Date: Mon, 2 Oct 1995 16:32:54 EST From: David Beach Subject: Re: downtown/inner city Tom Uharriet wrote: > Greetings, > When did "downtown" become "inner-city"? > As a child, I used to go downtown to the heart of Los Angeles. Now > it the inner-city. At first glance, this brings up many perceptional issues: racial, ethnic, gentrificational. I lived in Washington for 15 years. The perception is that there is a downtown (the business district), an inner city (the residential district), a federal district (the government buildings) and an area that has no definition, but is not considered one of the above (more affluent business and residential areas such as Georgetown, Dupont Circle, etc). I lived in the inner city, and then outside of the city, but "inside the beltway" which has another connotation: "outside the beltway" is suburbia whereas "inside the beltway" is a mixture of urban and suburban with an emphasis on the politics of government. For example, it is common to hear the expression "outside the beltway" to refer to Americans' views of the government away from the Washington metropolitan area (eg "The opinion of Americans outside the beltway is that Washington is full of hot air."). This could be an interesting thread of discussion for a while. David + David Beach * Business English * Czech Mgmt Center + namesti 5. kvetna 2 * 250 88 Celakovice * Czech Rep + ph: +42 202 891441 fax: +42 202 891997 + "That so few now dare to be eccentric marks + the chief danger of our time." - John Stuart Mill