How Are Cities Leveraging Opportunity Zones for Community Development? — Philadelphia as a Case Study

Enacted as part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, Opportunity Zones are designed to spur economic development and job creation in economically distressed communities by providing tax benefits to investors who make eligible investments into these areas. Using Philadelphia as a case study, our research finds that gentrifying areas were much more likely to be designated as Opportunity Zones in the city, although these neighborhoods generally had higher levels of economic distress than not-selected areas.