Meet some of the Chinatown leaders weighing the wisdom of a 76ers arena next door

The Philadelphia 76ers, who want to build a $1.3 billion arena on Market Street, are buying ads near Chinatown tagged “We want to be a great neighbor” and “Help us make this a win for everyone.”

Skeptics on Monday invited community leaders on a bus tour to Washington, D.C.’s old downtown Chinese business district, which they say has been squeezed hard by redevelopment, including the Washington Wizards arena. They’re wondering: Could that happen here?

Philadelphia Chinatown community leaders say they are proceeding cautiously, engaging with the Sixers on details of a “community-benefits agreement” — measuring what those whose homes and livelihoods depend on the busy, historic neighborhood could gain or lose before they commit.

Leaders of the Chinese Restaurant Association, the Chinatown Housing Development Corp., the Chinese Benevolent Association, and business and regional immigrant groups are forming an organization to weigh and enforce the Sixers’ promises. Leaders say an agreement could come later this month.

Staff at Asian Americans United, a public school advocacy group funded by area foundations and corporations, have been outspoken against the arena.

The Inquirer interviewed two of the leaders of the committee and one from AAU. Their comments have been edited for clarity and brevity.

Chinatown has people from all backgrounds — mainland China, Hong Kong, Southeast Asia. I know of 40 associations in Chinatown. And many occupations. There is no single group of associations that can claim that they represent Chinatown.

So we want to unify the groups and represent the different segments of Chinatown. That is what is necessary to have a joint dialogue with the 76ers.

When a construction project lands in a neighborhood, a typical process is to create a “community-benefits agreement.” The intent is for the Sixers to deal with a unified group, instead of offering each association something different.

We want them to come to a committee that is representative, that is in contact with the many groups.

“Chinatown ... is our essential hub. This is a connection we want to maintain for our kids, a reminder of our cultures.”

We cannot force an opinion on any group — that you should support an arena or fight against an arena. Whether we are business owners or residents, we need more information.

There are many people who have an interest in Chinatown. It is our essential hub. We may work here, and even if we live elsewhere, we will come here for a haircut or a bubble tea or a dim sum lunch on Sunday. This is a connection we want to maintain for our kids, a reminder of our cultures.

The small businesses are so much of what Chinatown is today. Two weeks ago, we needed to raise a fund to install security cameras. In two weeks, 80 businesses raised $63,000 to put 16 cameras at four locations. These people are leaders. Of course, they will be represented when we talk to the 76ers.

No one knows if this project is an opportunity or a crisis for Chinatown. Whether the 76ers eventually put a stadium here, hopefully, it is not going to replace our cultural identity.

Tsao, a native of Zhejiang, arrived at Penn State in 1994. In Philadelphia, he started New Mainstream Media, which publishes Metro Chinese Weekly, Metro Viet News, and WeChat PhillyGuide digital service. He owns EMei and General Tsao’s restaurants and started RiceVan delivery service.

What we are building here is a collective leadership. We obviously want to maximize representation for the Chinatown community, people who have a stake — who work here, who live here, who have a business or a property here — basically, people who make a living in Chinatown.

There are more than 40 organizations who have so far agreed to take part. We are putting together a committee of people who are trustworthy, who have credentials.

There is Mabel Chan. She is a longtime business owner and a semi-politician. She heads the Chinese Benevolent Association. There is John Chin of the Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corp., which has built hundreds of units of housing. There is Steve Zhu, who heads the Chinese Restaurant Association.

“We are putting together a committee of people who are trustworthy ... so that we get what is best for the Chinatown community.”

We have also approached Asian Americans United. They have already made a lot of noise about the arena. They should be a key player.

You know that PCDC and John Chin have done so much to develop senior housing. There are many other developers in this community as well. I have developed more than 150 units myself. There are many others who maintain property and make it part of the community. They give Chinatown its home feeling.

So our purpose is obviously to represent so that we get what is best for the Chinatown community. That’s why we are here.

Xu studied history at Fudan in his native Shanghai, went to New York University in 1987, then moved to Philadelphia, where his uncle was a doctor. In 1990 he started a beer takeout; he became head of the 250-member Asian American Licensed Beverage Association of Pennsylvania. Xu’s main business now is title firm Philadelphia Abstract Co. He also owns a real estate company, Bala Associates, and a financing firm, Bala Financial.

When I heard about the arena, where I started from is that these developments have never been good for us. Every time, we lose pieces of Chinatown. I believe in my bones this will be a nail in the coffin of Chinatown.

You know our school sits in a very old factory building. They could come to us tomorrow and give us $10 million to build a new school. We would say no. There’s no point in having the school if there is no community.

Other organizations may be open [to the arena proposal]. We are not. We believe it will destroy the community. An arena destroyed their Chinatown in D.C.

“I believe in my bones this will be a nail in the coffin of Chinatown.”

A lot of times the history of community-benefits agreements is that they don’t pan out. For the Vine Street Expressway, their concession was to fund low-income housing, which we desperately needed. But the payoff was this highway that cut our community in two, and we lost an equal amount of housing, and we have had a struggle to rebuild from that.

It would be wrong to think we are the only group in the community that opposes this arena. We went to our members — groups such as Asian Arts Initiative, the Philadelphia Chinese Opera Society, and youth basketball, and other groups. The ones who agree keep meeting with us.

We’re still working on demands. We want [the Sixers] to fully fund an environmental impact statement from a company we choose. We want a commitment that if the study shows there is going to be damage done to Chinatown that cannot be mitigated, [the arena] will go someplace else.

They keep saying they care about Chinatown. Prove it.

Daughter of immigrants and raised in Philadelphia, Wei graduated from Oberlin College in 1979. In 2005, with future City Councilmember Helen Gym and others, she started and was principal at Folk Arts-Cultural Treasures charter school in Chinatown. She helped found Asian Americans United, an advocacy group based at the school. AAU is funded by foundations and corporations such as Comcast, which owns the arena where the Sixers currently play. Wei says Comcast has not raised the issue.