This is Sunshine Week, a time to celebrate transparency, and the public’s right to know what government officials are doing and saying behind closed doors. PHL Watchdog is a Sunshine Week partner. It is serendipitous that I will be at City Hall in Courtroom 275 during Sunshine Week.
For more than two years, the City of Philadelphia has fought release of records related to the Philadelphia 76ers’ now abandoned proposal to build an arena atop SEPTA’s Jefferson Station. Perhaps the City thought I would give up. But giving up is not in my DNA. And an awesome team of lawyers, led by Paula Knudsen Burke of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and Temple University Law Professor Mary E. Levy, has my back.
The City appealed the Office of Open Records’ final determination to turn over responsive records to the Court of Common Pleas Philadelphia County on June 27, 2025. Judge Christopher Hall will hear oral arguments on March 18, 2026.
While 76 Place is as dead as the 76ers’ chances of winning an NBA championship, the public has the right to know how unaccountable and self-interested billionaires hijacked city planning. The latest Market East fiasco shows that the City has learned nothing from the arena debacle.
It is imperative that public officials are held accountable. Transparency must undergird future development projects. So, let the sun shine in.
PHL Watchdog 