On Wednesday, Mayor Cherelle Parker finally endorsed 76 Place, which is the 76ers new $1.55B stadium in Market East.
For those not up to date on Philly sports, the Sixers currently play in the South Philadelphia sports complex. Think a big parking lot where the Eagles, Phillies, Sixers, and Flyers all have stadiums.
The Sixers want out because they don’t like having to rent from Comcast. So they submitted a proposal to build a stadium in Market East between 10th and 11th street where the Fashion District Mall currently is. That area of Philly should be one of Philly’s best, but instead, it’s mostly empty storefronts and homeless people. The developer of the mall itself has gone bankrupt twice in the last three years. Trust me, there isn’t anything going on there, and it’s not an area you’d want to walk around alone at night.
The one thing that is near Market East is Chinatown.
Philly’s Chinatown is great. I’m there often to get haircuts and lunch. If Chinatown had to be knocked down to build the stadium, I’d be against it. But, Chinatown isn’t going to be knocked down, because Market East IS NOT Chinatown.
Unfortunately, a coalition has formed between Chinatown residents, salty suburbanites, and anti-billionaires against the stadium. The suburbanites hate the plan because they hate taking SETPA (the regional rail line), while the Chinatown residents and anti-billionaires claim that 76 Place will destroy Chinatown. The suburban argument is super retarded (dude, the train is fine, deal with it), but the Chinatown argument warrants further examination.
The main source of Chinatown’s angst is an impact report that says some small businesses will be displaced due to gentrification. Basically, because the arena (and the residential tower they are building along with it) are sprucing up the area, things are going to get more expensive, which would price out some of Chinatown’s small businesses who don’t own their property.
Isn’t that just progress, though? If you make an area nicer, more people will want to live and shop there, which will make it more expensive. There’s no other way to do it. Put this way, Chinatown residents are extremely anti-progressive. They are NIMBYs to the worst degree, as not only do they hate progress in their own neighborhood, but they are doing everything they can to block progress in other neighborhoods too.
I love Philly, but anyone who lives here knows the city isn’t doing great. The homeless are everywhere. The streets are dirty. The subway is dangerous. The job market for young professionals isn’t as good as other major cities. The schools suck. There are large swathes of the city that you wouldn’t want to live in. If there’s any city that needs gentrification, it’s Philly.
There’s no way Philly should be as affordable as it is. If the city was doing better, it wouldn’t be. So, if you oppose progress on the grounds of affordability, I’m sorry, but what you’re really saying is that you want to keep the city poor. Chinatown advocates, you are saying you want to keep the city poor.
I don’t know if the stadium itself will be a “success”, however you define that word. It doesn’t matter. What the stadium signifies is a vibe shift. Philly is in perpetual decline. You don’t escape decline trying the same thing over and over and over again. Sustainability programs sound nice, but they aren’t helping anyone. Philly is only going to improve with new ideas and a culture of progress. The stadium is something new, and it’s most definitely progress. Let’s try that for a change.