"Thanks in part to a 10-year property-tax abatement enacted in 1997, residential construction has taken off not just in Center City but in several other nearby neighborhoods. In Center City, this new housing just furthers the trend of the past decade, in which the downtown population rose 8 percent even as the city as a whole continued to lose residents, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. This virtuous cycle has even spread to neighborhoods such as Spring Garden, Northern Liberties, Bella Vista, Southwark, Southwest Center City and beyond.
But instead of reinforcing Center City's historic role as the region's biggest employment center, all this activity is instead creating the region's newest bedroom community."
Thanks to Brenda Meyer
