The Center City District (CCD) surveyed restaurants and retailers in Center City to understand their need for expanded use of outdoor space to facilitate business reopening. Philadelphia’s narrow sidewalks and streets in our prime retail areas help create an intimate-scale, walkable city, but they also create challenges when trying to accommodate multiple needs. These survey results can assist in the effort to balance more outdoor seating and queuing areas with the need to preserve appropriate room for pedestrians and vehicles.

On May 26, the CCD sent a SurveyMonkey email to 298 businesses within CCD boundaries. The survey was also distributed to  members of the Rittenhouse Row, Midtown Village and Jewelers’ Row District business associations, the management of the  Fashion District, East Market, The Lits Building and three other major property owners with a significant number of retail tenants. Reminders were sent on May 28 and May 29. As of June 3, CCD received 83 responses from individuals representing 126 separate businesses. Some of the responses were from owners of multiple sites, some of which are located outside the CCD boundaries but in other areas of Center City. Since their answers corresponded closely to the overall sample of respondents, they are included in the results. Of the 83 respondents, 49 were restaurants and 34 were retailers.

Download the report to view the survey results.