Activists in the neighborhood are feeling a little more at ease after years of protesting against plans to construct a new arena for the NBA’s 76ers next to Chinatown in Philadelphia. However, they are also feeling mistrust and whiplash.
The fact that the previous plan, which was sharply condemned for its potential to gentrify the Chinatown region and drive out Asian American businesses and families, will no longer pose a danger to their community has given organizers, local leaders, and citizens great relief.
However, they also don’t trust developers and officials to listen to them in future proposals after what many have described as a noninclusive process.
I was ecstatic. Wei Chen, an activist with Asian Americans United, a nonprofit, expressed relief. But it came as a huge surprise. It was a dreadful procedure that increased community anxiety.
A request for comment from NBC News was not immediately answered by the 76ers. However, entrepreneur David Adelman, who is in charge of the team’s arena project, stated in a 2022 interview that he has been incorporating locals in the designs.
Since we made the announcement, we’ve met with a new community group almost every day, he said.
According to a press statement from the 76ers, the announcement is the consequence of a deal reached between the professional sports organization Comcast Spectacor and their owners, Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment. The 76ers and the Flyers, who play hockey, are planning to relocate to a new stadium that should open in 2031. The businesses stated that they still want to make investments in the revitalization of Market East in Center City, which is where the arena was originally supposed to be located. It is located on the outskirts of the Fashion District, which is close to Chinatown.
According to Xu Lin, whose business Bubblefish started in Chinatown almost ten years ago, he was initially taken aback by the arena news before breaking down in tears of happiness. He claimed that because the restaurant is only a half block from the planned arena location, patrons would have been turned off by the project’s noise, traffic, and construction.
According to Lin, that would have ruined my company.
He claimed to feel somewhat relieved, but he is still anxious about what lies ahead. Lin expressed his doubts that officials and developers will consider the community when making any future plans for the area.
I don’t trust them at all. “I don’t believe they have any meaningful engagement with the community,” he said.
Many organizers also pointed out that if government and developers had paid attention to Chinatown residents from the beginning, the emotional suffering that was imposed on the community could have been prevented.
Chen, whose group was a part of a coalition opposing the arena, stated that there was no inclusive procedure to hear the community’s input. Why did you bring this nightmare to our community?
Similar remarks were made by Mohan Seshadri, executive director of the Asian Pacific Islander Political Alliance, during a press conference held by the coalition on Monday.
We are quite pleased, glad, and proud that Chinatown, a neighborhood that has existed for 150 years, will endure, Seshadri said. To be clear, though, things didn’t have to be this way. When we stated two and a half years ago that this arena was the improper place for a project of this nature, it didn’t have to be this way. That Chinatown would be destroyed.
While the result is a significant win for Chinatown, it’s still unclear if the announcement was impacted by community outcry, according to Fariha Khan, co-director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Asian American Studies Program. Nevertheless, she continued, protesters should be honored for their work.
There was a big part that our community groups played. Khan claimed that they were tenacious and unrelenting in their efforts to ensure that the city council and other mayor’s office representatives heard them. It was commendable.
According to Khan, Chinatown in Philadelphia has been considered as collateral damage for a number of significant development projects over the years, such as the Vine Street Expressway, a roadway that was finished in 1991 and effectively divided the area in half. Locals have had to protect the land against numerous further ideas, such as a casino a few years later and a baseball stadium in 2000. Khan asserted that everyone may still win, nevertheless.
According to Khan, there are numerous methods for builders, union workers, and community members to reconsider what Chinatown might look like. It’s only a desire. Who should be a part of this discussion?