Building on Success

Building on Success

THE NEWSLETTER OF THE CENTER CITY DISTRICT AND CENTRAL PHILADELPHIA DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION SUMMER 2017 CENTER CITY DIGEST INSIDE THIS ISSUE 1 Building on Success 4 2017 Budget Details 5 CSR Christopher M. Johnson 6 The Center City District Foundation: A Strong Start 8 New Website Combines Multiple Functions 9 Dilworth Park the Place to Be This Summer 10 Streetscape Improvements and Repair 11 Friends Select Students Help Prepare for Spring JIM ABBOTT Building EVERY FIVE YEARS, THE CCD PRESENTS A NEW PLAN AND BUDGET TO DISTRICT PROPERTY OWNERS, BUSINESSES, TENANTS AND RESIDENTS. THIS MONTH THE CCD HAS RELEASED on Success ITS NEW PLAN FOR THE PERIOD 2018 TO 2022. For 26 years, the Center City District has enhanced public spaces, reinforced private attractive setting to work, live and visit. You sidewalks and CCD-managed parks to ensure investment and supplemented municipal can download our proposed 2018-2022 Plan that Center City opens clean each morning, services with a simple, but ambitious vision: and Budget at www.centercityphila.org. while remaining clean throughout the day a clean, safe and attractive Center City. and early evening. Specially trained crews Every five years, we present a new plan and remove graffiti from the ground floor of budget to District property owners, tenants EXPANDING THE BASICS: building façades, light poles, signs and street and residents providing an overview of our Today, more than 80 uniformed sidewalk furniture. With increased pedestrian activity programs, services, funding and proposed cleaners and supervisors work seven days a and a growing residential population, CCD will new initiatives to enhance Center City as week, manually and mechanically cleaning expand these services, covering more of the a competitive place for business and an CENTER CITY DISTRICT & CENTRAL PHILADELPHIA DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION | CENTERCITYPHILA.ORG 1 prime entertainment and dining zones certified and provide services to those in need. the Arts and maintains 74 light fixtures that during our early evening shift in warm Since the CCD commenced operations, both illuminate 20 sculptures on the Benjamin weather months. serious crimes and quality-of-life crimes have Franklin Parkway. Through our new plan been dramatically reduced, though aggressive and budget, CCD will install more landscape Complementing cleaning crews, the CCD panhandling remains a challenge we are enhancements, add more pedestrian-scale deploys 50 uniformed Community Service committed to addressing in partnership with lighting, upgrade existing fixtures and expand Representatives (CSRs) who work in City government and downtown businesses. façade lighting on the Avenue of the Arts. partnership with the Philadelphia Police In 2016, CCD also installed 3,785 banners, Department seven days a week to deter crime. Overall, the visibility of uniformed CCD 289 transit shelter posters, and 179 digital CSRs also provide a welcoming presence for personnel is essential to our mission: signs as a reliable and affordable means workers, residents, and visitors and engage sidewalk cleaners working throughout the for arts, cultural and civic organizations to in outreach services to homeless individuals. day and evening hours send the reassuring communicate to their audiences. These public safety ambassadors stand joint message that someone is responsible for the roll call with the Philadelphia police officers management of public spaces. CSRs provide who staff the CCD’s police substation. They information and directions to pedestrians. GREAT CIVIC SPACES: coordinate deployment and share information They serve as “eyes and ears” for the police, CCD renovated, manages and programs four based on computerized crime-mapping report a broad range of other quality-of-life Center City parks that are within a half-mile analysis by CCD staff. CSRs are first aid/CPR problems to the responsible public agencies, walk for half of downtown’s workforce and a and follow up so problems get addressed. quarter of Greater Center City’s residential population. On any given day, you can see STREETSCAPE ENHANCEMENTS: office workers and shoppers eating lunch in John F. Collins Park, visitors and medical The CCD maintains nearly all of the $146 students enjoying a cup of coffee or a drink million in capital investments in streetscape after work at Cret Park, and children playing and public space enhancements we’ve in Sister Cities Park. Sitting atop the city’s made in the last 20 years, routinely cleaning, subway and trolley lines and a short walking updating and refurbishing an inventory of 674 distance from Regional Rail, Dilworth Park pedestrian and vehicular directional signs, has become a major destination for residents 258 diskmaps, 240 transit portal signs at 84 and workers from across the city and region, portal entrances, 66 bus shelter map signs with both winter and summer attractions. and 55 interpretive signs along the Benjamin CCD provided nearly 200 public events in 2016 Franklin Parkway. The CCD maintains trees, and Dilworth Park averaged 35,000 visitors planters, hanging flower baskets and 260 of a day, with peak volumes during summer the 2,189 pedestrian light poles we installed and winter holidays reaching almost 60,000 since 1996 (the remainder are maintained by pedestrians a day. Transforming a space no the Philadelphia Streets Department). CCD one cared to visit into a place where everyone programs the 446 light fixtures we installed wants to be: that is the essence of the CCD’s on 12 building facades along the Avenue of mission across the entire downtown. MATT STANLEY 2 CENTER CITY DISTRICT & CENTRAL PHILADELPHIA DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION | CENTERCITYPHILA.ORG CENTER CITY DIGEST CCD continues to upgrade its parks, making City District Sips, and provides programming 660 Chestnut Street Philadelphia, PA 19106 major improvements to both Cret Park and and special events in CCD-managed 215.440.5500 CENTERCITYPHILA.ORG JUNE 2017 Dilworth Park in 2017. Working through our parks. This year, given the growing interest 2018–2022 Plan and Budget for the Center City District The mission of the Center City District (CCD) is to provide a city and private funding to make $146 million in streetscape, non-profit, fundraising affiliate, the Center City from businesses moving into Center City, clean, safe, well-managed downtown so Philadelphia can public space and park improvements since 1996. successfully compete as an attractive location for business, education and health-care institutions, for tourism, arts Center City is the largest employment center in the region. and entertainment, dining and shopping and as the fastest With the diversification of property types within the District, District Foundation (CCDF), we are planning we’ve expanded our website with new growing residential area in the city. The CCD was established walkways are now animated day and night with workers, in March 1990, under the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s residents, tourists, students and patrons of retail, restaurants, Municipality Authorities Act as a private-sector-directed outdoor cafés, hotels and cultural institutions. To support this municipal authority. With the approval from property owners increased activity, the CCD has expanded the levels and hours of to add innovative play equipment for children content to support business attraction, within its boundaries and from the City of Philadelphia, the CCD service to all District property owners. This new plan and budget was authorized in November 1990 to provide security, cleaning sustains and expands these enhanced services, keeping annual and promotional services that supplement, but do not replace, cost increases in line with the rate of inflation for commercial both basic services provided by the City of Philadelphia and the property owners, while reducing charges to all residential and new amenities for office workers at Sister www.centercityphila.org/doing-business/why- responsibilities of property owners. owner-occupants by 50% and limiting their share of costs to no more than 5% of total CCD assessments. The CCD commenced operations in 1991 and, in 1994, 1995, 2000, 2003, 2007 and 2012, property owners and the City of This plan and budget for the period 2018-2022 keeps the Cities Park, make further enhancements to center-city. All of this is made possible by Philadelphia approved subsequent revised plans and budgets CCD’s primary focus on the basics, devoting more than 70% of that authorized the CCD’s existence through 2045 and approved assessment revenues to programs for a clean, safe, attractive expanded authority to finance and implement streetscape, and well-managed public environment. The balance of public area and park capital improvements. This enabled the revenues supports capital improvements, research, planning, CCD to continue all its operating programs and services and to management and communications strategies that bolster the John F. Collins Park and install in Dilworth the property owners, businesses and leverage more than $100 million in federal, state, foundation, attractiveness and competitiveness of Center City. Park a permanent work of performance art, residents who support the CCD. SPRING GARDEN ST Pulse, by internationally-known artist Janet Center City in 2017 – a vibrant, mixed-use, 20TH ST Echelman, www.supportccdf.org. 24-hour downtown – is light-years away ARCH ST ARCH ST Just north of Vine Street, CCD is managing from conditions we confronted in 1991. But 6TH ST WALNUT ST construction of the first phase of the Rail complacency and celebration of the status LOCUST ST SPRUCE ST LOMBARD ST Park. When completed in early 2018, the Rail quo are never hallmarks of successful cities. T Center City District includes 233 blocks and more than 1,500 benefitted properties within its boundaries. This proposed plan and budget includes a small boundary extension, adding no additional properties except the surface area of Phase 1 of the Rail Park, a public park which the CCD will help maintain in partnership with Philadelphia’s Department of Parks & Recreation, the Streets Department and the Friends of Park will become the city’s newest elevated Most downtowns are thriving and changes at the Rail Park.

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