This week, journalists, delegates, and activists from around the U.S. will swarm into Philadelphia for the Democratic National Convention. The event itself will be held in the Wells Fargo Center, surrounded by an ocean of surface parking in South Philadelphia, while the walkable streets of Center City will be put to good use by activists and their law enforcement shadows.

Those who were last here in 2000, when the Republicans held their big party in the City of Brotherly Love, will see a city transformed. Although the revitalization of Center City had already begun by that point, it has since blossomed into a healthy urban core.

Today, downtown Philadelphia and its surrounding neighborhoods have rebounded remarkably from the 20th-century urban crisis. The Center City District (CCD)—a business improvement district—defines its purview as the Schuylkill River to the Delaware River from east to west, and Girard Avenue to Tasker Street from north to south. The densely populated area saw its population increase by 17 percent since 2000, reaching 184,998 people. As CCD likes to note, only Midtown Manhattan has more people living in a U.S. city’s urban core.

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