The public debate over the proposed 76 Place has been disorienting for many of us who care about smarter urban development and growing public transit ridership.
A broad desire to increase density around public transit, especially in Center City, has been replaced by a focus on the appearance of a subway station. Voices praising the additional transit ridership potential have been drowned out by arguments about increased costs.
Something long considered a foundational part of smart development — that more vibrancy and foot traffic is critical for a downtown’s success — is under fire from many corners based on misguided concerns about the prospect of too many visitors.
The fact is that while 76 Place is not a perfect proposal, it is exactly the type of large-scale project and entertainment venue that belongs downtown, at the center of the regional transit network, rather than on the far edge of the system. While there’s a complex debate to be had about the potential downsides for Chinatown, and whether the final Community Benefits Agreement does enough to mitigate them, it has been painful to watch some of the misguided transportation arguments deployed by opponents and skeptics gain traction without much pushback from transit supporters. Putting the other controversies to the side, it is narrowly true that a downtown arena would be good news for SEPTA.
It’s much more of a benefit than a cost that 76 Place is designed to use already-existing public transit to increase the number of people visiting and living in an area of Center City that’s been struggling with high commercial vacancy. The new arena will be sited at one of the city’s busiest transit hubs, with both SEPTA lines and Regional Rail Lines coming from across the region. It will bring a new level of foot traffic and intensity of activity that will spur additional development, including the significant new residential development across the street agreed to by the 76 Place development team — all with no city taxpayer subsidy. That is the type of development many of us have supported for years.
It was especially disappointing to see such outsized focus from the media and elected officials on the ways that 76 Place could increase costs for SEPTA seven years in the future, while ignoring the broad-based benefits of running more weekend and evening Regional Rail service. It’s true that running more frequent off-peak service has a cost, and SEPTA’s current operator shortage is real and serious.
It’s also true that 75 to 85 percent of Wells Fargo attendees currently drive to events. But the Sixers’ estimate of 40 percent transit ridership to events at the new arena is eminently reasonable — even conservative — purely as a function of the vastly superior transit access at Jefferson Station compared to the Sports Complex. The superior geographic location, combined with the greater annoyances of driving and parking downtown, are likely sufficient to induce a large shift in transportation habits when the new arena opens.
Additionally, SEPTA has also been actively planning to increase service frequency on certain Regional Rail lines long-term as part of its Reimagining Regional Rail plan, which was originally scheduled for release this fall.
In the Reimagining Regional Rail plan, SEPTA will pursue capital upgrades to Regional Rail that will bring more service to every line, with a goal of providing train service every 15 minutes on several lines. Either way it is going to cost more to run this service, independently of the arena. It was always going to require more federal, state and local funding to achieve this vision, and building the arena makes winning this funding marginally easier, not harder. It strengthens the justification for more transit investment to the government, and it brings the Sixers organization into the pro-transit political constituency.
The arena helps transit by increasing the number of riders, which directly leads to more formula funding from federal and state governments. City Council also wisely required the team to include transit passes with event tickets for the first year of events in the Community Benefits Agreement, which will raise more fare revenue for SEPTA while making the transit option feel “free” to the users — hopefully shifting more people’s travel decisions as they adjust to the new arena location.
A win for “practical urbanism”
A key point overlooked in a lot of the commentary on the increased service needs is that more off-peak Regional Rail service doesn’t only benefit event attendees — it benefits everybody who would find that service useful. Regional Rail’s hourly train schedule deters a lot of people from riding who might otherwise find it convenient for commuting to or from work or other engagements if the trains came more often, so increasing service frequency will draw more people onto SEPTA apart from the game-day crowds.
As in most areas of life, you can’t get something for nothing, so it’s been deeply frustrating to see this exclusive focus on the costs, with little attention to the public benefits we’ll get for those costs, like increased off-peak service and higher overall transit ridership.
The public comments and open advocacy against 76 Place by Inquirer architecture critic Inga Saffron on transit grounds has also been disappointing to witness, most recently in a column bemoaning the potential effects on the look and feel of Jefferson Station. It isn’t that there are no valid points to be made about the urban design drawbacks, but these kinds of aesthetic considerations are much less important than the opportunity to grow our transit ridership and get more use out of Jefferson Station.
Over the last couple of years, in several areas of local built-environment policy, a sizable rift has emerged between whom you might call the “aesthetic urbanists” and the “practical urbanists,” and the arena transportation discourse is a perfect example of this. The Sixers’ arena is a win for practical urbanism because of how it will add more intensity to the downtown area, shift how people will get to some big events, and create more pressure on elected leaders and SEPTA to deliver transit service improvements on a faster timetable. And it’s worth accepting some changes to the appearance of Jefferson Station to get all of those benefits.
While there’s certainly room to debate different aspects of the proposal, it is worth applauding the 76ers for doing what many of us who care about smarter development have advocated for consistently: build around existing public transit, because more density and activity, and fewer car trips, are both better outcomes for our downtown and our city.
Jon Geeting is the director of engagement at Philadelphia 3.0, a political action committee that supports efforts to reform and modernize City Hall.
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