When developers set their eyes on Chinatown, residents drew on generations of social capital to organize a citywide movement that forced the Philadelphia 76ers to abandon their arena plan.

In this episode, which was recorded during Next City’s Vanguard Conference in Philadelphia, community organizer Debbie Wei traces how the Chinatown neighborhood organized a sweeping, intergenerational resistance to a proposed $1.3 billion Sixers arena backed by powerful corporate interests and political leaders. 

Residents who feared being displaced relied on decades of relationship-building to counter what they saw as a divide-and-conquer strategy from developers. Chinatown organizers tried everything from founding a student coalition and forming a grassroots “research hive” as they assembled a network strong enough to influence public opinion and ultimately stop the arena. 

Chinatown had already countered proposals over the years for a federal prison, a baseball stadium and a casino. And Wei lifts up the intangible “soft power” that she says sustains community strength between crises.

“The stuff that money can't buy is the stuff to attend to because that is the stuff that befuddles developers,” Wei says. “Because they're going to say, 'How much do you want for this?' And you're going to say, 'It's priceless.'”

Listen to the episode below or subscribe to the Next City podcast on Apple, Spotify or Goodpods.

This post was originally published on Next City.