History of Philadelphia - Into The 21st Century

Into The 21st Century

In 1992 Ed Rendell was elected as the city's first Jewish mayor. At the time, the city had numerous unpaid bills, the lowest bond rating of the top fifty largest U.S. cities, and a budget deficit of US$250 million. Rendell attracted investment in the city, stabilized the city's finances, and produced small budget surpluses. Revitalization of parts of Philadelphia continued in the 1990s. In 1993, a new convention center was opened, creating a hotel boom with seventeen hotels opening between 1998 and 2000 when the city hosted the Republican National Convention. The city began promoting heritage tourism, and producing festivals and entertainment to attract tourists. In 2005 National Geographic Traveler named Philadelphia America's Next Great City, citing its recent revitalization and general compact cityscape.

Former city council president John F. Street was elected mayor in 1999 and city revitalization continued into the 21st century. The Street administration targeted some of the city's worst neighborhoods for revitalization and made considerable progress. Tax breaks created in 1997 and 2000 helped create a condominium boom in Center City, increasing the population of Center City and helping slow the city's 40-year population decline. The population of Center City rose to 88,000 in 2005 from 78,000 in 2000 and the number of households grew by 24 percent.

The city has had struggles: a series of scandals in the 1990s plagued the police department, including underreporting of crime. The Street administration was plagued with scandal, with administration people being accused of awarding contracts based on campaign donations for Street's 2003 reelection campaign. The 2000s had a rise of violent crime after a decline in the 1990s. In 2006 Philadelphia's murder rate was 27.8 per 100,000 inhabitants versus a rate of 18.9 in 2002.

In 2008 Michael Nutter, with a background in business, was elected as the city's third African-American mayor. As of July 2009, he oversaw a decrease in the crime rate by 30% since July 2007. Tourism has become one of the city's main industries; Philadelphia is now the 10th-most visited city in the US (behind Atlanta and ahead of Miami, Dallas and Boston). Nutter was instrumental in Philadelphia's Foreclosure Prevention Program, a program which has been copied by many cities throughout the country to stabilize their housing and retain residents in owned units.