Despite vociferous opposition from thousands of Philadelphians and dozens of neighborhood-based organizations, a seemingly rogue City Council is poised to pass legislation to support a $1.3 billion new basketball arena for the Philadelphia 76ers. It will be close to an area, a neighborhood considered home to many Asians from many cultures and countries. Philadelphian politicians are quick to say that Philadelphia is a city of neighborhoods, but the fact is there has not been any significant public-private partnership comprehensive neighborhood development in Philadelphia outside of Center City and the Navy Yard since 1958. No significant development on Ridge Avenue. No significant development on the 52nd Street Business Corridor. No significant development around Broad and Erie Avenue. In fact, no significant development on North Broad Street. No subway extension on Roosevelt Boulevard. And no significant development to produce city-wide affordable, energy-efficient housing. The inner neighborhoods of West Philly, Southwest, South Philly, and North Philly look pretty much the same as in 1958. And let’s not get started on the Kensington and Allegheny Corridor. I think you would agree with me that before any $1.3 billion stadium is built, this area gets developed first!
Why use 1958 as a marker? Because this is the year some Philadelphian “visionaries” all European Caucasian men, created a nonprofit partnership between the City of Philadelphia and the Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia called the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation (PIDC). These men knew that as a result of the Black Power and Freedom movements in the 1950s, the Federal Government was positing to grant tens of millions of dollars to local governments for urban development. Instead, the majority of these public monies were channeled to PIDCs all across America. Don’t let its “nonprofit” classification fool you. PIDC is a slick and legal private corporation that owns and controls thousands of acres of public land that otherwise would belong to We the People and hundreds of real estate properties–that too, should belong to We the People.
So why all this background? Believe me, this is just a grain compared to the pile of dung the proposed 76ers arena is collecting. Because PIDC and its subsidiary, the Philadelphia Authority for Industrial Development (PAID), are the overseers behind the arena development, not City Council nor the Mayor of Philadelphia. In fact, when examining the service leasing agreements between the City of Philadelphia and PIDC, it seems that City Treasurer has to pay PIDC directors to serve as landlords! There is more. Instead of the Sixer’s Franchise Owners buying the land under which to build the stadium, the PIDC, through its subsidiary PAID, has “acquired” the land from the City and, in turn, will lease the land to the Sixer’s owner, thereby freeing the Sixer’s owners from paying property taxes on the property into the City Treasurer. Because PAID is a nonprofit, they are also not liable to pay any property taxes, thus once again screwing We the People of millions of dollars. It does not stop there. PIDC Directors (not City Council) hired a firm to do an “economic and fiscal impact analysis” the proposed arena is alleged to have on the city. This firm is not from Philadelphia nor from Pennsylvania. The firm they hired is Convention, Sports, and Leisure (CSL), located in Frisco, Texas. City Politicians did not even have the humility nor loyalty to see that a local or state-based firm was hired to do the study. I know a few African American firms here in Philadelphia that could have done the analysis. Their findings, I am pretty sure, would not be so vague as the slew of disclaimers CSL put on page one of their 73-page report delivered to PIDC’s Executive Vice President. Read the following and tell me how can City Politicians honestly put their support towards building a new arena based on a 73-page report full of assumptions: “The information contained in this report is based on estimates, assumptions, and other information developed from research of the market, knowledge of the sports and entertainment industries and other factors, including certain information provided by others. All information provided to us was not audited and was assumed to be correct based on our professional judgment and experience. Because procedures were limited, we express no opinion or assurances of any kind on the achievability of any projected information contained herein, and this report should not be relied upon for that purpose. Furthermore, there will be differences between projected and actual results. This is because events and circumstances frequently do not occur as expected, and those differences may be material. We have no responsibility to update this report for events and circumstances occurring after the date of this report.”
Can you believe what you just read? I did not read any of the remaining 72 pages of the report. For what? It is all conjecture. If you were a City Council person, would you support the building of a $1.3 billion arena based on a mainly speculative report? I hope you wouldn’t.
Another alleged new arena benefit is the $60 million Community Benefit Agreement (CBA). This is another potential piece of chicanery. Not, the contents of the agreement, but that the agreement is totally unenforceable. It is not an enforceable contract. Because it is not a contract. Look at the history of CBAs in Philadelphia and other cities. They mainly became trash paper because the parties who sign(ed) these agreements never had any intention of following through and were not legally compelled to do so.
In conclusion, if PIDC and PAID directors are the landlords of the proposed arena 76ers franchise owners as the tenant, it is not on behalf of We The People. Neither PIDC nor PAID directors report to City Government.
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