Talk:Downtown

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This article is written in American English, which has its own spelling conventions (color, defense, traveled) and some terms that are used in it may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus.

Uptown/Downtown physically in terms of river flow[edit]

In the article, it talks about Manhattan and how uptown would be north because that is up on the map given that north is usually at the top and how there is some confusion because some cities have uptowns that are south of downtown.

In my city, Winnipeg, there is a fort called Upper Fort Gary which is up river (and south) from a fort called Lower Fort Gary - their names coming from the flow of the river. (Or the terms ‘upper Egypt’- to the south but higher ground than ‘lower Egypt’ to the north)

Obviously in Manhattan the Hudson and the east river flow south, so lower Manhattan would be down river and anything up river would be upper or higher.

I don’t know but I was expecting to see something like this in the explanation of downtown verses uptown.

Surely people’s understanding of higher or ‘up’ ground and low or ‘down’ ground predates the convention of North being at the top of the page?

But I don’t know. Kathrynstemler (talk) 05:01, 8 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I am aware of the general usage of "up" and "down" in connection with water currents - not just rivers, either: on Cape Cod one goes "down Cape" to Provincetown by traveling north, because the ocean currents run that way. It's the same in Maine. However, I've never seen anyone connect this to "downtown" as the name for the core of a city or its central business district. Do you have a source which connects the two? Without a source, there's no way we can include what would be speculative WP:OR. Beyond My Ken (talk) 06:23, 8 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

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