Center City, it seems, is going to the kids.
While recent census data shows more twenty- and thirty-somethings settling between Spring Garden Street and Washington Avenue, the Delaware and the Schuylkill rivers, it also reveals a another sort of youth explosion: That among the preschool and school-age set.
More than 17,100 children were born to Center City parents between 2000 and 2008, according to analysis by the Center City District. Compare that to 1990, when the Health Department tallied 272 births to Center City parents.
The 2010 U.S. census data also shows more younger children, with an increase of 3.5 percent in the under-5 category.
Center City has definitely become a more kid-friendly destination in recent years, with the opening of more child-centric businesses and youth-oriented spots like Franklin Square Park.
Perhaps one of the most telling signs of change?
The former Signatures strip club at 13th and Locust streets is poised to become Nest, a three-story, 15,000-square-foot "children's enrichment center" featuring an indoor play area, group classes, a photo studio and a boutique, plus a restaurant run by the folks behind South Philly's Green Eggs Cafe, a partner in the project said.
Set to open next month, the complex is situated at a corner that only 10 years ago saw more prostitutes than prams.
Child 'hood
The Center City of 2011 is more resident-friendly than the neighborhood was 30, 20, even 10 years earlier, said Paul Levy, president of the Center City District. Besides more stores, services and restaurants, there are more kid-focused businesses.
"You have an increasing number of families with kids and retail is responding to those market conditions," Levy said. "All you have to do is walk around and there are so many more strollers than there were ever before."
That's for several reasons.
