Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I've always used the term "the City" to mean Manhattan. I was even using this terminology when growing up in Westchester (eg "my dad works in The City" means he works in Manhattan vs "my dad is taking me to a Yankee's game in The Bronx"). I'd say for people who grew up around here, "the city" has always been specific to Manhattan. What's interesting is that I might say "I live in New York City", to someone outside NY or the US but that doesn't have the same meaning as "I live in The City"...though when someone in NYC asks where you live, and you do live in Manhattan, you'd be neighborhood specific.
Well, the Bronx is technically "North Manhattan" since the numbered E/W streets, Broadway, Park and 3rd Avenue all continue there from Manhattan - so I'm guessing that's why you hear both "downtown" and "the city" here.
Some NYers do it, while some others don't. Funnily enough, the folks doing it live in the 'city' of New York Themselves. Where did this trend start or where and what era this this come from ? Is it the skyscrapers, then comes the question, not all large cities have an abundunce of skyscrapers ? But at the same time again, centers with big populations are cities in definition, Brooklyn and Queens are the largest boroughs in that matter.. When someone says 'I am going to the city' and I respond 'which city are you going too'
I refer to Manhattan as 'Manhattan'.. There is only one... and you ?
The presumptive in your question is that NYC has always existed as it does, presently. That transportation was always as simple and relatively easy as today. Also, that Manhattan has always had the precise relationship to the boroughs as it does today. Some of you Transplants, act as if NYC was invented just before you got here!
Also, one must comprehend the focus and significance of neighborhoods. Unless you grew up here it can escape you. In most cases, just a generation ago, *neighborhood* life was the focus. Generally, and this is especially so for the more residential and middle class neighborhoods, unless you worked in Manhattan, your rarely went to Manhattan.
EVERYTHING necessary existed in the commercial district of each neighborhood. Department stores, Cinemas, shops, dance halls, utility offices, everything. Affluent neighborhoods w/h their own Macy's or other major dept stores. For the average neighborhood person there was little need to leave the neighborhood.
Also, consider that Manhattan was, in regard to neighborohods and commercial districts LESS central! Most Manhattan neighborhoods had there own commercial districts. So, even if you lived on the island of Manhattan, you were not compelled to leave your neighborhood.
Consequently, a trip to the city for anything other than work (if that) was a relatively special or purposeful event. There was and remains a real distinction in being neighborhood focused versus going to "the city":
It was only the degradation and urban decay of the 70s and later, especially the 'Blackout', which gutted the neighborhoods of their commercial strips, along with white flight, suburbanization and malls!
Brooklyn and Flatbush are perfect examples, prior to the 80s, dowwntown Brooklyn and Flatbush containe dthe second and third largest shopping districts in the country!! I believe Flatbush at one point in the past had the second largest concentration of Movie Theaatres, behind only Times Square.
Personal example, I grew up in upper middle class Flatbush, and as a family, as well as my friends' families save one NEVER shopped in Manhattan. No Herald Square, No Fifth Avenue, no Fourteenth Street. Only as teenagers, seeking bargains did we venture to Delancy Street and that was like another world! Everything could be gotten right in the neighborhood or Downtown; and later at Kings Plaza Mall.
Also, in most neighborhoods residents had personal relationships with shop keepers and the personnel manning the big stores. They were relatives, friends, neighbors!
So, "The City" is a special place for special purposes, most often for exciting and above the average.; void of the intimacy of personality and personal connection of one's neighborhood. It is the 'other' distinct from **home**, the neighborhood!
You see this divide in movies like, Saturday Night Fever, Serpico, as well as within the character "Peggy" of Mad Men (particularly in the episode where she is set up with a 'route' driver from her Brooklyn neighborhood. He doesn't get why she works in Manhattan!). In the movies, crossing the river to Manhattan is transformational, a fully different world.
As a young person, a Transplant, or someone so soley focused upon Manhattan, the subtleties of this city and the nature of the boroughs escape many, who think themselves NYers.
Well, the Bronx is technically "North Manhattan" since the numbered E/W streets, Broadway, Park and 3rd Avenue all continue there from Manhattan - so I'm guessing that's why you hear both "downtown" and "the city" here.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
