Center City's competitive advantage is as a dense, compact and walkable downtown that carefully interweaves historic and modern architecture. We need parking that is accessible, but not lots or ramps that seriously interrupt pedestrian flow. Parking facilities should be well located and well designed. If we attempt to compete with the suburbs on suburban terms, we will lose every time. We are a city in which people, no matter how they arrive, can easily be encouraged to walk.
All major developments generate valuable construction jobs.
But when that work is done, Philadelphia has a continuing need for a wide range of jobs. So, part of good planning is reducing the barriers to entry, like our current wage tax, that limit our ability to capture the high-wage jobs. Reducing taxes is quite compatible with supporting needed city services. There are other criteria that might be of equal or greater importance in evaluating proposed projects. Page 8 of the Spring 2001 Center City Digest provides a detailed look at the very positive results of the 2000 Census.