Journal Article

The Rise and Fall of Philadelphia's Commercial Corridors

Abstract: In her classic The Death and Life of Great American Cities, published in 1961, Jane Jacobs argued that the \\"basic requisite\\" for maintaining safe cities was \\"a substantial quantity of stores and other public spaces sprinkled along the sidewalks of a district.... Stores, bars and restaurants, as the chief examples, work in several different and complex ways to abet sidewalk safety.\\" In this article, the case of Philadelphia is used to explore the extent to which such neighborhood commercial corridors live up to their promise of maintaining public order and city civility, what factors make these corridors neighborhood assets rather than liabilities, and how a city might make more use of its corridors, especially in lower- and middle-income areas.

Keywords: middle income; commercial corridors; safety; low income; city planning;

Bibliographic Information

Provider: Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia

Part of Series: Cascade

Publication Date: 2015-07

Volume: 3

Order Number: 88