Reviving Philadelphia’s nighttime economy
In March, Philedelphia Arts and Culture Task force released a report on its findings, incorporating a proposal, authored by Michael Fichman, which calls for the creation of a Nighttime Economy Office within the city’s Department of Commerce.
After Mayor Jim Kenney proposed a complete elimination of the city’s arts and culture budget last spring, the city council convened an Arts and Culture Task force to sort through the threats to the city’s creative economy and make recommendations for how the city’s approach could be improved.
“The civic dysfunction related to nightlife, the general prohibition-oriented attitude and negligence towards arts and culture, is pretty obvious when you’re inside of it,” Michael Fichman says. “There’s kind of a culture of ‘no.’ There’s bad transportation. It’s kind of an afterthought.”