Temporarily closing streets near Rittenhouse Square to cars significantly boosted business at stores in the neighborhood, and planning is under way for more such events in the near future.
Of retailers who were surveyed, 79% reported an increase in sales on the four Sundays in September when several streets were pedestrianized, said Prema Katari Gupta, CEO of the Center City District business association.
Those businesses saw sales jump an average of 68% compared to a typical Sunday, with some reporting nearly threefold increases, Gupta said.
CCD arranged the Open Streets days along several blocks of Walnut and 18th streets to promote area shops and restaurants. But the event was also a relaxed community event where people could walk around at will, enjoy strolling performers, or lounge in the middle of the street, watching Eagles games on TV screens set up for the day, she said.
“It almost turned into this very European experience of people just out strolling and enjoying themselves,” Gupta said Wednesday. “It was something very special. It felt almost like the way the city feels when our sports teams are winning — everybody’s sort of a little lighter on their feet, and smiling.”
Gupta announced the survey results at a meeting of the Central Philadelphia Development Corporation, a CCD-affiliated organization. She said 92% of the retailers want the program to continue.
“It might make sense to look at more of this over time, on Sundays and the weekends. It’s something that we will continue to evaluate and explore,” she said. “Our hope is to expand the program, something we’re looking at right now. We’ll look at more of these next year, if not sooner.”
However, holding larger or more frequent Open Streets events may require city support, Gupta said. Closing off streets carries a substantial cost, largely for overtime pay for police officers that event sponsors are required to hire.
“There are a couple areas of further exploration for the city, such as, what was the tax upside for the city on this? When we think about scaling this, there’s an opportunity for them to be more of a partner,” she said. “In cities like Boston, I think the city puts on these events. In order for us to get the resources to think about doing a little more of this in the future, we’ll explore all of these avenues.”
The Open Streets project was inspired by past street closures, including the city’s seasonal weekend closing of Martin Luther King Drive and the larger Philly Free Streets events held from 2016 to 2019, as well as similar events on Boston’s Newbury Street and in other cities.
While Gupta said, “There’s no anti-car agenda, there’s no urbanist agenda,” in the CCD program, the September street closures won high praise from local urbanists and prompted calls for more and larger such events.
Based on data from a service that measures cell phone pings, CCD reported a 36% increase in foot traffic in the immediate Open Streets area on the four Sundays, compared to Sundays in September 2023. In the broader Rittenhouse Row area, foot traffic was up 24%.
The crowd was largely local on the first Sunday, but there was a big jump in the number of suburban visitors in weeks two and three, per the cell phone data. Fewer visitors came on the fourth Sunday, when weather was “not optimal,” Gupta said.
Some 90% of retailers reported increases in foot traffic, which rose an average of 86%.
More than one-third of the business said Open Streets had a “positive impact” on shoplifting and nuisance behavior. None reported increases in those behaviors.