From 93 to 2003 I lived at 6th and Christian and was pretty in touch with the neighborhood business and such. Friends who had spots - some still do and new places opening. More recently there seems to be more available retail locals to rent or buy. Like over 12 within Front to 6th St - South St to Bainbridge.
Whats the deal? Yes not enough sales to keep your biz alive and kicking - so you close up. But why so many at one given time. And the newer opened places are unnessary misc. bs stores that sell gum and hats. I mean the Gap had to close? South St. area has been through periods of re-birth and revival over the years and will continue to do so. As any property owner you are going to rent out to anyone willing to pay when times are tough. And the only interested takers are these generic-ish individuals selling cheap items that can be bought anywhere.
Just really sad that there seems to be no true identity to the area as once before.

The gap had nothing to do with business. They closed due to an internal corporate restructuring. Same with blockbuster.

Please show me all of the places opening that are selling gum-this is merely a bizarre comment.

There are a whopping 3 hat stores currently within the district.

The area still has an 8% vacancy rate which is lower than any other commercial area in philadelphia. While you're counting "the like over 12" vacancies please be sure to count the 544 active businesses, according to southstreet.com.

While you complain about the "generic-ish individuals selling cheap items" don't forget about the multiple three bell restaurants, the art galleries, spas, or clothing stores selling items equally available on rodeo drive or 5th avenue.

As you wish to denegrate those who sell something that you wish not to purchase, please go into any mall or retail area and keep a tally of how many stores actually pertain to your tastes.

__________________
Peter Cetera:
Sometimes I just forget
Say things I might regret
It breaks my heart to see you crying

yeah but there has been a bunch of cheap shingy bling stores opening all over town, and that district has two of them, one on South itself, and one next to Crash Bang Boom.

One is more than enough.

It would be nice to see more independent funky businesses there, but I guess I can go to Old City now for that. (there are still some, for sure, but not as many as there used to be)

I really wish that people who compare south street with other places would just open up the place they'd like to see and try to survive paying 15k-25k rents with the same type of tchotchke that intrigues them in retail areas with 1/10th of the rent and a completely different isolated market.

__________________
Peter Cetera:
Sometimes I just forget
Say things I might regret
It breaks my heart to see you crying

The place has no character as in the past. If you have any history knowledge of the neighborhood and was a resident, you would know what it use to be. Other then marketing stats on southstreet.com. Take a walk and see for yourself. And I dine at all 3 bell establishments and know owners of them. By the way, not literal about selling hats. It was a reference for misc items sold in one store along with 1000 other misc items. For the record can we list the 544 active stores and what are they selling. Oh and my last visit to 5th ave I missed the Ritas water ice and down on Rodeo that Walgreens kicks butt. The Prada and Tiffany and Saks must be on the back alley way entrances. I should look a bit harder on my next walk chewing my newly purchased gum and Phillies hat.
Bottemline the funky unique artisan stores of creative people are no longer or by far is at minimum. And should be welcomed back.

I've been here quite a bit longer than you, so I really don't need a history lesson. Meanwhile, during your decade on 6th and cristian there were boarded up buildings, dairy queen, junk shops, drug stores, chains, and everything else you doth protest too much.

By refenencing rodeo drive I was not equivocating both markets, I was merely noting that while people cry "junk", "hiphop", "hats", "gum", etc., they keep a blind eye towards everything that doesn't fit into their cookie cutter critiques. Meanwhile, the reason why you didn't see walgreen's in the vicinity of rodeo is because Rite-Aid controls the chain market in that area, and the water ice stores don't exist since there is not market demand, but the baskin robbins, coldstone, and chain pizza shops do quite well.

As south street rents became progressively higher, property owners realized that they can earn more by renting their building out instead of staying open to sell 5k/mo. while catering to a bunch of walkby traffic that says "wow, that's unique stuff" even though they buy nothing more than a coke and pizza from lorenzos. As previously stated, if you want utopia, build it. When you fail from inflated rents and more gawkers than sales-or succeed by changing to customer demand-maybe you won't be as judgemental.

__________________
Peter Cetera:
Sometimes I just forget
Say things I might regret
It breaks my heart to see you crying

You gotta support them to have them. And the last time I check, the hip hop crowd doesn't do funky, the funky people grew up and moved to the burbs(or Old City, north)

Times change..not everything can be the 80's forever.

Didn't South Street have clubs one time, long long ago?

__________________
"And Lord, I pray that you would guard your own reputation, because they're going to think that their god is bigger than you, if that happens. So I pray that you will step forward and honor your own name with all that happens between now and Election Day."--Rev. Arnold Conrad

Exactly.
And yes, south street did have alot of nightclubs during the "unique", "funky", and "hip" days-I wonder how many of these neighbors would support that?
Gap was a nightclub, so was walgreens, so was citibank, so was barefeet shoes, just off the top of my head.

The liberty bell was made on south street(back then it was called cedar street)...maybe to turn back the clock of remembrance we should ask a metal foundry to move on south street? Abbott's square was once a dairy-maybe we can convince QV and Society Hill that this is of historical importance and bring the cows back! Maybe we can go back to the days when we housed the first soup kitchens in history!!!

And many people who liked south street still live in the area. Guess what? They grew up. They quit wearing vinyl from zipperhead, leather from skins, and black clothing from trash and vaudeville. Meanwhile, the new kids came in and began buying hiphop. When their generation grows up the hiphop stores will go away and some other trend will occur, and they will be b&tching that south street isn't as cool with all of the hip hop shops gone.

__________________
Peter Cetera:
Sometimes I just forget
Say things I might regret
It breaks my heart to see you crying

I can't wait for that day, I want to get in on the bottom floor so I can make money off the next generation trends...

__________________
"And Lord, I pray that you would guard your own reputation, because they're going to think that their god is bigger than you, if that happens. So I pray that you will step forward and honor your own name with all that happens between now and Election Day."--Rev. Arnold Conrad

That is true, it is evolving and changing all the time. Some times, you like the change, sometimes, you don't.

the rents are astronomical though.

I DID buy stuff from the funky shops, but only what I could, when I could. Can't fault anyone for that. Sometimes the economy is good for retail, sometimes it's not, sometimes the retail matches the crowd, sometimes it stops matching and shuts down.

ah well, I still enjoy going down there.