The period of recovery for restaurants and retail will be slow and gradual, based on publicly mandated reopening guidelines and customer concerns about the coronavirus. The City of Philadelphia can assist by expanding the ways public spaces on sidewalks and in streets can be used during the warm weather months as the reopening accelerates.

At the beginning of 2020, restaurants, food service and retail provided 103,946 jobs citywide, accounting for 15% of the total employment in Philadelphia. In Greater Center City, these sectors account for 39,600 jobs, 13% of all jobs in the downtown. 

The overwhelming majority of these jobs were temporarily lost due to the state- and city-mandated shutdown in response to the global pandemic. To gather information that can assist businesses as they begin to reopen and restore employment, Center City District (CCD) distributed via email a survey to determine respondents’ purchasing patterns during the shutdown and the factors that will make them most likely to return to restaurants and shops as the reopening gains momentum.  

CCD emailed a SurveyMonkey questionnaire directly to 17,000 residents who live between Girard Avenue and Tasker Street, river to river, and forwarded it for redistribution to several Greater Center City civic associations and to the managers of downtown residential apartment and condominium buildings. The survey was completed by 1,910 respondents from June 8 to June 15 with responses  equally distributed between residents of core Center City, the four ZIP codes between Vine and Pine streets, and extended Center City, ZIP codes 19123, 19130, 19146 and 19147.

Download the report to view the survey results. 

In the News

June 16, 2020 | Center City residents provide peek into future dining, shopping habits as reopening begins, Philadelphia Business Journal