Community Safety in Philadelphia’s Point Breeze and Spring Garden Neighborhoods

Fact Sheet June 16, 2026

Philadelphia has experienced a dramatic decline in violent crime in recent years. The city recorded 60% fewer homicides in 2025 than just four years earlier. And property crimes, though historically high, are down since their peak in 2023. But contrary to these citywide trends, crime is not decreasing in every neighborhood; and even in the neighborhoods where crime is down, the rate varies.

Therefore, evaluating community safety—a measure of how well people and places are thriving socially and economically—can help shed additional light on security in the city by examining factors such as physical safety and crime prevention.¹

To further understand community safety in Philadelphia at the neighborhood level, The Pew Charitable Trusts focused on two neighborhoods that recorded very different trends in 2025. The first, Point Breeze, in the southern part of the city, saw a 21% decline in crimes reported from 2019 to 2025, whereas the second, Spring Garden, in north-central Philadelphia, saw an increase of 20% during the same period.

This analysis provides historical, demographic, and housing context to show how these two neighborhoods have transformed over time. It then analyzes recent changes in violent and property crime, highlighting how local conditions, physical environment, and public investment shape neighborhood-level safety. Pew finds that the neighborhoods’ contrasting crime trends are shaped not only by recent events but also by differences in each area’s built environment and access to public resources.

In 2025, approximately 152,000 total crimes were reported in Philadelphia, both violent crime and nonviolent property crimes. The most common offenses were thefts (24%), motor vehicle theft (10%), and vandalism/criminal mischief (8%). The majority of crimes reported citywide were nonviolent (74%), and 59% of nonviolent crimes were theft-related. Philadelphia’s relatively high poverty rate of 19.7%, compared with the national rate of 12.1%, could be a factor in the incidence of thefts. Last year, violent crimes made up 26% of the total number of crimes reported and included offenses such as assault, aggravated assault with or without a firearm, robbery with and without a firearm, domestic violence, and homicides.

“At the core of safety is the collective act of watching over, protecting, communicating, and gathering,” said Aviva Kapust, chief advancement and impact officer at Mural Arts Philadelphia, the United States’ largest public art program, which helps beautify and transform the city’s public spaces.

“In Philly, ‘I don’t want to get involved’ is a survival response but also a barrier to the engagement communities need to knit together their own safety practices,” Kapust said. “That’s what makes third places [neighborhood spaces beyond home and work] and cultural institutions sacred.”

The data used in this analysis comes from the Philadelphia Police Department and includes Part I (more serious) and Part II (less serious) crimes.² For the purpose of this analysis, Pew is analyzing incidents that were reported in 2019, 2021, and 2025.

Crime is not equally distributed throughout the city. Areas in neighborhoods such as Germantown, Harrowgate, Kensington, Market East, and Rittenhouse Square had a higher crime rate per population than other neighborhoods did. Similarly, different types of crimes form different geographical patterns within neighborhoods. Notably, crime is reported according to where the incident occurred, and it is not always tied to where the victim or offender resides. Areas with a higher level of surveillance may lead some areas to have more incidents reported.

Table 1

Crime Rate in Point Breeze, Spring Garden, and Philadelphia Overall, 2019-25

Area	2024 population	Crime per 10,000 residents, 2025	Crime incidents, 2019	Crime incidents, 2025	Crime percentage change (2019-25)
Philadelphia	1,579,706	966	161,442	152,555	-6%
Point Breeze	23,441	690	2,054	1,617	-21%
Spring Garden	9,545	781	623	745	20%

Sources: “Crime Incidents,” Philadelphia Police Department, OpenDataPhilly, 2019, 2021, 2025; “S0101 Age and Sex,” U.S. Census Bureau, ACS five-year estimates

Nonviolent crime, mainly made up of property-related offenses, clusters in and around commercial corridors and along transportation networks. Violent crimes often occur in smaller clusters concentrated in residential areas, especially areas with a higher share of vacant land and buildings. (See Figure 1.) Crime trends also vary by type.³

“Violent crime changes the DNA of a neighborhood,” says Chantay Love, co-founder of E.M.I.R. Healing Center. “People treat murder like it’s contagious. And when the fear factor lingers, it leaves people less connected, creating a void in the fabric of the community, … and this creates the opportunity for more violence.”

A map of Philadelphia showing crime per 10,000 residents by tract with three colors categorizing the tracts. Light teal tracts have 509 or fewer crimes per every 10,000 residents, and these areas are largely in the farthest northwest and northeast areas of the city. Teal tracts are those with 510 to 1,200 crimes per 10,000 residents, and these areas are in the lower northwest, lower northeast, and southwest areas of the city. The dark teal areas represent tracts with more than 1,200 crimes per 10,000 residents, and those areas are in Center City, North, Lower Northeast, and West Philadelphia and along the Delaware River. The Spring Garden and Point Breeze neighborhoods are highlighted with a blue outline.

Point Breeze

Point Breeze is a historically working-class neighborhood, located in South Philadelphia starting at Washington Avenue and nestled between Broad Street and 25th Street. The community’s population expanded in the 1930s with a growing number of African American residents.⁴ The neighborhood was lively and diverse back then, especially along the Point Breeze Avenue corridor, once called “The Breeze,” where people went to buy the popular local shaved-ice treat known as water ice, shop at the kosher butcher shops, or watch a film. During the second half of the 20th century, the neighborhood was affected by civil unrest and disinvestment.

Then, beginning in the early 2000s, Point Breeze experienced an influx of residents and new businesses. Today, Washington Avenue is an expanding business corridor, and although some things have changed, much remains the same.⁵ Wharton Square, lined with some of the neighborhood’s largest homes, is still a central point of civic life. And the nearly 120-year-old New Central Baptist Church remains an active congregation.⁶

Of the estimated 23,400 residents who live in Point Breeze, about 39% are White, non-Hispanic; 33% are Black or African American, non-Hispanic; 11% are Latino (all races); and 11% are Asian, non-Hispanic. Approximately 49% of the neighborhood’s residents are between the ages of 25 and 44, greater than the city’s share of 32%. Sixty-nine percent of residents living in Point Breeze are employed, also exceeding the citywide share of 59%. From 2014 to 2024, median home sale prices in the area increased by 103%, from $180,000 to $365,500.

Pew analyzed crime data from 2019, 2021, and 2025, and found that Point Breeze is largely made up of areas where the crime rate is lower than the city’s average. Also, from 2019 to 2025, the neighborhood experienced a 21% decrease in crime.

Much like the rest of Philadelphia, crime in Point Breeze is not evenly distributed. Areas along and near Point Breeze and Washington avenues’ business corridors recorded a relatively high concentration of crime. Meanwhile, Washington Square stands out by being one of the few areas near Point Breeze Avenue with a relatively low concentration of crime. The areas along SEPTA’s Broad Street Line also had a greater number of crimes reported, which could be the result of either a higher number of incidents or more incidents being reported because of greater surveillance by both Philadelphia police and transit police.

When the crime data was cross-referenced with the city’s land use information, there were differences between the areas with a low concentration of crimes and those with a medium-to-high concentration of crimes reported. Areas with a relatively low concentration of crimes had more than 300 fewer vacant properties and about 50% fewer commercial sites. (See Figure 2.)

A map of the Point Breeze neighborhood. The neighborhood’s boundary is black, and the area in and around the community is broken into equally sized hexagons. The color of the hexagon depends on how many crimes were reported in that area. The dark teal hexagons represent more than 99 crimes being reported, which is relatively high for the neighborhood. The teal hexagons represent 49-99 crimes being reported in the area. These are concentrated in the northern part of the neighborhood and along Point Breeze Avenue. The other hexagons, concentrated in the southern part of the neighborhood, are light teal and represent fewer than 49 crimes being reported in the area.

Nearly 20% of crimes reported in 2025 were thefts, and 17.5% were assaults. The majority of crimes committed in 2025 in Point Breeze were nonviolent, at 79%, similar to other neighborhoods in the city. Although the overall number of crimes reported decreased in the neighborhood from 2019 to 2025, the number of thefts reported increased by 9.3%.

Spring Garden

Philadelphia’s Spring Garden neighborhood is known for its large Victorian brownstones, gardens, and art.⁷ Many of the streets are lined with trees, and its residents are a short walk away from the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Rodin Museum.⁸ Early on, Spring Garden became home to the city’s most affluent families, many of them industrialists, merchants, and brewmasters.⁹ The neighborhood experienced a significant decline before World War II, but by the 1990s, it saw stronger civic organizing and investment in public spaces.¹⁰ In the 2000s, it was designated as a City of Philadelphia Historic District—and, shortly afterward, notable public spaces such as The Spring Gardens community garden, the Roberto Clemente Playground, and Green Street Dog Park were established or renovated.¹¹

An estimated 9,500 residents live in the Spring Garden neighborhood, and 70% of residents are White, non-Hispanic; 9% are Black or African American, non-Hispanic; 10% are Latino (any race); and 8% are Asian, non-Hispanic. Half the population is between the ages of 25 and 44. About 71% of residents over the age of 16 are employed, and roughly 74% work in occupations related to management, business, science, and the arts. From 2014 to 2024, median home sale prices increased by 62%, from $349,000 to $565,000.

While citywide crime decreased from 2019 to 2025, crime in Spring Garden increased by 20% during the same period. Crime is concentrated along Fairmount Avenue near 24th Street, near The Spring Gardens community garden and Roberto Clemente Playground, and all along Broad Street. Like other parts of the city, much of the crime is concentrated near or along business corridors and along major transit lines. Notably, in May 2024, the Philadelphia Police Department merged the 6th and 9thpolice districts to combine resources, “allowing for a more responsive approach to the needs of Center City.”¹² The 6th District was previously located in Spring Garden.

When the crime incidents reported in Spring Garden are cross-referenced with the city’s land use information, areas with a relatively low concentration of crimes had more than three times fewer commercial areas, half the vacant areas, and fewer recreational spaces than areas with a medium-to-high concentration of crime. Surprisingly, areas with medium-to-high crime had a higher share of civic and institutional spaces, about 16 in total. When it comes to crime in Spring Garden and throughout the city, place matters. The majority of crime in this neighborhood is theft-related, concentrated in commercial areas. Crime is also more likely to happen in and around vacant buildings and land than in active spaces such as parks, where more people tend to be present. (See Figure 3.)

A map of the Spring Garden neighborhood. The neighborhood boundary is black, and the area in and around the neighborhood is broken into equally sized hexagons. The color of the hexagon depends on how many crime incidents were reported in that area. The dark teal hexagons represent more than 172 crime incidents being reported, which is relatively high for the neighborhood. The teal hexagons represent 76 to 172 crimes being reported in the area. The other hexagons, distributed throughout the neighborhood, are light teal and account for fewer than 76 crimes being reported.

Crime in Spring Garden in 2025 was overwhelmingly theft-related, making up 63% of all crimes reported that year. The majority of crimes were nonviolent (84%); and only 16% were violent, which were largely categorized as “other assaults.” Zero homicides occurred in the neighborhood in 2025.

Conclusion

Crime rates and prevalence are always changing in a city, and they disproportionately affect some neighborhoods and residents more than others. Following the pandemic-era rise in homicides in 2021 and 2022, homicides are now at their lowest level since the 1960s.¹³ During the pandemic, Philadelphia enhanced its police force with the creation of the Citizens Police Oversight Commission and made capital investments at the neighborhood level.¹⁴ The number of property crimes and violent crimes continued to drop in 2025. Still, crime and public safety were ranked as a top concern for Philadelphia residents, according to Pew’s 2025 Philadelphia Resident Survey.¹⁵ This comes at a time when the city had 13% fewer police officers on the force from 2019 to 2024; and like many other cities, Philadelphia is now grappling with how to continue to fund public spaces and build its public safety workforce.

The city’s network of nonprofits and expanded Office of Public Safety have worked diligently to provide residents with the tools they need to address conflict peacefully, restore a sense of community, and uphold collective values.

“I’ve been doing this work most of my life, and I know crime is the result of handling a dispute or issue in an inhumane way,” says Anthony Murphy, executive director at Town Watch Integrated Services, which trains, organizes, and equips residents who want to participate in their community’s Town Watch groups. “With the support from the Office of Public Safety, as part of one of their nine divisions, I give neighbors the tools to resolve conflict while upholding community values—an evidence-based strategy that works and is supported by our city.”

The neighborhoods focused on in this analysis—Point Breeze and Spring Garden—were shaped by recent events such as the merging and relocation of the 6th Police District, as well as their built environment and the distribution of public resources in their communities.

The city’s ability to sustain and strengthen community safety hinges on people and places—and Philadelphia’s nonprofit leaders, public safety officers, and residents, as well as the city’s public spaces and police districts, all have an important role to play in shaping the area’s future.