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The Philadelphia Inquirer: Mayor Parker endorses a downtown Sixers arena as Chinatown activists rally outside City Hall
The mayor gave her endorsement in a social media video. Chinatown leaders vowed to press their fight in City Council.
By Jeff Gammage, Sean Collins Walsh, and Ximena Conde
Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker decisively stepped into the city’s biggest development fight Wednesday, announcing that her administration had reached an agreement with the Sixers to build a controversial $1.55 billion arena in Center City.
The news came via a video released on social media as the mayor met at City Hall with Chinatown leaders, many of whom virulently oppose the development, which is planned to rise on the beleaguered Market Street East business corridor.
The arena still must be approved by City Council, and Chinatown opponents pledged Wednesday to carry their fight there even as labor leaders celebrated the mayor’s endorsement of a project they say will bring jobs and vitality.
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‘This fight is far from over’
The Sixers announced the project more than two years ago, in July 2022, predicting that the arena would bring new life to the Market Street corridor, which has suffered from COVID-19-driven declines in office occupancy and transit ridership. Some storefronts are boarded and closed.
In the video, Parker directly addressed the people of Chinatown, which sits adjacent to the arena site. “I see you. I listened to you,” she said, adding that she wants the neighborhood to thrive and grow.
The Save Chinatown Coalition released a statement headlined “This fight is far from over.”
“Mayor Parker still hasn’t met with Chinatown after all this time, yet feels she can have a stance on whether our community should live or die,” activist Debbie Wei said. “We are going to fight this, and we are going to the mat.”
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Annie Lo, an attorney with the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, a civil rights group, said opponents were waiting to see the formal proposal in Council and were “exploring all options.” AALDEF has sued to protect Chinatowns in other cities.
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On Sept. 7, hundreds of arena opponents staged a loud, rain-soaked march through Center City, the second big demonstration in 15 months to close streets, stop traffic, and assert Chinatown’s resistance to the project. A few days later on Sept. 11, the mayor held a town hall at the Convention Center that drew supporters and opponents of the project.
At that meeting, Chinatown residents and activists argued that an adjacent arena would wreck their community, eventually driving away people and businesses, while labor union leaders insisted that Philadelphia needed to support a project that could boost jobs and help the downtown economy.
Boyer, the leader of the building trades council, told those in attendance that Chinatown could be protected and that the decline of struggling Market Street East must be halted.
“If you go to East Market,” he said, “it is desolate and it is dangerous.”
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Read the article here: https://www.inquirer.com/real-estate/commercial/sixers-arena-endorsement-mayor-parker-20240918.html