Committee of the Whole, November 19, 2024

Have we had meetings?

With Councilmember Mark Squilla who represents your area, your neighborhood?

Yes.

Have you expressed any issues and concerns regarding the arena proposal to Councilmember Mark Squilla?

Yes, we have met with the Councilman many, many times.

Okay. Are any of the things you have expressed to him reflected in the current Community Benefits Agreement and/or his Arena District proposal?

Well, again we haven't had in-depth conversations in regards to the CBA with anyone. We have brought up concerns with the Councilman but have not gone into any detail.

Okay. Thank you very much. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Mark Squilla.

Thank you. Just a point of information. Again, sort of like Chinatown there was no interest in speaking about a CBA from Washington Square West. I think what I did the best I can is listening to what those concerns are, understanding we heard about greening -- I mean, cleaning, lighting, security and other things and how they were going to be part of the CBA, but there was no ask to say that this is our request in the CBA because the community was opposed to the project. And so, we took the same tact as we did with the Chinatown community and did what we did, fought to introduce and amend the CBA to include some of those things. And I just want to add, I know you mentioned I think the safety, security headquarters that would be at 11th and Market. It's part of the CBA that would be funded by the arena to develop that and that would be four event days and evenings that would include PATCO, SEPTA, Center City District and the Police Department that would man those facilities and have them for all event days working out the logistics through Jefferson also who has security at the time to work through that. But these conversations that I had with the community were related in what I presented as we introduced the CBA, but there was no 7 negotiations as far as this needs to be in the CBA for us to support it because they were opposed.

Correct.

Thank you very much. Thank you for your testimony. Mr. Christmas, please call the next panel.

Mr. Arthur Acolin, Dominic Vitiello, Paul Heaton, Lorenzo Cannon-Umstead, Alex Jin, please come forward, take a seat at the microphones, the desk. (Witnesses approached Witness table.)

Hello. How are you doing? Just state your name for the record and please begin your testimony.

Good afternoon. My name is Arthur Acolin. I'm a Real Estate Professor at the University of Washington in Seattle and before that, I lived in Philadelphia for over a decade. I love this city and hope to be able to live here again in the future. I believe that private investment is needed on East Market Street. I also believe in serious data and analysis to support investment decision. I have not seen that being produced in support of the proposed arena. Analysis and assumption that should have been made public over the last two years to back up the figures presented by Sixers remain undisclosed. The economic impact study commissioned by PIDC, which is largely based on input from the 76ers, also lacks key details. And despite the repeated inquiries from this body to release them, the report remains undisclosed. It's kind of hard to imagine what trade secret or rather what undefensible assumptions are in this report that we still don't really know how those figures were derived and where they come from. However, there is convincing evidence that the proposed 76 Place could cause substantial harm to existing businesses. These negative impacts are not properly accounted for at this stage. In particular, it's important to take seriously the Community Impact Study Commission by PIDC, which has been emphasized earlier today already, indicates that 50 percent of the over 300 businesses in Chinatown alone are expected to experience a net negative impact and only percent of the 300 businesses are expected to see a net positive impact with the other 30 percent experiencing mixed impact. This means that 76 Place (inaudible) a crucial tax base on economic engine for the city of Philadelphia and the state of Pennsylvania. The disruption and loss of small and midsize businesses in the area could have long-lasting negative consequences for Center City and beyond. And somehow those negative consequences were not incorporated into the economic impact study or used as a basis for the CBA. At the same time, the PILOT and Use & Occupancy agreements represent major tax subsidies that add to the bottom line of the team's owner without being available to other businesses in the City. Overall the tax subsidies the City is offering the team represent over half a billion dollars between now and 2062 with little tax benefit for the City and School District until 2032. In deciding whether or not to support the project, the City should be clear that this represents large subsidies from city taxpayers to build this arena that are not available to other for-profit businesses in the area. The fact that previous sport venues have received similarly beneficial tax treatment does not make it good policy, does not make it good economic and urban development policy. Meanwhile according to the community impact study, the small businesses in Chinatown that will be negatively affected by the arena have seen their property taxes increase by 68 percent from 2014 to 2023 and their Use & Occupancy payment increased by 46 percent from 2015 to 2023. 2 million in Use & Occupancy tax payment. This is substantially more than the $500,000 payment that the 76 Place will finally start paying in 2032, a negotiated amount that is even lower than what the $620,000 Wells Fargo Center advantageous Use & Occupancy payments are today. We search a high cost for the existing community and limited tax benefit. The City might want to consider alternative projects that invest and operate in synergy with existing tax base rather than jeopardize it. Local businesses and workers generate significant contribution to the local economy that are not easily replaced. In closing, the evidence today indicate substantial risk and little guaranteed return associated with this project for the surrounding neighborhood and for Philadelphia at large. Thank you.

Thank you. Just state your name for the record and please begin your testimony, sir.

Good afternoon. Thank you. My name is Dominic Vitiello. I'm a Professor of City Planning and Urban Studies at Penn and I've lived in Philadelphia for 50 years since I was 1. I do a lot of work in Africatown, Chinatown and many other communities around Philadelphia. So the proposed arena has been touted by its backers as a real boon for economic development and a way to spark revitalization on East Market Street. But in reality arenas are a bad form of economic development, especially for downtowns. This is a bad deal in so many ways. There is a broad consensus among independent economists around this country that arenas and stadiums do not add net tax revenue and other economic benefits to cities. And if you just heard the subsidy figures that the City is proposing to give to the 76ers, I think you can appreciate why. So if the support in this room for this Arena proposal is about jobs, I think my most important message about jobs is that there are other much better ways to get many more jobs in construction on East Market Street in South Philadelphia and elsewhere. My father was a member of unions for his entire life. I obviously work in a non-union shop, but I want to use the rest of my testimony to talk about the ways in which arenas do not revitalize downtowns. Instead they generally have the opposite effect, and we've seen this in American cities writ large. C. are dead zones on non-game days. And on game days, their crowds disrupt nearby businesses and residential neighborhoods. Philadelphia has a vibrant downtown, a 2/47 downtown increasingly. S. downtown, and one of the main reasons our downtown population and its tax base has grown in recent decades is that Center City has a human scale with neighborhoods that have dense ecosystems of small businesses, serving residents and visitors alike, and an arena would do tremendous damage to these businesses and the broader vitality of Center City. The proposed arena threatens to reverse the growth that we have experienced with huge consequences for the City's broader tax base and economy, because downtown vitality affects the entire City's economy. Small businesses rely on regular foot traffic and many, as you've heard in testimony today, also depend on easy automobile access and parking for customers and delivery drivers. Pre- and post-event traffic at the proposed arena would decimate these businesses in the neighborhoods on both sides of Market Street, causing many to close entirely. And arenas. To a question Councilmember Gauthier asked a moment ago, right, internalize spending, right. They capture as much spending as possible really rarely benefiting nearby small businesses that aren't in adult entertainment or some other things that we evidently don't want to encourage, right. So the great majority of so-called downtown NBA arenas are actually on the edge of downtowns. They are next to highways and large parking facilities and not in the heart of downtowns. Other cities have been really wise to keep arenas out of the heart of their downtowns. Instead the purpose-built stadium and Arena Districts that they have developed, which I know some of you have studied recently as has our Mayor, when done well they include a mix of compatible uses, typically much larger businesses and not the small shops and small residences that predominate in Center City and make it the interesting vibrant place that it is. I also want to stress that no CBA or Stadium District or other measures you can take will truly mitigate the disruptive and damaging effects on our downtown if we build an arena, including the livability and economic vitality of Chinatown, the Gayborhood, Washington Square West and surrounding neighborhoods. And, yes, I know Councilmember Jones has stepped out, neighborhoods around our city are experiencing gentrification but only one of them is being targeted by an arena which is a fundamentally different proposal for land use and neighborhood economies.

So you have a clear choice, in my view, between the proposed arena and preserving and enhancing the vitality of these neighborhoods from the inevitable disruption that arenas have on residential and small-scale commercial neighborhoods. Please do not deceive yourselves into believing you can preserve the vitality of our downtown if you allow this arena to be built. Thank you. )

State your name for the record and begin your testimony.

Hi. I'm Paul Heaton. I'm a Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania. I also have a Ph.D. in economics. If you look at the text of Bill No. 2 240966, it claims that the arena will create thousands of construction jobs and hundreds of permanent jobs in the city. However, the economic impact studies used to support these claims are deeply flawed. City Council should not rush to approve this legislation when you've not been given a complete accurate accounting of the economic effects of the arena. The impact studies are flawed in at least three ways: First, they claim to assess net impacts but actually completely ignore significant economic costs and harms from the arena. For example, later today you'll hear from SEPTA that they anticipate tens of millions of startup costs and tens of millions of annual continuing costs for operations associated with the arena. None of those costs are included in the economic impact study. Those are costs that will have to be borne by SEPTA's customers or City or state taxpayers. Again, not in an economic impact study. We know that if we don't meet the transit target of 40 percent, the City's own studies say that that's going to create substantial gridlock. But again, there's no calculation of the economic costs of that lost mobility. The studies also ignore the opportunity costs of other potential useful uses for the Market East parcel as well as potential expanded redevelopment of the South Philly sports complex. It's quite possible that alternatives to the arena could actually generate even more jobs and more City tax revenue than what's been proposed here, but you haven't been given information about alternatives. I'll also note that these studies have serious methodological problems. As one example, no one seriously thinks that the Wells Fargo Center is going to actually get more events and more business if the arena is built. But if you look carefully at the CSL study, what you'll see is that all of the comparable cities that it used to build its jobs estimate were cities where the existing arenas actually gained business after a new arena was built. In a lot of ways this study reminds me and it has similar problems to the study that was shared with this Council back in 2015 when you were asked to approve the Fashion District Mall. If you go back to that study, you were told that the mall was going to generate 1,400 new jobs. I think we know how that turned out. And so, if you approve this, right, I think you can understand that it's going to generate many, many fewer jobs than you've been promised by the Sixers and by CSL. Finally, I'll just point out that taken on its own terms the CSL study tells us that the arena is going to create significant economic harm. So if you look in the tiny fine print on , the study gives us the startling estimate that 41 percent of the arena's total revenues will be cannibalized from existing sitting businesses or leak out of the city. So by their calculations, that's about $75 million per year. So if you approve the arena, what you're going to be doing is having hundreds of millions of dollars that would go to existing City businesses today that end up getting transferred over to Harris Blitzer & Live Nation. Now, if I were you I would probably want to know before voting on the arena like what are the businesses in my district that are going to lose revenue that may have to downsize as a result of the arena. But the economic impact studies you have really hide the ball on these issues. So just to summarize, I really don't think you want to vote to risk our Chinatown unless you know for sure that this project is going to be a net win for the city, but you're missing really critical facts and data that you need to make that determination. Thanks. (Applause.)

Thank you. State your name for the record and please begin your testimony.

Thank you. My name is Alex Jin. I hold a Ph.D. in History from Princeton University where I'm currently a postgraduate research associate. I am a resident of Chinatown North and have lived in Philly for around seven years. So like everyone else on this panel, I believe in the need for a revitalized Market East for the future of Philadelphia. History has shown, however, that grand magic bullet construction projects are never the solution. Back in the 1960s and '70s, for example, the Vine Street Expressway was touted as a pivotal infrastructure project that would bring back much-needed jobs and commerce to a city struggling from post-war deindustrialization. Under the guise of urban renewal, highway projects were said to be literal lifelines into the city that would shepherd in money back from the suburbs. We know today that I-676 has not only done little to alleviate congestion in the city but also had largely negative economic impacts in how its construction disrupted regular business and cut communities apart. The recently awarded 158.3 million federal transportation grant for the Chinatown Stitch is, after all, an implicit acknowledgement of the economic and social harms the highway had on downtown Philadelphia. What I find especially troubling about the 76ers proposal is how economically and scientifically unserious it is. Arthur has already touched on some of the economic losses both to Chinatown and to the City, especially in terms of lost tax revenue that would amount to close to $600 million over the next 30 years. We also know that the 76ers has a history of false advertising and failing to live up to their promises. Just eight years ago the 76ers built a practice facility in Camden in exchange for a $82 million tax break from the New Jersey state legislature. There the 76ers touted how a practice facility would not only generate more jobs but also revitalize all of Downtown Camden. As of 2023, the 76ers employ only 11 Camden residents out of its 275 employees there, which amount to 4 percent of its overall workforce. And the area surrounding the practice facility remains destitute. In 2022 New Jersey's Economic Development Authority went as far as revoking part of the 76ers tax break in Camden because the practice facility had failed to live up to its promises of job creation. As the acting State Controller Kevin Walsh said at the time, "It is easy for a business looking for tax credits to promise results but harder to deliver." The question facing Council today is whether we want the City of Philadelphia and its many taxpayers to foot the bill for yet another grandiose infrastructure project unlikely to generate real economic growth built by and for billionaires with a track record of failing to live up to their promises. Thank you. (Applause.)

Just state your name for the record and please begin your testimony.

Thank you. Council President, Council, to my organizing colleagues here in Chambers today, neighbors, workers and the people of the city of Philadelphia, good afternoon. My name is Lorenzo Cannon-Umstead and I'm from 215 People's Alliance and Black Philadelphians for Chinatown. Lastly, I'm a 3rd District constituent. Good to see you today, Councilmember. I oppose Bill No. 14 240966. Before speaking directly to this bill, just a little bit about myself for those that wonder. I'm the Northeast organizer of 215 People's Alliance, which is a multi- racial working-class organization, building people power across the whole of Philadelphia. As an organizer in our city, I have experienced organizing alongside and facilitating to youth and all high school types around our city, public, charter, private, parochial, however y'all want to do it. I also have experience working for our Streets Department, cleaning out our alleyways and our blocks and lots that were less desirable to address and physically work on based on the conditions of those during that time. To these issues, I have placed my feet directly on our land. I have worked in warehouses, receiving mass deliveries to feed people in the city. I am no stranger to labor. I love labor organizing and I love a good labor organizing struggle. But when that labor organizing struggle is just and when the politics of said labor struggle has a dialectical materialist lens, intentional or otherwise. Currently at 215 People's Alliance we are trying to address trash clean-up and short dumping in our city as it pertains to a cleaner and greener Philadelphia. One thing I'm having a bit of trouble with is that a new state-of-the-art arena, right, a NBA arena on Market Street, how will that contribute to a cleaner and greener Philadelphia. I'm thinking about food waste, plastics and other waste materials from the pro shops. Has the extra labor that is needed to keep Market Street clean on game days been considered? People will choose to tailgate or pregame if they see fit as people do in the city in our neighborhood, residential areas in Market East. Have all of our City branches considered this? And you know, pardon me if it's been mentioned, and this may be somewhat of a moot point to some based on the institution. But the time that I have dedicated to this hearing and watching this hearing, I have yet not heard the fact that the very land we are debating over a charter school sits across the street from it. Now, I realize this charter school is not within our public district, right. But it is a school with Philadelphia youth who sit in that building every day during the school year. Now, I wonder if there has been any attempts made to form an open and direct relationship with schools and youth programs in our city, especially to those middle and high school institutions that have basketball teams. Have the 76ers reached out to get with these youth in programs to provide them with resources, especially the schools that will be in geographic proximity to this proposed arena. What impactful or ancillary benefits does this provide to our youth in this city? How will their day-to-day lives be affected by the Market Street construction? And I can kind of recall some years back I went to West Philadelphia Catholic High School. I'm also, you know, a West Philadelphia resident. In the late 2000s during the SEPTA reconstruction, our lives as West Catholic students and West Philadelphia High School students, the public school, all of our lives in the neighborhoods of West Sunset Park were all affected by that construction during that time in the late 2000s -- excuse me, Walnut Hill, pardon me. As this hearing continues, I've urge all of us in these chambers, those of us watching on stream on Channel 64 or even those watching on the YouTube playback, please consider some serious answers to these questions. Thank you all. I appreciate it. (Applause.)

Thank you. Questions or comments from members of the Committee? Councilmember O'Rourke.

What I'm hearing from -- I'm sorry. Good morning --

Councilman O'Rourke, please speak into the microphone please.

Thank you, Mr. President.

You're welcome.

And good morning to all the panelists. What I'm hearing from this panel is a lot of evidence that this is a bad deal, maybe even worse than we already realize. Other members have throughout the course of listening raised points. The extremely high cost to local businesses, potential tax subsidy hand-out of almost 600 million and a huge burden on SEPTA and are just not worth the poorly- supported claims, as I said last week really this bet's kind of how it's turning out to be, of this economic development for Market East. That having been said, I actually agree citywide thinking that development of Market East is ideal. So what types of alternative projects would lead to a healthy redevelopment of Market East in your assessment?

Yeah. I mean, you know, I'm not an expert. I think we've heard a lot of different proposals, a biosciences hub. We heard earlier today about proposals for a small business incubator. Ultimately, I think it's obviously the role of this Council to make those decisions. I guess what troubles me is the Sixers want an arena. You have one option before you and it seems like the choice is kind of either take our option or go home. And I think really the right way to think about that is to think about trade-offs, right, what are the values and benefits of this option as compared to other things that we might do. And I guess what bothers me about the economic impact studies that you've been given is they don't really think about alternatives. There may be a deal that's actually better for unions that generates more City tax revenue but that doesn't have these harms to Chinatown, but that's not something that you've been given information about.

So I think almost any other use would be less disruptive than a stadium or an arena that brings many thousands of people, at the same time internalizes their spending, sends the profits to New York or somewhere else and then sends everybody away without benefiting the rest of our downtown and our city. The East Market development, which many of the people in the room I think are familiar with, on the 1100 block of East Market Street on the south side cost over $1 billion to build. It's a mixed use high-rise luxury apartment building or buildings that created extra little streets that are very vibrant. Every single -- Arthur went through there this morning. Every single retail space is rented. Jefferson Hospital takes up part of it. That's over $1 billion to redevelop one block of Market Street, right. There are some other available surface parking lots, right, with nothing to knock down on at least a couple of other blocks of East Market Street. We could build similar things, right. I've been saying for two years, right, if you know what photoshop is, right, it's a way to play with photographs and sort of manipulate images, right. We could just sort of photoshop the East Market Street redevelopment onto this block of the Fashion District and we'd have a much healthier sort of development mixed-use with just as many jobs and maybe better jobs too for our downtown. It'd be -- I can go on about this, but I think almost anything else we lack -- I'm not accusing you of this, right, because this is now, right, this has been put in front of you recently, right. But I think we've lacked a fair bit of imagination about what could go on East Market Street. It's been well more than a decade since the City Planning Commission produced a plan for East Market Street. Let's imagine something different, right. We can be creative. I know you all can, right, in imagining something better for our city that creates more jobs and better jobs. And I can go on, but I hope I've answered your question. Thank you.

Thank you very much. The Chair recognizes -- are you going to say the same thing?

Yeah, could I just add really quickly that all of these potential features, which is a sort of under-remarked part of the legislation, will be foreclosed by the building of the arena, right. Currently the way that the legislation stands they're going to be handing over this land to the City, which they will then "rent," right, for $10. They're not going to be paying any property taxes or Use & Occupancy taxes, which again amounts to over a $600 million tax subsidy. And at the end of their 30-year lease, as long as they meet certain requirements, they have the opportunity to buy that land, right. The City will no longer after giving them this for free have the opportunity to use that land for all of these other opportunities. It's a land grab. (Applause.)

Thank you very much. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Rue Landau.

Thank you, Council President. Arthur, you spoke a little fast for us. So I would like you if you could go back, tell us just for a second a little bit about yourself and tell us please what you calculated as the tax consequences and how you got there.

Yes. I'm Arthur Acolin. I'm an Associate Professor of Real Estate at University of Washington in Seattle. And my accent is from France, not from the West Coast. The calculation, if you just kind think about that that project, right, like traditionally 30 years ago when you were doing this kind of deals, the City was providing land, they were providing a lot of funding. There were probably a lot of direct advantages. Over time there has been that change toward having some negotiated agreement and a little bit more shifting toward the teams, but the teams are still getting fantastic tax breaks. And in this case, when you look at the Payment In Lieu Of Taxes for the property tax, when you look at the Use & Occupancy agreement, you can just think about a project that is worth conservatively $1 billion when they have finished it and you can assume that if it was any other project like Market, after 10 years they would be paying property tax at the full rate. They are already paying Use & Occupancy tax. And if you apply those same formula that you have that you're applying to all other properties, you can estimate what that development will generate in taxes. And you can just make the difference between what the PILOT agreement and the Use & Occupancy agreement are contributing is what that would be contributing.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Thank you for your informative testimony. Members, I know we're coming up amongst lunch but I want to push through this last panel and then we'll break for lunch because we're going to have a long day irregardless. And so, Mr. Christmas, can you please call the next panel. And also for the record, I want to acknowledge the presence of Councilmember Isaiah Thomas and also recognize Councilmember Minority Leader Kendra Brooks is also present.

Would Xu Lin, Debbie Law, Annie Lo, Eric Law and Mike Ha, please come forward. (Witnesses approached Witness table.)

Just state your name for the record and please begin your testimony.

Hi. Good afternoon. My name is Michael and I'm the owner of QT Vietnamese Sandwich Shop that's three doors down from the Greyhound Bus Terminal. My wife and I opened the shop about, I don't know, 15 years ago, about 2010 roughly. And we're --

Excuse me, sir, just real quick. Can we take all conversations, sidebar conversations out the chambers please.

I'll make it quick. I promise. I got to go pick up my kid.

Take your time. Go ahead, sir.

So first of all, I just want to say that when this proposal was presented they were saying that the people from the public would come in and they would frequent Chinatown prior to the game and eat our food and enjoy the culture and stuff. But in reality, that's not the case, because most people are rushing to the arena. Most people want to -when you go to a game, any game, you're not thinking about for instance my hoagies, my bahn mis, which I would think that about 50 percent of people sitting here today don't even know what it is. So we're a niche market. And the reason we're in Chinatown is because we serve authentic Asian cuisines. Now, when you come to game night, you're not thinking about authentic food. You're thinking about cheesesteaks, you're thinking about hot dogs, you're thinking about beer and pizza --

Excuse me. Point of information. I'm vegetarian so --

Well, we have vegetarian food too.

When I go to the game, my wife took me to Chinatown a couple times. I told you -- a little bit of tofu, seitan.

You should stop at our shop. We can introduce you to bahn mi --

But go ahead.

-- if you don't know what that is. I'm more than happy to serve anyone a bahn mi and just explain the history of bahn mi. And by the look of some people's faces, they don't know what the hell the bahn mi is. But it's a hoagie. It's a Vietnamese version of a hoagie.

Excuse me, sir. Please don't make assumptions and stereotypes about -- all Black folks don't eat chicken. I had a bahn mi sandwich. My wife showed me what the bahn mi sandwich is so I'm familiar with a bahn mi sandwich and so is my children. Just letting you know.

I got that. Okay. So going to the next part then. So the traffic, the noise and the pollution that's going to be generated from the construction will most likely push out customers because my place is a take-out joint. So if there's noise pollution and everything else that's associated with the construction, it's going to adversely affect our business. Our delivery guys won't even come into our facility because why would they spend the extra amount of minutes that's needed to get into our place, wait for the food to be ready and then head back out where there's, I don't know, God knows how much construction that's going on, how much noise and pollution and everything else that can affect their delivery time and quality of the food. So we know that that's just not something that we would want. And QT has probably been supporting the UNITE HERE workers at the picket lines and feeding them and making sure that the people that truly value our presence in Chinatown are given food to do what they need to do. And even through all the decades of the abuse and intolerances that immigrants have faced in our community, our community has been here for over 150 years. We started here on Race Street, not by choice but because the powers that be said that we can only dwell in the slums with the individuals that were deemed unacceptable by society. We were allowed to raise our children, they said, but only in areas that were so dangerous, so despicable and so impoverished but nowhere else. Through it all we rose, we worked, we learned and we build. We thrive through the worst conditions, but today I am here saddened by what it means to be blue. We didn't lose this election because America is racist. We lost this lection because you have forsaken us. You have forsaken all the communities that represent, the make up America. You put forth the profit of a franchise that's only been in existence for about 50 years over a community that has supported you for 150 years. I'm not sitting here and begging you to reconsider. I'm sitting here with the spirits of your forefathers asking you to remember the struggles and the sacrifices that your ancestors made. Don't let greed, ego and ill-conceived notions of a legacy cloud your judgment. Don't let corporations use you in the name of progress. Thank you and God bless America. (Applause.)

Just state your name for the record and please begin your testimony.

Good afternoon, Councilmembers. My name is Annie Lo, and I'm a legal fellow at the Asian-American Legal Defense and Education Fund or AALDEF for short. AALDEF is a 50-year-old organization that fights to secure the civil rights of Asian Americans and communities of color across the country, and we represent Asia Americans United, one of the leadership organizations of the Save Chinatown Coalition. Thank you for the opportunities to testify on the arena, which AALDEF views as an existential threat to Chinatown. AALDEF works in Chinatowns and other communities of color across the Northeast to advocate for zoning protections and planning decisions that protect the right of low-income and immigrant communities to live in safe and affordable environments, including in New York and Massachusetts. In Philadelphia we are dismayed that the City's review of the arena proposal has fallen so short of these counterparts, especially when the arena will severely harm a historic community of color. Today AALDEF urges you to reject the enabling legislation for the following reasons: First, the legislation fails to mitigate the clearly- identified negative impacts the arena will have on Chinatown's future economic viability. Second, at every step of the way from the proposal of the arena site to the hasty introduction and consideration of legislation, the Chinatown community has been excluded and sidelined. Finally, the legislation lacks key details related to the enforceability of the arena agreement and potential financial obligations of all Philadelphia residents. Though we need not look further than the City's own impact studies to understand the arena's harm, AALDEF's analysis confirms that Philadelphia's Chinatown is at a critical inflection point and cannot withstand the arena's construction. We undertook a comprehensive land use survey of Philadelphia's Chinatown 10 years ago and are currently working on an updated report a decade later. Even our preliminary findings now show that Chinatown's commercial uses have dropped from 53 percent to only 37 percent of the neighborhood's overall land uses in the past decade. Of those businesses that remain, over 90 percent are small businesses or local chains. So when the City's study projects harm to 50 to possibly 80 percent of Chinatown's businesses, we know who will disproportionately bear the consequences, Asian small business owners, and as we heard earlier, low-wage workers of color. We question why this City Council would even consider approving a project with such a stark and disparate racial impact. And as for the mitigation, it's clear that the CBA falls woefully short of what this entire city needs. The Sixers need to offer much more than 50 million over 30 years in order to come close to mitigating the impact of the arena and supporting the entire City's needs. Additionally, for over two years Chinatown has encountered a lack of transparency, a pattern of exclusion from the deliberative process and a disregard for standards of planning that major cities should use to make large scale development decisions. The City including Councilmember offices have rejected dozens of the Save Chinatown Coalition's right to no request for basic information about government meetings with the Sixers and other agencies. Though they are now eager to distribute a list of meetings with Chinatown advocates to you. The zoning overlay proposal for Chinatown introduced last week outside of the scope of these hearings feels par for the course of how aspects of this proposal have been rolled out without any pretense that public input from Chinatown is valued. Finally, the legislation lacks critical information, including the underlying sublease agreement between PAID and the Sixers. Without this document, City Council does not have access to the City's full legal and financial obligations under the deal.

We do not have a complete picture of the City's potential enforcement mechanisms and the terms under which they may be pursued. And while the agreement precludes the use of the City's capital funds, City and state resources could clearly still be implicated in indirect ways through maintenance, policing, transit and other operational costs. Language in the term sheet even allows the possibility for CBA funds to be used for "substantially similar purposes" instead of the enumerated provisions. So for the foregoing reasons, AALDEF urges City Council to reject the arena legislation. The future of Chinatown depends on your actions to save it now thank you. )

Thank you very much. State your name for the record. Please begin your testimony.

Good afternoon. My name is Xu Lin. I am a small business owner in Chinatown. My family and I started a restaurant in 2015. It's half of a block from the proposed arena. I grew up in Chinatown and now live in South Philly with my family. I still have about -- well, I have family members who still live in Chinatown. Most of them have jobs in the community. I have two kids, age 6 and 4, both go to schools in 7 Chinatown. 8 My community is here in Chinatown. I lived here for 10 years. When I first came, I didn't speak any English. Chinatown was a place I could find a shelter, a place where I didn't have to worry about how I looked or what language I spoke. I had two good friends from high school. They are Mexican Americans. They used to hang out in Chinatown all the time. When I asked them why they go to Chinatown so often, they said it's simple, we don't always have to watch our backs and the food is not expensive. I share their experience in that sense. Chinatown is diverse, friendly with affordable food and full of cultural events. It attracts not only people in the city but also people from the suburbs. It helps the city's economy by tax revenues and job creations. We chose to open our restaurant in Chinatown because of everything I mentioned. It is not a big restaurant, but we employ about people, both part-time and full- time. When the arena proposal was announced, we looked into other Chinatowns in the country where big developments came into Chinatown. These Chinatowns either disappeared or barely survived. When the community is not there, the small businesses either have to shut down or relocate. It took years to build a business with some kind of stability. We went through the pandemic, labor shortage and the inflation. I don't think we could survive the arena. The six years of construction alone will kill my business. My customers will not want to sit in my restaurant where road closures, noises and air pollution are always an issue. Parking and traffic is already an issue. The Sixers said that they will have to shut down both 10th and 11th Streets for a period of time whenever they have games. It will make things much worse not only for small businesses in the area but other residents here. I have two young kids. They are biracial, but they pass for Asian so their lifelong struggle, you know, one of them will be people asking them where are they coming from. I want Chinatown to be there and our people have been here. We have roots here and Chinatown is an active resistance to racism. I'm not opposed to the arena. I'm opposed to the choice of location that doesn't make any sense. I ask you to stop the arena at this location for my business, my family and my community. Thank you.

State your name for the record and please begin your testimony. You dropped something.

Good afternoon. My name is Debbie Law. I was born and raised in Philadelphia's Chinatown. I'm a proud alumni of McCall Elementary School, Philadelphia High School for Girls, McCall.

McCall.

Philadelphia High School for Girls and Penn State University. And I --

What class is it? Is it like 251 or --

Hey, no numbers here. No numbers here.

Central.

Central. Oh, okay. Got you. Girls' High.

And I still live in Chinatown. My late grandfather came to the U.S. in the '70s. He opened the Imperial Inn Restaurant, if some of you recall. It's one of the longest running Chinese restaurants serving authentic dim sum in Philly Chinatown. It's closed now but some of you might recall it. My family has been in Chinatown for generations. I'm third generation here. Chinatown has always been a place I called home. It's a community of mine. My family and relatives have opened shops and restaurants in Chinatown. We're very invested in the community. I want to piggyback off one experiment. I just dropped something -- I want to ask people in this room do they know what this is? Does anybody know? This is a red envelope. Something this small holds a very cultural significance importance in our lives, in Chinese people and Asian Americans. So my question to you is do you know where you can get one of these in Chinatown or anywhere besides Amazon, anybody? (No response.)

You walk down 10th Street, the main street of Chinatown, there's not one shop that sells it and I'm going to tell you why. Again, my family and relatives have shops in Chinatown. Two of these small businesses has already been impacted by the proposal of the arena. I'm going to speak about one shop in particular because it's the one that's mostly impacted. It's called Chinese Culture and Arts. It was one of the last stores standing that sells cultural artifacts such as red envelopes, lanterns, teacups, Buddha statues. And it's not just for Asian people. Other people came to Chinatown for it, right. We also carry books, magazines, CDs, newspapers that's all in Chinese. It's a language that's familiar to people in my community. And it's stuff that you can't really find anywhere else besides online right now. That shop didn't just sell Chinese goods. It also served as a resource hub for people within the community. We had 3x5 cards hanging on our store window to advertise where they can find housing, where they can find jobs, where they can find nannies, where they can find a doctor, where they can find help finding immigration papers, right. These were all information written in language that they can understand. It was like the Public Square. When new immigrants come to Chinatown, they would come into my shop, my family's shop and ask, hey, where can I find a doctor that speaks my language, where can I find people who can help me fill out my paperwork, where can I find insurance, where can I find a school for my kid. It was more than just a shop. It was a place where people congregated and shared information. It was a community. During the pandemic our store was deemed essential because we sold newspaper, Chinese newspaper, that provided information for people. As the world was trying to figure out how to handle the pandemic and all the chaos that it was creating, we served as an information center right for people who were vulnerable, people came into the shop because they didn't understand what was going on. We stayed open throughout the pandemic. We provided gloves, hand sanitizer, face masks for people within the community as well as other people who's willing to come in and for small businesses in Chinatown. We had newspaper from China and Hong Kong telling them what's going on back in their country. Unfortunately, this store was displaced and this just provides you with what's going to happen if the arena is going to get built. We were located on 10th Street, the main street of Chinatown we were 50 feet away from where that Chinatown Arch is known as the Friendship Gate. That big arch that people think about Chinatown, we were 50 feet away from it. We're no longer there. We were forced out. I'm going to tell you why. Our lease was up for a 10-year renewal. We were there for 35 years. Leases come 5, 10, years. 13 Up for renewal and we tried to 14 negotiate with the landlord for a 15 year and a half. And the later came back to us and said, well, an investor is willing to pay three times the amount you're paying as well as a renewal or a sign-on fee and that they're going to rent out the entire building. We can't compete three times the rent. We can't compete with somebody who's going to rent out the entire building. We're a small business again. Ultimately, we lost our space because the landlord wanted more money. Now, these rich investors are holding on to this building, not to provide any other small business but they're waiting for the opportunity to make even more money for franchises, for bigger businesses. These so-called investors, right, these are predators who's preying on my community. I lived above that store so I was displaced. This happened to me and this will happen to other people. People will get priced out and that's just reality. Now, my shop sits on 11th Street. It's less than half the size. There's no foot traffic.

We face the back of the Convention Center, that small street, 11th Street that nobody hears about. Yeah, we're there. Eighty percent of our business has dropped. We had three to four employees that we had hired. We're down to one because we can't -- the business was just that bad because of our location by the -- not everyone knows that we relocated. People from the Northeast, from South Philly come to Chinatown. They look for a shop. They can't find it because we're no 12 longer at that location that we were for 35 years. My neighbors around me that used to be an arts and craft shop, another porcelain shop, they're no longer there neither. Like I said, we were one of the last standing business in Chinatown that sold cultural significant items. Give me a second. The proposed arena would be incredibly harmful to my store, especially to elderly customers. These senior citizens come from all over Philadelphia because it's a sense of familiarity for them. Some of them even walk daily from South Philly to Chinatown just so they can speak to somebody that speaks their own language. It reminds them of a place back home like China, you know. People are just that friendly. Again, we were like one of the only stores left with Chinese newspaper and information in their native language. Some of them ask me what will happen if the arena is built. And I say, I don't know, but hopefully we'll still be here, but I can't guarantee that we will be. I'm not even sure if our business can survive this six-year construction. I heard that last night at the meeting with Councilman Squilla that there's going to be money set aside for impact on the construction, right. What does that pay for? Are you going to pay for the loss in revenue? Are you paying for my employee wages? Are you paying for my rental payment? What does that fund pay for? And there's 150 businesses in Chinatown. Are you going to pay for everybody's loss in whatever you're supposed to pay for or is it just like $1,000, here you go. $1,000 is not even somebody's salary. And is this money split with the rest of the Arena District? I don't understand that. I'm sorry. I don't -- and then these 76ers people are saying that, oh, we're going to bring business to Chinatown, we're going to bring business to Center City. Well, my shop is a small mom-and-pop shop. These people who go to games aren't going to come to my shop. They're not going to buy a red envelope. They're not going to buy teacups, right. They're not -- maybe to other businesses great for them, you know. I'm not a restaurant. I'm not a bar. I'm not going to see any positive out of this for myself. We're going to lose even the smallest amount of customer we already have, because you ask them why. They say, I don't want to come because of the traffic, because of parking and it's so crowded, why would I even come down there. Even on the weekend, Saturday and Sunday, you see how crowded Chinatown is. People are going to be deterred from coming to Chinatown if the arena is built. The displacement has already happened to me and I'm surviving displacement right now, but I can't imagine other small businesses, you know, surviving this. And so, I urge Council, and you guys are people in position of power to help us and to vote no 4 on the arena. Thank you. )

Thank you for your testimony. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Jamie Gauthier.

Good afternoon. Thank you for being here. First, I wanted to say to the woman that was just speaking, I'm really sorry about the loss of your previous business and your home. And we've mostly been talking about the economic impact of the arena. But I agree with Councilmember Ahmad that we also have to consider if displacement occurs, that there's an economic impact that we're losing with the loss of Chinatown and any CBA has to mitigate that. I wanted to ask some questions about engagement. We've been hearing conflicting reports about whether or not communities were engaged in negotiations prior to the settlement of a CBA by the Administration. Can you talk about what that engagement has looked like?

What I can say is that the Save Chinatown Coalition has reached out directly to different members of the Administration into the Sixers and they have refused to meet with them on those terms. I think some of the meetings that have been referenced earlier from members of the Administration last week have not been what Chinatown residents, everyday Chinatown residents and business owners, are referencing when they're saying that their requests for meetings have been denied.

Thank you. Also, I know that it's hard to -- I know that it's hard to oppose a project but also talk about what can be in a CBA. I appreciate the difficulty in that. But I do want to know what you think about the CBA, what do you think about what's included in the CBA as mitigation on displacement impacts for Chinatown? What do you think needs to be increased or added to the CBA and what do you think might need to be removed? What are your opinions on that?

So I heard that the $50 million is for the entire surrounding area. To build a restaurant my size, which is not big, we hired 20 people to build a restaurant. We built it in 2015. The pandemic changed everything. To build a restaurant my size is going to cost anywhere from $600,000 to I'd say a million in this kind of -- with the inflation and labor cost. And then there's employees who 6 lose their jobs. 7 I don't know how the 8 money will compensate that, because 9 my business will be done. I'll have 10 to shut down and I'd have to think 11 about my future and my staff will 12 have to think about their future, 13 and they have families to feed. I 14 just don't know how -- there isn't 15 enough money to make up for that 16 kind of loss. 17

I would just add 18 that I feel like the term community 19 benefits agreement in this case is a 20 misnomer. To be clear, there is not one set way to structure a CBA. In certain jurisdictions, sure, there are local laws that might govern standards for CBAs and require certain types of parties to be party to certain CBA agreements. That's not the case here in Philadelphia. And so, let's just be clear that this CBA was structured on the Mayor and the Sixers terms and is just one way to present a potential mitigation plan. And as you've heard from so many, it clearly just does not fit the bill.

Do you have -- do you have thoughts on what you -- I'm sorry.

Yeah, we gone --

Thank you, Council President. I overlooked Mr. Eric Law.

Thank you, Council President. First off, this chamber looks way smaller than in the streams. Just wanted to point that out. My name is Eric Law. My sister Debbie -- just like my sister Debbie, I'm third generation Chinatown -- Philly Chinatown resident. And I just wanted to tell you guys my story. Grew up in the Philly public school system, went to Central 261. Went to Penn State, studied accounting. And currently I am manager of my family's business, retail gift shop in Chinatown. I've also been a community leader in Chinatown with the Philadelphia Suns. I think you've heard from Harry before. And, yeah, I've been with the organization since I was 12 years old, you know, picking up the basketballs, you know. And since then I've become a coach. I've become a mentor. I've become a board member. And I say that just to highlight the fact that organizations like the Philadelphia Suns have focused on youth development, and it's important to the community that I wanted to highlight. Of course, you know, growing up hooping I'm also a basketball fan. I'm a Sixers fan. I'm a Philly sports fan, as you can tell by my hat. Also, go Birds; Dallas sucks. And this is personal aside. I wear sport hats all the time. And as a personal protest, I haven't worn my Sixers hat in the last two years. That's some little -- but I just wanted to say that. It's tough to support a team, well, one thing that's losing and that is trying to destroy my neighborhood, you know. I want to say that for my family it is a special case since actually you guys have heard and read about Chinatown D.C. We've had businesses there in the '90s, and we actually had to leave right before the then MCI Center when it was proposed. I remember the lot. It was a big giant parking lot. We used to play football there. I went back years later and my family shop became a Fuddruckers. It became a Fuddruckers with like Chinese characters on it. That's disrespectful, you know. And I say that because if you guys green light this 76 Place, that could be our future, our Chinatown's future. And us being from Philly, we pride -- you know, Joshua Harris is definitely not from Philly. But we pride ourselves on our character and our being authentic. And I feel like Chinatown in Philadelphia is embodiment of that authenticity. And if you looked at the history of Chinatown, in the beginning it was just a conclave. It was a skid row and we've kind of grown organically and built something that was very, very, like I said, authentic, very unique, yes. And through the times we've faced many times where we we've been asked to take one for the team, whether it was the Convention Center, whether it was the Rail line, whether it was a prison, et cetera. I mean, how many times does Chinatown have to be asked to take one for the team. Councilmembers, you guys have the power to stop this. You guys have the power to save Philly's Chinatown please. Thank you. (Applause.)

Before we break, the Chair recognizes Councilmember Brooks and then we will be breaking for recess. Councilmember Brooks.

Thank you. So my question is similar to Councilmember Gauthier. So what has been your interactions with the Sixers organization and the Administration in terms of dialogue about your concerns about this proposed arena?

I went to two town hall meetings in Chinatown where the Sixers came to say they are going to build an arena whether we like it or not, and that was the end of the conversation for us as residents, as business owners.

I'm going to add onto that. I also went to the public meeting that was announced and there was two of them by the 76ers. Apparently I found after the fact there were closed-door meetings with stakeholders. I wasn't part of that stakeholder -- I'm a small business owner. I wasn't involved in that. It was stakeholders that was on their side. I wasn't a part of any of that discussion until maybe two weeks ago I was considered a stakeholder. I live in Chinatown. I have business in Chinatown. Why am I not a stakeholder. Maybe because I'm not vocal enough, right. But it's time to speak up and speak out. I never had any one-on-one meeting with them, which I don't need to, or any group meeting with the 76ers. I'm sure PCDC had, right, PCDC, I mean people of organizations. I'm just me and I haven't met with them. They haven't asked me. You know, they just told me that this is going to happen regardless if you like it or not. If you don't like it, we're going to move to New Jersey. That's all I'm aware of.

Just for clarity, you said the business owners and community members saw two posted meetings that you thought were open to --

Those were two public meetings that was announced to the community that was hosted by the 76ers. Other meetings I'm not aware of. Is that what you're asking?

Mm-hmm.

Like smaller committee meetings I'm not aware of them. I wasn't ever asked. Maybe I needed to approach them, but I'm not really sure how that works because I don't know politics. I don't know how this works. And to piggyback on that, I speak English and I can read and write English. There's a lot of businesses, small businesses, that don't know how to read English or don't understand what's going on. We received a flyer three days right before the Mayor's town hall meeting and my shop didn't get one. Only selected stores got it. And that flyer wasn't available in Chinese, and it was handed out Sunday night at 6:00 p.m. Shops close at 5 o'clock, guys. You can't hand out a flyer and say come meet us if it's not even in language they can understand, right. And three days before on a Sunday night? Come on guys, do better. Sorry.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Member Brooks. We will now recess until 2:15. And just, members, I just want to ask everybody to be back here promptly so we can get started because we still have another three panels and also a significant list of individuals who want to participate in public comment. So please be back so we can start promptly at 2:15. (Lunch recess.)

This hearing will now come to order. Mr. Christmas, will you please call the next panel.

Ryan Boyer, Ben Connors, Teila Almond, Daisy Cruz, Layla Bibi, please come forward. (Witnesses approached Witness table.)

Good afternoon. Good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon. Sorry.

Just state your name for the record and please begin your testimony. How are you doing, Ms. Bibi?

Good. How are you?

Pretty good. Just state your name for the record and please begin your testimony and your title.

Daisy Cruz.

Hey, Daisy.

Hi, how are you. Good day, President Johnson and members of City Council. Is this -- can you guys hear me? All right.

I think they just wanted your name and your title.

Oh, that was it. I'm sorry.

There you go.

Good afternoon, Council President Johnson and City Councilmembers. My name is Layla Bibi. I'm a Council Representative with the Eastern Atlantic State's Regional Council of Carpenters. MS. McGUIRE: Good afternoon. My name is Elaine McGuire. Good afternoon, Council President and Councilmembers. My name is Elaine McGuire. I am a Member Service Rep for IBEW Local 98. (Applause.)

Good afternoon. My name is Ryan N. Boyer. I'm the Business Manager of Labor District's Council of Philadelphia, Baltimore and Greater Washington D.C. as well as the Business Manager of the Philadelphia Building and Construction Trades Council. (Applause.)

And good afternoon, Council President Johnson and members of City Council. I'm Ben Connors, President CEO of the General Building Contractors Association of Greater Philadelphia. (Applause.)

Thank you. So when you get ready to get started, please begin your testimony. Whoever would like to go first.

Good afternoon. My name is Daisy Cruz. I'm with 32BJ SEIU. I'm the District Leader for the MidAtlantic 1201 District, which includes the City of Philadelphia. Our union has over 20,000 members here in Pennsylvania, with over 12,000 in Center City. Thousands of our 32BJ members work in Center City and travel into Center City every single day. Our members are cleaners, security officers, building engineers and maintenance. Our members greet you at the door, clean and maintain buildings and keep you safe every single day. 32BJ supports building the arena. Our members are watching Market East and all of Center City lose business, lose tenants and jobs, jobs with labor standards that we fought hard to win. We want to bring business and jobs back into Center City as long as they're going to be good union jobs. These jobs will pay living wages, provide health insurance and an opportunity to have a secure retirement. A project of this magnitude will be a powerful job creator that the working class of the City of Philadelphia desperately needs. We cannot let this opportunity go anywhere else. Most of our members in Philadelphia are were born and raised in Philly and are raising their families here in Philadelphia. Their livelihood and their families depend on the economic health of Center City. We have to rebuild Center City in a way that creates as many good jobs as possible. The arena cannot do -- the arena can do that. We're excited that the arena will come at no cost to taxpayers. This is unheard of even when it comes to stadiums and arenas being built. While we want the stadium to be built, we also want to do everything we can to protect Chinatown. Not only is it a neighborhood, it's another economic hub that brings people into Center City and it's a culture hub that deserves investment and protection. The City and its leadership has the obligation to protect Chinatown. We agree that there should be more money put into the Community Benefits Agreement and we need to ensure that we get the best deal possible for the future of our city and it's people. By investing in the arena, we can protect Chinatown, bring more people into Center City, protect family- sustaining union jobs and we need your support to make Philly as strong as it can be. Thank you. (Applause.)

Thank you.

Good afternoon again. My name is Layla Bibi and I'm a Council Representative with the Eastern Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters. Today I am offering testimony in support of 76 Place and urge our City Councilmembers to support this project that will not only shape the future of our beloved Philadelphia, but it will also provide significant opportunities for our residents and workers. As a union carpenter and former apprentice and also someone who was born and raised in Philadelphia, I know firsthand the importance of having projects in the pipeline and the positive impact good union jobs have on families growing our middle class. This project will generate thousands of union jobs during its construction and spur development on the long neglected Market East corridor. Through programs like Everybody Builds, the 76ers have made a commitment to build a talent pipeline to diversify the trades and get more Philadelphians into our unions. The economic impact of this project does not end with construction jobs. 76 Place has made an unprecedented commitment to ensuring Black and Brown Philadelphians have access to the long-term employment opportunities at the arena. And through their economic opportunity plan, we ensure the diversity of the city of Philadelphia is reflected in the makeup of the arena's vendors, operators and employees. As Mayor Parker has said, this project is a project for all of Philadelphia. The 76ers share in this vision and have committed to a $50 million Community Benefits Agreement, which is the largest in the history of our city. This investment will not only help to jump start a broader City-led focus on Chinatown strengthening this treasured community, but it will also provide citywide benefits, from education to economic opportunity. This investment will help uplift communities across Philadelphia. The agreement between 76ers and the Parker Administration will ensure that our hometown 76ers will continue to play in Philadelphia for at least another 30 years. This is not only a win for basketball fans like myself, but a win for our city as a whole because it is a long-term commitment to improving our city, our economy and investing in our residents and neighbors. The 76ers are making this commitment without seeking City taxpayer money. 3 billion project entirely with private funds. Supporting this project isn't just about building a new home for the 76ers, but rather it's a signal to the world that Philadelphia is open for business and ready for large-scale investments into our communities, infrastructure and our people. The immediate impacts of the project are clear, but let's not forget the long-lasting impact of 76 Place. 76 Place is projected to generate hundreds of millions of dollars in new tax revenues for both the City and the School District, boosting essential services for our residents. In short, between the Sixers' private investment and the new tax revenues this project will generate, this is the best financial deal the City has ever struck for an arena or stadium. It's a smart deal and more importantly, it's the right deal. With commitments to expanding economic opportunity, investing in our young people most importantly and supporting adjacent communities, this agreement will not just benefit our City sports fans but all of our Philadelphia residents and neighborhoods. Thank you for your time. ) MS. McGUIRE: Good afternoon once again. My name is Elaine McGuire. I've been an IBEW member for over years. Just to 16 let you know that we are standing in 17 support for the building of 76 18 Place. Philadelphia is one of only 19 a handful of cities without a 20 downtown arena. Cleveland, Houston, 21 New York, Denver, Detroit not only 22 have one but they have three 23 downtown arenas. 24 The construction of 76 Place will generate 9,000 jobs for the Building Trades brothers and sisters; 9,000 jobs for the Building Trades. We go out and recruit young people in the schools.

We go out and do career fairs and we're introducing them to the Philadelphia Building Trades. And now as we introduce them to the Philadelphia Building Trades, we have to have these jobs where we can place them. We have pre-apprenticeship programs. Local 98 has a grant-funded Rosie's Girls, which is recruiting young girls in 11th and 12th grades that come into the trades. Now, if we are recruiting them where are we going to send them, what jobs are we going to give them, what jobs are we going to introduce them to. 76 Place is an awesome opportunity for our young boys and girls in the city of Philadelphia to plant their seeds to show that they are part of Philadelphia landmark, to show that they put their hands in Philadelphia landmark. Me being a 25-year plus member of IBEW, I'm able to point at different landmarks in the city of Philadelphia to show that I helped build that, and that's what we need for our young people today. There will be diversity and inclusion in both the construction and the operational process of this 76 Place. The build and run of 76 place will look like us, the people of this city, the City of Brotherly Love. The Convention Center also had opposition when they was getting built. I was on the Convention Center expansion for three years building that project. I was one of the main figures there on that project and I made sure that it was diversity and inclusion, not only with IBEW Local 98 but with all the trades. And that's what we still have to stand firm on believing that our people are good enough to do these buildings, our people are good enough to build these buildings, these buildings that we stand in, these buildings that we go visit. These buildings, our people, the union people, are good enough to not only build it but to work there. ) MS. McGUIRE: I'm sorry. I'm just passionate about what I do. I'm passionate about the city of Philadelphia. We have visitors that come to the city of Philadelphia and we need this arena. What's going to happen to the Gallery -- well, I call it the Gallery. That's what we called it back in the day. ) MS. McGUIRE: But what's going to happen to the Fashion District? What if we do not build this arena? People will come, visitors will come when there's a game. They'll come, they'll go visit the restaurants and the stores of Center City. We could bring Center City back alive again like it used to be. So that's why we need to build 76 Place. ) MS. McGUIRE: Now, in closing -- I'm closing, I'm closing. They say preachers don't know how to land. I know how to land. So when I was at the Convention Center, I had the opportunity to meet the late President CEO Ameenah Young. And she had told me, she said, if you build it, watch it work. She said, if you build it, watch the magic happen. And that's what we need to do. We need to build 76 place and watch the magic happen. Thank you. )

I'm glad I get to follow that. Well, good afternoon. Again, I'm Ben Connors, President CEO of the General Building Contractors Association. GBCA is proud to represent over 350 companies throughout the Greater Philadelphia region. Our members specialize in union commercial, industrial, institutional construction. And our members are the contractors that have built this city and continue to build this city, something which we're immensely proud of. GBCA strongly supports the 76 Place development project. This arena presents the city with an opportunity to revitalize Market East corridor, creating 12,000 new jobs, and as has been said 9,000 of which will be union construction jobs. In addition to the jobs, the project would generate over $1.5 billion in tax revenue for the School District of Philadelphia and the City. This once-in-a-generation investment in Philadelphia will create approximately $2.34 billion in total economic impact, $2.34 billion. Philadelphia along with our schools and residents cannot afford to pass up this moment. GBCA and our members are shaping both the Philadelphia skyline and the next generation of leaders. As a founding member of Everybody Builds, a nonprofit focused solely on diversifying Philadelphia's construction industry, we are confident that this project will create more opportunities to expand our diverse workforce. We are encouraged by Everybody Build's approach of establishing a more collaborative model, working with multiple developers, contractors and unions to create more sustainable pathways into construction. In partnership with our member companies and Everybody Builds, 76 Place will not only add more family-sustaining job opportunities in union trades, but it will also create opportunities for merging and diverse contractors. I'd like to also give credit where credit is due. 76ers were one of the key conveners that led the creation of Everybody Builds, and they continue to be a leader in that effort today. The union construction industry is unique in several key ways, particularly when it comes to career paths it offers individuals. It stands out as one of the few sectors where a person can begin as a skilled trade person and over time if they choose, work their way up in leadership or ownership of a company. It's one of the few industries where that upward mobility is possible every day with every project this potential for upward mobility is something that the largest poor city in America is in dire need of. And it's made possible when there are structures and opportunities inherent in large scale, high value projects like 76 Place. 76 Place represents more than just a boost for Philadelphia. It is an investment in our workforce, our city and our future. We cannot afford to let this moment slip by. Together we can build a stronger, more inclusive city for generations to come. GBCA strongly supports this project. We request that Council does as well. Thank you. (Applause.)

I'm Ryan Boyer, the proud Business Manager of over 30,000 construction workers in this area of the Philadelphia Building and Construction Trades Council. (Applause.)

And I would like to first thank the Council President and Councilman Squilla for having us here and convening this very important testimony and hearing. This is about the future of our city. I started off this morning writing something, but I said, no, I'm going to speak from the heart because I need to look at the souls of the City Councilmembers who have a very solemn duty to vote for what's best for the City of Philadelphia. And if we look at what's happened down at 8th and Market for more than a generation, we know that we need investment, we need energy. It was just announced that a New York developer brought the Wannamaker building out of foreclosure. What does that pretend -- do we have a big Five and Below, as my Councilman said, and nothing on the other end or do we have the courage to do what members in this body did almost 30 years ago, where I think the only Councilperson here was O'Neill when they voted for that Convention Center that she said, the original one. The expansion, I was a proud board member when that happened. And I'm going tell you what the Convention Center did. It brought back the hotels in Philadelphia, hundreds of millions of dollars in hotel taxes. Our hospitality industry was saved. It created Visit Philadelphia. It created the 2-for-1 night. You remember those commercials, get one and get a night free. And it created light there, the biggest Convention in Philadelphia, over 177,000 registered Conventioneers. And during those times, 900 trades men and women working in the Convention Center. But it doesn't stop there. What about the Reading Terminal, those businesses that are immediately adjacent? When we build Sixers Place, it makes us a prime competitor to the Javits Center to not only expand that and expand across the street. We're talking about is Philadelphia open for business. What signal does it send to all capital if we turn away $1.5 billion in private capital? (Applause.)

And we can argue about the 50 million in the CBA all we want. But the reality is if this doesn't happen, there will be no CBA and the gentrification will happen in Chinatown and we will have people getting shot like they did and Jefferson Hospital may have to make different decisions about where they're going to build their towers at. So how are we going to house our sick? These are all -- you are all very intelligent people. The problems that Chinatown have are real, but we can walk and chew gum at the same time. We could build the center. We did it. We could take the lessons that we learned from the expansion, the good and the bad. Is disruption going to happen? Yes. But we cannot allow us not to grow, because either you're growing or you're getting pushed behind. Right now we're the sixth largest city. I don't want to be seventh, eighth and ninth. These are the things that keep population in our city. Rosie talked about the jobs. The jobs are given. But it's what is the soul of our city going to be. Are we going to have opportunity for everyone or are we going to frustrate every opportunity because it isn't a perfect deal. Nothing's perfect. Let's not throw away the good trying to find the perfect. (Applause.)

You are tasked to represent, yes, your Districts, but what's good for the city. And no nobody with a straight face can tell me that we have a bird in the hand beats one in the bush. The great Ben Franklin said that. We got $1.55 billion. Are we going to throw that away for if come -that hole has been an 8th and Market for the last 30 years, and a lot of people had a lot of ideas but they didn't have money that they wanted to put there. Now, we have capital. Let's rally together, find a way to preserve the cultural heritage of Chinatown, put some of the protections that -- this is the most progressive City Council with homeownership preservation, period, the LOOP, the OOPA. All these things that you've done we could do that again, but let's not think small. Let's think about the eyes of America is looking on us. In 2026, we're going to be a star in the show called America 250. It would be great to say to those companies and those corporations that's coming in, please relocate here because Philadelphia is open for business as long as you do the business right and correct and we'll fix any problems that are real. SEPTA, the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. There's been no greater ally to SEPTA and funding than the Philadelphia Building Trades. When we go to get our highway funding from the state, we always put funding in there for mass transit, and we're going to do that again. Those are the conversations that we should be having, but we should be having them while we're building the stadium. And we should put that out so we can have a commercial so that the City representative can go out and say, you bring your money here, it's a great place to be, we're having an exciting new thing going on. This is the reality. The Councilman said keep it a hundred, let's keep it a hundred. There will be no new office buildings built. We may have some eds and meds spaces. If we build this and we attract income, we're going to attract apartments. More supply means downward pressure on pricing to help alleviate the affordable housing crisis. But doing nothing, you'll have people leaving and your affordability crisis goes up. Thank you. (Applause.)

Thank you all very much for your testimony. We're going to open it up for comments from members of the Committee. I just had a couple questions. One, I want to start with SEIU. And, Daisy, I know we've done a lot of work together. I introduced a bill just last week supporting UNITE HERE. We know that the stadium is coming, but we want to make sure we support good-paying jobs, not only with 76 Place but all of the stadiums, right, and making sure that the concession stand workers get a prevailing wage as well as health care. Because to provide good jobs -- to provide jobs is good, but we want good-paying jobs, right, not just poverty jobs. And so, I just want on the record your position, SEIU's position in supporting our ally UNITE HERE as part of this process?

SEIU is always in support of anybody raising wages and making sure, you know. I haven't personally had a conversation with Rosslyn, but definitely SEIU will be definitely behind them to help them pass a prevailing wage.

Thank you very much. Ben Connors, I just had a follow-up question regarding we know that this is going to be a massive project, right, and it's compared to the great work that took place along the Convention Center. What is your organization doing to make sure that diverse companies, particularly African American companies, have the opportunity, women-owned companies have the opportunity, Latino-owned companies have the opportunity to not only be subs but be primes participating on this particular project to make sure that it's equity across the board for everybody? It's been my experience in doing this work, my small time, the who's who and the usual suspects usually get a chance to participate, right, rather it's the Turners of the world, the Gilbanes of the world, those are usual suspects and they have a right, but it's always been my passion and there's no 3 secret in this room that I'm always making sure that diverse and inclusive conversations take place where everybody can participate so we can erase the tale of two cities, because some parts are doing great, and I see cranes going all throughout the 2nd Councilmanic District and all across the city in Philadelphia. But if we're going to erase poverty, right, everybody has to have a chance to have a seat at the table. So just give me the Building and Contract Association's perspective on it and actually what are you actually doing on this particular project to make sure everybody has a seat at the table?

So it's an excellent question. And, look, the bottom line is if you want to have different results, you have to do things differently. One of the things that it represents a departure from past efforts is that with organized labor in the Building Trades, the Contractors Association, owners and developers not only in this project but other projects came together to create an entity called Everybody Builds. And GBCA is a membership organization. We focus on contractor needs and our member needs. Everybody Builds is focused on the industry and how do you diversify the industry, both from a support on the labor side but also on the contractor basis. Build the capacity so that you can take on bigger projects. It takes a long time to have the capacity, the bonding capacity and the assets to take on a big project, particularly one of this size. What Everybody Builds is doing is in conversation with 76ers as well as minority contractors that are already in the space but frankly need to grow. And so, it's taken time but the time is now being spent and the money is being spent to try to provide wraparound services that will help contractors grow so they'll be available to take on more of a project like this. Now, between now and the end of this construction project I think you're going to see some of the same names, in part because you want to see people that have done this type of project before, but what I would expect you to see is the partnerships are different and that the partnerships are more meaningful, that the actual responsibility liabilities that are being taken on by minority contractors are going to be more, and that's what's going to grow. I mean, some of the successes of the past have been through projects like the Convention Center. Some of the successful minority contractors around today are because the efforts tied to that project. So a project of this scale is the best effort to give the runway a contractor needs to survive and even thrive. And I will say this is in the context of a down market when it comes to construction. So if you want companies to survive, you need to provide opportunities for them to build. That means a multi-year billion dollar-plus project gives you the runway to build the capacity to grow construction companies. So the combination of meaningful work, big projects. With entities like Everybody Builds focused on this means that we keep our eye on the ball and you see contractors grow through it. So we're optimistic, but you got to judge on the results. It's not done yet. This is what's being done now.

Okay. Thank you very much, Ben. Ms. Bibi and also the young lady from IBEW, I'm sorry, say your name again, that passionate speech you gave.

Elaine.

Elaine. My Labor leader could you let Elaine sit at the table please, sir.

I'll let her sit at the table.

I just want to get an idea, and then I'll turn it over to -- before I turn over to my members, then I'll listen to the leader of the Building Trades Ryan Boyer. But give us an idea of the work that IBEW is doing, the Carpenters are doing when it comes to providing pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship opportunities, not only just for our young people. A lot of times we talk about our young people but also those who may be returning citizens, right, that want to have an opportunity to participate in the workforce that we believe that can be life-changing, right. We don't support A, B, C, so we support, right, the Building Trades. But I'm a strong advocate of making sure that that process is diverse and inclusive obviously represented by the you two. What are you going to be doing in terms of this project, right, to make sure that we're lowering barriers and obstacles for young people and just people in general have an opportunity to participate? Give me an example. And I've working on this with my team, sometimes young people don't have a license. I told them that's a barrier, right. Passing the test is always a barrier, right. And so, give me an idea on what are we doing in this particular case or what you may already be doing just in general to make it easier for our young people and people in general to participate and be a part of the trades?

Thank you, President Johnson. I just want to start off by saying we have a pre-apprentice program, and our pre-apprentice program is not just geared towards any specific group. So it's not for high schoolers, it's not for youth. It's for anyone who is looking to take advantage of an opportunity that's going to better their life. As far as services, we talked about Everybody Builds. Everybody Builds has partnered with our pre-apprentice program and they support us in a way where if we're not able to provide someone with a driver's license or driver's education, driving lessons, we're not able to do that, we have the ability to be able to train someone to prepare them to tutor them to be able to pass our exams to get them physically ready to be capable to be able to perform the work. But there are certain services that we're just not able to provide. Everybody Builds has stepped in and started to already support the people that are coming into our program to provide those services, to prepare them. We actually have the perfect combination of everything that we need to help someone, a Philadelphia resident. Someone like myself who years ago had no idea 5 what a union job -- not a union job, 6 but a union trade job was and how to 7 get in it. And even when I figured 8 out what it was, I still didn't know 9 how to get in it. And even when I 10 figured out how to get in it, it 11 still took two years before I was 12 able to. But fast-forward 20 years, 13 that's not the case now. 14 We have the perfect 15 combination of how to find them, 16 because again I lived my whole life 17 in Philadelphia. You tell me what 18 you need and what you're looking for 19 and I'm going to go out and find it 20 for you, and anyone in this room or outside that I've had a conversation with, they know that that's always going to be my speech. I will find whatever it is that we're looking for and I will bring them to the table. What we're lacking is the opportunity. This project in particular has potential to have someone who comes from wherever they come from, whether it's a re-entry service, high school or just someone who has had a bad route, to come in and not only start their apprenticeship -- because again the big deal is opportunity -- start the apprenticeship a four-year, five- year program, whatever it is, start their apprenticeship and actually get to the point of becoming a journeyperson, union trade person by the end of this project, so we don't have the issue where someone comes in and we have a nice job that's going to go on for a year and they get to work and then they get that first layoff check and they don't know what to do because this is not where they come from or they can't afford to wait it out until the next job comes up, so they go work somewhere for less money, and there's less future opportunity, no 6 opportunity for retirement, no 7 opportunity for pension and annuity. All of these things are not provided. We have the opportunity. We're staring at the opportunity for someone to come in fresh and green starting over and be able to complete an entire apprenticeship on this particular project, which will then not only better the person and their life for them and their family, but it also gives them the opportunity to become a homeowner. It gives them a wage to be able to become a homeowner to stay within their city, to not rent or not have to live and commute back and forth or just go relocate somewhere else because a better job opportunity was there. It gives the opportunity for people who are already residents of this city to have a better career and to stay residents of this city and to make it better.

Thank you, Layla. (Applause.)

And also, I just want to also be on the record and thanking you and Business Manager Mungu Sanchez for the work that y'all have done. I know y'all came out the Myers Recreation Center at different times working with our young people introducing them to the trades. We've been out in the Northeast to y'all location. I think we all came together during last year some time. I remember a couple members went out a couple times, but I'm just putting it on the record, right, at least what my expectations are, but we also know the work that y'all have been doing inside the community and want to acknowledge that. MS. McGUIRE: Okay. So IBEW we have something called --

Located in the 2nd Councilmanic District, that is. But go ahead. MS. McGUIRE: IBEW has Rosie's Girls which is our pre-apprenticeship program --

Tell us more about Rosie's Girls. That's girls in the trades? MS. McGUIRE: So Rosie's Girls is a pre-apprenticeship program for girls in the 11th and 12th grades. We do take 10th graders as well. We get them from different schools all over the city, and they come into our training facility one day out the week for nine weeks. When they graduate from our program, they have their OSHA 6 certification, first aid and CPR 7 certification, basic knowledge of 8 basic wiring and they also leave 9 with a set of tools. DeWalt is 10 actually a partner with that so they supply all of the tools that the young ladies need. And then if they're interested in coming into the trade, we go with them step-by-step on what they have to do in order to come into the trades and they automatically get an interview. And so, Rosie's Girls, this is our second year. We have two young ladies that came out of the program that's now first-year apprentices. We have three more that's in the class right now of 20 that's going to be taking their test come next year to come into the program as well. And then when we speak about barriers, the different barriers, like sometimes it's hard when people don't have their driver's license. So when these young ladies come in, we talk to them about getting their permits and then going on to get their driver's license. And also, IBEW has -- we have a caucus called the EWMC, which is Electrical Workers Minority Caucus, which I'm the President of. With that caucus as well when we speak about barriers, our members, we have Latino members which when someone may come in that want to take the test, want to apply for a union, we'll get one of our EWMC members out to go translate or go talk to that person if there's a language barrier. We have Asians as well. And if there's someone that's coming and want to apply to the Local that may have that language barrier, one of our members of the EWMC will go and help them with that. And also, EWMC we do, do -- we go out to outreach. So we do a re-entry with those that are re-entering into society and we go to different homes and we'll talk to them because there's some that's in halfway houses, and we have members that were on that same road, and we have some of our EWMC members that that were incarcerated at one time or another. And so, they go out and they're the ones that -- because I can't speak for someone that I don't have an experience with. And so, we have people in our EWMC Caucus that can go out and touch lives of different ones that's interested in not only to be an electrician but to come into any trade. We'll go with them step- by-step or what trade is having their application, what do you have to do. We have the electrical prep, which is teaching those -- it's like a tutoring session where it helps you to get yourself prepared and ready to pass the electrical exam because we don't want to see anyone get discouraged. We have people that -- our application time is about 1100 people apply to a slot of 60. And so --

You said 1100 people apply for a slot of 60? MS. McGUIRE: A slot of 60.

In the event let's say this project moves forward, I would assume that that slot of 60 will increase exponentially, right? MS. McGUIRE: Yes. So for instance, as the jobs go. So when we're working and right now everything is moving, 76 Place will open that slot up widely. We can get apprentices. We can take on extra classes with apprentices. We can have apprentices come into 76 Place and finish out, like Layla was saying, do their whole apprenticeship in one facility. They can complete their whole apprenticeship in one facility. That's what 76 Place offers for anybody that's in a trade. Whether they're carpenters or electricians or plumbers, whatever the trade, they can actually complete their full apprenticeship right there at 76 Place. And that's why it's so important for us. It's not just the construction workers want to work. It's our future. We're recruiting these young people, these young boys and girls. They're our future. I'm not going to have the opportunity to work at 76 Place, but I'm sure our future will. My son is a fourth-year apprentice as an electrician and he just purchased his first house. I want him to be able to keep on going, to build things in the city of Philadelphia that he can point at and say, I had my hands in that. So it's just 76 Place. I just ask you please just vote yes on 76 Place. (Applause.)

Member Jones.

Point of information. I have to go to a prior meeting, but I have one request. Can the staff photographer take a picture of this because I don't think I've ever saw this combination of folk ever agree on one thing, ever. Thank you, Mr. President.

Thank you, Member Jones. Strange bed, fellas. I looked at Ben Connors and the head of the Building Trades on the same panel. But, yeah, I peeped that. Mr. Boyer, as the leader of the Building Trades -- and obviously, these are two trades separate from the service unit that are here, but there's a variety of different other trades that you also are the leader of that will be participating in this project. So just give us your perspective on how you're going to ensure from a diversity, equity and inclusion standpoint that young people, people just in general, have an opportunity to participate in such a transformative project moving forward? And also, from your perspective what are the best practices? You've been a student of doing this work for a while and what you saw on the Convention Center project, which was very transformative, that we would not do moving forward with this particular project but also look at the best practices that will make this successful so everybody can also participate in the wealth that will take place as a result of 76 Place moving forward?

I think that we have --

Could you just come a little closer to the microphone?

Yeah. I think we have two of the premier programs here. You heard about the Carpenters' program CARP and Rosie's Girls. In addition to that, we have WINC, Women in Nontraditional Careers. They recruit women of all trades. And Erin Hoffman was honored by this Council here. We have the Sam Staten Sr. Pre-apprenticeship Program as well. We have a full court blitz on making the trades more diversified. But someone said something to me earlier like we always get the bad -- but we've been here. The trades, while not as diversified as we could be, were more diverse than a whole lot of industries. We were in the high 20s, right. We need to go further, but we will continue to recruit from the School District of Philadelphia. We will continue our work with people coming out of incarceration, with NOMO and other community organizations that we have partnerships with. We get you wherever we find you. If you want to work hard -- and I'm glad you said not young people because not every young person want to work in 100 degree weather and 10 degree weather, right. Sometimes they have to live a little life to do that, but that's the reality of construction work. So we take them wherever we can get them. The best practices I think if we look at the Convention Center expansion and Live Casino it is happening here. Before we bifurcated the contractors from the unions. Everyone has to be at the table to understand what the goal and the mission is, and you have to have someone like BUILT-RITE, Tony Wigglesworth program to put it all together, to say, okay, we made this commitment, this is a commitment that we made together and together we must do, not the contractor pointing to the unions the unions pointing to the contractor. We all are in this together. It's an industry as Ben said. Everyone Builds was to be that glue to put the industry with the workers. All of those programs on North Broad Street on every Thursday night we have a Licensed Preparation program for the Sam Staten Sr. Pre-apprentice Program. We do that. We partner with Temple University so they can understand complex math equations that are necessary for some of the mechanical trades testing. We prepare them. The only thing that's missing is the opportunity, and we will push and we help. And the laborers put out something. Ben talked about the opportunity. We have a program called Lift where we use our relationship with Ullico to make sure that new contractors that are assigned with us have bonding and insurance that is commensurate, the pricing is commensurate, with the average in the community and not high prices because you're new. And what's revolutionary about that is if they get a contract with an institutional anchor, and for this we would consider the Sixers that, we consider University of Penn that, obviously any government, that the laborers will guarantee the loans that they get through Fulton Bank so they get their money and their capital at a much lower rate for emerging contractors. This is already thought out. This is not haphazard. This group up here is in constant conversation about how do we move the needle so that we only have one Philadelphia, a united city because there is a tale of two Philadelphians and we don't want that. But the only way we get that is if we create opportunity. We can't be NIMBYs, Not In My Backyard people. You don't get growth that way. You get growth by being bold, and the future always benefits those that are bold. (Applause.)

Just before I turn it over to my members, one, I want to thank you for particularly touching on the bonding and insurance. Always been an impediment for businesses to have an opportunity to participate on such jobs, even serving as subs but even going from subs to primes. So thank you first and foremost for addressing that. And, yes, as well around the pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship programs. Just can you make sure your team just get me and my team a list of all of them, right, because we want to also make sure in the event that this does move forward, there's conversations around that we've had with the Administration as well as the Sixers to be supportive of pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship programs that's totally separate from Everybody Builds. And last but not least, I would just be remiss if I didn't just say publicly to Ryan Boyer who's the leader of the Building Trades movement separate from this project just in general, we just applaud you just for your efforts in terms of making sure we're addressing equity and inclusion here in the city of Philadelphia and also using job development as a way to address poverty in the city of Philadelphia. So we talk on a regular basis. This is not like for show, right, because we're out here in this in this arena and in his hearing. But based upon the work that we do day-in and day-out to transform -- you're from Richard Allen, right, a couple blocks away from Chinatown and you've seen the shadow of that area as a young man growing up and to be able to be in a position that you're in right now and able to address the issue and speak on purpose to pain when it comes to addressing the issue of poverty and folks that live in similar situations throughout the city of Philadelphia. I just want to acknowledge that from a public standpoint. At this time, I want to acknowledge my Majority Leader who's been working day-in and day-out around all things labor. I think you probably know most of these folks because I think you got a labor guide or something and you're having these hearings, town halls every other week to try to get young people involved and people in general. So to my Majority Leader Katherine Gilmore, the floor is yours.

Thank you. Thank you so much, Council President. And thank each of you for being here today, not just for today but for your overall commitment to this work. You know that four years ago we all worked together to pull together the City's first Apprenticeship Guidebook. And I just want to uplift that work and appreciate what you all do each and every day, when we go out to visit middle schools and high schools and try to recruit as many young people as possible, getting on Facebook and on Instagram and just every single thing that's been done. I think it is just so apropos that it's also National Apprenticeship Week this week, so Happy National Apprenticeship Week. We will be commemorating that week at our Council session on Thursday where we did work with Everybody Builds and WINC and some of our other partners at AFL-CIO to further uplift that work. I wanted to also just mention that we've worked with you all to support CARP, a program that we love with the Carpenters. And thank you, Layla and Mungu and also the Samuel Staten Sr. Pre-apprenticeship Program as well as Rosie's Girls. I've been there a few times to visit with them, and also for YOACAP. I wanted to go back to the 9,000 construction jobs. So those jobs will be I guess pre and during construction, pre to get prepared and then during construction. Could you all just give us a breakdown for each one of your trades if you have it of the jobs for each one?

It'll be hard to do that without the scope of work, Kathy --

Got you.

We don't have the scope of work. It's just anticipated by the amount of square footage versus, you know, what normally happens. But we wouldn't be able to give you that until we get the scope and then we could be pretty accurate as to the amount of hours because the bids will come in and we could be laser-accurate on the amount of people that we need from each trade. But right now that's probably a little premature.

Okay. And I only ask just to ensure that we were thinking about as we always support other programs how we think about preparing young people to get into the mechanical trades. And you had mentioned that earlier from a testing perspective. And that was one thing that we found over time that we've really had to provide extra and additional support for young people to make sure that they're prepared and ready for that. So that was the impetus for the question. And in addition to that, Layla talked about and Elaine expounded on the fact that some apprentices will would be able to study their whole journey on one project, which is rare. I mean, you all know that's very, very rare. And so, I don't know how far out you're planning. But if you could speak to if this project is approved how many additional classes for each one of the unions that you represent would this mean? As an example, let's just say you have two classes planned for 2027, one in the fall, one in the spring. If this project is approved, how many additional classes on top of what you already have planned?

Well, a project of this size we don't plan apprenticeship classes for one project. It's the overall industry. So a project of this size I would say will probably double the amount of apprentices because there's also a statutory limit of the amount of apprentices we could use. So you have to have four journeypersons for every one apprentice, right. So I don't want to be here to mislead anyone that the apprentice is going to lead this because no one wants that, right, because an apprentice means that you're actually training. You're not the journeyperson. But a project of this size will usually double everyone's encatchment. But if we get more -- but we're not just looking at this project. I want to be very, very clear. We're looking at the ancillary development around it that we think we could probably 2x, 3x the amount of apprentices that's coming in because also we lose some through attrition. We're an older workforce so we need more. You got the infrastructure bill with the Stitch and all those things coming, so we look at that in a more global holistic way industry-wide, but this project is a significant project and to be a linchpin to other projects. We look at this as a gateway project to open up that whole corridor on East Market Street. There's some investment on the other side of the street that's probably north of $2 billion, you know, looking at a tower, so those things may move what we're doing. And automation, we don't know the automation advances that they will make in the next four years. But we look to get more people because of retirements. The average age of the Philadelphia Building Trades is over 40, which we don't like that. We like it to be late 30s, early 40s, a little higher than that so you'll see some retirements come. You'll see spots naturally occur because of that, so we look at the uptick of apprentices anyway. But that project will probably 2x it or 3x it if we're good.

Okay. Thank you. And then for GBCA, I was going to ask if GBCA could chime in there, like how you all are working with Everybody Builds in the unions to ensure that your contractors as we say understand the assignment?

Yeah, absolutely. I would say there's been a shift in the industry, and what we intend is that through investment like this you're going to see it. There's been a shift in industry. This is the first time where you have owners and developers, the heads of the Building Trades and Contractors all coming together saying the exact same thing which is that the next 4 year needs to look different than 5 the last 10 years. 6 I mean, we went 7 through -- the last 10 years for 8 construction has been a good 10 9 years of growth and what we didn't 10 see is a real change in the industry. And we believe part of that is because there hasn't been that I think the word was glue kind of connecting these dots, and we believe Everybody Builds can serve that pretty crucial role. And the other thing that I wanted to just piggyback off of what Ryan was saying is the demographic shift is happening in the industry. You're going to see retirements push forward. And if there are -- and this is important. If there are opportunities to enter into the trades which requires investments, requires projects of this scale of magnitude, you'll see a what will be slow then fast change in what the trades look like from an inclusion standpoint. And don't hold me to this number, but kind of a rule for apprenticeship is about percent 10 of the workforce could be. So if 11 you want to start doing math based 12 on a projecting number, it could be 13 1,800 apprentices. So again, those 14 type of things you can see. So if 15 you have a billion dollar project 16 here, example of 9,000 jobs, what 17 Ryan was talking about, $2 billion 18 happening across the street, then 19 you can start to see an industry 20 that changes very quickly. And in addition to the support, the programs like Everybody Builds can provide for contractors looking to scale their businesses. The other story that's very common in our industry is starting with the tools. So if you want to see more contractors from diverse backgrounds, then you need to see more people in the industry of diverse backgrounds. And over time you see the contractor base change as well. So it can be both ends. So both can be an intentional wraparound of support, bonding, insurance, trying to act at scale before you're at scale but do it safely and by bringing people in as the demographics change for the industry, people that work with the tools eventually start their own business. That's always been the story of the industry. We think that will continue to be an important part of it. And this need for work though, you can't do any of it without the work which states the obvious. But we often expect results without having the raw material to get them. Raw material is having a project.

Thank you. Thank you, Council President.

Thank you. Chairman of Labor, Councilmember Jim Harrity.

Thank you, Council President, colleagues. Thank you everybody for testifying. Ryan, thank you for testifying. Today I myself am a proud member of Laborers Local 57, as most of you know. I say it every chance I get. Very proud of that. Also proud of the fact that my son just graduated from the apprentice program from Local 98. He actually just got an award the other night. (Applause.)

I got in trouble for missing it because I was out doing the people's work and couldn't make it. But can you tell me how the pre-apprentice program and apprentice programs will help with things like job training and skill development in ways like economic opportunity, workforce diversity, long-term career paths and reduction in unemployment?

We at the Philadelphia Building Trades, and this is without our cousins the Carpenters who need to come back home, we spend $48 million a year on training, $48 million a year. We take it very seriously. And when you learn a craft in the trade, Jimmy, you know this because the Councilman said I can keep it 100. Economic development don't only happen on the job. It happens like me. A guy by the name of Joe Genovese told me, I'm going to teach you how to feed your family for life. He told me how to frame a step and do concrete on the step at $100 a step. I bought my first house doing that, period. Yeah, I worked in the trades but I also knew how to do that, so when they learned that the economic opportunity is endless. Ben talked about people starting businesses starting with the trades. Outside of tech, the quickest growing group of millionaires in this country are tradesmen and women, blue collar millionaires. Look it up. It was the story in Politico about it because we need plumbers, we need sheet metal workers, we need electricians, we need carpenters, we definitely need laborers. (Applause.)

So, Jimmy, the economic benefit is endless. We do that 80 percent on our own. We have very little government grants. So it's training people to be the citizens that Ben Franklin intended when he started the public library system, a trained citizen. That's what we provide.

That's great and that's good stuff. And I'll tell you when I was in there I took full advantage of some of that 48 million to get trade while I was up there. My wife used to laugh. I would go up for a week at a time at our training facility and I would look up what took a week to get the certification for and that's where I would go. I'd be up there all week. She would laugh. She's like you're taking a vacation after a vacation, you know. So this is just something good to hear about and just wanted to make sure you got a chance to tell everyone about all the economic growth that's going to happen with this. Not like as we said just with jobs but with people starting businesses. You know, we're one of the only industries where, as you know, you can be an owner-operator which saves you money (inaudible) -- (Time's up.)

Time's up, Jimmy.

Time's up, yeah. Lost my train of thought there. That was pretty good. But the thing is that you can being a member of the union and these apprentice jobs that are going to start aren't just to make them -- they're not just going to be able to have a job where they could support their family, and they will, they will have a job that they can support their family with, medical benefits, pension, annuity. It's a very good deal. But some of these apprentices that are working on these jobs will eventually become those contractors and the contractors group because of the way we do it, you know what I mean. A lot of other people would not allow you to be an owner-operator, which you know and I know means that you're a member of our union, you worked on a job, you were trained, now you want to become a contractor. So because you're trained and you're trained through us, we give you a little break on that. And we're going to have some of these people making businesses and there's going to be some businesses that will take flight on this job, minority businesses where people are going to be able to not only raise their family but help other people raise their families. So I thank you for this work. And I know it's going to take a lot and there's a lot of questions, but I believe we can get it done.

Thank you, Councilmember Harrity. And I echo my good friend from the IBEW, please vote yes. And you'll show the economic impact of City wage taxes. There's just a myriad of great things to be had if we approve this project.

A myriad, yeah, my man. (Applause.)

The Chair recognizes the gentleman from the Northwest, Councilmember Phillips. Welcome back, sir.

You know, I had to handle some work for some school kids in the area, but it's good to be back. I just want to tell you that I really admire the passion that was spilled out from IBEW. And, Ryan Boyer, you hit a lot of great points today that really, really inspired me in more ways than one. But I just want to just ask a question for anyone on the panel to answer. Can you talk about -- I don't think a lot of Philadelphians understand that there's a very serious issue here whereas there's a history of sports arena owners moving from out of the city to another place. Can you talk about how consequential and adverse the Sixers leaving Philadelphia and moving to potentially New Jersey would be for your industry?

I think it's not only our industry. It's a black eye for the city. You know, Detroit Pistons used to play in Auburn, Michigan. The New England Patriots don't play in Boston. They play an hour away. Just think about the national story. They tried to invest over a billion dollars. We allowed them to leave. We collectively allow them to leave, allowed that economic boom to leave from our city to go to another city, a peer city across the river, Camden. They stole the practice facility already, so they proved that they will leave because capital goes where it is invited. If you don't invite capital, it will leave. See Detroit, people thought that Detroit was all of that. What brought it back when Dan Gilbert put the arena back in center city and that revitalized Detroit, Michigan. (Applause.)

We have to be students of history, not of the moment. Because when you make passionate decisions in the moment, they don't age well. But if you make good sober-minded decisions, they age very well. Remember, we have a solemn obligation here. Whether people clap, they yell or they scream, we have to look inside of ourselves and say, is the city going to look better before I had it or am I facing a television commercial with dilapidated buildings and a dilapidated Gallery in an unopened mall on Market Street saying you could have did something about it, but they didn't, let's change them. Do we want to face that? Those are the decisions that you make when you say you want to represent this great city. It's not a game. This is serious stuff. Business can come in and they could leave and we want to attract the business so we can grow. Do we want to make sure that they're good corporate citizens? Absolutely, I do it every day. Make sure that they pay a fair wage. And in this case, we at the Philadelphia Building Trades will support the complete prevailing wage for our brothers and sisters at UNITE HERE as well. (Applause.)

We believe that. So hold them accountable, but you will have no Community Benefits Agreement if we don't build it. And we are talking about fairy tale dust and we're like, well, we could do this with that place. They own it. They have the rights to it. You can't just take it from them. So it's either going to be nothing or something. It is a binary choice, nothing or something. Let's have a serious conversation with the residents of Chinatown, the businesses of Chinatown, the businesses and the residents of Chinatown that are really affected, not some of the astro turf but the grassroots, and let's see that we can come to an agreement. And the best agreement is when everyone feels like they didn't get everything that they came to get.

Thank you. (Applause.)

Finally, I just had a quick follow- up question. For those Philadelphians who really may not be aware about how our tax bracket works or just people are outside of Philadelphia, let's say that. In your experience with development over the years, can you talk about how your work in development has spurred not only economic growth for the city of Philadelphia but also community growth to address some of the issues that people have been talking about, whether or not that be issues around schools, homelessness as well as housing and so forth? How has development has spurred on growth in our city?

Directed to, sir?

Let me go with -- I guess I can go with Everybody Builds. Let's do that. I'm sorry.

So on behalf of the General Building Contractors Association, we're proud to be a partner of Everybody Builds. The construction industry in and of itself is an important economic driver for our region. So development is a necessary step to keep people working in this industry. So if you want to talk about the tens of thousands of people employed in the trades, the hundreds of businesses that pay taxes for the city of Philadelphia and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the necessary element of all of that is, to borrow what Ryan said, it's willing capital. So we're saying what's the downstream impact, is that if you want to generate tax dollars, it's estimated $1.5 billion in tax revenue off of this, you want to generate that. And then the multiplier effect off of that, every job created has a multiplier effect and it was like $2.4 billion in economic impact, you know. It takes investment, somebody willing to deploy capital like is present here. Over time it's going to employ people in the trades. It's going to employ businesses that pay taxes, and then it provides the resources that this body and the City of Philadelphia then deploys to see how to best serve citizenship. So I mean, that's just how it works systematically. In addition to that, and I won't speak for the trades, but the trades do a lot of work in the community to directly impact and help people as well.

I would say that development, you don't have Northern Liberties if you didn't have a developer willing to do the Piazza. I mean, look at Baker Square. Let's take a community, Baker Square. Tasty Cake was going to mothball that. That became a development that the Kroc Center and now the Sixth Man Center. Now, you have a whole ecosystem around there where people can get fresh fruits and vegetables from a grocery store that wasn't there and they can have recreation and salvation all in the same thing because of development. There were some naysayers. Oh, you build Baker Square, you're going to price us out. It happens.

Thank you very much.

Thank you. Thank you, Council President.

The Chair recognizes Councilmember Jamie Gauthier.

Thank you, Council President. First, thanks to all of you for being here and thank you for everything that you do for workers and for our city in general. And I was inspired as well by your testimony. I know that one of the attractive things about the arena proposal that we spent quite a lot of time talking about is a prospect of new jobs for Black and Brown people in our city, and it's especially attractive with us being the largest poor city. And as you probably know, I represent a District that sees a lot of major development projects. I often have projects in the hundreds of millions of dollars, projects that hit the billion dollar mark. But I have to be frank that while that should result in many lucrative job and contracting opportunities for Black and Brown people in my District, like the Council President mentioned earlier, I often observe the same old people doing the same old things on the construction sites. And we have situations where the owner demonstrates that they've made a "best faith effort," and says that they couldn't find anybody Black or Brown to fulfill the job responsibilities. But I know with this proposal we are all aligned on the point of wanting good jobs and good contracts for Black and Brown Philadelphians and we want to see those actual opportunities and not just a good faith effort. So I wanted to ask some questions about the job and training pipeline. If the arena moves forward, when will recruitment start? And considering the attrition that you talked about earlier and that naturally happens in training programs, how many people do you think that you will have to recruit and train to meet the EOP goals on the work site?

We are recruiting every day. Their jobs is to recruit every day. Recruitment never stops, because we're agnostic to any project. Any project that we build we want to build with diversity and inclusion in mind. And I don't want to say that it happens if you don't work at it. It doesn't happen by osmosis. You have to be intentional to make it happen. Because as the Councilman said and Ben admitted, we have legacy contractors here who are comfortable with the status quo.

Yeah.

We have to push them. It's okay. They're going to get pushed. Ben has been a great pusher at the GBCA that it can't look like the -- you heard that? You never heard that from a GBCA person before, the next 10 years can't look like the last 10 years. That is true. But it doesn't happen by happenstance. You have to make it happen. And the beginning is being here understanding that we're deadly serious that diversity and inclusion will be counted. You know how you do it? When they don't reach those numbers and they say had the best effort, you have clauses in your contract that you can move on to the next bidder. That's how the hell you do it. You say you're kicked off the job, you didn't find them. You heard Layla testify that whatever they need, we've been in this city, we can find that. That's not going to be an excuse under my watch anymore, that we couldn't find them. Where did you look?

Okay. Can I have one more question for the record?

Yeah, sure. Go ahead.

Okay. The EOP has goals for skilled workers, laborers and apprentices/pre-apprentices. Can any of you talk about strategies for recruiting and training individuals for the different types of jobs that will be required to complete this project? MS. McGUIRE: Well, our pre-apprenticeship program Rosie's Girls, we go to the different schools. Myself, Layla we're always at schools. Actually I have a lot to do for Apprentice Week as well. But we go to the different schools and we talk to everybody, anybody and we let them know. Just recently yesterday we were talking to parents as well and we introduced them to the different trades. If they come to me and they're looking for something different, I point them somewhere else. I point them to the insulators, I point them to the carpenters. So we work together so that we can fill all of those positions, all of those slots that need to be filled as far as this new arena goes. Even when Councilman Harrity was asking about furthering your career, not just being a worker. At IBEW we have career opportunities, so IBEW right now once you complete your apprenticeship program, we have a partnership with Rowan University. So anyone that completes their apprenticeship program, Rowan University gives them 72 credits towards a college degree so that they can go into project management or construction management and things like that, but we're doing what we have to do so that we can, you know. We don't want anyone to just feel like, okay, once I become a carpenter, electrician or a plumber, that's it. That's not it. There's always more. We break ceilings. We're known to be breaking some ceilings, and that's what we do here in the city of Philadelphia. So we have the pre-apprenticeship programs that's in play so that we can get those that want to go to different avenues. Even Rosie's Girls, Rosie's Girls isn't just for electricians. We introduced them to all of the trades. That's our pre-apprenticeship. Sam Staten has an awesome pre-apprenticeship program, and we have I think three of their graduates that's with IBEW and one of their females that's with IBEW too that I'm actually taking under my wing, so we're doing what we have to do. We're mentors, you know, not only once they come into our program. We're going to mentor them so that they can stay in our program. That's one of the things, retention. You know, and that's an issue with women in the trades is their retention. Once they get in a program, we got to figure out what do we have to do to keep them in a program and that's our biggest goal. And I've known Layla for, oh, gosh, years or so. We're still 19 though. 20

Thank you very much. 22 The Chair recognizes 23 Councilman Nicolas O'Rourke. 24

Thank you, Mr. President. And good afternoon to all the panelists here. As many of you know --

Member, can you speak into the microphone please?

Thank you, Mr. President.

Thank you, sir.

And good afternoon to all the panelists that are here. As many of you know on this panel, the promise of jobs is not the same as what happens once the deal is done. The devil's in the details as our senior member mentioned a few weeks back and I'm concerned about the lack of credible details from the owners and developers for a number of reasons. First one, there's a vast difference between the estimated number of jobs by the developers and the newest estimates in the economic impact study. In fact, the 76ers' projections are times larger than 5 that of the economic impact study. 6 Two, the owners have promised 7 living-wage jobs and programs that 8 would diversify the Building Trades. 9 Yet the proposed economic impact 10 plan only commits them to best in 11 good faith efforts. 12 The concern for us is that the Sixers' actual track record of working with diverse businesses, Sixers, including having minority vendors and suppliers receiving only 6 percent of their total spending over the last year suggests that this project will only be a continuation of the long history of projects that gain the vital support of working people through promises that don't actually materialize in the end. Promises that only end up -- (Applause.)

Promises that only end up lining the pockets of billionaires and then we all end up paying the price, a little bait and switch. First question I wanted to ask for the trades or the contractors, what is the actual percentage -- really the Building Trades. What is the actual percentage of Building Trades members that are Afro-American?

I said that earlier, 28 percent.

Thank you, sir. Have you had any conversations with the 76ers owners about why they projected 12 times the number of jobs as the economic impact study and have they shared their original study with you and how they arrived at that 12,200?

I have not because I don't go with jobs off of impact studies. I go off the actual specs because we will know. That's what I told Katherine Gilmore Richardson. You know, men lie, women lie, numbers don't. And once the estimators come and the costs come in, that's when you will know. There won't be any ambiguity in those numbers because those numbers will be fixed and permanent.

Council President, I heard the bell. Can I have --

(Nodded affirmatively).

Thank you. The other question I had was what would you add to the EOP to ensure that it cannot be violated?

What will I add to the EOP? I would add me. I was the head of Diversity at the Pennsylvania Convention Center for that project and look at the numbers. Ameenah Young was the President, but I as the board member was tasked with making sure that the EOP was followed, and that was that. Live Casino I was intimately involved with my Councilman right there. It happened. Listen, I am not here -- as anyone should -- I'm a 53-year- old man that don't have to be here. I'm here because I believe in this and I stake my reputation that if the 76ers don't do what they say they're going to do, then my reputation is ruined, and I'm not going to let nobody ruin the reputation of me or the Philadelphia Building Trades for anything. (Applause.)

Thank you, Council President. And thank you, Mr. Boyer, for that. I actually have some other questions but I don't want to belabor the time. If this project were to happen in the existing South Philadelphia Stadium complex with a number of jobs created remaining the same, would the change in location change your support for the project? We've heard a lot about protecting Chinatown and a recognition that Chinatown has not been dealt with rightly. So it's a hypothetical, but I am curious. Would that change in location actually change your support for the project?

I think this project isn't about an arena. It's about a resurrection of a neighborhood that needs the resurrecting. We need that corridor to work. You heard testimony of people losing their jobs in the Fashion District. People that make $17, $18 an hour getting laid off because it doesn't work. Those people will be put back to work. The Stadium District works because the Eagles work, we still have the Flyers. We can have everything, we can have both. And I'm not going to get in the middle between millionaires and decamillionaires fighting over a landlord-tenant dispute. I'm not doing that.

This has kind of already been touched on and then I'll wrap up with this. The sister said you lived here, you can get folk no 17 matter what. What commitments have you gained that these construction jobs actually will go to Philadelphia residents? Are you saying that it's good work that you'll do to make sure that they ensure that or is there anything on paper? Like what hard commitments are there for that?

So when I gave my testimony and my comment I spoke from two places. The first place I spoke from was a Philadelphia resident and a construction worker because I worked in the trades for years. I'm now speaking -- I 9 also spoke as a business 10 representative for my organization. 11 So what's different 12 now -- and we're talking a lot about 13 what happened 10 years ago or what 14 may happen on another project. 15 What's different now is the people that you're having the conversations with, the people that are in position to make sure that when we do send out members to go to work we have a say in what those members look like, where those members come from. And if we're talking about the difference of if we're supporting in a different place, I know the difference between if it's in Center City or if it's in New Jersey, it's not going to have much impact on our organizations because I'm sure with the electricians and everyone else in the Building Trades as well as the Carpenters, majority of our members can get in a car and drive to New Jersey and go to work. They can get in a car and drive to Delaware and work on a construction site. What is going to change is the opportunity for the Philadelphia residents, for the Philadelphia businesses and for the economy of the city of Philadelphia. It won't really affect us if it goes somewhere else. (Applause.)

Thank you. Before I call on Councilmember Nina Ahmad, just for the record I do want to do a follow- up with our tech team regarding the projection of construction jobs from the Sixers compared to the economic impact study. Just for the record, just compare apples and oranges in terms of how we move forward as a body and just making sure that when we do the final vote that we're all on the same page.

What I think is the study took full-time jobs. All construction jobs aren't full- time jobs. Some people may go in for a week, two, three weeks to do a pour and then they're gone. That I believe the Sixers study counted every job, be that full, part or partial.