Date: Mon, 2 Oct 1995 16:32:54 EST

From: David Beach BEACH[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]CMC.CZ

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

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