A Coming of Age Story for Philadelphia's Revitalized Center City

Patrick Kerkstra reports on the findings of the recently released 2015 Center City District Housing Report, released by the Central Philadelphia Development Corporation and the Center City District.

The main argument of the coverage: that Philadelphia's economic and housing market recovery—focused in Center City and driven by apartment construction—is tenuous at best. In the article, Kerkstra quotes Center City District Executive Director Paul Levy, who says that the basic message of the report is that "we've got four or five years to get it right."

Kerkstra describes the why city's like Philadelphia can't assume that downtown revitalization is a permanent trend: "By 'it,' Levy is referring to Philadelphia's problematic fundamentals—specifically anemic job growth and K-12 education—which remain self-evidently out of whack, and have the potential to derail Center City's progress in the years to come. The characteristically exhaustive report highlighted a few disturbing trends. 1) While Greater Center City as a whole is doing far better today than it was in 2000, Philadelphia's core is still failing to retain residents as they reach their 40s, and 2) There has been a sharp decline in the number of school age children."