Chestnut St. was Philly's premiere shopping street, full of classy stores. The problem was all those stores were threatened by the surge of suburban malls.
So around 1975 Philly wanted to make Chestnut a mall-like pedestrian-only street, but it didn't have the funds. Federal transit agencies wanted to do a bus road and had the funds, so the 'transitway' was born from a compromise: busses down the middle and pedestrians on the sides. Further the whole thing needed to be rushed in time for Philly's 200th anniversary.
Over the next 5 years a few things happened:
- Market West and East were redeveloping into dense office buildings, pushing out food, convenience stores, and theaters. This also brought in a huge flood of non-resident office workers.
- Fast food and convenience stores were on the rise.
- "Classy" boutique stores, Chestnut Street's staples, were on the decline due to pressure from suburban malls.
Chestnut had an influx of businesses catering to office workers: fastfood