Build!

Nathan Newman is quite correct here. I'm not unsympathetic to concerns about neighborhood character, but I just think that generally neighborhood character (the part that matters) can be preserved while still throwing up some tall buildings. One can build tall buildings that integrate with the streetscape and do so without razing entire city blocks. Frequently tall buildings, especially residential ones, aren't built in such a way, but that doesn't mean they can't be.

Meanwhile in center city Phialdelphia, the building continues.

That was the message that Paul Levy, executive director of the Center City District, touted in his agency's annual analysis of housing trends, released yesterday. By 2010, Levy said, Center City could have 110,000 residents, which would be up from 73,121 in 1980, 78,000 in 2000, and an estimated 88,000 today.

...

The boom started in 1997, when City Council and Mayor Ed Rendell approved 10-year property-tax abatements to promote conversion of a growing number of vacant or underused old office and manufacturing buildings. Two years later, the tax break was extended to new construction.

By the end of this year, 8,235 residential units will have been developed in Center City since the tax break was enacted. An additional 3,574 units are under construction, all scheduled for completion by 2008, Levy said.