More than 15,000 petition signatures opposing the Sixers arena are delivered to City Hall

“From West Philly to Chinatown, corporate greed is going down!”

“People over profit!”

“Hands off Chinatown!”

These were a few of the chants bellowed at the northeast corner of City Hall on Thursday morning, where dozens of people gathered to protest the proposed Sixers arena before entering the building to hand-deliver more than 15,000 petition signatures to Council members.

“For my community, Chinatown is near and dear to our hearts,” said Sinta Penyami Storms, cofounder of the Indonesian group Gapura, adding that Chinatown is where Philly’s Indonesian community lived when member first immigrated to the city in the 1990s.

“Our children go to Folk Arts and Cultural Treasure Charter School. Our moms pick up their children, they grab boba after school, they buy groceries. It’s our stomping ground,” she continued. “If we have to reimagine how Philly can be better, it’s not by putting the money-grabbing arena in the smack of Center City.”

It’s the same message that community activists and advocates have been delivering since the proposed arena was first announced last summer. Chinatown is a neighborhood that has served as a cultural hub, safe space and economic center for immigrant communities.

It holds a special place in the hearts of people across Philly, and is one of the last neighborhoods in the city’s downtown core that is predominantly people of color and low-income. And with the Sixers’ arena proposed to go on the block from 10th to 11th and Market to Filbert — abutting the southern border of Chinatown at Cuthbert Street, and six feet from the nearest Chinatown business — Chinatown residents, business owners, patrons and allies all believe that gentrification and displacement would be inevitable.

But the activists delivered their message a little differently Thursday. First, with a creative fashion show featuring models with illustrations of Chinatown stapled to their clothes in various designs.

“Debbie is wearing a beautiful flowing dress that is 4% rayon and 96% opposed to the arena and billion dollar development,” the emcee said as one of the models strutted and spun in front of the chuckling crowd.

The activists also showed up with power in numbers. In front of the group was a wall of 18 boxes filled with more than 15,000 petition signatures and 3,300 handwritten postcards, which were hauled inside by after the news conference and delivered to each Council member — along with personal stories about what Chinatown has meant to them and their families over the decades.

First on one group’s list was Councilmember Mark Squilla, who as the district Council member holds significant power over the $1.3 billion project. Squilla was unavailable, so his legislative assistant Sean McMonagle met with the group in his stead.

“Chinatown means a great deal to my family. My mother emigrated from Taiwan in the ‘70s. They protested the Vine Street Expressway back in the ‘70s,” said Will Gross, a small-business owner and Democratic Committee member. “To us, [the arena] does represent an existential threat to the neighborhood and the city as a whole.”

From Council member office to office, activists asked elected officials to publicly commit to voting no on any legislation that would allow the arena to push through. And from office to office, they got the same response: The Council members are doing their due diligence to talk to both those opposed to and for the arena, as well as awaiting the results of impact studies, and they will take a stance once there is more information out there.

“From a community standpoint, I think we need to make sure these studies are done,” Squilla told The Inquirer afterward. “I think it gives everybody a fair idea on the challenges that are going to be associated with this type of development in the area. And then I think it allows people to forge their decision on whether this can move forward or not.”

Except at Councilmember Kendra Brooks’ office. Brooks is one of two councilmembers to have formally taken a stance opposing the arena. Councilmember Jim Harrity has joined her in opposition, and a few other councilmembers have committed to voting no on any arena legislation introduced before the completion of environmental impact studies.

Activists were greeted warmly by Brooks’ staff as they stepped through the door. Shakeda Gaines, deputy chief of staff, opened the box of petitions and sorted through the sheets of paper, muttering “beautiful” under her breath.

“Thank you so much for dropping this off,” Gaines said. “We appreciate you and as you know, the Council member has announced her position, and she stands with you guys.”

A spokesman for 76 DevCorp, the development partnership planning the arena, declined to comment on the news conference.