Sixers

Opposition Says Sixers Arena Will Kill Someone, but Jefferson Health CEO Seems to Think Otherwise

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Oct 16th, 2024 · 11:12 AM EDT

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Nothing new on the Sixers arena front. Mayor Cherelle Parker came out in support a few weeks ago but the legislation has to pass city council before it reaches her desk. There’s a chance it’s introduced in City Hall later this month.

Meantime, an important question – will 76 Place kill someone? Will traffic be so bad that an ambulance can’t get to Jefferson Hospital quickly enough, resulting in death?

That’s been an opposition talking point, and a handful of protesters were out on Tuesday night:

Currently out here with #NoArenaPhillyMed doctors & nurses who know this is a farce: slowing down traffic by even a few minutes can mean life or death for their patients. Gridlock from the proposed arena will cost lives. (Go follow @SaveChinatownPA #NoArena) https://t.co/nBqaKCzz3S pic.twitter.com/X5SgUXbo0p

— Gabe Schwartz (@gabegabeyeah) October 15, 2024

In the second part of that tweet you see the Inquirer’s Daniel Pearson link to a Philadelphia Business Journal story published last week. It’s written by John George, on the topic of Jefferson cohabitating with 76 Place, and it quotes Jefferson Health CEO Dr. Joseph Cacchione, who says Market Street needs some help in the “safety and vibrancy” department. He also says this:

Cacchione said Jefferson, which has its flagship hospital nearby at 111 South 11th St., has done its homework on the area and conducted its own traffic studies. He said it is critical that any development plan address potential risks to ambulance traffic.

Jefferson has had informal discussions with the Sixers to express its concerns, according to Cacchione.

“We understand the implications of the proposed projects and we think that the 76ers as well as any other plan is cognizant of the potential risk too,” he said. “The ambulance traffic has been accounted for in their plans. We’re encouraged by that … and our traffic study suggests that we can cohabitate with an arena.”

We talked a little bit about this in a previous article titled New Anti-Arena Argument: Drunk or Injured Sixers Fans Could Overwhelm Jefferson Hospital. That was after the ‘No Arena Washington Square West’ group wrote on Facebook that putting an arena next door places an added burden on medical professionals while creating traffic that makes it harder for emergency vehicles to get through.

For some context, right now, when a fan requires ER transportation from the Wells Fargo Center, they’re taken to Jefferson Methodist on South Broad Street or Jefferson in Center City, depending on what happened. So the hospital we’re talking about is already in partial service to Sixers gameday crowds, and there are, of course, defibrillators and other medical devices and personnel at the Farg. The anti-arena crowd seems to think that hundreds of people get drunk and rowdy at these games and require medical attention, but that’s a stereotype and also incorrect. What generally happens is that sad Sixers fans quietly file out of the building after the team finds a new way to disappoint, and lose.

What we’ve seen over the last two years is that a lot of the opposition talking points, legitimate or not, are actually existing Philadelphia issues. Traffic? Already bad. SEPTA? Desperately needs funding and improvement. Parking? Not ideal, never has been. The Gayborhood? Already gentrified. Chinatown? In need of attention whether the Sixers build or do not build. The problem, with Hahnemann’s 2019 closure, is that Jefferson is the only level 1 trauma center in Center City, and if 76 Place is shot down by council, you still need another level 1 trauma center in Philadelphia. That problem doesn’t go away. And the truth is that better urbanism solves a lot of these problems, whether we’re talking more bus lanes, a focus on bikes, mass transit improvements, or anything related that can limit cars and control traffic and make all of Center City easier to traverse.

It’s not to say that the opposition is barking up the wrong tree, it’s to say that the tree was already there and will remain even if 76 Place is defeated in City Hall.

Jefferson has not released the data from their own traffic study, so it is, of course, impossible to corroborate and we basically just have those CEO quotes to work with. I’m sure there are individual doctors and nurses who feel differently. In the PIDC traffic impact study, it’s recommended that the Sixers and the city “Coordinate with Thomas Jefferson Hospital to minimize conflicts with the loading zone proposed within the current TIS which is across from the Hospital on Chestnut Street between 10th Street and 11th Street.” So it’s not like people are just ignoring this issue and acting like it doesn’t exist. The Sixers know, Jefferson knows, and the city knows that ER access is critical and together they need to come up with a comprehensive plan to make sure the hospital can operate efficiently.