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I was looking at [the parking lot map](https://parkingreform.org/resources/parking-lot-map/) which is measuring the percentage of central cities are made up of parking lots. While the mentioned numbers are interesting, the size of what was considered downtown was quite varied. (I would note that its interesting how the percentages for most regions have the percentage go down as the metros get larger, except the South, where, more or less, the percentage is basically always the same regardless of size. So Rochester, Grand Rapids, Buffalo, Fresno etc tend to have slightly larger percentages than Richmond, Birmingham and Memphis around the 1 million pop metro areas.)
For example, the downtown area for Birmingham is essentially over three times the size of downtown New York on the map. Midtown Manhattan is definitely denser, by far, and mostly skyscrapers, but a lot of the surrounding area would be bigger downtowns than what's available in most metros. Birmingham's, on the other hand, while primarily commercial with most housing units being lofts (single family is only at the southern fringe mixed in with apartments. Warehouses are also a bit scant.), ranges from skyscrapers to a college campus to nightlife spots and car dealerships (and even with multiple car dealership parking lots is still lower than a lot of others...). Bham's a bit extreme on this end: [Defining downtowns](https://issuu.com/ccdphila/docs/defining_downtownreport) actually splits Birmingham's downtown into two separate adjacent city centers.
So, I'm a bit curious, how would you define a downtown between these extremes?
I used to think of downtown's as a city's primary/ central business district, but downtowns vary from place too place.
In some cities, such as New Orleans, the downtown doesn't even encompass the CBD. Downtown is the French Quarter and the CBD is adjacent.
In Dallas the Downtown includes the CBD and a handful of other adjacent neighborhoods, while in Houston the Downtown is strictly the CBD and nothing else.
It's really hard to compare downtowns across the board when the definitions are so inconsistent.
Edit: I would add the caveat that that parking lot site measures all parking, not just parking lots. More than half of the spots highlighted on there are garages, not lots.
There are no rules. "Downtown" is what each city says it is making comparisons different. Midtown Manhattan has more jobs and people than downtown Manhattan (it's also geographically larger) and the entirety of Manhattan south of Central Park could be downtown. Half of "downtown" LA is full of aging industries and single story buildings that probably shouldn't be considered downtown. But it's in the freeway loop so it gets lumped in.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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In Seattle the downtown area is considered to include the financial, entertainment and waterfront area. It's from the Seahawks/Mariners stadiums to the south, Space Needle to the north, I5 freeway to the east, and Elliot Bay to the west.
There are major hotels, theaters with live shows, the Aquarium, ferries, high-rise financial centers, Pike Place Market, and a lot of homeless. Most of the surface parking lots have been replaced with big apartment or condo buildings.
When there was a population shift from rural life to urban the transformation of downtown greatly changed. Main Street blueprint often copied that of the old world. Establishing what was the appropriate image was determined by each city, based on their concept of what was dreamed. Contradictions,funding,migration and politics represent challenges for growth.
Norman Rockwell painted the quintessential moments of cultural changes across the 20th century. Town characters offered color while enlargements could be summed up as a national attitude. Williamsburg was an environment all its own yet wouldn't work on a larger scale. For a fictitious American city, look at Disneyland.
Defining downtown from so-called symbolism to what works for each municipality varies greatly. Phoenix has an uptown and a downtown. Real estate values rise while urban decay is delayed. Being vibrant and having business activity after 5pm means success. There is no better label than this.
Half of "downtown" LA is full of aging industries and single story buildings that probably shouldn't be considered downtown. But it's in the freeway loop so it gets lumped in.
These cities package freeway loops as downtown because it is convenient, but in almost every case an outsider would not categorize everything in that loop as downtown.
In a loop of cases these loops just wipe out the existing vibrancy for a couple of blocks near the hwy.
Designated downtown areas imo are more applicable to marketing and real estate ventures than concrete boundaries we can compare from one city to another. In some cases one city will have multiple definitions of downtown
It seems to me that the report Nemean cites, which was prepared for the International Downtown Association by Philadelphia's Center City District, tacitly acknowledges 2Easy's point but nonetheless comes up with a metric based on job concentration.
Generally speaking, the report equates "downtown" with two distinct urban districts:
the "central business district" — the area that contains the highest concentration of jobs in a city
satellite employment centers, usually with a university, a hospital, or a similar "anchor institution" as its focal point
I do note that the list of "downtowns" includes the largest of the country's "edge cities," Tysons Corner, Va.
Local usage of the term may not reflect this understanding.
In New Orleans, for instance, the words "uptown" and "downtown" are used relative to the flow of the Missippi River past the city, and the CBD sits roughly at the halfway point of its course through Orleans Parish, so "downtown" New Orleans is located downstream from the CBD.
And I understand that Charlotte's downtown is called "Uptown" by the locals.
Many downtowns have edge districts adjacent to them that once contained warehouses or similar facilities and now often contain apartments created by converting those warehouses to new uses. Philadelphia's Callowhill (aka Spring Arts) and Kansas City's Crossroads Arts District are examples. Employment in these districts has generally fallen significantly while their residential populations have soared.
Freeway loops make for easy delineators of a downtown, but they may not capture all of the territory that should be referred to with that term. Philadelphia is somewhat unusual among US cities in having very well-defined and commonly agreed upon bountaries for its downtown, namely, the original boundaries of the 1682 Town/1701 City of Philadelphia and referred to as "Center City." Boston, Chicago and New York are also in this neighborhood.
FWIW, I'm well acquainted with the authors of that report.
Freeway loops make for easy delineators of a downtown, but they may not capture all of the territory that should be referred to with that term.
That's true. In Houston for example the office towers, medical towers, courthouses, etc push past the highway loop. There are plants to remove the south and west sides of the loop and trench and cap the east side. With the loop barriers removed it may become interesting what will the new definition of downtown be.
The highway on the Southern boundary of midtown is also set to be trenched and capped, further blurring the lines between Downtown, midtown, the Museum District and the Medical center. My guess is that they will use parks as boundaries between one neighborhood and the next.
The term downtown is obsolete now since the return of investment to cities which started in the early 2000’s. What was considered the traditional downtown area for most cities has been dwarfed by developments that surround those historic borders. NYC, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, DC, and San Francisco are great examples of this.
There are no rules. "Downtown" is what each city says it is making comparisons different. Midtown Manhattan has more jobs and people than downtown Manhattan (it's also geographically larger) and the entirety of Manhattan south of Central Park could be downtown. Half of "downtown" LA is full of aging industries and single story buildings that probably shouldn't be considered downtown. But it's in the freeway loop so it gets lumped in.
No rules, true. But really, nobody "defines" downtowns period, except for their own narrow uses. A city might do it for planning and admin but that's it. Even their "definitions" tend to vary by department.
Seattle has no agreement at all. The Downtown Seattle Association does their thing. City planning does its thing. Tourism people do another. And as a resident I have my own ideas.
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