The Sixers Want a New Stadium—What Does That Mean for Chinatown?
By: Richard Robinson
Tuesday, April 11, 2023The Sixers’ lease for the Wells Fargo Center will expire in 2031, so they proposed an arena at 10th & Market Streets. This would mean the closure of businesses and the evacuation of residences within the vicinity of this block. Residents and workers strongly oppose this plan and have protested to move the stadium elsewhere.
The Sixers say the stadium will bring more money and business to Chinatown.
“The takeaways and feedback from the meetings will help us develop the project in a way that will positively impact the area around market east in Center City and across greater Philadelphia,” a spokesperson said in a CBS article this year. “We look forward to providing the community with our proposal, which is informed by the insights from the community engagement process.”
RPReplay_Final1680178647.movWhile the Sixers team insists that they are relying on local input, some community members disagree. Dremere Reyes, a high school senior who worked as a videographer in Chinatown, argues that the Sixers are not communicating well enough with the people that the new arena would impact. Some of his work can be found here.
“I've concluded this as a person, aside from being a journalist, but as a person, I concluded that if the Sixers really want an arena in Chinatown, I think the least they could do is spend the most time possible, contacting and staying in touch with the community because that's who it affects the most,” Reyes said.
Yanhui Wu, who works in the Chinatown area, says that the city has a history of gentrifying neighborhoods without the consent of residents, and that Chinatown will be next on that list.
“The fact that this is not like the first time that something has happened, a community taking over another community in Philly, like, it's happened so many times,” Wu said.
“It's currently even happening, like, for example, University City or even Temple... It's just upsetting because it's just another community that's so special to Philly that's been taken away from us.”
Reyes predicts that the area will not be able to handle the arena.
“I think it's gonna be a nightmare if that arena was there, the traffic's just gonna be absolutely-my question is how is SEPTA going to handle all the traffic of the people who aren't in cars? Because there's gonna be a lot of demand that I don't think that they're really equipped to handle right now.”
Chinatowns in other cities, such as New York and Los Angeles, have also been gentrified over the last few years. Wu believes that history will repeat itself in Philadelphia, driving its culture and business away.
“Chinatown's already in need of so many resources, so I don't think they would have that power to recover that easily and like I said earlier, considering other Chinatowns who have similar situations, they have not recovered at all. You know, it's still evident that that has happened and I really don't think we will recover at all.”