[NEWS] Philadelphia Steps to Stage for Pope Francis’ Visit

From the Wall Street Journal: 

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter insists he hasn’t been thinking nonstop about Pope Francis’ two-day trip to the city, where more than a million pilgrims are expected to converge Sunday for an outdoor Mass.

“I only think about it like 23 hours a day,” he said with a laugh.

Mr. Nutter is confident the visit will be a success, despite grumbling by residents about traffic restrictions and security measures that have shut down swaths of Center City and inconvenienced many in the region. “I think Philadelphia is taking its rightful place on the world stage as the great international city that we are,” he said.

Officials are eager to showcase the city’s charms and prove it can put on such a major event, starting Saturday with the pope’s arrival at the end of the World Meeting of Families. Next summer the city will return to the spotlight as host of the Democratic National Convention.

Philadelphia, the nation’s fifth-largest city with 1.56 million residents, has been on something of a roll. Center City and nearby neighborhoods are in the midst of a residential-construction boom. Comcast Corp. is helping to build what will be the city’s tallest skyscraper, a $1.2 billion tower soaring 1,121 feet next to the media giant’s existing headquarters.

The city’s population has increased eight years in a row, thanks to an influx of immigrants and young adults, said Larry Eichel, who directs the Philadelphia research initiative for the Pew Charitable Trusts. This year, a Pew poll found that residents have a more positive outlook about the city than at any time in the six years the poll has been conducted.

But the city also serves as an apt destination for a pope focused on the poor and downtrodden. About 400,000 residents—26% of the population—live below the federal poverty line, Census figures show, the highest poverty rate among the nation’s 10 most populous cities.