The Sixers held a community meeting at the Sheraton on Thursday night to talk about the proposed Market Street arena project. It was a public session following a series of Zoom calls that took place over the summer.
Things got a little hairy with some protesters in the crowd, and there was a bit of Q/A goofiness later on, but the session was straightforward otherwise. Let’s summarize in a somewhat chronological order:
1) Union labor support was more than noticeable right off the bat. They had the truck driving around the Sheraton playing the Sixers theme song, a repeat of what happened at City Hall when the council returned a few weeks ago. The crowd was filled with workers wearing blue and white “Pro Jobs, Pro Union, Pro Arena” t-shirts. As you’re probably aware, the most significant arena support comes from organized Philly labor, which backed incoming mayor Cherelle Parker.
2) There were two translations for Chinatown community members. One was in Cantonese and the other in Mandarin. Chinatown representation looked to be somewhat small, and concentrated mostly in one corner of the ballroom.
Read the full article: https://www.crossingbroad.com/2023/11/15-takeaways-sixers-arena-meeting-mostly-straightforward-despite-some-protests-and-pointless-grandstanding.html
