Talk:Central business district/Archives/2013

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Where does the term "downtown" actually come from? My assumption as German is that New York was the first example and it comes from the geographic locations of "Downtown" and "Uptown" on the island of Manhattan as seen on a map (going down - to the south, that is). Can anybody confirm or reject that and insert the explanation in the article? Thanks. -- 84.183.73.232 12:47, 6 September 2005 (UTC)

Do downtowns even exist outside of North America?
I read an article in The Economist which said, among other things:
 * "Downtowns are an American invention, says Joel Kotkin, an expert on cities. London, Paris and Tokyo all lack a single centre where commerce, entertainment, shopping and political power are concentrated. Such cores did emerge in early 20th-century American cities thanks to steel-frame architecture, which made it possible to build high, and because they had central railway stations. Fifty years later, almost all were gutted by the internal-combustion engine, which enabled people and jobs to move to the suburbs. They have been trying to revive themselves ever since."

I think needs to be mentioned at the very least. At worst we could be conflating two separate things: a North American (esp. western parts) style downtown which is the centre of everything in the city vs. a financial district which may not be the same as the main shopping district which may not be the same as the main arts district, which could be different from the main administrative district, which is certainly different from "old town" section of most walled cities. Thoughts? Kevlar67 08:36, 13 April 2007 (UTC)

That's a very strange-sounding quote. Major European cities definitely have a central area ("city centre" in the UK and Ireland) that does contain a concentration of commerce, entertainment, shopping and political power. If anything, European activities are more concentrated in such dense urban places, with London and Paris definitely having all of this in central areas.

Indeed, compared to global national capitals like Washington DC, Canberra or Ottawa, which are smaller than their country's largest cities and often boast only a subset of cultural or commercial activities compared with their country's biggest cities, European city centres seem to fit perfectly with the concept of "downtown". 216.94.11.2 20:58, 14 August 2007 (UTC)


 * I think you missed the point. London and Paris have several centres of density and commericial activity, not one.  In most European cities I've been to the transition from the most dense centre to the least dense outskirts is gradual and not pronounced.  If anything there are more high-rise towers (usually low-rent) in the suburbs in most European cities then there are in the centre.  This is the opposite of many North American and Australian cities which have a small hyper-dense core surrounded by huge expanses of low-density suburbs.  This is reflected in average house sizes and average commute times which are both substantially higher in North America than Europe.  --Kevlar (talk • contribs) 21:37, 14 October 2008 (UTC)

Yes, downtowns (by any other name) DO EXIST in cities outside of North America, the clearest example of which is the City of London ("The City"), which is downtown in both senses of the word, viz. a remnant of medieval urban town centres, as well as a modern-day high density, high land-use CBD. If you need more confirmation, the CBDs of Australian cities are cases in point. My goodness, the person asking this question (Kevlar67) seems like a 'Murican who thinks only Americans live in cities and the rest of the world live in ramshackle mud-huts! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 121.6.168.101 (talk) 09:02, 30 July 2013 (UTC)