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The Neighborhood Facebook Groups are Having Some, uh, Passionate Reactions to the Sixers Arena Vote
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Earlier on Thursday, Philadelphia City Council approved the legislation package that will allow the Sixers to build their new arena on Market Street. The final vote is next week, but it’s pretty much a formality at this point. 76 Place will be built barring some totally unforeseen circumstance, like an army of drones descending on the eastern seaboard.
Meantime, the reaction is all over the place, as expected.
In a West Philly neighborhood group, here’s a person suggesting that it’s time to loot and riot:
incredible things happening in west willy pic.twitter.com/UHPH0O9xTW
— Vincent LaGuardia Gambini, ESQ. (@itsjustmike25) December 12, 2024
And in a South Philly group it’s apparently time to get Luigi Mingione out on bail:
well the responses in south silly are kinda callin for the murder of this person pic.twitter.com/lNHaahEEVE
— Vincent LaGuardia Gambini, ESQ. (@itsjustmike25) December 12, 2024
Apparently the first chick walked back her post, saying that she’s not inciting violence. Okay. That’s not necessarily the takeaway. The takeaway is that the arena getting approval doesn’t mean the opposition disappears. It’s not like Chinatown and the coalition groups are gonna say “oh well” and go back to their daily lives. That traffic jam meetup is still taking place and you can bet protests and demonstrations will continue through the next week and into the demolition and construction phase. It will probably be 2031 and the Sixers home opener will be met with people standing on the street corner with signs. I don’t think that ever goes away.
Isn’t it crazy though, how this thing got so emotionally charged and went completely off the rails? The Sixers proposed building a basketball arena downtown and it became a referendum on race, politics, union labor, urban planning, and public transit. An intersectional clusterfuck that included healthcare via Jefferson’s proximity and even sexuality, when some Gayborhood opposition arose. This whole thing became so unnecessarily divisive. Shit, there was a whole episode with antisemitism and the Canary Mission that took place right in the middle of all of it!
Maybe the Facebook groups are just full of grindcore fans. Perhaps they believe that extreme conditions demand extreme responses:
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com