A Reason for Cautious Optimism

Dec. 05, 2018

People who work, alive, shop or dine in Center Urban center are quite optimistic about downtown's future. That's apparent in the Centre City District's annual customer satisfaction survey, where 79 percentage of the four,640 respondents say downtown is headed in the right direction. Only 3 percent feel it's on the wrong track, while 18 percent don't sense things trending significantly either way.

Attitudes nearly the metropolis equally a whole are also upbeat, at 62 percent, but 17 points lower than confidence in downtown, the location for 42 percent of Philadelphia'south jobs, a burgeoning scene for new businesses and residents, new hotels and restaurants and a continuing surge of new construction.

(The Customer Satisfaction Survey took place in October and November, through postcards distributed to pedestrians and mailed to commercial and residential belongings owners; emailed to subscribers throughout the region; and through on-street interviews throughout Center City.)

Caution Flags

But, there are circumspection flags. While 79 percent indicate they experience safe well-nigh of the fourth dimension or ever in Center City, 20 percent say they often, or occasionally, feel unsafe. L nine percent say panhandlers who confront pedestrians cause the greatest insecurity; 47 per centum are concerned most people sleeping on the sidewalks and in building entrances; and 31 percentage worry most about the absence of uniformed police officers or other public safety professionals. Because street behavior is a much debated result, the survey also offered respondents the choice: near of these items are part of urban life and practice not bother me. Simply 24 percent selected this option.

Good governance is well-nigh recognizing that needs in dissimilar portions of the city are different, that one size does not fit all; and most importantly, that addressing quality-of-life issues in the viii pct of the city'south geography that provides more than 50 percent of the municipal tax base of operations is essential to Philadelphia'southward ability to fund public services and schools everywhere else.

Respondents include both individuals who work or live in Center City, also as those who come just for shopping, dining, tourism and entertainment. Amid respondents who are continually in Center City because they work or live here, concerns about panhandling and homelessness rise to 64 percentage and 50 percent respectively, with just 22 pct selecting the exercise not carp me option.

These concerns accept more than than doubled from similar surveys in the last 5 years. This increased anxiety reflects less a shift in public attitudes, than changing realities on the street, documented by censuses CCD has conducted within District boundaries for more than than two decades.

In June 2008, 54 homeless individuals were on sidewalks in the core commercial area of downtown during daytime hours. In June 2013, the count had increased to 74; in June 2018, the number had grown to 138. This does not include people in the subway concourses, railroad train stations or nether highway bridges.

The police overnight count in June 2022 for the larger area betwixt Spring Garden and Bandbox streets, river to river, was 505, including the hole-and-corner and areas below Convention Center and highway bridges, As panhandling surges with the opioid crisis, counts have risen from 11 such individuals in the core of downtown during lunchtime hours in June 2008, to 24 in June 2013, to 69 in June 2018.

The highly successful, combined outreach effort funded by the Center City District in partnership with Project Dwelling house and the Philadelphia Constabulary Department, with strong support from City's Department of Behavioral Wellness, has resulted since April in 134 individuals choosing to come off the street and enter social service, mental health and housing programs. As a consequence, counts have come down since the early summer. Still, some render to the street, new individuals steadily arrive, while resource off-street are periodically constrained.

Quality of Life

Seventy ane percentage of survey respondents see CCD personnel every time or most of the time they are in Center City and 63 pct retrieve downtown has far less litter than other areas of the city. When asked, "Besides litter, which are the ii biggest problems that about detract from the advent of sidewalks in Center Urban center," 62 percent pointed to overflowing municipal trash cans; 56 percent annotation commercial and residential trash left on sidewalks; 34 percent commented on the nighttime circles and stains from discarded chewing gum; and 29 percent expressed business concern about graffiti on street furniture like trash cans, postal boxes, parking kiosks, electrical utility boxes and traffic signs. Amongst respondents who live in Philadelphia, 67 percent checked overflowing trash cans.

The CCD was formed to supplement, not supervene upon, Metropolis services. As pedestrian volumes have risen on prime shopping streets by as much as thirty percent in the concluding five years, nosotros have increased sidewalk sweeping and lengthened operating hours. Only as municipal resources accept been curtailed and authorities priorities take shifted, CCD has also stepped upward to support homeless outreach efforts and to fund graffiti removal—not but from ground floors of building facades within the District and from the streetscape enhancements we have installed, but nosotros have also started to clean the City's Big Belly trash cans, the Parking Authority's kiosks, double-decker shelters, traffic boxes and UPS/FedEx/USPS mailboxes—all things that technically are someone else's job.

We proceed to urge basic enforcement of sanitation ordinances and codes that govern the condition of commercial dumpsters. But in 2019, we are budgeting for increased deployment of cleaning and public safety crews, more than frequent graffiti removal and pressure washing, and an expanded version of this yr's homeless outreach initiative. Internally, we debate the long-term implications of crossing the line between supplementing and replacing, but worry about the consequences if we don't. We welcome your thoughts on this question.

Improving the Public Environment

Beyond the essentials of clean and safe, the customer satisfaction survey asked questions about improvements to the public environment and about competitiveness. During the last ii decades, CCD has installed hundreds of directional signs, thousands of pedestrian-scale light fixtures and several hundred street trees and planters. We improve, maintain and programme five parks.

Eighty percent of all respondents (and 84 pct of city residents) have visited Dilworth Park, 37 percent of all respondents (and 41 percent of urban center residents) have been to Sister Cities Park, 22 pct have visited Café Cret, and the same percent accept walked on the Track Park, which only opened in June, while 21 percent take walked in Collins Park. Eighty 9 percent recall these parks are positive additions to Center Urban center; 9 pct view them as improvements that are non convenient or attractive to them personally, while one.7 pct don't retrieve they are a good use of CCD resource.

When asked, "What other changes to the public surroundings would most meliorate Center City equally a identify to work or live," 59 percent responded: amend manage and reduce the amount of traffic congestion; 41 percentage desire property owners to repair their deteriorated sidewalks; 38 pct cite the status of dumpsters in service streets and alleys.

Items 2 and 3 above can be achieved without much public expenditure, if the City would devote more attention to quality-of-life enforcement in Center City, even every bit they wrestle with the catastrophic impact of opioid addiction in parts of the city and the disquisitional, life-condom challenges in many lower income neighborhoods. Good governance is well-nigh recognizing that needs in unlike portions of the urban center are different, that one size does non fit all; and nearly chiefly, that addressing quality-of-life issues in the 8 percent of the metropolis'due south geography that provides more than than 50 percent of the municipal tax base is essential to Philadelphia'south ability to fund public services and schools everywhere else.

Congestion

Traffic congestion is a problem of abundance, the byproduct of success: more residents, more jobs, more pedestrians, more delivery trucks, more cyclists and more people using Uber and Lyft. However, problems of success are no less compelling than challenges of scarcity: insufficient jobs, inadequate incomes or the shortage of quality, affordable housing.

Across the metropolis in both white and African American communities, twice as many households earning over $125,000 annually are moving out of Philadelphia as are moving in.

We neglect congestion at our peril, since funding from higher levels of authorities is steadily declining for problems of scarcity. We either improve the coordination of our fragmented system of transportation management, dedicate revenues from enhanced enforcement to management and technology upgrades, or we will reach a tipping bespeak at which those who work or visit Center City beginning choosing not to exercise and then.

Enhancing Competitiveness

When asked, "Which three improvements would enhance the competitiveness of Center Urban center as a identify to work or to start/expand a business organisation, improve public schools came in start with 59 percent; reduce the wage tax was selected by 52 percent; reduce traffic congestion came in 3rd with 49 percent; reduce the number of people living and/or panhandling on Center City sidewalks was shut behind with 48 percent and reduce the Business Income and Receipts Revenue enhancement (BIRT) was selected by 21 per centum.

For those who live or piece of work in Center City, concern virtually the wage tax rises to 56 percent and schools come down a notch to 58 percent. For those who own businesses, concerns nearly BIRT ascension to the number two position at 57 percent just behind schools at 60 percent and ahead of concerns well-nigh the wage tax at 52 percent.

Millennials Are Not Forever

Eye City reaps enormous benefits from an expanding cohort of young professionals: 46 percent of residents between Vine and Pino streets, river to river, are between the ages of 20 and 34. In the neighborhoods that extend north to Girard and south to Tasker Street, that historic period cohort has swelled to 37 pct of the population. This demographic is filling new apartments, driving demand for retail, bars and restaurants, and, given their high level of educational attainment, attracting employers to downtown.

For those with distinct memories of the 1980s, when gutters on residential streets surrounding downtown were filled each morning with shards of glass from cleaved motorcar windows, when retailers rolled down security gates on Anecdote and Walnut Street by 5:30 pm, and employers were fleeing for the suburbs, it's worth underscoring that the oldest of today's millennials were in 3rd course in 1990. So information technology shouldn't be surprising if they take the vitality and nightlife of Centre Urban center for granted. That too is a sign of success: America's largest cohort knows only cities where downtowns are thriving, even if that accentuates concerns near poverty and equity.

But no 1 should fault the presence of millennials in Philadelphia every bit a sign that the tide has fully turned. Start with the obvious: as people age and incomes rise, values and needs change. While millennials place public schools highest on the competitiveness question, scoring it at 64 percent and ranking reduce the wage revenue enhancement at 56 percent, 35-54 year-olds put the wage revenue enhancement offset at 59 pct and public schools second at 58 percent.

Millennials are substantially more than upbeat well-nigh the direction of the unabridged city, as they continue to explore and move to neighborhoods that two decades ago were overcome with abandonment and deterioration.

Obviously, each is very important. Yet, across the city in both white and African-American communities, twice equally many households earning over $125,000 annually are moving out of Philadelphia as are moving in. The tide may be coming in immature downtown, but it's not enough to offset older trends elsewhere in the city. Lxxx-one per centum of households that left Philadelphia betwixt 2010 and 2022 practise non have children. Job opportunities that allow workers to shed the wage revenue enhancement remain quite alluring.

2nd, the age cohort backside millennials is somewhat smaller, and then the volume of immature people to replenish the city will taper downwardly over the coming decade.

Third, several untended quality-of-life issues affair greatly to millennials: 64 percentage rate managing traffic congestion every bit top priority, compared to 59 percent for the unabridged sample and 55 pct for those 55 years of age and older. Forty-iv percent of millennials place a high priority on cleaning up service alleyways, seeing their potential as animated, pedestrian lanes, compared to 38 percent for the sample as a whole and 34 percent for those 55 years and older.

On issues of panhandling and homelessness, in that location is no pregnant difference between the rankings of millennials (57 percent and 45 pct respectively) and the overall sample (59 percentage and 47 percent). It is as well notable that while just 22 percentage of millennials seek more visible, uniformed security professionals to raise rubber, the number rises to 33 percent for 35- to 54-twelvemonth-olds and 38 percent for those over 55.

The practiced news is that while millennials are slightly more than optimistic about the management of Middle City than Philadelphians equally a whole, they are essentially more than upbeat well-nigh the management of the entire city, as they continue to explore and move to neighborhoods that two decades ago were overcome with abandonment and deterioration.

If job growth was more on footstep with Boston, New York and Washington, if accelerated cuts to wage and business taxes were restored, we'd exist creating more than opportunity for all city residents and bask an expanding real manor taxation base to support public schools. With greater attending to behavioral and quality-of-life issues, nosotros'll proceed many more people in Philadelphia every bit their incomes ascension and families and businesses grow. At present is the time to lock in the dividends of favorable market and demographic trends while they favor places similar Philadelphia.

Paul R. Levy is the president of the Center City District. This originally appeared in the Middle Metropolis Commune newsletter .

Photo: Visit Philly

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Source: https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/a-reason-for-cautious-optimism/

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