We’re back, after a wonderful yet frigid New Years holiday. And as is typically our custom, we’re kicking off 2018 with some predictions for the year to come. Will we prove successful as prognosticators? If we are, you can count on hearing about it about a year from now. If not, you can probably assume we’ll quietly delete this post and we’ll never mention it again. Wish us luck!
When handwriting the year, we will accidentally write 2017 through at least the end of January, but we’ll only realize it about half the time.
With Lincoln Square approaching completion, we will finally get some clarity on the situation on the northeast corner of Broad & Washington. We expect that Tower Development will ultimately move forward with some version of the plan they previously presented for the property, though with some alterations to make the project more friendly to pedestrians.
Remapping, however, will still elude Washington Avenue west.
Instagram will follow the path of Twitter, and will be totally ruined by politics.
Market East will continue to trend in a positive direction, as the East Market project will see its first residents move in, and Fashion District Philadelphia will show that downtown Philadelphia can indeed accommodate another mall, as long as it isn’t the Gallery.
Speaking of Market East, the Disney-hole-turned-parking-lot will unfortunately remain a parking lot.
Nick Foles won’t be able to hack it in the playoffs, and the Eagles won’t come close to winning the championship, despite having the number one overall seed in the NFC. But next season, Carson Wentz will come back ahead of schedule and win that MVP he was supposed to win in 2017, and take the Birds to the summit.
The City of Philadelphia will make stucco bays illegal on all new construction.
Parking in the Broad Street median will continue to be a thing, and protected bike lanes will be rolled out much more slowly than any bike riding citizen would prefer.
A new food trend will take the city by storm. Possibilities include gourmet pancakes, fancy wings, and deep fried crickets.
The Historical Commission, armed with new funding, will nominate new historic districts, including Jewelers Row, Spruce Hill, and the shopping centers on Aramingo Avenue.
The Historic Preservation Task Force will make several recommendations that would maintain additional aspects of Philadelphia’s historic fabric, but politics will prevent the implementation of most of those recommendations.
The Phillies will finish in 4th place, but only because the Marlins are the worst team in baseball.
Home prices will continue to climb neighborhoods immediately surrounding Center City, including Graduate Hospital, Point Breeze, Pennsport, and Francisville.
In Francisville, Ridge Avenue will finally start putting all those new retail spaces to good use.
OCF will not open a new cafe on Ridge Avenue.
Port Richmond will see more interest from developers than ever before, with record numbers for both rehabs and new construction. The Richmond Street commercial corridor will seem a new business or two as well. OCF is similarly not looking to open a new cafe in Port Richmond.
With so much activity in Brewerytown, we’ll see development trickling up to Strawberry Mansion. But it’ll be awhile yet before it sees serious development momentum.
The Sixers and Flyers will tease us with their potential but will both fall short of the playoffs.
Evergreen prediction: Something will finally happen with the Chocolate Factory. We really feel like this will be the year.
And finally, we believe that Amazon will make their selection for HQ2, and it will be… Pittsburgh. Philadelphia loses out on 50K jobs and tens of millions of dollars per year in wage tax, but maintains its familiar character. Plus, we’ll exact a measure of revenge when the Eagles top the Steelers in the 2019 Super Bowl.
Agree with our predictions? Disagree? Have some predictions of your own? Share them in the comments!