Reenvisioning Retail Corridors

Walk or drive around Philadelphia and you'll notice certain streets
that you can't help but think were once bustling retail corridors.
And you'd be right: a generation ago, when urban life was more compact
and people walked to their jobs and to their stores, each of
Philadelphia's neighborhoods seemed to have a thriving corridor of
shops and restaurants.

But with suburbanization, our increasing use of the car, and the
emergence of big box retailing, these once-mighty corridors are really
starting to show their age. We may vilify Walmart and Office Max with
high-minded words about "keeping it local," but our own purchasing
habits are insufficient to support the neighborhood convenience shop
or hardware store. And so our city's retail corridors suffer, while
the parking lots are ever full at Ikea and Lowes.

Is there hope for reenvisioning Philadelphia's retail corridors? Even
if we could, would we want to? Good questions to ask, for public
officials and private developers. And good issues to participate in,
for neighborhood residents and city lovers.