"Center City" or "Downtown"??? (Philadelphia, Erie: vs, ferries)

[rotodome]

Originally Posted by pman

Philadelphia has a downtown...has for sometime, though most now use the 60's planning name, center city

Yup. I grew up in Philadelphia, and people definitely called Center City "Downtown" when I was a kid, and many people still say it now. It's a little silly to say that there is no downtown Philadelphia. Center City is a term made up in fairly recent times, much like "University City" for that matter.

Edmund Bacon himself doesn't even use the term "Center City" in his book (Design of Cities, 1967) where he talks about all the transformative urban planning he was doing in Phiadelphia at the time.

[Blackbeauty212]

Yes Philadelphia does use "Downtown" mostly by the Natives....Transplants will use Center City because that's what's marketed.

Pittsburgh uses "Downtown" and "Town" i.e "I'm going into Town for Lunch"......Golden Triangle is only used in Marketing and Media....No one, Natives or Transplants uses the term "Golden Triangle".

[loose cannon]

downtown, center city whatever. No big deal

[KoNgFooCj]

Originally Posted by pman

Philadelphia has a downtown...has for sometime, though most now use the 60's planning name, center city

Um, not 60s. Much older than that.

[KoNgFooCj]

Originally Posted by couldntthinkofaclevername

Upper Darby has a downtown, at the area of 69th street and Market. It's the downtown because it's on the very edge of the township and is the most urban part. People who aren't from here probably mistake that part as being a part of West Philly.

That's basically just a neighborhood of Philadelphia.

[DavePa]

I say Center City or CC Philly .... because you never hear "downtown Philly" used in the PHILADELPHIA forum. Otherwise I would say downtown Philly.

[pman]

Originally Posted by KoNgFooCj

Um, not 60s. Much older than that.

Not really. I wasnt around then but old timers never called it cc, always downtown or uptown which says to me it is more recent. In the 60s a major planning document by bacon had center city, university city, and international city.

while growing up in West Oak Lane, her mother “went in to ‘the city’ or ‘downtown’ to shop."..“We called it uptown,” said a woman from South Philadelphia who now lives in Jersey, and uses the term Center City now.

“I’m 60 years old, I’ve lived in Philadelphia all my life, I’m from North Philly, we’ve always called it downtown,” another reader wrote

https://www.inquirer.com/news/philad...-20190528.html
For people in the suburbs it was "going to the city"
I suspect the effectiveness of the center city district has strengthened the branding

[tone77]

I grew up just south of Philly, in Chester. The downtown area was always referred to as "over town".

[PHL10]

Originally Posted by KoNgFooCj

Um, not 60s. Much older than that.

You do read a reference of "Center City" from a historic articles from time to time and like you said, Center City was not the creation of a 1960s planning term. I can't recall how old, turn of the century maybe? In any case, calling the Central Business District, "downtown" is and has always been used. I see downtown as being a much smaller area within Center City, which has been historically used for the original borders of the City, Vine to South between the rivers.

[TownDweller]

This is the first time I've seen "Downtown" used in relation to the Philadelphia city center in 7 months living here. I've only seen/heard it called "Center City." I thought it had always been that way.