How Cities Can Hold onto Families with Children

Posted by Sheila Redick on February 20, 2006

Paul Levy, president and CEO of the Center City District in Philadelphia, is one of the most effective civic entrepreneurs in the country.   I talked to Paul on "Smart City" recently, and he told us how is using schools as a strategy to keep young professionals living in the city.

"Candidly, I've been doing this for 15 years and for 13 years, I very carefully avoided the schools issue, because I did not think it was something that we could really succeed at doing.... But our school district has recognized that they can place an equal emphasis on retaining and attracting middle class families.  So we began a partnership with the district that started with very simple things.  We surveyed lots of parents with pre-school age children and asked them what they thought about schools, how they'd like to get information, what they knew.

"Not surprisingly, people in the 20s and 30s said the number one way they would like to get information about school choice was through web sites.  And yet, not a single public school in the downtown area -- and we have 13 elementary schools -- had a web site. 

"In partnership with those schools and the district, we started building individual web sites, we began a marketing campaign, we have reached out to daycare centers, pediatrians' offices, every place you could find young people with children.

"We have begun to market schools in conjunction with an improvement plan that focuses both on curriculum and what we call curb appeal -- how does the school look from the outside, does it have an attractive playground, is it well lit at night.

"It is part of a coordinated effort to say to parents, before you think about picking up and moving to the suburbs, consider the options in downtown.  We are half way through the first year of marketing, and we should have some really good results within the next couple of months."

Paul is not stopping with schools, though, to hold on to families with children.  He is also evaluating all the recreational facilities within downtown to figure out what can be done to upgrade them.  As he told us, "Clean and safe and lighting can go a really long way."

Many cities will likely follow Paul's lead.