This article appeared in ThisWeek Clintonville, 11/2/06:

 

 

Defining downtown

Interstates and railroad tracks, or something more?

Thursday, November 2, 2006

By KEVIN PARKS

ThisWeek Staff Writer 

 

The line between one neighborhood and another is often blurry at best.

 

In no part of a city is this more true than for the downtown.

 

Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor of urban studies and history Robert M. Fogelson, in his 2001 book "Downtown: Its Rise and Fall, 1880-1950," wrote: "As a place, downtown was hard to define. Legally, it did not exist. Unlike the city of which it was a part -- indeed, unlike every parcel of real estate in the city -- downtown had no formal boundaries, no precise lines to show where it began and where it ended."

 

http://www.thisweeknews.com/index.php?sec=clintonville&story=sites/thisweeknews/110206/Clintonville/News/110206-News-251482.html

 

seriously, if they're going to call that big of an area downtown, they might as well call it downtowne

These boundaries have more thences than Tom Delay's old congressional district.

Morse to the North, Stelzer to the East, McCutcheon to the South and Sunbury to the West.

I was thinking Lake Erie to the Indiana border to the Ohio River to the Pennsylvania border, but whatever.

^ Those are the boundaries for the greater downtown, exceptions being the uninhabitable Cleveland and Cincinnati neighborhoods. Re-development of those areas is slated for completion by mid-2008. The Fountain Square project, however, will continue.

I'm quite fond of the Bucyrus neighborhood myself.

I was always under the impression that downtown was bordered by the Scioto River to the West, I-70 to the South, I-71 to the East, and I-670 to the North.

^That's basically downtown to most people.

I thought Easton was downtown??

No, "Downtown" is a suburb of Easton.

I was always under the impression that downtown was bordered by the Scioto River to the West, I-70 to the South, I-71 to the East, and I-670 to the North.

 

That's what the legal ordance (that started this thread) stated, except that the council threw a bone to the rail advocates and used the rail lines instead of the river so those rail lines would never be torn out.

No, "Downtown" is a suburb of Easton.

 

Actually both downtown and Easton are suburbs to OSU.

I was always under the impression that downtown was bordered by the Scioto River to the West, I-70 to the South, I-71 to the East, and I-670 to the North.

 

This was my impression. Interstates are good for creating boundaries, I'll never consider the area  below Ft. Washington Way part of downtown Cincinnati, the Banks name will probably stick, although it technically is part of the CBD.

Columbus has a downtown?!?!?!?!!?

:wink:

^Yeah apparently it's like 15 miles south of Polaris Mall or something, I don't know :]

I thought Easton was downtown??

 

apparently my posting was a bit too dense.

You mean dense like downtown Columbus, right?

You mean dense like downtown Columbus, right?

 

Like how filled the surface lots are.

I urge Columbus to give official recognition to the Surface Lot District, its boundaries beginning at the intersection of Interstate 70 and the western bank of the Scioto River; thence northeasterly along the Scioto River to the first railroad right-of-way; Thence northerly along said railroad right-of-way to the first intersecting railroad right-of-way; thence westerly along said railroad right-of-way to to the intersection of state Route 315; thence northerly along state Route 315 to the intersection of Interstate 670; thence easterly along Interstate 670 to the intersection of Interstate 71; thence southerly along Interstate 71 to the intersection of Interstate 70; thence westerly along Interstate 70 to the place of beginning.