COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Tuesday, November 19, 2024 10:05 a.m. PRESENT: COUNCIL PRESIDENT KENYATTA JOHNSON COUNCILWOMAN NINA AHMAD COUNCILWOMAN CINDY BASS COUNCILWOMAN KENDRA BROOKS COUNCILMAN MICHAEL DRISCOLL COUNCILWOMAN JAMIE GAUTHIER COUNCILWOMAN KATHERINE GILMORE RICHARDSON COUNCILMAN JIM HARRITY COUNCILMAN CURTIS J. JONES, JR. COUNCILWOMAN RUE LANDAU COUNCILWOMAN QUETCY M. LOZADA COUNCILMAN NICOLAS O'ROURKE COUNCILMAN ANTHONY PHILLIPS COUNCILMAN MARK SQUILLA COUNCILMAN ISAIAH THOMAS COUNCILMAN JEFFREY YOUNG, JR. BILLS: 240966, 240967, 240968, 240969, 240970, 240971, 240972, 240973 - - -
This is the public hearing of the Committee of the Whole regarding Bill Nos. 240966, 240967, 240968, 240969, 240970 240971, 240972 and 240973. I want to thank all of you for being here today. Before calling the roll, I would like to announce that we have translation services available for anyone present at today's hearing. If needed, please go to the table to my left. Services are offered in Mandarin and Cantonese. Mr. Christmas, will you please call the roll to take attendance.
Present. A quorum of the Committee is present and this hearing is now called to order. Mr. Christmas, will you please read the titles of the bills.
Bill No. P. (the "76ers"), or another entity affiliated with the 76ers, under which ArenaCo or other 76ers related entity would sublease the Arena Site and cause an arena to be constructed on it, including a multi-purpose sports and entertainment facility and ancillary, accessory, and related amenities, improvements, and infrastructure (the "Arena") and agree to other related conditions; (5) upon the expiration or termination of the Sublease or other circumstances set forth in the Sublease, convey fee simple title to the Arena Site to PAID for disposition to ArenaCo; (6) grant, accept, amend, relocate and extinguish easements, agreements, conditions, covenants and restrictions encumbering or benefiting the Arena Site and any City owned property adjacent to the Arena Site for the benefit of the Arena Site to facilitate construction and operation of the Arena; (7) enter into a direct operating covenants agreement among the 76ers, PAID and the City, under which the 76ers agree to play substantially all of their regular season and playoff home games in the Arena; and (8) take all actions necessary and appropriate to accomplish the intent and purpose of this Ordinance; all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 240967, authorizing and approving the execution and delivery of a Service Agreement between the City of Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Authority for Industrial Development relating to the provision by the Philadelphia Authority for Industrial Development of certain project-related services to promote, among other things, the growth and expansion of business, commerce and tourism within the City of Philadelphia in connection with the development of a multi-purpose sports and entertainment facility, including an arena to accommodate National Basketball Association games, and family entertainment, community, retail and other uses; authorizing and approving the obligation of the City of Philadelphia to pay in full when due the Service Fee and other amounts payable under the Service Agreement and covenanting to make necessary appropriations for such purposes; and authorizing City officials to take necessary or appropriate actions to accomplish the intent and purpose of the ordinance, all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 240968, authorizing the revision of lines and grades on a portion of City Plan No. 307 by striking from the City Plan and vacating Filbert Street from 10th Street to 11th Street, under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 240969, authorizing the revision of lines and grades on a portion of City Plan No. 307 by striking from the City Plan and vacating certain aerial portions of 10th Street between Market Street and Filbert Street, under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 240970, authorizing CBL Arena, LLC. and its successor(s) in interest to construct, own, and maintain various right of way encroachments in the vicinity of 1001-19 Market Street, 1025 Market Street and 1001-25 Filbert Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107, under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 240971, amending Title 14 of the Philadelphia Code, entitled Zoning and Planning, by amending certain definitions relating to signs; creating an "Arena Area" within the "/CTR, Center City Overlay District" overlay; and making related changes, including a master plan requirement and changes to accessory sign controls; all in connection with zoning rules for a proposed arena in Center City; and approving a master plan for the Arena Area; all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No. 240972, amending Title of the Philadelphia Code, 13 entitled "Zoning and Planning," by 14 revising certain provisions of section 14-906, entitled "Market Street East Sign Regulations," all under certain terms and conditions. Bill No.
240973, approving the amendment of a neighborhood improvement district in the area generally bounded by, and including, 11th Street to the West, Filbert Street to the North, 8th Street to the East and Market Street to the South, with the exception of certain condominium units at 801 Market Street Condominium not included in the District, known as the Gallery Neighborhood Improvement District, to remove certain portions of such property generally bounded by Filbert Street on the north, 10th Street on the east, 11th Street on the west, and Market Street on the south from such District in accordance with the provisions of the Community and Economic Improvement Act, and under certain terms and conditions.
Thank you very much, Mr. Christmas. Before you call the first panel, I just want to do some housekeeping announcements. I just want to make sure that in terms of today's hearing we welcome all comments during public testimony. We ask for all those who are spectators to be respectful even if you are for the project or against the project in terms of the proceedings today. In the event that things do get a little out of hand and not based upon respectful dialogue, to my left we are working in partnership with the Office of Civil Affairs, Sheriff's Office and the Philadelphia Police Department. We want to make sure this is a very robust and engaging dialogue on a very critically important proposal that's before all of us here today. I want to also acknowledge the presence of the author of the legislation Councilmember Mark Squilla. I want to also acknowledge the presence of Councilmember Nicolas O'Rourke. With that being said, Mr. John Christmas, will you please call the first panel.
That's good. Good to see you. John, can you just state your name and title for the record and please begin your testimony and also acknowledge all who are present with you at the table.
Sure. Thank you. Name is John Chin, and my title is Executive Director of the Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation. So we have a panel of four persons sitting here before the City Councilmembers. They will talk about the impact and concerns we have about the proposed arena. I today will give you a little bit of context so we all can understand where we come from and why we're here today and what our position is. So with that, Dear Council President Johnson and members of City Council, again my name is John Chin, Director of PCDC which has shepherd the growth of Chinatown for nearly six decades. As Chinatown's RCO, we manage zoning uses and the development and the growth of Chinatown and the development that is consistent with our neighborhood vision. As an affordable housing developer and social service provider, we have developed over 400 units of housing and have helped thousands of low-income residents achieve financial stability and remain housed. As a Taking Care of Business organization, we have kept Chinatown clean, and as a commercial corridor manager we have provided technical assistance to our small mom-and-pop businesses. And as an urban planner, we practice the principle of development for the people by the people. So the people of Chinatown trust us to protect Chinatown and guide its preservation as a thriving and authentic hub of Asian American culture. We carry this responsibility with great care. Our Chinatown and our economy have not recovered from the pandemic, and the National Trust for Historic Preservation agreed when they accepted our nomination and listed Chinatown on the 11 most endangered places in 2023, Chinatown's future has never been more vulnerable in my lifetime. This arena will push Chinatown towards the precipice. This is the reason why PCDC opposes the Arena proposal. We have seen and heard pointed questions by this body about the Community Benefits Agreement and the project in this chamber. I appreciate this legislative body for its due diligence and searching for the true impact of the Community Benefits Agreement. There are many details which are lacking. These City Council hearings are necessary and must not be rushed to meet a deadline, which is not your choosing. This is a 30-year commitment to the City of Philadelphia and has huge impacts for the neighborhoods surrounding it. It is also important for me to say that the CBA and its contents were not our choosing. I learned about the CBA terms on the same day as the public learned about it. PCDC and our community of residents, business owners, institutions and property owners had numerous meetings with 76 Development Corp. I and others met with City officials about the arena. I was very clear in our meetings that the arena does not bring any organic benefits to the neighborhood. We talked about problems, challenges and what mitigation could look like. Our committee told them that traffic and parking are the greatest threat to the Chinatown economy. Gentrification, displacement will erase Chinatown if six years of construction does not. This is not an agreement of benefits, the CBA, and it certainly does not respond with equal intensity, the severity of the problems that the arena causes our community. This CBA does little to protect Chinatown from the precipice, and I do not know that it can. For these reasons, we beseech the City Councilmembers here today to vote no on this legislation. Thank you. (Applause.)
Romana Lee-Akiyama. Good morning, members of City Council. My name is Romana Lee-Akiyama and I'm a Board member of the Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation. I'm a longtime Philadelphia resident. I'm a former City official. I'm a former resident of Chinatown and I'm an active member of the Asia American community. Today I'm representing the interests, needs and concerns of the grandmothers, the grandfathers, the parents, the aunties, the uncles and the children who call Chinatown home. I was raised coming to Chinatown on the weekends with my father who taught me that in order to know where you are going in life, you have to know where you come from. Maintaining a sense of identity is not just something nice to do. It's survival for those who have been historically and systemically excluded in this country. Earlier in my career I worked as a community development and professional in both Boston and Philadelphia's Chinatowns. From 2008 to 2011 I was the Deputy Director of the National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development, a national organization made up of nearly 100 community- based organizations spanning 4 states and the Pacific Islands. 5 We supported local 6 organizations in revitalizing, 7 protecting and growing neighborhoods 8 that serve as residential 9 communities, centers of commerce, 10 places of new beginnings for 11 recently arrived immigrants and 12 cultural beacons that provide a 13 sense of belonging and identity. 14 Philadelphia Chinatown 15 was one of the communities that 16 received our technical assistance 17 and support. There are three things 18 that I want you to know about my 19 experiences. Number one, historic 20 Asian American and Pacific Islander 21 neighborhoods across the country such as the Chinatowns, the Japantowns have continued to face external threats. All must fight to survive and some have not made it. In particular, AAPI neighborhoods that sit on valuable downtown highly-coveted lands and property have been most at risk for threat. These historic neighborhoods were created to keep "undesirable immigrants isolated" in one section of the city. And over time developers and governments realized the value of this downtown land took parcel after parcel and pushed out long-term residents one urban renewal project at a time. I'm going to be a little bit provocative here and say that we need to name the racism and xenophobia that Asian American and Pacific Islander neighborhoods have faced and continue to face, whether explicitly or implicitly. Number two, second thing I want you to know, AAPI ethnic neighborhoods must maintain a delicate ecosystem in order to keep their vibrancy. Chinatowns rely on a delicate system of small businesses, residential base and cultural institutions. When one leg of that stool is destabilized whether by development or displacement, the entire community is at risk. Boston's Chinatown faced a similar trend of development pressures from local and state highway projects, neighboring universities and medical center development. Today it continues to fight and hold on to the vibrancy because it has those three pieces in place. As a national organization we were able to build with them and support this active community because again, they had that solid internal infrastructure. 's Chinatown in comparison is an example of a community that I worked with that did not have that internal ecosystem in place. We were able -- we were not able to help them stabilize or continue to face disappearance which brings me to my third and final point. Once a neighborhood reaches a tipping point in the wrong direction, it's very difficult to come back from the brink of disaster. 's Chinatown is well-documented. It's one of the worst examples of contemporary Asian American and Pacific Islander neighborhood erasures, but certainly it's not too far from the trends. 's Chinatown population shrank dramatically to only 300 residents of Chinese dissent.
Business after business owned by Asian Americans disappeared. In Seattle, leaders of the International District Chinatown warned that their community benefits agreement was not enough to protect them. They were right. Today Philadelphia and Seattle's Chinatowns, two of the nation's oldest, are among the most endangered historical sites in the country according to the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The City-sanctioned community impact study showed that 50 percent of Chinatown businesses would be negatively impacted by this proposal. We need to consider this assessment and we need to heed the warning. Lastly, I want to draw your attention to national political trends and emphasize that what happens here locally matters. We face another four years of a presidential administration that was responsible for fueling anti-Asian hate and violence and that promises to dismantle our collective multi- racial democracy. Solidarity between and across vulnerable communities will help us weather this upcoming storm. Chinatown's survival is a piece of resisting the dismantling of our democracy. Chinatown is deserving of our protection and care as a city and I urge you to vote no 13 on any legislation that does not adequately protect Chinatown. Thank you. )
Just state your name for the record, sir, and begin.
Okay. Good morning, City Councilmembers. My name is Dan Tsao. I am a first generation immigrant and I am the owner of EMei Restaurant at 915 Arch Street in Chinatown as well as the publisher of two Asian weekly newspapers, Metro Chinese Weekly and Metro Via News for the past 5 years. So I'm here today to 6 strongly oppose the proposed new 7 arena in Chinatown and express my 8 frustrations with the inadequate 9 allocation of CBA funds to our 10 community. I urge the City Council 11 to continue to evaluate other 12 options for the location choice of 13 the arena instead of Chinatown. 14 Over the past two 15 decades, Asian American business 16 owners have been instrumental in 17 revitalizing neighborhoods across Philadelphia, including Washington Avenue, Oregon Avenue and the Northeast Philadelphia. Yet our very own culture and business hub, the 150-year old Chinatown, now faces an existential threat due to this arena project. Chinatown is unique for many reasons. From business perspective it has been an incubator for entrepreneur growth that has created jobs, tax revenue, tourism attractions for the City. As a publisher, I have witnessed remarkable success stories. A small grocery store on 10th Street that grew into a supermarket chain with nearly 10 locations and in Chinatown a small (inaudible) shop that evolved into a hospitality group with over locations and multiple 15 concepts. 16 Chinatown also served as 17 an essential hub for the region's 18 3400 Chinese-owned businesses 19 providing supplies and support for 20 restaurants and other enterprises. Chinatown has also been my foundation, it's where I started my newspaper business and grew my restaurant business. EMei has been fortunate to succeed growing 300 percent versus prepandemic and expanding from jobs in 2019 to 40 jobs 5 today. On a busy Saturday we serve 6 as many as 600 dining customers and 7 fulfill 200 delivery orders. So 8 what truly sets Chinatown apart is 9 its ability to draw visitors from 10 far beyond the city limits. 11 With over a quarter 12 million Asian Americans living in surrounding countries, many are willing to drive 45 minutes or more to experience authentic Chinese cuisine and culture. This makes Chinatown unique and a powerful economic asset for Philadelphia, attracting suburban goers into the city, something very few cities in United States can claim. However, the proposed arena threatens to destroy this dynamic. The years of construction, road blocks and the traffic congestion on game days will drive away customers and disrupt the delicate ecosystem that keep Chinatown thriving. Suburban families who once made a trip to Chinatown will turn elsewhere and the delivery customers who account for over 40 percent of my restaurant's revenue will face longer wait times and forcing them to order from other restaurants outside Chinatown. Of the 120 immigrant- owned restaurants in Chinatown, many lack the resources or support to navigate these challenges. Since the arena announcement, at least four businesses have approached me about closing (inaudible), fearful of the disruptions the arena will bring. This isn't about individual business. It's about preserving a historical community that has contributed to Philadelphia for generations. Chinatown is a cultural and economic heartbeat for our city and allowing it to be sacrificed for an arena is short- sighted and harmful. I urge the Council to recognize what is truly at stake and to take meaningful action to protect Chinatown. Thank you for your time and consideration.
Good morning. My name is Harry Leong and I was born and raised in Chinatown, and continue to live, work and serve there. I am the Center Director of the Chinese Christian Church and Center and also the President of the Philadelphia Suns. Our church started in 1941 over 83 years ago. We've served the community providing for the needs and looking after the welfare of our community and city. Each Sunday over 600 adults plus another 150 children come to our church for worship services. In addition, another 600 from three other churches attend services in Chinatown so that the community is very active on Sundays. Over 1,200 churchgoers are in the community to worship, to shop, to eat, to play and to socialize. In addition to that, there are even others who may not be attending churches who come just for those same reasons, to also shop, to eat, to play and to socialize. The fear that I have is the gentrification of the community, particularly businesses closing and residents moving out as a result of that. The property taxes over the years have steadily risen. Businesses and residents have left the area because of the rent increases, well, the property owners transferred to the renters. So how can business survive and how can residents stay in this area when they can't afford it, particularly the fixed income members of our community. Last night Councilman Squilla -- thank you, Councilman, for joining us in Chinatown to hear about the legislation. I can say immediate impact of it is it's the same news. We didn't hear anything different from yesterday's meeting that we haven't heard in the past. The questions are still the same. Little bit disappointing. And one of the questions that was asked was that the Councilman has supporters in his District who are directly affected by the 76ers proposal, the Washington Square West, Chinatown as well as the Gayborhood and the surrounding city. And the question was despite the opposition why is he choosing to present the legislation that supports this project. And he brought up the SugarHouse Casino and how at the start of the casino there were not many supporters for that casino. And after it was built, people started saying, hey, that's a good thing for our community. But honestly, that's different from what we have in Chinatown. Down at SugarHouse and we all know that SugarHouse was -- there's warehouses, there's the river, there's vacant buildings at that juncture before when the SugarHouse was there and the area, it's wide streets, right. Delaware Avenue is right there. But it's different from Chinatown. Chinatown is -- sorry, I'm trying to find my point. Chinatown is currently -- well, the proposed site is the Fashion District and the streets surrounding are two lanes. Market Street is the biggest street. There's very little open space in the area. Buildings are very close to each other. There's not a -- buildings are multi-use too. There's commercial and then at least in Chinatown there's commercial on the first floor and then residences on the second floor. The area even surrounding the area is limited as far as traffic and space, so that's really different from SugarHouse. And so, that type of development is able to do it there. I don't believe that this 76ers arena that our community and the areas surrounding it can support this arena. The footprint of the arena is also not optimal. The proposed arena has a planned seating capacity of 18,500 which is about 2500 less than the Wells Fargo Center, basically a percent 6 decrease in the number of seats in 7 the area. So financially, how can 8 the owners make that work. Of 9 course the customers will have to 10 pay for it. Who knows how much the 11 regular ticket will cost. 12 In the past six years, the Sixers have been in the top 3 in 10 since 2018, primarily because it's been a competitive team unlike the Brooklyn Nets.
In 2012 they opened the Barclay Center and since 2012 they ranked no higher than 13th, and that was in 2002(sic) in attendance. The argument that the Sixers say that they want a world class facility in order to have a top team know that it's not really the facility that brings the attendance. It's actually the wins, right. It's the wins that count. So the millionaires, the billionaires are going to be the ones that profit out of this. We know that. The billionaires are going to profit from that. Lastly, much of my work in the community is serving the youth and families through education, athletics, culture and service. I was a product of the church and Suns Outreach programs, so I was a product in the program and I grew up to lead the programs. The Suns model is building and supporting a better community. The proposed 76ers Place and it's highly touted $50 million CBA goes against building and supporting the community. One of the slogans I saw in some of the shirts was Build it referring to the arena. But from what I've seen these two-and-a-half years of being involved in talks and hearing the Sixers, the cost to the City in tax revenue to the Mayor approved CBA to future costs like traffic, increased public services like police and sanitation, the anticipated effects benefiting more than the City, it's not a project that is good for Chinatown, Center City, the City nor the state. It seems like this place is sucking up more resources than it's giving. I implore our Council to stop this proposal from moving ahead and focus on communities, the constituents. Fix our schools, build housing for the needy, address homelessness, build up our youth, care for our elderly. Those are the priorities for us, for me too. I mean, we're trying to do that in our community. Let's see that citywide. Major on the majors. Major on the majors. Thank you. )
Good morning and thank you to all of you for being here. I really respect the work of PCDC. I have a few questions that anyone can jump in and answer. First, have any of you looked at cultural/Chinatown District preservation efforts in other cities? And what are some strategies that we should be implementing here in Philadelphia and which of these strategies do you see in the City's current plan?
Councilwoman, thank you for that question. What we've seen in other cities, Seattle, San Francisco, New York's Chinatown is a multi-prong approach to community preservation and we're talking about Asian communities here. Ms. Romana Lee-Akiyama mentioned the three-legged stool. The programs that we see that are successful are cultural programs within the community that attract people to the community both as residents and as visitors but paired with a very strong economic development program. One cannot happen without the other. We cannot have Chinatowns across the country where there's only a focus on cultural programming because we know that the economic engines of Chinatowns are the opportunity for immigrants who don't speak English as a first language to have economic sustainability. New immigrants who don't speak the language have very difficult times finding jobs in mainstream America, so these economic centers are really important to entrepreneurs. But they're even more important because folks like Dan Tsao, they have 40 employees so it's a path forward for immigrants behind them to earn sustainability for them and their families. So a program that we have seen matches cultural program with economic development programs. One has to exist with the other. Otherwise, Chinatowns fail.
And as a follow-up, do you see any of what you have described in the current "deal"?
I see none of that. The deal that's been presented to the public and to City Council is barely a mitigation plan. The details are so lacking. They talk about an arena that comes to Market Street to revive Market Street East. Well, we know that there's been complaints from the neighbors, institutions, hotels and conventions that come to Market Street East, that it's blighted, it's a nuisance and there's a huge problem where there's homeless people who aren't getting assistance to get housed. There's a huge problem of panhandling. And visitors we've seen from surveys are sometimes afraid of the conditions on Market Street East. Well, if we bring an arena to this location, I have not seen any plan that addresses how you're going to address the people who need help, how to eliminate the blight, how to improve the conditions of Market Street. All I've seen and heard is we'll bring the arena here and it's going to turn Market Street around. That's not good enough. (Applause.)
Okay. The $50 million CBA amount is 3.2 percent of the $1.55 billion spread out over 30 years. What in your opinion might be a more adequate amount of an investment needed to offset the arena's displacement pressures on Chinatown and how should that money be spent?
We're not here to talk about what's going to work, okay, but we understand the reality of this. This proposal is before City Council and we understand the reality is that this can go forward with a vote from City Council and it may not go forward with a vote from City Council. To answer your question, 50 million is not enough quite frankly. The 50 million CBA that we've seen, very little of that money is here to protect the community, very, very little. I think less than $10 million. So we're talking about anti- displacement, we're talking about preservation of this community. And if it works here, it can work for other neighborhoods across the city of Philadelphia. It must begin with establishing a community land trust that preserves housing so residents aren't displaced. It must preserve small businesses so the rents and real estate taxes do not displace our mom-and-pop businesses. All right. A starting fund at minimum, a starting fund at minimum has to be $100 million to preserve our legacy businesses. Okay. Without any kind of financial support for Chinatown and there's none in the CBA that I can see for preservation, our Chinatown would disappear.
If it were $100 million, what percentage should go to Chinatown?
All the money should go to Chinatown. But again, if it's successful, if it's successful, Councilwoman, right, this is a model -- commercial community land trust is a model and can be a model for other neighborhoods. And if it's working for Chinatown, this money should be piloted in other neighborhoods as well.
Thank you. Just real quick, John, in terms of rules of engagement with the Administration, how many times have you and your team met with the Administration? How many times have you and your team met with the Sixers? And then also your rules of engagement and working with the proposal with the District Councilperson Mark Squilla, just want to get an idea of how things unfolded to get us where we're at today?
We have had dozens of meetings with all three parties that you identified, who's our Councilman, District Councilman, the 76ers Dev Corp and the City of Philadelphia. I would guess that we've had a little less than a dozen meetings with the City officials. Okay. We've had more than a dozen meetings with the 76ers up until maybe eight months ago when we realized that --
Yeah. That was the last time when we realized that -- when we brought to them the major concern that we have is traffic and parking. They said to us, we will revise that traffic plan, bring it back to you to show that it will improve and can work with Chinatown. We have yet to see a traffic plan that's going to work for our community. I remind this body here that the Civic Design Review Committee met with the 76ers twice. At the end of the second meeting, they concluded that the traffic plan was improved but nearly not enough for their satisfaction. Okay. We've also met with Councilman Squilla a couple dozen times. I call him, I text him, I email him, I meet with him face-to-face. What is very disappointing to me is that all those discussions about the problems and challenges that the arena brings to us, we look at the CBA and it doesn't resemble any of the conversations we have had about Chinatown's need for protection. $1.6 million for construction mitigation over six years. Okay. We heard that the SEPTA project in West Philadelphia on the El project annually there was more funding for construction mitigation. $1.25 million for a cleaning program which we're already funded for, and we do an excellent job with the Taking Care of Business program that we get City funding from. And $3 million business loan fund, why would we want to propose to lend people, businesses who are suffering and facing elimination money that they may not be able to pay back, especially with interest.
Thank you, John. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Jim Harrity.
Thank you, Council President, colleagues. John, always good to see you. How many businesses in Chinatown do you estimate that will be directly affected by the construction?
So PCDC has counted a little under 300 businesses in Chinatown. Your city impact study for the community estimates 50 percent of those will be negatively impacted, so 150 businesses.
That's close to the numbers I was figuring the other day when I was talking about it. So you definitely don't think that the 40 businesses that are in the CBA, you definitely think that that needs to be adjusted? Would that be your observation?
Yeah, absolutely. My official testimony is that that CBA does nothing, very little to protect our community. And money for 40 businesses -- let's just acknowledge that the construction is so massive and it's so long, we're talking about six years of construction of an entire city block, even this body here has concerns about how it's going to impact 2026, right. Imagine our community. It's not going to just impact half a block from the arena construction, one block. With the vehicular traffic, the added pollution, the dust, it's going to have a huge impact both on the north side of the arena, which is Chinatown, on the south side which is the Gayborhood in Washington West.
Yeah. I want to add something about the potential traffic congestions it might create. So my business, my restaurant is on 915 Arch Street, and there's a 7-Eleven on the corner of Filbert and 10th Street, right. So for me to cut off from 676 and also get to my restaurant, I need to take 10th Street toward South and then turn left on Filbert Street, then turn back onto 9th Street and then turn left onto Arch Street to get to restaurant. So a few months ago there was a delivery truck of 7-Eleven got some issues. And so, it stopped for probably for some technical reason in the middle of the block of Filbert Street. And for the truck broke down maybe for minutes, but 7 it create traffic congestions that 8 pushed all the way to 10th, 9 somewhere between Arch and Race. 10 So it took me -- I got 11 stuck in the middle of 10th Street 12 between Race and Arch. So I 13 basically got stuck for about 25 14 minutes longer to get to my 15 restaurant because a delivery truck of 7-Eleven broke down on Filbert Street. Thank you.
Member Harrity, you're finished with your line of questioning?
Thank you very much. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Nina Ahmad.
Thank you, Council President. Thank you to the panel for your detailed testimony. I've met with many of you in this process. One of the things that came up in the meetings that I've been having is the issue of not just preserving Chinatown but the growth in Chinatown. With or without the arena, what do you see as the path to growth? What does growth look like in Chinatown? Any one of you can answer that question and I have a couple more after this.
Sure. Thank you, Councilmember Ahmad, for your question. I referenced the three-legged stool, right, that magic formula for keeping a community safe and whole and with the opportunity for growth. It really comes down to strong small business sector, a growing residential base and cultural institutions. For those of you who are not as familiar with Chinatown, we have many nonprofits that exist that serve the cultural artistic community-building needs. Those organizations have kept us together. They've kept us growing. Harry's here from the Chinese Christian Church and Center. And we remain this network and fiber of the community. The residential base, you know, affordable housing is a crisis across the country. But of course in Chinatown this has always been a need, and PCDC has held that as our mission and delivered on that for all these decades. And PCDC continues to put affordable housing into the community so that is critical, right, that low income -- the grandmothers, grandfathers that I talked about earlier that they have a place to continue to have their services and their needs met. We talked a lot about small businesses today already. We talked about the negative impact. Over 50 percent of the businesses that exist will suffer, right. So thank you, Councilmember Harrity, now we know 50 businesses will be impacted. So the growth plan really is coming back to these three points, how can Chinatown regardless if the arena happens or not, how can we harness these three-legged tools, how can we continue to attract visitors, right, continue to bring in people from the community so that we can share our culture and that other people can learn about the community and Chinatown can continue to be a place that many people find home, right. I want to make this one point clear is that Chinatown is just not about the people who live there. It is a home for the diaspora of Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders that are in our region and others who are allies and have extended family and that belong to the community. So I've heard a lot of comments of we only want to hear from the people who live in Chinatown. So what you need to know is that Chinatown is much more of a hub and we are dependent on folks who really love the community and want to continue being part of it.
Thank you. My follow-up question is about what is the economic impact currently of Chinatown in the entire city's economic footprint?
So I want to address this question because the economic study that -- and I think you're going to hear from other panelists later today who are going to be able to answer that question as well. But the study that was supported by the City on the economic impact did not consider Chinatown. It was solely focused on the arena and what the arena was going to bring to this city. The community impact study did not give enough attention to the economic driver that is Chinatown, the dollars that are spent in the community and the tax dollars that are earned to the City from the businesses. This is a gap. Okay. We cannot divorce these two things. So actually I want to make that point, and I think I urge City Council to look more closely at that to understand the economic devastation. We know 50 percent of the businesses but what does that actually -- do we care enough to know and to recognize that there is economic value in what Chinatown brings to this city and how do we quantify that. I ask the City to take that. (Applause.)
Yes. To that point, this data should be available from the Department of Commerce right now right today. So why don't we have -- I would go on the record to say I would like to see from the Commerce Department the economic impact by the different census tracts that are within -- and they can do it by zip codes. They have that information already. So for us to have this conversation we need that data. We need that data to say what are you contributing now, when there's the disruption what will happen to that because it comes to all of the city. It's been generated in Chinatown, but it's affecting our entire economic profile. So I want to know what is happening now, what will happen the six years and what will happen post the six years and how are we buttressing all of that in order to either maintain or grow. So that was the question. So I just want to go on the record for that. Thank you, Council President. Thank all of you for your very important testimony.
Thank you very much, Nina Ahmad. Just a quick question regarding the community impact study that was presented by the Administration. Part of the information that was provided to us talks about how without the arena moving forward, if there was no 4 arena proposal, gentrification is significantly still rampant, moving forward rapidly in Chinatown, which means if there was no proposal here today gentrification would still have a significant negative impact in Chinatown with no proposal. So I would ask the question, the three-legged stool question. What is the Chinatown CDC doing for the longevity of small businesses, affordable and workforce housing and a cultural preservation of Chinatown? And, John, could you give us an idea of what you and your team have been doing around that particular strategy every -- let's say if there was no proposal of the Sixers arena, just your plans on how you would move forward to address that three-legged stool issue?
City Council President, thank you for that question. We are facing gentrification and we are very active to trying to figure out how we ensure Chinatown's here for the next 50 years. We're doing several things here. One thing we have not talked about and we acknowledge is the Chinatown Stitch project, which is going to cover the Vine Street Expressway and reconnect Chinatown North and Chinatown Core. Investments in green public spaces in themselves cause gentrification. So our very own project to improve the conditions of Chinatown will cause gentrification. Out of this project we have set aside a foundation funding to help us figure out how to achieve equity with this project, how to not displace people and ensure that people can remain in Chinatown. William Penn Foundation, Knight Foundation funded us to invest in a study. We're hiring consultants to determine some recommendations that we can implement to preserve Chinatown. They are looking at community land trusts, commercial land trusts, which is critical to our economy because it allows second-, third- generation families who don't want to be in the business that their parents or grandparents were in. To be able to sell a property, the land trust can acquire it and that land trust can implement rules and regulations to preserve affordability, the type of use and the type of alignment with what we see in Chinatown. So land trust is one. Secondly, the other tools that are in a previous recommendation called the Chinatown Future History's Project looks at value capture. Value capture can look like a TIF, Tax Increment Finance Fund, where any appreciation in real estate taxes or values are preserved and kept for the community. It can be used to create more affordable housing. It can be used to offset rent increases for both small businesses and residents. These are the two major tools. The third thing we're doing is we've been a part of a national organization that comes out of the University of Maryland called SBAN, Small Business Anti-Network. Number four, we're working with the Asian Pacific American Historic Preservation organization looking to use best practices that they have seen across the country and Asian communities that worked. In answering Councilwoman Gauthier's question, it has to be a parallel line with investment in sustainability of our economy and cultural preservation. I hope that answered your question.
Yes, absolutely. And just the last part, so the project that you referred to that's going to connect North and South Chinatown, can you say it again just for the record?
Yes, will cover Vine Expressway and allow us to reconnect these two neighborhoods.
So something that's being built to connect the neighborhood which should be for good, but it's also going to exasperate gentrification and some of the things that you talked about that can mitigate gentrification on what you put forward. And can you give me your perspective on Councilman Squilla's Arena District proposal, his cultural preservation of Chinatown's proposal and he also put forth a TIF proposal to address the issue of rising real estate cost in that particular area of Chinatown. Just your perspective of what he has put forward that the wider public may not know about.
Sure. Councilman Squilla's proposal of a TIF aligns with our vision of the tools that we need to preserve Chinatown. The Arena District I need to look further into that, but my understanding is the Arena District is really there to mitigate any arena that comes in because that has to be funded from somewhere, right, and the funding should come from the arena, and whether it's mitigation of cleaning or making sure that there's a marketing promotion program for Chinatown, because it's very difficult -- I do want to underscore that Chinatown businesses, you know, you heard a success story of Dan Tsao next to me. But most of the Chinatown businesses have not recovered from the prepandemic levels of revenue and business. And that is a problem. I know it's a problem for the City of Philadelphia. It's been a problem for the business in the Center City downtown area that really rely on the return of office workers and we're not there yet.
Thank you very much, John. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Rue Landau.
Thank you, Council President. Thanks everyone for being here. The economic impact analysis, usually the way CBAs are created is that you do an economic impact analysis, you put a dollar amount on the impact and you create the CBA to offset any of the negative effects that would happen from the development. So my question is did you have any input into the dollar amounts determined for each of the programs in the CBA and were those the result of analysis from the impact studies from community or business engagement, discussions or discussions with your colleagues?
Thank you for that question, Councilwoman Landau. We don't know, I don't know what formula was used to come up with the CBA or the dollar amounts in that CBA. I have no idea. But you point out a very -- you make a very good point. In order to do an analysis, you have to have a foundation of data. I don't know that we have that data to determine what the baseline is for Chinatown's revenue, businesses, the number of employees we have in Chinatown, none of that. So without a baseline how do we arrive at a CBA agreement.
I appreciate that, and I appreciate, Romana, your response to Councilmember Nina Ahmad's question about that if the analysis was not fully inclusive, then the resulting report that talks about how to mitigate that impact cannot possibly be thorough and inclusive as well. Thank you.
Thank you. Just want to as just a follow-up question, because I represent Philadelphia Navy Yard, the PIDC Board, what role did, John, PCDC play in providing a level of input before the impact study RFP went out? Did any advocates from Chinatown have an opportunity to sit down with PIDC before the RFP went out to actually do the impact study?
Yes. PCDC was part of a group of folks from the Chinatown meeting with PIDC on a regular basis to discuss the RFP. I think we come from a standpoint of there's problems when the 76ers are paying for the RFP that was issued and performed. But we were part of a series of meetings talking about the RFP, the scope of the RFP and in addition to how some of the data should be analyzed, what should be analyzed, how much should be analyzed. And I think I can say that the RFP scope of work fell short because to the questions we just heard from the Councilmembers to my left, right, we don't have a baseline of economic understanding of Chinatown and the neighborhood south of the Market Street East District.
Thank you. So it would be helpful to have the economic impact that Chinatown in itself provides to the City of Philadelphia, should have been taken in consideration with the outcome of the actual impact study, correct?
Absolutely. We asked for the economic impact study connect to the community impact study because they are tied together and that never happened.
I definitely agree with that. That's very informative and good information. Thank you very much.
So in Chinatown there's about close to 300 businesses and out of the 300 businesses, there's about 125 restaurants and retail business. So 125 restaurant business, including like restaurants, bakery shop, (inaudible) shop, cafes. So due to my profession as a publisher of Chinese newspaper for the past 17 years, I got to know -- I have the fortune to work with 80 percent of the retail businesses in Chinatown. So 80 percent of the business owners I will know each other. And from my understanding, a typical restaurant business in Chinatown, their monthly revenue range from 50k to half a million dollars, to 500k a month. Okay. So during the last four years of the pandemic, delivery volume became an essential portion of revenue for any restaurants. That can be anywhere from 40 percent to 50 percent of delivery volume. So let's use a busy restaurant that can produce 500k a month as an example. For a busy restaurant with this so much revenue, about 45 percent likely will be delivery volumes. But I think that during the construction and also during the game days of the arena, most of the delivery volume is going to diminish, going to disappear. So why, because a customer in Rittenhouse Square, for my restaurant we have about 30 percent of our customers, from Rittenhouse Square from Universal City. So this customer is going to experience much longer delivery time. Previously they can get our order in 35 minutes. But during the congestion and game day, it can take as much as 1 hour 15 minutes. After two or three times they will turn away from any restaurant in Chinatown. They will order -- they will be ordering from restaurant elsewhere. So that will have a deep negative effect on the restaurant in Chinatown, can potentially bring down our revenue overall down 30, 40 percent.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Jones.
Thank you, Mr. President. And thank you for taking time to meet with me yesterday. It was insightful. But I want to put on the record, Mr. President, because if you were sitting here you wouldn't have to be as dignified as you are up there. You would keep it 100. The concept of gentrification is not new to anybody in this room. Every part of the city has a neighborhood that is facing what you are facing. Economics drives it and property values drive it and we have to face it. We have to face it, however, without a community benefits agreement. Nobody came in -- except for one person I will acknowledge, Member Jamie Gauthier pulled out her poohshiesty and actually got one, but very few of us ever get the opportunity to do that. You got a couple?
All right. Okay. South Philly, all right. My point being that we approach this keep that in mind, that we are facing -- you are facing what we face all the time. So having said that, Community Benefits Agreement, I need a clarification on a number. I was given a number of 1.2 million over 10 years. To go to PCDC, is that a correct number?
That is correct, $1.25 million over 10 years to provide cleaning services.
All right. And I was then told that there was a $14 million agreement --
Just a point of information. Councilman Squilla, can you clarify your current negotiation with the Administration for your Special Arena District and what's going into the Arena District and what it covers just for the record because there are two pieces of information that are out there, and I don't think everyone knows in terms of what you have been working on regarding Chinatown and the benefits of the Special Arena District and what you're working on.
Yes. Thank you, Council President. And thank you for testifying and thank you for having me last night at the meeting in Chinatown. The original proposal did not include the Arena District. After the Mayor had introduced the CBA and the legislation, we had promised 30 days of review so that we could get a chance to see it and see if some of those mitigations that we thought should be put in place before introduction. After those 30 days negotiating with Council President's Office and the Administration, we created an Authority and the Arena District where the development 76ers would be able to fund that $14 million into that Arena District to have the people within the community -- now, the Arena District is just not Chinatown. It actually goes from Spring Garden down to Pine Street. So it's Wash West and Chinatown areas, and that money is to be used by a board set up that would be able to dictate what they believe would be the impacts on our community and how best to use that money not decided by the City of Philadelphia. And that was sort of modeled after the Stadium District in South Philly, the Casino Districts that were created after the casinos were set up. And so, this was just -- because we did believe and we heard a lot of the concerns and we didn't believe that the original CBA met the goals of what the community would need to offset some of those negative impacts. So we did add that additional dollars in there and that is now part of the CBA, as we're negotiating even additional stuff now working with the Administration and hopefully we could even add additional dollars into what we hear, business interruption plan and some other means to get additional dollars in that CBA. So that was added as we introduced it. That was not something that was in there originally. But we thought that it was important to have that before introduction and still I have to say from our colleagues here and the questions that are asked, we believe that there needs to be more in order to move forward.
For the record that don't come off my time, right, because that was a long answer?
My point to you is you should be -- I don't think it's clear to everyone that you are negotiating on behalf of your constituents to the tune of not 1 million or 1.2 but as my math, that's 15 million; is that a simple yes or no? Is that right, yes or no?
Yes, I would say we are doing that and that was something that negotiating -- and as you heard today it's still believed that it's not enough to offset those impacts. But, yes, we are still negotiating. We've done it before we introduced the bill and are continuing to do that and that's what this legislative process is for, to have those questions being asked by us and also to continue the negotiations through this process before there would be an ability to take a vote.
So, Mark, that's why I asked that question because I know how hard you fight. And when I heard it was only 1 mil I had to do my due diligence and I know better now. So I want to give you an attaboy for stepping up for your constituents. My second point in this is all of us care a great deal about what you're going through. I talked to them in the hallway. Everybody is concerned about the intended and unintended consequences, intended and unintended. But if we vote this down, tell me what you would propose for that parcel? (Applause.)
If you give me $1.5 billion, I propose mixed-income housing that addresses poverty, a social service center to address poverty and to create a small business incubator to lift our citizens out of poverty. So I don't have that money. I don't have the wherewithal. I don't have the resources or the connections to influence what goes there, but the reality is $1.5 billion can be better spent. The construction jobs will still be there, but the outcome and the equity that will be produced will be much wider and greater for the entire city of Philadelphia. (Applause.)
So all I'm going to say, Mr. President, is as we plan soberly about the future of this city we have to be responsible stewards both to them but to the vitality of our city, sir, and we have to protect them. I want to know about a SEPTA plan. I want to know about a security plan and I want to know about an economic development plan for Market Street. But when people visit our city I don't want them to come down there to that facility, whatever the vote is, and we have a wonderful super Five and Below for you to visit. That's not going to happen. Thank you, Mr. President. (Applause.)
Thank you. I get my kids bookbags from Five and Below, so you know what I mean. It's a very serious matter, but it always helps to smile. John and your panel, first and foremost any other questions and comments from members? The Chair recognizes Majority Leader Katherine Gilmore Richardson.
Thank you. Thank you very much, Council President. And thank you all so much for coming in. I've enjoyed the opportunity to hear directly from PCDC, from you, John, and from the team --
Excuse me, Madam Leader. Can you speak into the microphone for documentation please?
I apologize. Thank you very much. I've enjoyed immensely the opportunity to be able to hear directly from each of you regarding your feedback around this proposal. I wanted to just get clarity on a couple things I heard just a few moments ago relative to the Community Benefits Agreement. And so, you stated that you all were in negotiations with the Sixers up until March, I believe my notes date, and you all have not had meeting with the 76ers since March?
I just want to delve into that for a moment. Is that because you all have not asked for a meeting or they have not asked for a meeting or whose ball was the court left in?
The ball is for either one of us to pick up and run and ask for a meeting. You know --
I just beg to differ. I don't think that the ball should be in your court because it's your community being impacted. Those who want to move the development project forward should be working in partnership with you and your team just for the record. (Applause.)
And I agree. That's why I wanted to ask just so that I have clarity on where this process left off. In addition to that, you talked about there being a total of 300 businesses in Chinatown. I believe you stated at least 150 businesses would be impacted. And based on the CBA that we have now for the Business Disruption Fund it's at 1.6 million, 400,000 over four years. With 150 businesses, that would be around $10,666 per business over four years, so give or take $2,600 per year per business. Have you all been involved directly in what we see listed here in Exhibit 1 around the CBA? Are you all involved in the ongoing negotiations that have been referenced over the last several moments of your testimony?
We have not been involved in what's produced on that page in the CBA. We never were involved. We currently are not involved in any conversations. And with regards to amending that number, we know that number is ridiculously low. And just for clarification purposes, our discussions with the City and especially the 76ers were not negotiations. We've consistently came to them and pointed out the harm and the deficits that would be experienced by Chinatown. Those were -- that was our purpose of meeting with them so they could understand and the CBA doesn't reflect that understanding.
Okay. My last question is regarding housing. I know we talked a lot about housing affordability and the impacts of gentrification on your community specifically. I know in the original proposal there was a housing, I think we saw some type of rendering for a housing tower. If you could just speak to your concerns with that.
Yeah. So we want affordable housing. We need affordable housing. I think that tower proposal with 400 units of housing, of which not quite 13 percent would go towards affordable 14 housing. That would have been great 15 for Chinatown. Okay. What it 16 lacked is the details of 17 affordability. 18 We all know in our own 19 neighborhoods that affordability 20 according to HUD standards is not affordability according to Philadelphia standards, all right, so that was a major problem with that. We do want the affordable housing but the details lacked in that proposal.
Okay. Thank you, Council President. I heard the bell.
Thank you. I just want to go for a point of information and clarity to the author of the bill. I just want to go to a point of information to the author of the bill, Councilmember Squilla. Can you elaborate on your proposal regarding affordable housing for the Chinatown District. Also, you introduced a bill regarding cultural preservation of Chinatown just to get feedback from Mr. John Chin and his team as well. These are things I think need to be on the record so folks can know, because there were two negotiations going on. There's the Administration and then there's Council. And so, he's been working on --
They were not negotiating with the 76ers. They were telling me what their concerns were, and I was working with them to come up with things to try to lessen the impacts. And I do believe though the Arena project pushed these things to the forefront, but I think that these are also things that we should be doing anyway to help protect Chinatown. And the cultural overlay was an overlay that would have inclusionary zoning at this point. As introduced, any project over 10 units --
What's inclusionary zoning for those who in the public that may not know what inclusionary zoning is?
Any project over units would have 10 percent affordable housing at 60 percent AMI. 60 percent AMI means that at 60 percent average median income is around $47,000. And the point of that was to hopefully grow the number of affordable units if people decide to build residential units there. We also did a bulk and massing where we chose a number at 3,000 square feet where in any commercial use if a project is bigger than 3,000 square feet, it would trigger an automatic variance. Therefore, it would have the -- the proposal would have to meet with Chinatown in order to get a variance to go to the ZBA. You couldn't do it by-right. We were worried about that goal as we heard from the concerns of keeping the small business feel in Chinatown. You wouldn't be able to combine several buildings to have a large footprint, and just by right be able to open up a chain store or a large nightclub type place in Chinatown. And the third thing -- well, there's really four things. One, we still we didn't put into the legislation yet but are looking to amend that working with Law. The third thing was the ability to have limited uses. One was adult uses. The other ones was nightclub uses that they couldn't be by-right. You would need a variance for them automatically. And the last thing we wanted to add was franchises, looking at when people see opportunities in certain neighborhoods, franchises go in and try to purchase properties. They have more resources, and that would eliminate the ability to have small businesses. So we're looking at now working with Law that maybe we could say if you have five or more businesses in a franchise, that would automatically also trigger a variance that would send that to the community and to the ZBA. That's how the overlay would work, and that overlay is basically in the area of the immediate Chinatown from 13th Street to 8th Street from Cuthbert -- or Filbert to Vine. And that was something that we believe -- and that is not in this Committee of the Whole. That's actually going to go to Rules, because we believe even if the arena doesn't move forward that should move out as a protection in Chinatown also. Now, that's not their negotiation with the 76ers. That was their conversations we've been meeting for over two years on these things --
So let's just be clear. That's not PCDC'S negotiation with the Sixers. They haven't talked to the Sixers over the past eight months regarding their issues and concerns, but they brought their issues and concerns to you which are reflected in the pieces of legislation that you have put forward; is that correct?
So also -- and thank you for the three-legged stool because I'm really utilizing that to formulate my argument of how we just objectively look at this proposal. And the cultural preservation, now we're working on Africatown in Southwest Philadelphia myself and Councilwoman Jamie Gauthier to preserve the African and Caribbean community in Southwest Philadelphia, and we may be partnering on such legislation now that I think about it. Your legislation regarding the preservation of Chinatown, what is it and give us the reasoning and purpose behind why you put forth that legislation.
Well, I think the goal is as we heard the pressures that we're seeing within the community and even projects that are supported within the community, there are still additional pressures to get added when we're talking about the Stitch and there's even another proposal for the Reading Rail Park. We know that when you do projects like that, that sometimes that's a stress on that community to encourage -- not encourage gentrification, but more people want to live in the community that has a lot of amenities. So the goal behind that is to preserve the cultural aspect of that neighborhood in a way through zoning. And it's not through the law -- what we did with affordable housing was we picked a site that was owned by the City of Philadelphia, was 11th and Winter which the Police District was there in agreement with the Mayor and with the Administration to transfer that property to partner with PCDC and a developer to build a truly affordable property there that would have 30, 50, 60 percent AMI and it would be 100 percent affordable. And that's a process to build these affordable projects if anybody's been through them in their districts, whether it's LITEC tax credits and other resources, but using resources to fill any financial gap by the CBA or the Administration who has supported that project also. So this is an ongoing project -- this is going to happen anyway also. And so, we know that the challenges that this has brought. We've been meeting and listening, John said dozens of meetings. It's been a lot and not just with PCDC. There's other organizations throughout the community, Save Our Town Coalition and others that we heard repeatedly, what their challenges were and concerns are. And so, part of the CBA also was creating an Oversight Committee for traffic congestion, parking and street access and having all the players in there who would determine how this plan is set forth and it was include people like SEPTA, PATCO, the community representatives, the RCOs, the small businesses, the Police, Fire Department, Parking Authority, the parking regulator, small businesses. And so, that we could keep the people actually informed, but the people who are actually being impacted are also part of that transit plan. So that's also part of the municipality that we had set forth in our -- not the municipality, the Arena District, Special Service District, would have that organization as part of that to then relay to the City and to the organizations that are going to be impacted the most on what needs to be done. Jefferson was also part of that because of access 24/7 that's needed for the hospital. So all these things are in place, but what the concern is saying, all right, they're all in place but the plan's not in place right now, so how do you know what's going to happen in the future and really even putting the plan in place. And when we see these temp -- there you go -- temporary plans in place, until we actually see it in action we're not going to really know what those impacts are. And we see from the studies that 40 percent of the people need to take public transit in order for it to work. We talked to other places throughout the country who have built downtown arenas now compared to having arenas in rural, which is mainly autocentric places. The goal is now to get people into using public transit to try to reduce our carbon footprint to get people to use that. And what changed that behavior, what was the big things that changed the behavior for people to be able to drive to an event to now would take public transit. Whether you live in Montgomery County, in the counties or you live in Jersey and you're saying I'll always drive, I'll never take public transit. Well, if you come to the arena now and people tell you, well, there's no parking there so you can't drive, you have to take public transit, right. And you incentivize the use of public transit.
You have in other municipalities where they made the arena facilities have transit passes with their tickets. Then you started to see that change where people now when they drove 80 to 90 percent of the time are now 50 percent of the time taking public transit. These are all the goals that we've been working on and setting up in what we have added to the legislation and added to the CBA. But as you hear, it was not negotiated with the team but negotiated through me from what I heard the concerns were.
Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Quetcy Lozada.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just have one question. Has any of the --
Excuse me, Quetcy. Can you speak into the microphone please?
-- the impact studies been able to show the number of jobs that would be impacted in the Chinatown Cultural District? And can you share with us of those jobs what is the breakdown? Are there just members of the Asian community that are employed in Chinatown? Are there Latinos employed in Chinatown? Are there African Americans employed in Chinatown? What is the makeup of the businesses and their employees?
Yeah. I can give you an example of my business like a typical restaurant in Chinatown. So currently we have 40 employees, and I think that we have a very diverse team of staff members. So we have Chinese, we have a Hispanic. We have about maybe eight or nine Hispanic staff members and we have two or three African American employees, and we have, I don't know, three or four White American employees so that represents the demographic of my business. And I mean, also before this panel finish I want to present you -- I want to present all the City Councilmembers a scenario. Okay. So I know that this has been a very long and stressful year due to this project. So let's imagine that all of us will be traveling to Japan, Tokyo. We're moving over there. And let's say we might be settling over there for a few years or maybe even a couple of decades. And then we realize that, wait a minute, there's lots of language barriers, that's culture barriers, right, also possibly discriminations in Tokyo living in a foreign country. It's very challenging for anybody. So let's move suddenly. We realize on the corner of Tokyo there's a small district for African Americans. And then where you can get all the comfort food from Philadelphia you can get a cheesesteak, you can get hoagies that makes you feel you at home --
I eat tofu just for the record. I'm vegetarian.
We have very good tofu at the restaurant also. So moving forward, many of us might end up settling down in Tokyo, having kids, having a business in Tokyo. years later suddenly the 12 baseball team of Tokyo said, you 13 know what, let's put up a stadium in 14 this African American District. I 15 want to ask every one of you how 16 would you react and how would you 17 protest. Thank you. 18 (Applause.) 19
Dan's business is pretty much reflective of our community. We actually have a mixed group of -- our Workforce is actually fairly mixed. It's not only Chinese. People view that -- it's other Asians as well as Hispanic. I mean, you know that the Hispanic community, Mexican community has actually served in the food industry around the city. So it's pretty much around the city too as well. It's a mix.
Thank you, Mr. President. Hi. Good morning. Just a couple of questions for you. What would you say -- I don't know if you have this data with you -- the total number of households that comprises Chinatown? What would that number be roughly?
I can get that number for you, but population-wise we have about 5,000 people living in Chinatown. If we expand to Chinatown North, it's 8,000 people.
So somewhere between 5 and 8 depending on where you draw the boundary at?
What's the total number of low and affordable housing units in Chinatown right now would you say? So for whatever the number of total units are, what would you say the number of low-income or affordable housing units are there right now?
We have about 280 units that have used government financing. There are other households and apartments in Chinatown that I would say meet the low-income guidelines for rent, but we're talking about very substandard housing. So 280 that has been financed by government funding.
So 280 you would say quality housing units for low to moderate or affordable housing?
And of those say 280 units, can you give us some information on the demographics of the households?
Yes. We have multi-family, but I would say of the 280 more than 50 percent of the residents are seniors.
And other demographic data, do you have the racial breakdown of what those 280 units look like?
Yeah, I do not. But I would guess it's majority Asian American of those 280 units.
Thank you very much. I want to thank you for your very, very informative testimony, and obviously members through their questions will continue to stay on top of these issues and addressing your issues and concerns. Mr. Christmas, please call the next panel.
Ms. Tami Sortman, Washington Square West Civic Association Board member. (Witnesses approached Witness table.)
Good morning. Thank you for taking time out of your schedule. Just please state your name and begin your testimony.
Absolutely. Good morning. My name is Tami Sortman. I am the President of the Washington Square West Civic Association and I want to point out that I am privileged to have been living in the Gayborhood for over 13 years. I have two of my Board 14 members with me today and they'll 15 introduce themselves once they start 16 speaking; is that okay? 17
Thank you. 20 So I'm going to start off with a 21 statement and then we'll go right 22 into four sections that we wanted to 23 discuss today. Again, thank you for 24 the opportunity to speak today on behalf of the Washington Square West Civic Association. I just want everyone to know that we are the oldest civic association here in Center City, established in 1935. Our community is deeply connected to the fabric of Center City and uniquely positioned to experience both the challenges and potential impacts of the proposed 76ers arena. I want to state where our borders are. Our borders are Market Street, the south side; to South Street, the north side; from Broad Street, the east Side; to 7th Street, the west side. I also want to state on the record that for Washington Square West Civic Association we were never consulted during the Mayor's CBA and as John Chin stated, we did not find out anything about that CBA until the day it was presented. As the President of the Civic Association, I represent a neighborhood rich in history, diversity and vibrancy. Our community includes residents along with students, small business owners, a trauma 1 hospital, historic landmarks and the heart of Philadelphia's Gayborhood. This proposed arena is a project of great magnitude. However, we see significant risks that demand thoughtful consideration. I'm joined today by Peter Coe as well as Katie Dylan-Lowe, both valued Board members of the Washington Square West Civic Association. Together we bring the voices and concerns of our neighborhood to this hearing. It is important to note that after thorough discussion the residents of Washington Square West along with our Civic Association Board have voted against the proposed 76ers arena on Market East. Everyone who's been following this project know that we as a civic association are riding two horses. To be clear, on the one hand we are already on the record that we are opposed to the arena going ahead and we call on Councilmembers to vote against it. On the other hand, we are aware that if it does go ahead, there are going to be numerous negative consequences which will need to be addressed. So today we will share our concerns briefly under four key areas should the arena go forward. These are community impact and livability, safety and public nuisance prevention, transit and traffic management and representation of economic support. This arena proposal is not just about a building. It's about the community that surrounds it. Washington Square West is not an afterthought. It is a vital part of Philadelphia's cultural, economic and historic landscape. Our neighborhood has spoken through their vote. We oppose the 76ers arena on Market East as it stands. We are asking for collaboration, transparency and a meaningful action to ensure our neighborhood remains vibrant, safe and livable. I'm now going to ask Peter to start with our first area.
Thank you, Tami. And thank you, Councilmembers, for this opportunity to speak. My name is Peter Coe. I'm a homeowner on the 1100 block of Spruce Street in the middle of the Gayborhood. I've lived there since arriving in Philadelphia three years ago. I'm an active member of the neighborhood since I arrived and a member of three civic groups, including a Board member of the Friends Of Louis Lahn Park and for the past year a Board Director of the Washington Square West Civic Association with a special responsibility as Chair of the Action on Trash Committee, tackling the biggest daily challenge we face in Washington Square West which is keeping the streets clean. To the point of community impact and livability, which Tammy has touched on, Washington Square West stands right on the edge of what could become a new Stadium District. We believe the negative consequences of that proximity will be considerable, particularly for residents focusing on quality of life. We have a number of questions for Councilmembers as they consider this legislation. First of all, what measures will be implemented to prevent disruptions to livability in the neighborhood, for example from additional noise, littering and disruptive behavior from arena patrons. Parking opportunities for residents in our area are disappearing almost every day. Will residential parking protections such as stricter time limits be enacted to deter arena attendees from using neighborhood spaces? The unique historic character of Washington Square West has been recognized very recently by the creation of the Washington Square West historic district. The protections that status provides is very welcome, but it only extends to its buildings, not to its residents and small businesses which are at the heart of the community. What can the City do to ensure the character of our neighborhood is preserved, our residents are protected and conditions are created in which those small businesses can survive and thrive? And then we look at expanding services. We believe the Stadium District, as it's being named, if it comes into being should encompass not just the stadium, the immediate area around the stadium, but the whole of Washington Square West and Chinatown, but Washington Square West as far as the north side of South Street, which is the southern limit of our boundaries. And this should include year-round trash and street cleaning services which are equivalent to the service that City Center District currently provides between Market and Locust Streets under a completely separate agreement. So will the City consider extending the bounds of the Stadium District to include this whole area and without any extra burden on local taxpayers? Then we come to PATCO. And you may or may not be aware that the PATCO stations located on Locust Street run through the center of Washington Square West, and they are an ongoing source of concern for residents due to poor maintenance and unclear accountability. With increased pedestrian traffic from PATCO, riders heading to the events, these issues will only intensify. So we ask the City to provide clarification on who is ultimately responsible for the maintenance of these stations. And regardless of whether the arena is built, the responsible party must take immediate and sustained action to address maintenance issues, ensuring those stations remain clean, functional and safe for all users. If the arena does proceed, then the City must also account for the increased pedestrian traffic to and from PATCO stations in its broader transit and safety planning for Washington Square West and the Gayborhood because we're not just talking about Market Street, people who arrive at a stadium event, whatever that event is, are not necessarily going to come off Market Street. So the questions that derive from this are who is ultimately responsible for the maintenance of PATCO stations located in Washington Square West?
What immediate steps will be taken to improve the condition of these stations and to address long- standing issues like cleanliness, homeliness and maintenance, and how will the City manage the anticipated increase in pedestrian traffic from PATCO riders. Thank you.
I'm going to speak briefly on safety and public nuisance. Washington Square West is a densely populated neighborhood that faces unique challenges during major events. Yet police presence is now low in our neighborhood and has been for many years. We urge the City to increase police presence before, during and after the arena. This includes visible foot and bike patrols, along with rapid response units to prevent and address disturbances in realtime. The question of funding of these measures is critical. We ask for clarity on how additional safety resources will be financed without overburdening local taxpayers or diverting essential services from other areas of the city. So questions we have in regards to that is: What specific plans are in place to ensure increased police presence before, during and after arena events in Washington Square West? And we want to make sure that PATCO is included in all of this, because again it is a piece of land that runs directly through the center of our area and so we have a lot of people coming and going from Locust Street to many other parts of the city. And if this arena comes, we will have a huge more increase of pedestrians walking through this neighborhood? Will there be safety measures, including collaboration with the Civic Association for ongoing safety assessments and adjustments? Also, how does the City intend to fund these additional safety measures? I also want to talk about the LGBTQ community. Washington Square West is the home of Philadelphia's Gayborhood, a cornerstone of the LGBTQ+ community. Philadelphia has been inviting the LGBTQ+ community from across the world here to Philadelphia to visit our Gayborhood for over years. 11 Large influx of event 12 attendees in the proposed arena 13 raised concerns about maintaining a 14 welcoming and safe environment for 15 all. We are asking the City to 16 implement measures that will 17 safeguard LGBTQ+ residents and 18 visitors from harassment, 19 discrimination and homophobic 20 behavior. This will become even more vital during high-traffic areas on event days. To promote inclusivity and safety, the City should require educational programming for all arena security teams, Jefferson police, PATCO police and the Philadelphia police, emphasizing cultural sensitivity towards diverse communities. So the types of questions we have are how will the City ensure the safety of LGBTQ+ residents and visitors, especially during high- traffic event days. Will the City implement mandatory inclusivity training for arena security teams, Jefferson police and PATCO police along with Philadelphia police to address harassment and discrimination concerns. Are there plans to be established a direct reporting system for incidents of harassment or discrimination in and around the arena. Lighting is another issue that we want to bring up. Key areas in Washington Square West such as the number streets from 10th to 13th Street all the way down to South Street, including residential areas and small streets, would serve as vital pedestrian thoroughfares. However, inadequate lighting proposes risks. So we strongly advocate for upgrading street lighting as well as business lighting in critical areas to enhance visibility and safety, particularly after dark. So our questions are what plans do the City have to improve street lighting and business lighting and visibility in the key areas that I've just mentioned? And how will these improvements be prioritized and funded? I'm next turning it over to Katie, who's going to talk about transit.
Hello. My name is Katie Dylan-Lowe. I'm a Board member of the Washington Square West Civic Association. I am the community engagement coordinator. I've lived on Jeweler's Row for years as a 6 renter, one of over 70 percent of 7 the population of Wash West is 8 renters. 9 Washington Square West's 10 small historic streets, many of them 11 being single lane, are not equipped 12 for the influx of traffic that would 13 be expected of an arena event. The 14 TIS clearly states that any more than 40 percent of attendees driving to the venue would cause traffic gridlock, affecting the quality of life of our residents, visitors to our neighborhood businesses and, potentially and most seriously, our hospitals. How can the City realistically hold the project owners or even those who choose to drive accountable so that the 40 percent of public transit usage can be achieved? What is the accountability plan? We've heard that neither the City nor the Sixers are planning to subsidize the extra trains that would be needed to accommodate the arena event-goers and also to achieve that 40 percent attendee ridership on public transit. Wash West Civic joins with many of our Councilpeople who have already noted that a plan must be in place to support SEPTA and fund the needed trains before this project could possibly move forward. There could be up to 900 ride share cars coming into the city, which would be divided into three ride share drop-off locations, and one of them which is in Wash West. The proposed ride share drop off location is either the 900 or 1,000 block of Chestnut Street, maybe both, which is less than 500 feet from Center City's only Level 1 Trauma Center. Why was this location chosen given its close proximity to the hospital? Could we choose a different zone such as Ludlow Street which is not a highly trafficked street? How will ride share pickup and drop-off zones actually be managed to avoid sidewalk crowding and traffic disruptions? And how would geo fencing work and would that prevent people who are unrelated to arena traffic from being able to call a ride in that zone? We just don't know. The 40 percent threshold for drivers into the city is repeated many times in the TIS. We know that multiple studied intersections fail PennDOT's rating system at 40 percent and even 30 percent. The TIS modal split assumes the percent of attendees will arrive for ride share, but does that 10 percent of ride share cars not bring the total number of cars coming into and then exiting the city up to 50 percent? This is unclear. And if it does raise that number of cars to 50 percent, that is a massive oversight in the transit traffic management plan. No intersections south of Chestnut Street aside from Broad and Sansom were studied, so we do not really know how traffic will impact the small streets of Washington Square West, but we do know there will be traffic in our neighborhood, arena traffic in our neighborhood, as a number of designated parking garages and lots are in Washington Square West. We hope to see in the near future the results of the Jefferson traffic study. Sharing those findings would help us understand the potential impacts to our neighborhood and it could help alleviate some of the concerns that many of our neighbors have expressed about access to Jefferson's Level 1 Trauma Center, Stroke Center, Will's Eye emergency room and the maternity ward at Pennsylvania Hospital.
Thank you, Casey. So addressing our fourth area, we want to talk about representation and economic support, again should the arena go ahead. And considering the significant ongoing impact that an arena is likely to have on Washington Square West, our neighborhood does need to have a voice in decision-making throughout the arena's lifetime, not just on one morning at Council. So we can help ensure long-term oversight and accountability. We should also note that small businesses in our neighborhood are critical to our community's identity. So our remaining questions to the council are first with regard to support for small businesses. What specific resources will the City provide to assist small businesses in Washington Square West that may experience disruptions from the arena during the construction period and beyond? And will the City support establishing a conservation zoning overlay for Washington Square West to preserve its historic character and promote local business retention? And finally, in terms of representation the current oversight structure that's being proposed lacks adequate neighborhood input. Will Washington Square West receive a formal seat on the Arena District Board to ensure our long-term representation. So these are the four focus areas outlined by my colleagues and they cover our most pressing concerns. We do have other concerns. But given the time limits this morning, we have not brought before you. But we can provide these to the Council in writing after this hearing if you wish. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you all so much for your testimony. For the record, the Chair recognizes the presence of Majority Whip Thomas for this Committee hearing. Are there any questions, colleagues, for this panel? The Chair now recognizes Councilmember Gauthier.
Thank you. Good afternoon. Your neighborhood now has one of the biggest historic districts in the city. Can you tell us whether there's anything from your experience that we should be including in our conversation about how to preserve Chinatown?
Right now our historic district is so new it was literally just voted in a couple of months ago. We haven't had enough experience I think to know.
True. We are going to be speaking more with the Historical Commission on learning more about what we can and can't do as that Historic District.
Gotcha. I wanted to talk a little bit more about the Gayborhood. I saw in the Inquirer that two minority-owned LGBTQ establishments closed due to rising rents. What do you think about how the arena will help businesses due to additional tourism? Do you think that the arena will help businesses due to additional tourism or do you think it will cause negative impacts?
At this point we all feel that it would be a negative impact on our community moving forward.
I think I can also add that I've had informal conversations with members of the Association of Philly Tour Guides and a number of them are very opposed to the project as well because of the impact they think it will have, particularly on Historic Philly.
And what would you like to see in the Community Benefits Agreement that could counteract some of these expected impacts?
We really don't want to speak about the CBA at this time because we are against this project. So if we start to try to negotiate, which we have not had an opportunity to even discuss with anyone at this time, it's not something that we would want to bring up right now.
I think we would also want to add, like the Chinatown delegation, we believe that the CBA is grossly understated and completely inadequate for the negative consequences that are going to follow.
When you say that you have not had an opportunity to provide input or comments on the CBA, can you expound on that?
We had no 2 input whatsoever in regards to the CBA. We have only met with the Mayor's Administration once during these two years of this. So everything is has not been discussed with us at all.
Have they reached out to you? Have you reached out to them? What has that looked like?
I was going to add that that meeting, the formal meeting with the Mayor's team was only very recent.
I'm sorry. I had to step out for a second. Thank you, Majority Leader. Just for a point of information, have you met with the District Councilperson regarding this particular project who represents Washington Square West?