Chinatown residents expressed fears that the project would ruin their beloved community, while union officers urged the city to support a project they said would generate jobs.
Supporters of Chinatown stand as community members of Chinatown speak during the town hall at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, Pa., on Wednesday, Sept., 11, 2024. .Hundreds of people who favored and opposed plans for a $1.55 billion downtown Sixers arena packed the Pennsylvania Convention Center on Wednesday night, the majority of speakers condemning the project at a town hall called by Mayor Cherelle L. Parker.
The first person called to the microphone was an attorney with the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, Annie Lo, who immediately ceded her time to two Chinatown high school students.“Why should the city let a billionaires’ playground destroy Chinatown,” asked one of the young women, Faye Liu, “when our schools don’t even have playgrounds? … Please, Mayor Parker, don’t steal our future.
“If you go to East Market, it is desolate and it is dangerous,” said Boyer, adding that a Sixers arena would be only the start of a revival because “investment attracts investment.”For Parker to ultimately oppose the project would cause a political earthquake. The first speaker to endorse the arena was Daisy Cruz, Mid-Atlantic district leader for the Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ, which represents building-service employees such as custodians and security guards in Center City office buildings.But amid the decline in office occupancy that’s followed the COVID-19 pandemic, the union is hoping an arena can spur more downtown development.
To mark Parker’s birthday this week, Chinatown advocates delivered a big, strawberry-topped cake to City Hall, the red piping saying, “Mayor Parker: Happy Birthday! Save Chinatown!” During the last two-and-a-half weeks the urgency around the proposal has accelerated, with the release of city-sponsored impact studies, the opening of Council’s fall session, and the Sixers’ declaration that time was running short for them to achieve their planned 2031 opening.The Parker administration has been working with the Sixers to draft a package of arena-enabling legislation.
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