‘Keep your word’: Activists for Chinatown target Councilmember Squilla in fight against Sixers arena

City Councilmember Mark Squilla was on the big screen Friday morning.

During a press conference at the Chinese Christian Church and Center protesting the controversial Sixers arena, a still shot of Squilla holding a microphone, surrounded by community members, was projected onto a large pull-down screen.

Then the video played, showing Squilla speaking to community members at the contentious town hall organized in Chinatown in December. In the video, Squilla explained that he is the only person who can introduce legislation that would move the arena proposal forward.

“I make a commitment to share that legislation with the community ahead of time, get feedback, and only if supported by the community would it be able to move forward,” Squilla said at the time.

After the video finished playing, Rev. Wayne Lee, pastor of the church, walked up to the podium.

“[Squilla] made clear commitments,” Lee said. “I just want to say that we appreciate Councilman Squilla’s commitment to the community. And we are simply asking him today to stand by his word, because as we’ve seen in the past year, it is very clear that the community does not want [the arena].”

Friday’s press conference marked a significant shift for Squilla, who has been able to remain relatively out of the limelight in the year since the Sixers first announced their plans to build a $1.3 billion arena that would abut the historic Chinatown neighborhood. But as councilmember of the district where the arena would be located, Squilla can stop the arena or set it on its way through the approval process through “councilmanic prerogative,” which is an unwritten tradition in Philadelphia, not a law or rule.

Now, community members are beginning to put more pressure on Squilla to stay true to his word.

Standing in front of the big screen were over a dozen community members holding a variety of signs addressed to the councilmember: “Do the right thing,” “Do you represent your constituents or three billionaires?” and “Will you keep your word?”

“Councilman Squilla, members of the City Council, you are elected to represent us, the people. Not buildings, not corporations, not profits,” said Rev. Robin Hynicka, lead pastor of the Arch Street United Methodist Church. “This is a moral issue, and we ask you to do the right thing.”

When asked about his December statement, Squilla said he understands Chinatown’s concerns and would “absolutely” keep his word, but said that he’s talking about all surrounding communities that would be impacted by the arena, not solely Chinatown.

“All community stakeholders play a role in this, and if all the community stakeholders are opposed to it, it’s gonna be really hard to introduce legislation,” Squilla said.

Squilla said that legislation is currently being drafted by 76 DevCorp’s attorneys, but that he’s still committed to giving the community 30 days to review the draft once he receives it before introducing it.

“There’s other stakeholders as part of it,” Squilla said. “If there’s other organizations that sign on to a [community benefits agreement], and the [impact] studies come back and say that these concerns that [Chinatown has] can be mitigated, it is still possible to move forward.”

In a statement, a spokesperson for 76 DevCorp said they will be announcing additional opportunities for public input to “inform adjustments to the proposal that provides benefits to all communities.”

The press conference came ahead of the highly anticipated fall start of City Council session, which is also the Sixers’ self-imposed deadline for obtaining city approvals. It also came on the heels of the revelation that the Sixers will be paying for the studies on the impact of the arena, which critics say casts doubt on the outcome of what were promised to be independent city analyses.

“Common sense knows that now that DevCorp is paying for the study, their influence is greater than if they weren’t,” Hynicka said. “These developers have proven they cannot be trusted.”

Squilla contested concerns that payment equals influence.

“That’s a little bit disingenuous,” he said. “The City of Philadelphia is doing it, the Sixers aren’t. The money’s coming through the Sixers, but [Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp.] and the city are commissioning these studies and the reporting is going to the city, not to the Sixers.”

While community members stressed at the press conference that they have lost trust in the city’s process regarding the arena, they added that they still have faith in Squilla to “do the right thing.”

“If you do the wrong thing, the only thing you will be remembered for is being a politician who destroyed Philadelphia’s wonderful, 150-year-old Chinatown — one of the last remaining Chinatowns in the whole country,” said Walt Palmer, who grew up in West Philadelphia’s Black Bottom. “Your legacy is on the line.”