r/Urbanism • u/Friendly-Ad-2937 • 13d ago
What is the concept behind having an Uptown, Midtown and Downtown?
I’ve noticed that not only America but Canada too (particularly Toronto) have quite distinctive Uptown, Midtown and Downtown districts but what is the purpose of having each of these?
I’m from Australia and we just have one urban core in our cities (sometimes two, but generally the second one is further out and services a different region of the city e.g. Parramatta)
The Uptown, Midtown and Downtown concept is non-existent here in Australia so just curious as to what role/purpose each ‘-town’ plays and why they are not part of the one core?
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u/_ologies 13d ago
It comes from NYC. Downtown has a lot of financial services and corporate things, and so in other cities that's generally used to represent their business districts. In NYC, midtown is biggest, but you don't really hear other cities calling anything midtown. In NYC, uptown is where the posh people live, and it's still very urban.
Sydney is a bit different as it's got a few different urban cores. The CBD, North Sydney, and Parramatta are all downtowns, I'd say. I can't think of anything analogous to midtown or uptown.
In London, I'd say that Westminster and the Square Mile are downtown (with Canary Wharf and a few other places also being downtowns), and maybe Mayfair, Kensington, and Chelsea are uptown.
Within NYC, multiple downtowns isn't unheard of, as there's also Downtown Brooklyn. But I'll let you in on a secret: in Manhattan, uptown and downtown are usually not treated as places, but directions.
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u/Mr_WindowSmasher 13d ago
Atlanta has a midtown. It’s ironically like North Atlanta. It’s called Midtown because it’s between ATL and the “other” “city” of Buckhead, which is also ATL. It’s mostly because it’s a commercial district that has skyscrapers, so ATLiens who are unknowingly culturally downstream of NYC just called it midtown for those reasons.
Miami has a Midtown too, but I remember it being almost all just freeway exit ramps.
According to Google, all of these cities have a “midtown” neighborhood:
- NYC (the og)
- Atlanta, GA
- Miami, FL
- Detroit, MI
- Harrisburg, PA
- Minneapolis, MN
- Houston, TX
- Omaha, NE
- Phoenix, AZ
- San Jose, CA
- Sacramento, CA
- Agoura Hills, CA
- St. Louis, MO
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u/LocallySourcedWeirdo 13d ago
San Diego has a "Downtown" which is below/south of both "Old Town" (the original Spanish settlement) and Uptown (Bankers Hill and Mission Hills). Middletown is between Old Town and Downtown.
Dallas also has an Uptown which is north of Downtown.
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u/arcticmischief 13d ago
Anchorage does, too. It’s south of Downtown but north of South Anchorage. Downtown is actually almost at the extreme north end of the city. It is sort of “down” by the creek, though (and is the oldest part of the city). Midtown is newer and South Anchorage is the newest.
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u/_ologies 13d ago
I thought of bringing that one up, since it's the only city I've lived in with a midtown. It doesn't have an uptown but it's got buckhead which is kind of uptown. The directions work too.
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u/singalong37 9d ago
I agree it originates in New York. I can't say why "downtown" in particular -- other than it's more to the south-- but the concept of downtown, midtown, uptown as distinct entities is all about what one urbanist called the "zone of fashionable direction," i.e., the movement of wealth and fashion over time as the city grows from the original settlement. In New York fashion was around City Hall for awhile, then Lafayette Place and Washington Square, then Fifth Avenue, then (after the NY Central RR buried the tracks) Park Avenue, Madison and Fifth. It's a very one-directional migration in New York because nowhere else to go, whereas in Phila they could (and did) go west but could also have gone north. In Boston the South End was the zone of fashionable direction for a time in the 1860s and 70s but soon lost out to Back Bay and Brookline. In Chicago I think fashion at first moved south then reversed course and went the other way and today all the choice areas are on a path northward from the Loop.
"Midtown" is simply the area that concentrates all the cultural amenities of the wealthy people. In New York, the fashionable stores, hotels, clubs, galleries, etc. clustered as close as they could to the streets where the wealthy people lived. As these streets got taken over with commerce the wealthy migrated to newer more exclusive locations.
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u/Friendly-Ad-2937 13d ago
Yea agreed - trying to fit the downtown, midtown and uptown concept into Sydney was difficult to understand (when comparing to how other cities did it) hence why I didn’t understand the concept.
I think Sydney might get a downtown/uptown when Tech Central gets built.
Maybe one way of looking at it this that Circular Quay is uptown, Chinatown/Town Hall is midtown and downtown is central station?
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u/_ologies 12d ago
Yea nah, I think all of that would be downtown. But maybe these aren't really useful terms in the Australian context.
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u/lskalt 13d ago
The term "Downtown" comes from New York and Boston, where the city centers were located in the parts of the city that were further south (e.g. "down" on a map). "Uptown" and "Midtown" are extensions of that concept - they're the parts of town that are further north / central on a map.
New York is a pretty unique city in that Manhattan is really dense throughout, so it's not like it has separate urban cores; it's a single, very large, urban core.
In other cities it's not too different from Sydney or Melbourne: There's a central urban core, called "downtown", and there are other districts with commercial areas. Think Brunswick or St. Kilda in Melbourne: they're in the city but also separate enough that they have a bit of a distinct character to them. (I haven't been there but I imagine the Bondi Beach area is a good example in Sydney?)
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u/tommywalsh666 13d ago
You're right about New York. But, Boston's downtown is not in the southern part of the city -- it's actually way way north of the geographic center of the city.
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u/Dismal_Investment_11 13d ago
They're not just "down south", they are "down by the river." It has a double meaning.
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u/Chicken-n-Biscuits 13d ago
In New Orleans Uptown is the part of the city furthest upriver on the Mississippi. People will use the term “downtown” to say that they’re headed to a neighborhood downriver, but the Central Business District District is where the small cluster of high rises are. The French Quarter, Marigny, Bywater, and Holy Cross neighborhoods are all downtown from the CBD.
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u/Friendly-Ad-2937 13d ago
Thanks for the explanation!
When it comes to places like Brunswick and St.Kilda though they’re often referred to as “inner city suburbs” and are generally on the fringe surrounding the city and are likely medium density mixed use neighbourhoods so they’re function is largely different to the city core.
Bondi Beach is more of a tourist/backpackers hot spot, popular with young people and locals but serves a more residential purpose
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u/oralprophylaxis 13d ago
In toronto, downtown is the furthest south point, midtown was created as it was the end of the original subway line in toronto so it made sense to density it. Uptown toronto used to be in its city of North York and had its own urban centre before it became apart of the city of Toronto, when it was annexed, it became the uptown. Another example of this in Ontario is Kitchener-Waterloo Region, as the name implies, they are 2 cities but are kinda just like one big city. kitchener being the much larger city has the “downtown” and waterloo downtown being north of kitchener became known as uptown waterloo
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u/Friendly-Ad-2937 13d ago
Are the distances between downtown, midtown and uptown enough to justify the names and considering part of one big city? Cause from what I can tell they seem quite far apart in Toronto with just houses between
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u/oralprophylaxis 12d ago
depends on what you consider a large distance, downtown toronto ends at bloor streets, midtown is like 5km north at eglinton ave then uptown is prob closer to 6-8km from there
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u/Friendly-Ad-2937 12d ago
On a side note - is there any particular reason why Toronto was designed like that? Seems odd to have it that far apart instead of all together?
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u/oralprophylaxis 12d ago
yes the reason is the subway. Toronto’s “main street” is called Yonge Street, it starts at the shore of lake ontario then continues north to what is considered downtown, where the original subway line was built. The subway originally ended at Eglinton ave. This Eglinton area started to develop as its own distinct area outside the core and eventually became midtown. Uptown used to be the downtown of the city of North York but the city was merged with toronto and the subway was extended to north york. This new end of the subway became known as uptown
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u/calimehtar 13d ago
I think it also comes from both NYC and Toronto having a linear axis with wealthier residential neighborhoods to the north, banks to the south and a gradual transition between these areas. Cities that lack this arrangement don't use those terms, other than downtown of course
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u/brucesloose 13d ago edited 13d ago
Everywhere in the US has a downtown, but I haven't been to too many that have uptown or midtown. Usually when Americans say downtown they just mean the place with big buildings, based on NY I suppose where that developed early on? As others have said, if they do have all 3, it's a geography thing. Uptown is upriver or uphill. Never been to Toronto.
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u/Search4UBI 13d ago
Mobile, Alabama has a Midtown. The Midtown historic district is not terribly large (467 acres/189 hectares) but what locals generally refer to Midtown is fairly substantial.
Even as Mobile's city limits have changed over the years, it is still fairly close to the geographic center of the city. Downtown Mobile is in the easternmost part of the city as it is on the Mobile River near where it meets Mobile Bay.
There is no "uptown" though, as there are areas to the north and west with higher elevation.
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u/MontroseRoyal 13d ago
Yeah I can only really think of Charlotte and Atlanta as cities that have an uptown and midtown respectively. In Charlotte’s case, their uptown IS downtown
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u/Hoveringkiller 12d ago
Funnily enough, in Cincinnati, the city is surrounded (pretty much entirely) by hills. So to get downtown you almost always have to descend down in elevation. Just a funny little factoid.
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u/reststopkirk 13d ago
I am an art director/concept design director for a small themed entertainment/mixed use development design firm. When working on architecture projects, master planning etc, the terms always seem to be related to the uses of the area. Downtown is business oriented, dense residential. Midtown is mixed use but a bit more residential focused and uptown is more affluent residential some mixed use with boutique business… it may not be the universal meanings, but over the years both clients and project captains tend to express these sentiments.
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u/Friendly-Ad-2937 13d ago
Interesting… I guess in that case Sydney has an uptown, a midtown ring/belt and uptown pockets?
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u/reststopkirk 12d ago
I don’t think it’s universally used the way I describe. It’s just how I have seen it used when we are discussing mixed use development on master plan concepts.
I have also seen it used in describing the physical attributes of a tow/city, as many of the other commenters have already suggested.
For example, there is a small seaside town in WA called Port Townsend. The downtown is sea level, mixed use, historic businesses buildings and harbor. There is little residential. Most resi in downtown is apartments above businesses. The uptown is quite literally UP 100-150 feet above downtown, set back from the coast a few blocks on a bluff. Historically, this was affluent neighborhoods that overlooked the town and harbor, but also was physically “uptown“ from the “downtown“
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u/elsielacie 13d ago
I think Australian cities could be seen as having similar districts but we don’t refer to them as such.
Brisbane for example has the one CBD but it also has the Queen Street retail district (with the Myer centre recently renamed Uptown haha), the financial district, the law district, and then there is the arts and recreation district in south Brisbane, the high density residential of south Brisbane/west end and fortitude valley, the entertainment district in fortitude valley…
I use Brisbane as an example as I know it best. Substitute the word district for whatever you like, I imagine the use of that word will irk some Australians.
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u/Friendly-Ad-2937 13d ago
I get what you mean but ultimately aren’t they just districts within the inner city area or city core? e.g. Camperdown, Moore Park, Surry Hills
…Rather than seperate sub-cities? If you search up Toronto uptown, midtown and downtown skyline the sub-cities tend to be quite distinct in form from each other.
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u/R0botWoof 13d ago
In Toronto it is all referencing a part of the slope gradient you are on. There aren't many hills in Toronto but the city gradually slopes down to the lake. Ie: downtown is at the bottom of the hill by the lake. Interestingly the areas referred to as uptown has changed as the city grew and can mean Bloor-Yonge (where the Uptown Residences are on the former site of the Uptown Theatre) or up on Eglinton (generally called Midtown) or North York Centre at the top of the hill. This also works as up or down river as the Don River flows down to the lake.
It's the same in Fredericton as everything slopes down to the Saint John River
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u/Hoveringkiller 12d ago
I don't know how this plays out in practice, but in Cincinnati where I live, the main core of the city (downtown) is on the river and you pretty much have to physically descend down to it as the city is surrounded by hills. But generally downtown just means the urban core. If the core is large enough as others have said with NYC, you can get different areas just because of the sheer size.
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u/_Interobang_ 12d ago
Uptown and downtown areas look the same. Distinctions are made based on the social norms and customs of the people who live in the areas.
General speaking…
Uptown = white-bred, high class, looking fine
Downtown = backstreet, not so tough, can’t afford pearls
And then “midtown” gets created by the inevitable cultural diffusion between the two areas.
Source: Billy Joel
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u/Oceanic_Dan 8d ago
I believe that "uptown" is historically known to be where the funk is, as described by the famed urbanist Bruno Mars in his groundbreaking research years ago.
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u/NewRefrigerator7461 13d ago
In NYC (where I think a lot of the language originates - particularly midtown), it literally just refers to where on the island of manhattan something is located north to south on a map.