City Planning 642-001

Spring 2025

University of Pennsylvania
Monday, 8:30 am – 11.30 am (First class only Wednesday January 15, 2025)                                    
Graduate School of Education 3700 Walnut Street, Room 120

Paul R. Levy, plevy@centercityphila.org                              

Overview: Will downtowns recover? Are office buildings obsolete? Will on-line shopping eliminate on-street retail? In the last decades of the 20th century America's cities had rebounded from decades of de-industrialization, disinvestment and suburbanization. By 2000, city centers were diversifying land-use, evolving from 9-5 office districts to 24-hour, mixed-use business, hospitality, retail, institutional and residential places with well-managed parks and plazas. Many cities added sports venues in or adjacent to downtown. Housing demand pushed prices beyond the range of many residents. Then, the events of 2020 challenged the fundamentals around which these places were built: public transit and the benefits of density, walkability and face-to-face interaction in the workplace, at conventions, in hotels, restaurants, cafes and public spaces. City Planning 642 will start with a focus on how downtowns are responding to challenges that linger from the events of 2020: the impact of remote and hybrid work, the expansion of quality-of-life challenges and the emptying out of older office buildings. We will briefly look back at the origins of American “downtowns,” and at previous pandemics to explore how cities responded, review redevelopment trends that reshaped cities beginning in the 1980s and then focus on current realities and challenges.

Some cities are capitalizing on this crisis to restructure and make needed changes, others are mired in unresolved local policy and political differences. The course approach is pragmatic, focused on what can be done at the local level. We will use Philadelphia's Center City and several other cities as laboratories to explore strategies that work.

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)

  • New York’s Highline | thehighline.org
  • Atlanta’s Beltline | beltline.org/visit
  • “Can Anacostia Build a Bridge Without Displacing Its People?” New York Times, 8.9.22 | LINK
  • Rail Park, Phase 2 | LINK
     

(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