DOWNTOWN REBIRTH - DOCUMENTING THE LIVE-WORK DYNAMIC IN 21ST CENTURY U.S. CITIES

A recent report Prepared for the International Downtown Association By the Philadelphia Center City District by Philadelphia Center City District’s own economic development professional and visionary, Paul Levy.  Well worth a read for regional economic development professionals.

Density and Diversity: a national trend

Downtowns across the United States are thriving. From Boston to San Diego, Seattle to Miami, cities are diversifying their economies and land use, restoring and enlivening public spaces. During the last three decades, city centers have been adding arts, culture, dining, education, medical, and research institutions, along with hospitality, leisure, and sports venues. Simultaneously, there has been a dramatic and sustained increase in residents, living both within business districts and adjacent neighborhoods.

Places once shunned as empty and unsafe at night are being redeveloped at higher density and are thriving after dark. They have become preferred places for work, entertainment, and living. Patrons of downtown regional destinations mingle with office workers, resident young professionals, empty nesters, and, in many cities, an expanding number of families with children. The trends of diversification, animation, and residential revival are occurring as well on and around urban colleges, universities, medical centers, research parks, and other urban commercial zones.

Downtown revitalization has been written about extensively. But it has proved difficult to arrive at standard definitions that make it easy to quantify and compare employment and population trends across the broad range of American cities. A relatively new data-merging and mapping effort from the U.S. Census Bureau and state labor market information (LMI) agencies, called the Local Employment Dynamics data and

OnTheMap, now make it possible to conclude:

• While employment across the United States has been decentralizing for decades1 and now averages only 0.05 jobs per acre (34.1 jobs per square mile), 28 major urban employment centers have achieved densities in excess of 100 jobs per acre, while another 24 have between 75 and 99 jobs per acre. (See Appendix II, Table 1 for all 150 cities and their 231 job nodes and Table 2 for Job Densities.)

• Total wage and salaried employment in America's 150 largest cities2 (on the basis of jobs) now accounts for 30% of all wage and salaried employment in the United

Philadelphia ranks #8^th on the list with a total of 665,585 jobs

Download this comprehensive report here…

  

Source: Defining Downtown