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INTO THE 21ST CENTURY
Ed Rendell was elected the city's first Jewish mayor in 1992. When Rendell became mayor the city had numerous unpaid bills, the lowest bond rating of the top fifty largest U.S. cities, and a budget deficit of US$250 million. Rendell was able to attract investment in the city and was soon able to stabilize the city's finances and even produce small budget surpluses. Revitalization of parts of Philadelphia continued in the 1990s. In 1993 a new convention center was opened creating a hotel boom with seventeen hotels opening between 1998 and 2000 and the city began promoting its historic sites, festivals, and entertainment to attract tourists.[80] In 2005 National Geographic Traveler named Philadelphia America's Next Great City citing its recent revitalization and general cityscape.
Former city council president John F. Street was elected mayor in 1999 and city revitalization continued into the 21st century. The Street administration targeted some of the city's worst neighborhoods for revitalization and has seen considerable progress. Tax breaks created in 1997 and 2000 helped create a condominium boom in Center City, increasing the population of Center City and helping slow down the city's forty-year population decline. The population of Center City rose to 88,000 in 2005 from 78,000 in 2000 and the number of household grew by 24 percent. Corruption still continued into the 21st century. A series of scandals in the 1990s plagued the police department which included the systematic underreporting of crime to give the impression of low crime rates. The Street administration has also been plagued with scandal where people in his administration were accused of awarding contracts based on campaign donations for Street's 2003 reelection campaign. There has also been a rise of violent crime after a decline in the 1990s. In 2006 Philadelphia's murder rate was 27.8 per 100,000 inhabitants versus a rate of 18.9 in 2002.
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