(The Center Square) – More than 800 people showed up to the Philadelphia Convention Center on Wednesday night to discuss a proposed arena project for the 76ers with Mayor Cherelle Parker.
The facility, expected to cost between $1.3 billion and $1.9 billion, has drawn opposition from Chinatown residents who also held a parade that thousands attended on Saturday.
“Chinatown does not stand alone and tonight is proof of that,” the Save Chinatown Coalition said in a statement. “With less than 72 hours notice, more than 800 Philadelphians turned up in mass and stood in line for hours, representing the 69% of Philadelphia voters who do not want an arena built in Center City. Philadelphia wants Mayor Parker to take decisive action against 76 Place and save this precious neighborhood.”
John Boyd, Jr., of corporate site consultancy The Boyd Co. said that Philadelphia has allowed opposition to build against the proposal, which hurts the chances the team stays in Philadelphia as opposed to moving to a site in nearby Camden, New Jersey.
“There’s a shovel-ready site with breathtaking views of the Philadelphia skyline in Camden,” Boyd said. “The city has offered almost a billion dollars in both tax incentives and bonds.”
Boyd said that the amount of state funds offered in Pennsylvania and New Jersey will be key for where the team ultimately ends up, but that discussion of it being a negative for the team to move across state lines would likely end quickly as a new arena is built that players and fans enjoy.
Save Chinatown says that residents have lived through fights against a highway, a stadium and a casino in the direct area and that congestion issues that will impact things such as ambulance response times have not been properly addressed.
“Center City traffic is a large part of this problem, and an arena would bring thousands more cars into the area at one time,” said retired pediatrician Randall Drain. “In these emergency cases, every second matters. For every minute a hospital arrival is delayed, a patient’s chances of dying are 5% higher.
“Mayor Parker: We need you to firmly stand with the patients who are going to the hospital desperately seeking critical care in their worst moments, not with an arena that threatens an entire community.”
The 76 Place proposal included economic impact studies shared by Parker that have been debunked by economists, who say the numbers are not valid and neither are the event estimates for a new arena.
Save Chinatown has also shown that tax collection claims made before Capital One Area opened in Washington, D.C. and Chase Center opened in San Francisco come up 80% and 74% shy of annual estimates, respectively.
“Mayor Parker cannot hide behind the bogus studies that design experts have derided and dismissed as nothing but Sixers paid-for promotion,” said Wei Chen of Asian Americans United. “We the people of this city deserve better. We deserve and want what every community in Philadelphia deserves and wants: To live and exist without big money pushing us out.”
