Mayor Cherelle Parker holds emotional town hall regarding Sixers arena

WEST PHILADELPHIA - Mayor Cherelle Parker held a community 76ers arena town hall Tuesday night, taking her appeal and her support for the new arena up Market Street, to West Philadelphia, saying the $1.3 billion arena could revitalize the once bustling commercial corridor.

She stated, "It’s about me as a lifelong Philadelphian reflecting on what Market Street represented for us."

The mayor hopes the Sixers arena will pour new life into a dying Market Street, "The Market Street of today is not how many of you remember."

The mayor took most of her top administrators to another neighborhood, to explain what she calls the city-wide benefits of the Sixers planned arena. She hopes it will spur development around it, bringing back Market Street’s glory days.

"How many people in this room remember John Wanamaker’s? Strawbridge’s? Gimbels? Lit?" she asked.

Her new Director of Planning and Development talked of more recent big names along Market Street that either closed for good, like Wawa and Starbucks and the Marriot that shuttered its front doors facing Market. Jesse Lawrence said, "You have a whole list of empty storefronts which can be activated once the arena development repositions Market Street as a destination."

But, with the Sixers hearings and town halls, emotions and voices are raised again.

Mayor Parker yelled over a heckler, "No matter how long it takes, we’re gonna stay here until we answer every question that you have! In Philadelphia, if we're gonna be a first-class city, we deserve to have high-quality amenities in our city on Market Street."