Small Business on the Avenue
The corridor stores are the neighborhood economy. Make it easier to open, easier to stay, and cheaper to fix the storefront.
- One case worker per business through licensing and permitting — not six departments.
- Expand storefront improvement grants along every corridor in the city.
- Relief from the taxes that hit small operators hardest and earliest.
- Pressure on landlords sitting on empty storefronts for years.
The Italian Market, East Passyunk, Girard Avenue, 52nd Street, Germantown Avenue, Castor Avenue — these corridors are the city's economy, its street life and, frankly, its security system. A block with open stores and people on it at 8 p.m. is a safer block.
Stop making it hard to open
The single most common thing small operators say is that the process nearly broke them: months of back-and-forth between L&I, Health, Streets and Revenue, with nobody able to tell them what was actually outstanding. Assign one case worker per business, publish the timeline, and hold the departments to it.
Help them fix the building
Storefront improvement money is one of the highest-return programs the city runs — a new facade lifts the whole block. It should be available on every corridor in this district, not just the ones with an organized business association.
Make the tax structure survivable
Philadelphia taxes a business on gross receipts, which means a shop can owe money in a year it lost money. Raising the exemption and continuing to lower the net income rate is how you keep the marginal operator alive.
Empty storefronts are a policy choice
A landlord who leaves a commercial space dark for five years is taking value from every other business on the block. There are tools — registration, escalating fees on long-term commercial vacancy — and this district should use them.
Help make this happen
Plans need a Council seat behind them. Chip in or take a shift.