REQUIRED READING:
- Enrico Moretti, The New Geography of Jobs, 2012
- Patrick Sharkey, Uneasy Peace, 2018
SUGGESTED HISTORICAL BACKGROUND READING: FACTORS THAT SHAPED U.S. CITIES
- Robert Fogelson, Downtown: Its Rise and Fall 1880-1950
- Kenneth Jackson, Crabgrass Frontier
- Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities
I recommend buying Moretti and Sharkey, links to all other readings can be found below.
(1) Course introduction and overview: Downtowns: Declining, Rebounding or Being Transformed? Inclusive or Exclusive Growth? (1/15/25)
Readings: Short term views
- CCD Report, Downtowns Rebound: The Data Driven Path to Recovery, October 5, 2023 | LINK
- Paul R Levy Presentation for Committee of 100, Washington DC May 16, 2024 | LINK
- Work from Home (WFH) Research, January 2025 Survey Results | LINK
- “The Working From Home Illusion Fades,” The Economist June 28, 2023 | LINK
- Joe Rennison & Julie Creswell, “Office Building Losses Start to Pile Up & More Pain Is Expected” New York Times, June 6, 2024 | LINK
- CCD Report, Lowering the Barriers to Full, Inclusive Recovery, December 2023 | LINK
The Longer-term view: the impact of pandemics
- Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War (excerpt on the plague) | LINK
- Edward Glaeser, The Nemesis of Cities | LINK
- Derek Thompson, How Disaster Shaped the Modern City | LINK
- Cushman & Wakefield, Reimagining Cities: Disrupting the Urban Doom Loop | LINK pp 1-31
(2) The city experienced on sidewalks & public places: (1/27/25)
READING
- Elijah Anderson, Chapters on the Reading Terminal Market and Rittenhouse Square, The Cosmopolitan Canopy | LINK
- Sharkey, Chapters 1-3
- Jan Gehl & Birgitte Svarre, How to Study Public Life | LINK
- Center City District Retail Update, July 2023 | LINK
Guest speaker: Clint Randall, Vice President Economic Development, Center City District
First assignment: (1) First assignment will relate to retail development opportunities on West and East Market Streets: Due February 10th.
(3) Origins, Decline & Revival of U.S. Downtowns after 1990; The Great Divergence (2/3/25)
READING
- Moretti, Introduction & Chapters 1-4
- Gene Balk, “Will the last middle-class person leaving Seattle turn out the lights?” Seattle Times, April 14, 2017 | LINK
- Sifan Liu & Joseph Parilla, “Are Large Global Cities Pulling Away from their surrounding Regions,” Brookings Institution, July 23, 2018 | LINK
- Richard Florida & Joel Kotkin, America’s Post-Pandemic Geography, City Journal Spring 2021 | LINK
- George Packer, How America Fractured into Four Parts, Atlantic, July 2021 | LINK
(4) The Revival of U.S. Downtowns after 1990; the Role of BIDs (2/10/25)
READING
- Bruce Katz and Florian Schalliol, “The Return of New Localism,” Nowak Metro Finance Lab at Drexel University. November 15, 2024 | LINK
- Plan & Budget for Center City District 2023-2027 | LINK
- "Starting a Business Improvement District in Philadelphia," The City of Philadelphia Department of Commerce and Drexel University’s Center for Public Policy, June 2012 | LINK
- “Review of Business Improvement Districts in the U.K.” Institute of Place Management, Manchester Metropolitan University April 2019 | LINK
- "The Benefits of Business Improvement Districts: Evidence from New York City," Furman Real Estate Center, NYU, July 2008 | LINK
- Daniel Kudla, “Fifty years of Business Improvement Districts: A reappraisal of the dominant perspectives and debates” Urban Studies Journal 2022 | LINK
- Sharkey, Chapters 4-6
- Cushman & Wakefield, Reimagining Cities: Disrupting the Urban Doom Loop, pp 32-53 | LINK
First Paper Due: Office district or Market East: 4-5 pages with photos.
(5) Office Recovery: Restructuring the Workplace & Remote Work (2/17/25)
READING
- Emily Badger and Quoctrung Bui, The Downtown Office District Was Vulnerable Even Before Covid., New York Times, July 7, 2021 | LINK
- Cushman & Wakefield, Reimagining Cities: Disrupting the Urban Doom Loop, pp 32-53 | LINK
- Andy Cohen, ”How Desire for Experience is Driving the Flight to Quality,” Gensler, November 2022 | LINK
- Joe Burns “The US cities where central business district office vacancy rates are low” Smart Cities Dive, December 6, 2024 | LINK
- Cushman and Wakefield, Office of the Future Revisited | LINK
- Danielle Abril, “Gen Z Workers Demand Flexibility”, Washington Post, August 11, 2022 | LINK
- Derek Thompson, How A Recession Could End Work from Home, Atlantic 6.23.22 | LINK
- JLL Roundtable, “RTO/Future of Work” Summer 2023 | LINK
- Chip Cutter, “Companies Calling Workers Back to Office 5 Days/Week” Wall Street Journal, 1/30/2024 | LINK
- CBRE report, Life Sciences: Biotech Revolution Accelerates Demand for Lab Space, June 2021 | LINK
(6) Downtown Living: Can Cities Make Room for Affordable Housing? (2/24/25)
READING
- Moretti, Chapters 5-7
- Paul R. Levy and Lauren M. Gilchrist, Downtown Rebirth: Documenting the Live-Work Dynamic in 21st Century U.S. Cities, prepared for the International Downtown Association, October 6, 2013 | LINK
- CCD Report: Downtown Rebounds: Greater Center City Housing Trends, February 2023 | LINK
- Gensler, What We've Learned by Assessing More Than 300 Potential Office-to-Residential Conversions | LINK
- Emily Badger and Larry Buchanan, “So You Want to Turn an Office Building Into a Home?” NY Times March 11, 2023 | LINK
- Ashley Fahey, “New incentives aim to jumpstart conversions of office buildings. Here's why they won't be a silver bullet” National Observer: Real Estate Edition, March 13, 2024 | LINK
- AECOM, “Downtown Houston Office Conversion Study” | LINK
- “Booming Seattle struggles to stay affordable,” Economist, August 9, 2018 | LINK
- Downtown Seattle Association, Development Guide, Year-End Update December 2024 | LINK
- Ben Hitchcock, Camille Preel-Dumas, “Supply Skepticism Revisited: What New Research Shows About the Impact of Supply on Affordability” NYU Furman Center Blog. Nov. 28, 2024 | LINK
- John D. Landis, “To Build More Housing, Cities Must Be Smarter in How They Use Land” Planitizen, December 11, 2024 | LINK
(7) Growth & Equity: Causes & Solutions for Income Disparities (3/3/25)
Guest Speaker: Leo Addimando, Managing Partner & Co-Founder of Alterra Property Group, LLC
READING
- Branko Milanovic, “Global Inequality in this Century & the Next” from Global Inequality | LINK
- Timothy Egan, “Down and Out in San Francisco on $117,000,” New York Times, July 6, 2018 | LINK
- Richard Shearer & Alan Berube, “The Surprisingly Short List of US Metro Areas Achieving Inclusive Growth” Brookings Institution, April 27, 2017 | LINK
- Nellie Bowles, “They Can’t Leave the Bay Area Fast Enough,” New York Times, January 14, 2021 | LINK
- CCD Report, Getting More Philadelphians Back to Work: Business Density and the Role of Black and Minority Owned Businesses, August 2020 | LINK
- CCD Report, Firing on All Cylinders: Growing Jobs & Small Business by Expanding the Traded Sector, July 2022 | LINK
No class 3/10/25
(8) Rethinking Public Safety (3/17/25)
READING
- Patrick Sharkey, Chapters 7-10
- Ezra Klein interview with James Forman Jr. is a professor of law at Yale Law School and the author “Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America” | LINK
- “Is Police Reform Possible?" Interview with Police Commissioners Michael Harrison and Charles Ramsey, Penn PAIDEA program | LINK
- Paul R. Levy, “Rethinking Public Safety Strategies for Cities” The American Downtown Revitalization Review, July 2021 | LINK
- Responding to Homelessness, Panhandling & Quality of Life Issues, Hanna Love and Tracy Hadden Loh, “Homelessness in US cities and downtowns; The perception, the reality, and how to address both”, Brookings, December 7, 2023 | LINK
- Don Kligerman, Fairmount Ventures, Evaluation of Pathways to Housing PA, January 2011 | LINK
- Maia Szalavitz, “Something Better Than a Tent for the Homeless” NY Times 8.24.22 | LINK
- Patrick Sharkey, Chapters 6-7
Second Paper Due
(9) The Saga of Market East: Macy’s, the Sixers, What’s next? (3/24/25)
Class will meet at the Cira Centre, 2929 Arch Street
READING
- CCD, “A Plan for the Enhancement of Market East” October 26, 2023 | LINK
- Putting Macy’s Closing in National Context LINK
Guest Speaker: Gerard Sweeney, President & CEO Brandywine Realty Trust
(10) Hospitality Industry: Conventions & Tourism (3/31/254)
Guest Speaker: Angela Val, President & CEO, Visit Philadelphia
(11) BIDs Financing and Managing Park Improvements (4/7/25)
READING
(12) Philadelphia’s Rail Park (4/14/25)
(13) Public Transit (4/21/25)
READING
- 2023 INRIX “Return to Office” Transportation Report | LINK
Guest Speaker: Leslie Richards, Former General Manager, SEPTA
(14) In-Class Presentations (4/28/25)
Final Paper Due