Definition of Downtown (brokers, living in, to move)

[Sarah2k9]

Is Downtown Manhattan the area of 14th street south? Is lower Manhattan the samething?

[Fred314X]

There's no official boundary line designating "downtown" or "lower Manhattan." They're just different ways of referring to the southern part of the island. (And the more specific you try to get, the more arguments you'll create!)

If you need to be able to separate the terms, downtown is probably more commonly used to designate a business district, and so that's probably just a bit more specific than lower Manhattan.

[neil1973]

I think "downtown" has officially moved to Brooklyn.

[Sarah2k9]

Originally Posted by neil1973

I think "downtown" has officially moved to Brooklyn.

Brooklyn always has its own downtown, NY 11201. It doesn't need to move there. I've never heard of Queens downtown or the Bronx downtown. Maybe they don't exist.

[G.Costanza]

"Lower Manhattan" is probably easier to define: the areas below Canal St (or below Chinatown to be more precise), i.e. Financial District; BPC; Tribeca, etc.

"Downtown" can mean anything nowadays, especially since brokers on craigslist use that term to describe FiDi apt's without tipping off out-of-towners that they'd be living in the middle of a commercial district. Due to such mis-use, the name is becoming more and more meaningless now. FWIW, here's how the Downtown Alliance defines it:

Downtown Alliance (http://www.downtownny.com/aboutus/who/district/ - broken link)

[Biskit]

This should answer your question: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzUICBMQBNU

[UrbanAdventurer]

Originally Posted by Sarah2k9

Is Downtown Manhattan the area of 14th street south? Is lower Manhattan the samething?

yeah, basically. The big clump of tall buildings at the south end of MH is "downtown" in my mind. (as opposed to the clump of tall buildings in the center.)