Center City Digest

Center City Digest is the quarterly newsletter of the Center City District and Central Philadelphia Development Corporation. Below is an excerpt from CCD President & CEO Prema Katari Gupta’s introductory letter.

Same Street, New Story

Picture Rittenhouse Row on a typical Sunday morning. People fill the sidewalks, browse Anthropologie, Philadelphia Runner, or the Apple Store, people-watch over brunch at one of Parc’s coveted sidewalk tables facing Rittenhouse Square. Yet, despite the retail activity and sidewalk animation, two-thirds of the space between buildings is allocated to vehicular storage and movement rather than the foot traffic that is generating commercial revenue.

Now, picture the same street on any Open Streets Sunday. Thousands of people are strolling, sitting, eating, playing and discovering a version of their city that the street, on any other day, makes structurally impossible. Toddlers, initially cautious about crossing the curb line, chase giant bubbles through the middle of an intersection. Couples, families, and friends linger over brunch on tables that spill up and down 18th Street. Dogs make friends. Suburbanites make a day of it. And, critically, retail sales and foot traffic are up significantly: Economic benefits include a 38 percent average sales increase for businesses and a 62 percent rise in in-store foot traffic on event days.

Nothing about the street has been rebuilt or redesigned. The space has simply been reallocated, temporarily privileging people and place over throughput.

Learn more about how Open Streets questioned the assumption of what streets are for and revealed what is possible when a city’s default operating code is rewritten in favor of people and place. For the full essay, read or download the spring 2026 Center City Digest newsletter below. This issue also includes staff stories, CCD news, new reports and research, and more.