NYC ; Philadelphia Citichat 28 September 2007

CITICHAT 38/2007 - 28 September 20 2007




Urban Renaissance in New York and Philadelphia



Some months ago I wrote about the fact that some 5 000 residential units had come onto our Joburg inner city market between 2001 and 2006 and that a further 5000 were planned or underway between 2007 and 2010. In addition, the city is planning incentives to boost these numbers to a further 50 to 75000 by 2013. Having spent two weeks visiting Annapolis, Washington DC, Philadelphia and New York City and attending the International Downtown Association’s Annual Conference and World Congress on Cities in New York City, it is clear that a massive urban renaissance is in full flight, with city after city reporting floods of suburnanites moving to city living. In the States, the population equivalent of two New York Cities move annually from rural to urban areas! With this return to city living, the Business Improvement District (BID) movement (in our case City Improvement District (CID)), is taking off, not only in numbers, New York City now has 61, but in the range and depth of services provided. There is a sense of confidence in cities that I haven’t experienced in the past twenty years. Gone are the days of ‘clean and safe’ being the only focus for BIDs, now they’ve lifted their sights and are becoming major partners with city governments in making cities livable. “Green’ and ‘sustainable’ are no longer buzz words – the designers of Manhattan’s skyscrapers look for choices that will make their buildings as energy efficient and environmentally friendly as possible. Traditional materials are giving way to those that are specifically produced for the new green era and whose production systems themselves are free of pollution processes. Within a matter of years, it will not be possible to have plans passed in NYC unless there is total conformance with the new ‘green’ codes that are required to be met before the buildings can be certified for occupation.



The massive city of New York is in the throes of this renewal - $26 billion of new development (that’s about R200 billion) is underway this year which includes 35 000 residential units. The 1990 population of 7.3 million has swollen to 8.2 million and continues growing. Remember too that this all comes off the very low base that the city had plummeted to following 9/11 when the city lost 100 000 jobs in 3 months. Mayor Bloomberg, who took over from Rudi Guiliani, faced a $7 billion deficit in the first year of his term of office. Now, New York is pumping with more construction activity than I have seen over nearly thirty years of visiting this city.



Daniel I Doctoroff, Deputy Mayor of ‘Economic Development and Rebuilding New York’, stressed the overriding importance of four key issues in this urban surge - ‘quality of life’; fiscal discipline; thoughtful, objective strategic planning and leadership. As people move into the city the tax income for the city increases and more investment is ploughed back into quality of life aspects. More people bring more restaurants, fast food providers, delicatessens, and retail each contributing to the city’s income. The parks of New York, not just the traditional biggies like Central Park, but the dozens of smaller parks and street corner parks, are all looking great and attracting thousands upon thousands of people, the quality of streets and schools is all being visibly improved, crime is down 75%.



Doctoroff says that the strengths and weaknesses of the city were analysed “brutally” and two of the major issues that emerged were New York’s long term competitiveness and the disproportionate loss they were experiencing in middle class population. The long term strategies that emerged to counter these weaknesses were a clear focus on (i) industries and (ii) places. For example, emphasis and financial support is being given to tourism related businesses (35 million tourists in 2002 has grown to 46 million by 2007); incentives are being provided to film and TV production resulting in the single largest such facilities east of California) providing some 5 000 new jobs and generally encouraging many more ‘blue-collar’ jobs and making a clear effort to win back what they lost in the financial sector through 9/11 with many corporates now moving back to NYC.



The development upsurge is not confined to Manhattan, all five boroughs are experiencing similar trends. For instance, what is being described as an ‘explosion of new development’ in Brooklyn was set off by sweeping rezoning approvals by the City Council some years back that allows for an additional 450 000 sq metres of class A office space, 90 000 sq metres of retail and 1 000 residential units to Brooklyn’s downtown area alone which will result in it becoming New York’s third largest CBD. Brooklyn, which had no hotels only four or five years ago, now has an operating major chain hotel (about to extend its numbers of rooms) with two more under construction - over 1 250 new beds being provided. Nearly $6 billion in some 50 projects is being spent by the private sector in one area of Brooklyn alone including hundreds of ‘market rate’ apartments that will subsidise new apartments for the ‘formerly homeless’.



Everywhere one goes in New York City one sees construction activity and the streets are pumping with people and energy. There is a clear return to high-rise buildings after the concerns generated by 9/11, with a recognition that ‘building tall’ is the way to go for density and anti-sprawl as well as for environmental reasons.



By the time Johannesburg was first established, Philadelphia was already the largest and most diversified industrial city in North America. But, as everywhere else, manufacturing decreased dramatically and today only 6% of Philadelphia’s workforce is in the industrial sector. When I first visited the city centre in the early 1980s, it was dirty and unsafe with hundreds of street people adding to the perception of decay and decline. The establishment of the Central Philadelphia Development Corporation in 1956 had led to major public investment but it wasn’t until the establishment of a CID in 1990, the Center City District (CCD), that a focus was brought to ‘safe and clean’ and the platform for the revitalization of the downtown was laid. Now the area boasts new office towers, with rentals escalating from a low of $15.24/sq.ft in 1996 to $24.23 last year, growth in its education, medical care and research facilities, hotel rooms (6 000 in 1986 to over 10 000 20 years later with a 74% occupancy rate); a massive increase in convention attendance as tourists to the Philadelphia region soared to over 27 million in 2005 with similar escalation of visitors to arts and culture establishments. As with both Washington DC and New York, residential development has mushroomed with over 200 projects coming on stream between 2001 and 2007 and at least another 30 known projects planned or underway. The downtown now boasts one of the largest residential populations in the US with 88 000 centre city residents. Residential has, in turn, spawned a retail return to the downtown as well as large numbers of bistros, outdoor eating facilities and restaurants. Restaurants have increased by 238% since 1991.



A strategy “Centre City: Planning for Growth 2007 to 2012” was published earlier this year by the Center City District and the Central Philadelphia Development Corporation. It was the outcome of the work of seven design firms whose concepts were presented at a series of widely publicized forums held throughout 2006 that led to the incorporation of many comments and suggestions. Discussions were held with property owners, developers, business leaders, residents and public officials and from all the foregoing seven broad objectives were distilled:

• Increasing the attractiveness of the centre city as a place to work whilst creating opportunities for new 21st century industries

• Building on the residential boom by investing in key facilities, schools, playgrounds, parks and public access to the waterfront

• Enhancing the walkable character of the centre city

• Eliminating gaps in the pedestrian fabric and overcoming barriers to growth such as highways and railroads

• Contributing to the diversification of the mixture of land uses whilst preserving an extraordinary architectural heritage

• Allowing for the easy movement of cars, bicycles, trucks and buses so that they can co-exist with pedestrians

• Dramatically enhance the quality, customer-friendliness and frequency of public transit through both small-scale and major infrastructure investments to link the city’s neighbourhoods and residents of the region to opportunities downtown.



These resonate well with us and our needs.



It’s great to experience what other cities are doing and seeing what we can learn from their efforts, but it’s always great to come home! Cheers, neil

AC