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Center City continued its steady process of recovery in June and during the first three weeks of July with pedestrian volumes reaching 92% of 2019 levels. The robust recovery of residents and visitors has led the way, while the number of workers in June approached 100,000, attaining 76% of June 2019 levels.
For two decades, the fastest growing residential section of Philadelphia has been Greater Center City. In 2022, the downtown rebound was built on decades of success: At just 5.8% of the city’s land area, Greater Center City accounted for 48% of the city’s total supply of new housing units.
This edition of the CCD and CPDC quarterly newsletter contains a picture gallery of the work of our staff keeping sidewalks clean and buildings graffiti free; stories about the remarkable things our CSRs do every day of the week to assist pedestrians downtown; and our work in partnership with Project Home to connect those living on the street with services and shelter.
Pedestrian activity in the core of Center City continued to increase during the last quarter of 2022 and into the first two weeks of January 2023, as the volume of residents, workers and visitors of all types downtown continued to grow.
Center City District (CCD) has retained a group of local artists to create a major display of new banners, currently being installed across Center City, to coincide with the partial reopening of businesses and the gradual return of workers and visitors to the downtown.
At the start of 2020, before the pandemic upended daily life and shook every aspect of the city’s economy, Philadelphia was in its 11th straight year of growth. Now, as vaccination rates rise and vitality is steadily returning to the downtown and neighborhoods throughout Philadelphia, the CCD and CPDC are releasing a pair of reports which look at the past year’s challenges and track multiple indicators of recovery.
Center City’s commercial core is experiencing a sustained process of recovery, with new businesses opening and existing retailers moving to new, often larger locations, according to the just-released CCD/CPDC Center City Retail Update. In the first quarter of 2022, taxable retail sales in the core of Center City reached 94% of 2019 levels and restaurant sales reached 74% of 2019 levels.