In 2022, the Philadelphia 76ers proposed a new stadium in Philadelphia’s Market East, directly south of Chinatown. This spurred a wave of activism from student groups including Students Against the Sixers Arena (SASA), the Ginger Arts Center and Students for the Preservation of Chinatown (SPOC). These organizations, along with others such as Asian Americans United, No Arena Washington Square West and No Arena Philly Med, make up the Save Chinatown Coalition which is fighting as a collective against the arena proposal.
The decision to build the arena was approved by Mayor Cherelle Parker on Sept. 25 and is now in the hands of council member Mark Squilla. If it passes, the Greyhound terminal and part of the fashion district will be torn down and the south entrance to Chinatown will be cut off.
Kaia Chau, who graduated Bryn Mawr in 2024, founded SPOC and currently works at the Ginger Arts Center. She said commuting in the area will become difficult due to the arena’s construction, with buses having to take detours and walking distances increasing. Street traffic would also increase because the arena would cut off one of the last entrances to Chinatown and bring excess traffic from arena visitors. Heavy traffic would prevent cultural traditions, such as Lunar New Year and the Mid-Autumn Festival, from being held in Chinatown. Additionally, regular customers at small businesses in Chinatown may feel reluctant to visit local shops if there is heavy construction or traffic from the arena. Along with lower patronage, Chinatown businesses will face a detrimental rise in prices.
“Even if tourism or the increase in business from the arena does help [small businesses] marginally, it wouldn’t cover the rising cost of rent because of gentrification when developers come in and create a very big institution, like an arena,” said Bryn Mawr freshman Celina Seck, who co-founded SASA. “A lot of them end up shutting down and getting replaced by corporate chains. It doesn’t have that same identity and meaning that family-owned businesses do. A lot of people who are pro-arena advocate for the arena by saying that they want to bring life back to Market East, but I don’t think that it should come at the expense of such a historic, important community as Chinatown.”
Only a small portion of the money earned from the arena has been promised to be given back to Chinatown, and much of it is in the form of loan repayments. Many fear that, due to construction and rising prices, so many businesses and residents will be pushed out of Chinatown that it won’t be able to survive until 2030, when the loan repayments will be made accessible.
Chinatown’s Ginger Arts Center, created by SPOC, opened in June as an enriching, educational space for local youth. Inspired by the Yellow Seeds student organization from the ‘70s and ‘80s that fought against the Vine Street Expressway, the center offers workshops, college application help, tutoring and fun events for the community as well as hosting protests against and teach-ins about the arena. Now that the arena has been endorsed by Mayor Parker, the Ginger Arts Center has been focusing heavily on ensuring that the community in Chinatown feels strong and supported as it faces the looming possibility of the arena. Seck leads the art cluster at the Ginger Arts Center and teaches educational seminars about the history of Chinatown and the impact of the arena.
“We try to envision ways that we can combine art with activism,” Seck said. “[We] involve students and youth across Philly and teach them how to express themselves more creatively. We try to balance fun, silly events with things that are very historically important and culturally important so people can have fun and learn at the same time. It’s a very uncertain period right now where we don’t know what’s going to happen, but it’s not over yet. Even if the mayor endorsed the arena, we haven’t lost the battle, and we’re still going to continue no matter what happens.”
Seck has seen a high turnout of support against the arena both at the Ginger Arts Center and across Philadelphia. A citywide poll by the Save Chinatown Coalition found that 69% of residents disapprove of its construction. Opponents of the arena, including members of SASA, SPOC, and the Ginger Arts Center, have shown up in large numbers to meetings held by Mayor Parker, despite her pattern of waiting until the last minute to announce them. According to Seck, one meeting they went to was announced just two days before it was held.
“When she releases information like this, we really have to try to publicize it so people who care about the arena can actually show up and show that they care,” Seck said. “It was very little time to prepare and put this information out because she communicates to a very small delegation of people from Chinatown, Despite all that, we ended up filling three rooms in the convention center, which is very impressive, and I was very proud of the community for doing that.”
Chau said she was upset, but not surprised, by Mayor Parker accepting the proposal based on her past insincerity about her concern for Chinatown’s residents and business owners. The 76ers DevCorp, who is in charge of the arena proposal, will inherit decades of tax cuts from the mayor and city of Philadelphia.
“The fact that Philly’s school district is suffering and has so many issues but the city still continues to not do anything to help the schools and tries to make accommodations for billionaire developers is really upsetting,” Chau said. “[Mayor Parker] agreed to meet with representatives from Chinatown the day that she dropped the video saying that she was endorsing the arena. That was a slap in the face because she had been ignoring Chinatown’s concerns for so long. In the video, she [said] ‘Chinatown, I hear you,’ but obviously she didn’t because she already had that video recorded as she was meeting with people from Chinatown. The money she’s claiming will go to the community from the 76ers is just money for her pet projects and to advance her own campaign for reelection.”
The Save Chinatown Coalition is comprised of numerous groups opposing the arena, including those from Chinatown, the Jefferson Hospital, Gayborhood, and more. It has united people from many different backgrounds in the fight against the Chinatown in hopes that Philadelphia’s government will acknowledge that the arena is objected to by a wide variety of citizens.
“In the past few years, the idea was honestly so ridiculous that I think a lot of people didn’t think it was going to go through,” Chau said. “Things were so up in the air, and so many questions about the project were unanswered, so a lot of [the Save Chinatown Coalition’s] protests were generally targeted towards the developers and city government as a whole.”
However, since the proposal was approved by Mayor Parker, they have collectively shifted their efforts to focus specifically on lobbying against city council members Mark Squilla, who has the final say over the arena, and Nina Ahmad and express their disapproval of the mayor’s endorsement.
“Now that the mayor endorsed the arena, city council is going to pass legislation and vote on the arena,” Seck said. “We want as many people as possible to show up and show city council what their constituents want for this city. The coalition has always had visits to city hall, but right now its our primary focus.”
By calling and emailing council members, attending city council meetings, and carrying out demonstrations at city hall, the coalition hopes to show, specifically to Squilla, that many residents of Philadelphia oppose the mayor’s decision.
While the 76ers originally planned to build an apartment building alongside the arena with spaces designated to remain affordable, Squilla eliminated this part of the proposal on Oct. 23, taking away what would have provided Chinatown residents with new, accessible housing. Some criticized the apartment plan prior to its withdrawal for being underdeveloped and a half-baked attempt for compromise with Chinatown residents by the 76ers. Now, many are calling out Squilla for simply eliminating the proposal rather than creating an effective plan to bring affordable housing to Chinatown, which would face quickly rising prices if the arena is built.
The Ginger Arts Center has also shifted their emphasis since the endorsement from Mayor Parker was publicized. They are currently focusing on creating a collective of people unified against the decision. The center aims to be a safe space for youth in Chinatown where community members can feel supported and uplifted as they face the threat of destruction from the arena.
“As the proposal stared to go on, we focused more on how we can strengthen our community through different means like building the Ginger Arts Center,” said Jasmine Lie, the Ginger Arts Center’s outreach lead. “We want to focus our attention on helping […] our community alongside bringing more attention to the issue.”
Chau said she believes college students are vital to the fight against the arena and encourages students in the area to educate themselves about the cause and get involved with organizations like the Ginger Arts Center.
“Especially at Bryn Mawr, we have the tendency to stay in our bubble and not be connected with causes and things that are happening in Philly because of distance,” Chau said. “A lot of the reason for things like the arena getting built is [because] people aren’t aware and putting pressure on the people that are trying to make it happen. Keeping in touch with protests and activism and trying to actually go into the city, spend time in Chinatown and show up to these events that need people is a really important thing. Students, especially, are really important because [they are] the only people who have irregular schedules and the time in the day to just show up to a protest. I think that’s something students don’t realize: what’s most helpful is just your time and energy and showing up.”
