the.com/downtown
The part of the city skyline that looks important from a distance and empty after 6pm.
means The central or main business district of a city, typically the historic or commercial core.
from An American coinage, straightforwardly literal — it meant the part of a town lying 'down' toward the lower end, which in places like old Manhattan was indeed the lower (southern) tip of the island where the original settlement and business district sat. As cities grew northward or outward, 'uptown' and 'downtown' kept their compass-like meanings even after the literal 'down' stopped mattering — downtown just came to mean wherever the commercial heart of the city was, elevation be damned.
- origin
- coined in 1830s manhattan meaning literally lower on the island
- irony
- often has the fewest people actually living there
- petula clark
- made it sound like therapy in 1964
- zoning
- usually where the parking lots outnumber the buildings