[13], Real estate interests were particularly concerned about the tendency of downtown to move because the downtown area had by far the highest land values in each city. Find more ways to say downtown, along with related words, antonyms and example phrases at Thesaurus.com, the world's most trusted free thesaurus. During the postwar economic boom in the 1950s, the residential population of most downtowns crashed. Rate it: What does Downtown mean? Definition of uptown in the Definitions.net dictionary. By the 1700s, the duties of footmen became somewhat less athletic and included assisting the butler serving at table, answering the door, and running errands. DWTN: Downtown. [18], With the loss of manufacturing, the major cultural institutions, much of the retail shopping in the city, and its loss of status as the entertainment center, the nature of downtown had changed considerably. Boston slang consists of words and phrases of slang originating from and commonly used in Boston, Massachusetts.Though most often used in Boston, the slang can also be heard in other cities of Massachusetts or even other New England states, though not always as frequently. downtown (adverb) toward or … Others doubted whether decentralization had as strong an impact as it was credited with. Of, in, or characteristic of the central area or main business and commercial area of a town or city. When someone who lives in Downtown tells someone in the Woodland that they are "minutes away" it does not mean they are almost there. [23], When the boom was over, and the Depression had begun to have its effect, much of this new space became unneeded excess. See Crash, Mean time between failure. Learn more. [22], Like almost every other aspect of American life, the Great Depression had a major effect on the country's downtown area. (View), Downtown and Midtown Residents Association, Downtown Bryan Economic Development Association. downtown - WordReference English dictionary, questions, discussion and forums. Downtown is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart, and is often synonymous with its central business district (CBD). And in many cases, the downtown area or central business district, itself began to grow, such as in Manhattan where the business district lower Manhattan and the newer one in midtown began to grow towards each other,[Notes 1] or in Chicago, where downtown expanded from the Loop across the Chicago River to Michigan Avenue. They … [4], During the late 19th century, the term was gradually adopted by cities across the United States and Canada to refer to the historical core of the city, which was most often the same as the commercial heart of the city. Uptown: a "straightlaced", "formal" style. business district, downtown (adj) the central area or commercial center of a town or city. [14], One way in which downtown changed from the late 19th century to the early part of the 20th century was that industrial concerns began to leave downtown and move to the periphery of the city, which meant that downtown's businesses were chiefly part of the burgeoning service sector. Rate it: DTWN: Downtown. The same relationship was true in St. Louis in the mid-20s (20%) and Los Angeles in the early 1930s (17%). The phrase acknowledged the existence of other business districts in the city, but allocated to downtown the primacy of being "central", not only geographically, in many cities, but also in importance. Last edited on Feb 19 2013. If downtown is going to refer to anyplace on the basketball court, it should be near the basketball where most of the action is. Literally, to go to the central part of a city. downtown meaning: 1. in or to the central part of a city: 2. in or to the central part of a city: 3. in or to the…. Hotels which needed to have large staffs, and required high occupancy rates to make a profit were also deeply affected; in Manhattan the hotel occupancy rate fell from 1929's 70% to around 50% in 1933. As the buildings got taller, the thickness of the masonry and the space needed for elevators did not allow for sufficient rentable space to make the building profitable. downtown (adverb) of or located in the lower part of a town, or in the business center. Not all the movie theaters in the periphery were palaces, but some were, and the net effect was that downtown was no longer the entertainment center of the city. Inside its small precincts, sometimes as small as several hundred acres, the majority of the trading, selling, and purchasing – retail and wholesale – in the entire area would take place. Meaning of uptown. These were widely known as "taxpayers", as they generated enough revenue for the owner of the lot to pay the taxes on it. ‘Among them are a regular foot patrol in the city's downtown business area.’. (noun) Not only was the high cost of land downtown a factor, but these institutions wanted larger plots of land than were available there, so that their buildings could themselves be easily perceived as works of art. North American. When a man/woman goes down on another person (in most cases refering to a woman) and gives her/him oral pleasure. See more words with the same meaning: oral sex, 'go down on'. Anything north of the speaker is uptown. Anything south of where the speaker is currently standing, in most places, is said to be downtown. However, just after passing The Crescent, The city and county have also invested substantial public funds in redirecting Port Washington Way, a freeway p roviding easy access to. (Not Mentioned) The vowel sound in “fire” can sound like the vowel sound in “far.” “Arn” for “iron” The “l” sound can sound more like a “w” sound. Literally, to go to the central part of a city. A person standing on 121st Street and walking ten blocks south could also be said to have walked ten blocks downtown. "Dahntahn" A unique way of saying "downtown" in Pittsburgh's local lingo. Let's have a few drinks at home first; we can go downtown later on. ‘a downtown bar’. Definition of the noun downtown. the central area or commercial center of a town or city. City's core or central business district (CBD) in North America, The movement of the two districts towards each other was stopped at first by the difficulty of building very tall buildings in the area between them, because the bedrock of, Frieden, Bernard J. Last edited on Jan 30 2014. going downtown. [25] Due to well-intended but ineptly executed urban revitalization projects, downtowns eventually came to be dominated by high-rise office buildings in which commuters from the suburbs filled white-collar jobs, while the remaining residential populations sank further into unemployment, poverty, and homelessness. Term. The Oxford English Dictionary's first citation for "down town" or "downtown" dates to 1770, in reference to the center of Boston. [4] Thus, anything north of the original town became known as "uptown" (Upper Manhattan), and was generally a residential area, while the original town – which was also New York's only major center of business at the time – became known as "downtown" (Lower Manhattan). “Cuzo” Despite its obvious similarities to the word “cousin,” this phrase is more general. As cities expanded, people built further away from the water and their historical cores, often uphill. [24], Another sign that downtowns were no longer as central to city life as they once were include the decreased portion of retail trade that took place there as compared to the peripheral business areas, which profited by the growth of the chain stores, to the detriment of the big downtown department stores. In between were those who saw a diminishment of the area's influence, but not enough to prevent it from remaining the "Sun" that the outlying business districts revolved around. Its daytime population was not keeping pace with the population growth of the city around it, and property values, while continuing to rise, were not rising as fast as those in the secondary business districts. Theaters, vaudeville houses, dance halls and night clubs had been primarily located in downtown, with nickelodeons spread throughout the city. Demand for commercial space was so light that it did not make financial sense to construct expensive new buildings, and banks began to refuse to make loans for that purpose, redlining whole neighborhoods in the central business bistrict.[24]. It was also the place where street congestion was the worst, a problem for which a solution was never really found. Examples Of How Downtown Is Used In Commentary. [3] Some have posited that the term "downtown" was coined in New York City, where it was in use by the 1830s to refer to the original town at the southern tip of the island of Manhattan. Excess commercial space began to be used, vacancy rates dropped, department store sales rose, hotel occupancy rates went up, and revenues increased. “dahntahn” for “downtown” The vowel in words like “stuff” can be pronounced with the tongue further down in the mouth. 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