Stop Gentrifying Chinatown
By George Zhang
From the bustling streets filled with chatter to the delicious aroma of Peking Duck permeating out of the family-owned restaurants, Chinatown feels like a second home to me. However, the looming prospect of gentrification threatens to destroy it all.
In 2022, the Philadelphia 76ers unveiled an ambitious plan to build a new stadium for fans. Sitting between the 10th and 11th Streets on Market Street and dubbed 76ers Place, the privately funded $1.3 billion establishment will hold up to 18,500 spectators and is slated to open its doors in 2031. Less than a block away sits the century-old homes and businesses of Chinatown, an ethnic community at risk of extinction. This predatory development needs to end.
76ers Place is detrimental to the everyday lives of residents in a plethora of ways. According to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, gentrification can lead to public health effects such as socioeconomic inequality, noise pollution, and the exposure of vulnerable populations to hazardous construction materials such as lead paint. Furthermore, gentrification contributes heavily towards rising housing inequality as it displaces residents by causing living costs to spike.
The arena's construction firm, 76 Devcorp, has voiced in its inclusivity statement that they want to “form a long-term partnership with the community” and “collaborate to address local priorities.” This is not the case as the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that the firm's attorneys tried to sneak a clause into a parking garage bill that would have fast-tracked the arena’s construction by requiring the garage owners to consent to future demolition to clear space for building. In fact, the initial proposals of the arena were never even shared with Chinatown residents, as the majority found out through the news.
Five months after the bill was announced, the Sixers finally decided to hold a meeting with the Chinatown community. However, none of the three owners showed up and instead, they sent a representative who left early. It’s paramount to involve the voices from the community while constructing near it, yet these developers have done the bare minimum, echoing promises that were nothing but empty rhetoric.
Sister communities across the nation are also facing this problem. According to the Washington Post, the population in Washington D.C. Chinatown dropped from 3000 to just 300 due to the construction of a basketball stadium. Similarly, Manhattan has also seen declines, with the New York Times reporting that their Chinese population experienced a decrease from 51,000 to 34,000 caused by higher housing costs.
The solution is simple: Don’t build a stadium at all. What good would a new arena even serve? For the chairman of the arena development corporation David Adelman, the answer is to encourage more customers to visit restaurants and stores in Chinatown. However, what Adelman doesn’t understand is that Chinatown isn't a tourist attraction, it's a cultural haven with a fragile and rich history.
What started out as a single laundromat blossomed into a vibrant community protected from prejudice and hate. Playing my part, I also shout the same seven words as my brothers and sisters.
There must be no arena in Chinatown.