A Glimpse of Philadelphia Chinatown

I think Chinatown would benefit much more if the Chinatown Stitch project would included building a new bilingual hospital, restaurant spaces large enough to accommodate Dimsum push carts, public parking, a new pre-school/ kindergarten so that working mothers in Chinatown can be close to their children and a new low income SRO housing for seniors.

[www.phila.gov]
Introducing the Three Design Concepts & Survey for the Chinatown Stitch

Students are the next generation of voters. Politicians need to pay attention to what they have to say.

[www.teenvogue.com]
Students Kaia Chau (Bryn Mawr College '24), Kenny Chiu (University of Pennsylvania ’25), and Taryn Flaherty (University of Pennsylvania '25) heard the plans about a potential new arena in mid 2022, when news that the 76ers would move forward with the build first hit headlines. Like many other Philadelphia residents, they were worried about impacts the new arena could have on the city, especially Chinatown, and began volunteering with the Coalition to Protect Chinatown and LES.

It didn’t take long to find out that practically all the developers leading the project have ties to Philadelphia universities. For example, David Adelman, the real estate developer spearheading the project, is the CEO of Campus Apartments, a large provider of UPenn’s off-campus housing. He sits on Drexel's real estate advisory council, Penn Medicine’s board, and, along with both Penn and Drexel’s vice presidents, he is on the University City District’s board of trustees. Then there's David Blitzer, global head of tactical opportunities at Blackstone and co-owner of the 76ers, who is a Wharton Business School alum and currently sits on Penn’s board of trustees. He’s also on the Wharton advisory board, along with Josh Harris, another developer for the 76ers arena. Like Adelman, Blitzer also has business ties to student housing, in his case, at Drexel. His company, Blackstone, purchased American Campus in 2022, which owns a large housing complex at the University.

Recognizing the unique power college students in Philadelphia have to advocate for the protection of their city, Chau, Chiu, and Flaherty started Students for the Preservation of Chinatown (SPOC), which aims to mobilize Philadelphia students of all ages against the construction of the arena. Since its founding, the group has hosted many rallies, teach-ins, and marches in Center City. In December, the group attended a meeting of more than 200 people interested in Chinatown’s preservation and developer representatives. In June, the group drew in thousands of participants for a rally in Chinatown’s center. Most recently, SPOC has worked on the No Arena in Chinatown Solidarity group’s postcard-writing campaign, where it has encouraged the writing of almost 5,000 postcards to government officials in protest of the arena construction.

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The Capital One Arena revived Washington DC's Chinatown but killed the local Guangdong-American culture in the process. [wamu.org]

The proposed Sixers Arena will do the same to Philadelphia Chinatown.
[www.inquirer.com]

Chinatown residents and business owners say the Sixers’ pitch for an arena blocks from the neighborhood caught them by surprise. But they’re ready to fight the proposal.

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[nextcity.org]

“I want Chinatown to stay the way that it is, to preserve … the culture,” he said. “That’s why my parents like being in Chinatown because whatever they need, they always have.”

I think what needs to be included in educating the public on the devastating negative impact the arena would have on the community would be to identify which local politicians are endorsing the new arena project and to use that information to prevent their reelection into office and to launch an investigative inquiry to determine if corrupt dirty money is involved.

[southphillyreview.com]
With the City of Philadelphia readying the release of an impact study, the No Arena Coalition is launching its own effort to educate the public with a video and social media presentation on the faults of the impact studies in favor of 76 Place.