Agenda - Planning Commission - 02/02/2017 - Special

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Extend Day into Night An artistic facade creates an inviting destination at night in the Manayunk district of Philadelphia. Longer hours equal stronger sales, and strong sales define a successful shop- ping street. It's as simple as that! As revitalization accelerates and rents rise, retailers will be unable to survive unless business hours can be extended to capture more business. The way to do this is to identify, plan for, and tap multi- ple markets to keep the cash register jingling throughout the day and after the sun goes down. The evening is the hardest time to keep businesses open even though that's when people have time to shop, and it will take a healthy dose of imagination and hard work to achieve the mix of stores, coordinated hours, and sense of security to create an environ- ment where people are comfortable going out after dark. Different customers can be drawn to the street during different periods of the day, but the revitalization team must implement a comprehensive strat- egy to make it happen. Only in the strongest locations will vital retail streets evolve on their own. In the best of these locations, commuters, residents, and nearby workers can be drawn to the street in the morning for coffee or breakfast, to use neighbor- hood services, and to visit the gym. At midday, office and retail workers will eat lunch, run errands, and leisure shop. In the afternoon, residents and workers will go food shopping, stop at pubs and outdoor cafes, and use neighborhood services. As the evening progresses, neighborhood residents and visitors from other neighborhoods can be drawn out of the house to leisure shop, visit the gym, have dinner, go to the movies and theaters, and take advantage of the nightlife. This is the ideal that neighborhood commercial streets should strive for. To achieve it requires that multiple 20