTA strike and a city workers strike?

No Arena in Chinatown public teach-in

The billionaire developers behind 76DevCorp have been hiding from the people of Philadelphia and Chinatown from day one. Since community members were not allowed to speak at the council session, members of various No Arena in Chinatown groups pushed back by holding a press conference and public teach-in taking questions and comments outside City Hall. 

Even without official approval and clearly knowing there would be broad community opposition, Parker and the billionaire developers have laid the groundwork for the arena for over two years beginning at a private meeting on Oct. 21, 2022. 

In June 2023, the bus terminal in Chinatown was decommissioned and slowly torn down to clear the site. In November 2023, after pro-developer candidate Cherelle Parker was elected mayor, announcing her support for the arena, she claimed the Community Benefits Agreement plan to be “excellent,” and that she was ready to sign the city on.

While Parker and the billionaire developers may want the billion–dollar arena, residents and business people from Chinatown and other endangered communities in the Gayborhood and Washington Square West clearly do not. But to date, Parker has refused to meet directly with the impacted communities, turning down four invitations to meet with the Coalition.

Upon learning of the 76ers plans, residents of Philadelphia’s historic Chinatown began organizing to fight back. They are no strangers to developers’ efforts to encroach on their community, having successfully fought back against attempts to build a baseball stadium and a casino there and with limited success the construction of a federal prison and expansion of Philadelphia’s Convention Center. They know from experience that the arena will endanger community and arts institutions.

The arena is a gentrifiers’ boondoggle. Billionaires want to take a community, disappear it and its people for profit and move on to the next community.

We will not let the billionaires have Chinatown.

Betsey Piette contributed to this article.