School closing process begins 

A lot has happened in the two months since we released our report on the experiences of major cities in closing schools. In early November, the School District of Philadelphia proposed shuttering nine schools and reconfiguring more than a dozen others.  Public meetings on the proposed changes are ongoing; the next is at Strawberry Mansion High School on December 15.  Find the full calendar of meetings here. And last week, the city controller’s office released a report (PDF) on eight already vacant school buildings, some of which have been empty for a decade. The investigation documented a range of distressing conditions including imminently dangerous structures and evidence of drug use.  In every city we studied for our report, maintaining empty school buildings (or finding new uses for them) has proved a tough task. Hazardous conditions and illegal activity have been common complaints.

Fewer mixed-income neighborhoods

A recent report (PDF) by two Stanford University researchers found a dramatic increase since 1970 in economic segregation in the nation’s metropolitan areas. By one measure, the Philadelphia region is now the third most economically-segregated in the country, trailing only the Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk area in Connecticut and the New York City area. And metropolitan Philadelphia had the largest increase in economic segregation of any region in the country over the last four decades. To measure economic segregation, the researchers looked at the percentage of residents in a region living in poor or affluent census tracts. In the study, poor tracts are places where median family income is less than 67 percent of the regional median, affluent ones where income is more than 150 percent of the median.

Tackling the gross receipts tax

Philadelphia is not alone in trying to reduce the negative impact of its gross receipts tax on the local business climate. Los Angeles, one of the few other major cities with such a levy, is trying to do the same. According to the LA Daily News, one proposal there calls for extending a soon-to-expire, three-year tax exemption for new businesses. Another would exempt new-car dealerships. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa would like to see the tax eliminated. But in LA, as in Philly, the question is how to make up for the lost revenue. Last month, Philadelphia City Council voted to reform the tax here by exempting the first $100,000 of any business’s receipts and giving some new businesses relief for up to two years.

A dip in the elderly population

In looking at Philadelphia’s 2010 Census results the other day, we stumbled across something interesting that we and other local analysts had missed. Over the last decade, even as the city’s overall population rose slightly, there was a 13 percent decline in the number of elderly. In the official count, 185,309 Philadelphians were listed at age 65 and over in 2010, down from 213,722 a decade earlier. That drop came in a decade when the age group grew nationally by 15 percent and the median age climbed in every state, according to Stateline. There was a similar decline in Baltimore and Chicago, but not in Boston or Washington. The local trend is not likely to last, with most of the Baby Boomers set to go past age 65 in the current decade.  But compared to 2000, for better or worse, Philadelphia today has fewer senior citizens, fewer school-age children, and more people in between. 

Highly educated, foreign-born 

With foreign-born residents accounting for much of Philadelphia’s population growth, another bit of Census data caught our attention: according to a new report (PDF), Philadelphia last year ranked 8th out of 50 metro regions in the percentage of foreign-born residents with a college degree. They constituted 38 percent of foreign-born residents here. The Philly region ranked 12th in percentage of foreign born with a science or engineering degree, at 19 percent. In both measures, Pittsburgh was ranked No. 1, due largely to its engineers.

Philadelphia's Workforce Development Challenge: Our next report, due out next month, looks at the public system intended to help workers get jobs and employers find workers. Sign up here to receive an email alert about the release.

Closing Public Schools in Philadelphia, our October report, drew wide attention to the lessons of six other municipalities for the School District of Philadelphia, which is proposing to close nine schools and reconfigure some others.

Philadelphia 2011: The State of the City: Printed copies of our popular statistical round-up are available free of charge. To request a copy, e-mail pubs@pewtrusts.org with your name and address.

$3
million 

The projected Fiscal 2012 cost of unbudgeted overtime pay in the Philadelphia Prison System, where inmate counts have risen. Read about reasons for rising and falling counts in our report Philadelphia's Less Crowded, Less Costly Jails  

Dec. 19: Police Advisory Commission meeting. Details here.

Dec. 21: Board of Ethics meeting. Details here.

Dec. 21: School Reform Commission action meeting. Details here.

Jan. 13: Philadelphia Historical Commission monthly meeting. Details here.

Jan. 17: City Planning Commission monthly meeting. Details here.

The Philadelphia Research Initiative provides timely, impartial research and analysis that help Philadelphia’s citizens and leaders understand key issues facing the city. See our Reports and Briefs page.

We also conduct regular opinion surveys of Philadelphians on key issues, using nonpartisan pollsters who adhere to the highest standards of opinion research. See our Polling page.

Check our News and Data Library for primary research documents and previous newsletters.

The Philadelphia Research Initiative is a project of the nonpartisan Pew Charitable Trusts. We welcome your comments.