Twenty-five years ago, the Cape Town City centre was, in the words of Central City Improvement District (CCID) board member and property owner Tamra Capstick-Dale, "fragile". Fourteen editions of the State of Cape Town Central City Report later and nobody at the launch used the word. Last week I attended the annual State of Cape Town Central City 2025 report at the FNB Portside tower in Cape Town. Year after year, the city centre has been steadily proving that a downtown can be pulled back from the brink and kept there. The central city accounts for 308 217 jobs, the second highest of any city centre in the country after Johannesburg, out of a footprint of 1.74km².