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Spreadsheet (supplemental) Corridor Demographics 1970-2020 Open Access Open Access (License Unspecified)
Spreadsheet (supplemental) South Street Fieldwork Data Open Access Open Access (License Unspecified)
Thesis
Saving South Street: a four-part strategy to restabilize a historic cultural corridor
Master of Science (M.S.), Drexel University
Jun 2026
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17918/00011424
Abstract
Where most neighborhood commercial corridors serve only the blocks around them, South Street has drawn Philadelphians from across the city and region since the colonial period, working at once as a local main street, a regional destination, and a cultural corridor. It has held onto that reach by reinventing itself roughly once a generation, and by 2026 it sits at the bottom of its latest cycle, near its weakest position in three decades on occupancy, foot traffic, property complaints, and civic sentiment, even as the neighborhoods around it have grown in population, median income, and median home values. Using parcel-level fieldwork, historical analysis, demographic comparison, and stakeholder interviews, this study compares South Street to East Passyunk Avenue, a nearby Philadelphia corridor that has recovered more successfully from similar retail and post-pandemic pressures. The findings suggest that South Street's decline is not primarily the result of COVID, e-commerce, or weak neighborhood spending power. Instead, three structural problems drive the corridor's economic doom loop: governance gridlock between the Business Improvement District and overlapping Registered Community Organizations, dormant real estate ownership that freezes long-vacant parcels and stalls reinvestment, and declining pedestrian demand as cultural anchors disappear and nearby housing supply tightens. In response, this thesis recommends a four-part package, no single piece sufficient on its own: a Pennsylvania Creative District paired with a Cultural Corridor Overlay, a South Street Revitalization Corporation, a CMX-3 upzone with pedestrian design standards, and pedestrianization of the 300 to 600 blocks, together aimed at preserving the corridor's cultural identity while giving it the capacity to build itself new again.
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Details
- Title
- Saving South Street
- Creators
- Brandon K. Engelhardt
- Contributors
- Andrew Zitcer (Advisor)Richardson Dilworth (Advisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Drexel University
- Degree Awarded
- Master of Science (M.S.)
- Publisher
- Drexel University
- Number of pages
- vii, 106 pages
- Resource Type
- Thesis
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Urban Strategy; Architecture, Design, and Urbanism; Drexel University; Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts and Design
- Other Identifier
- 991022189271404721