Center City bouncing back from recession

Business in Center City Philadelphia is rebounding from the recession.  

The annual “State of Center City” report from the Center City District says the economic downturn didn’t hit Philadelphia’s downtown as bad as other parts of the region or the country.

“I don’t want to minimize the negative effects of the recession but Philadelphia lost less jobs percentage wise than the region and the nation.  It went into recession later fell less far and has rebounded faster than the region and the nation,” said CCD Chief Executive Officer Paul Levy.

Levy says because many Center City residents walk to work, the rising price of gasoline hasn’t hurt the area as much.  It also benefits from having so many health care and education jobs.

“All of those factors helped us through this recession we added residential growth throughout the downturn right through the recession so it’s been a challenging time for the downtown but the downtown and the city as a whole has done much better than areas like Phoenix or South Florida let alone older cities like Detroit and Cleveland,” said Levy.

Levy says the city budget and real estate tax debate in council are important to the future of Center City no matter how it turns out.