"midtown"

[Arnold Zwicky]

palo alto has three business districts:
  (1) one along university avenue (which runs east-west), at
    the north end of town, just a few blocks from san francisquito
    creek (the northern border); city hall, the police station,
    the original main post office, etc. are in this area, which
    was the first town center; so are lots of high-tech firms and
    elegant stores and restaurants, and stanford is just west.
  (2) one along california avenue (also east-west), a mile and
    a half south of (1), just south of the stanford campus;
    the north [santa clara] county courthouse is here, plus a
    number of elegant restaurants, and the stanford industrial
    park is close by; this was originally the town center of
    mayfield, a town long ago absorbed into palo alto.
  (3) one along middlefield road (north-south), another mile
    or two south of (2), south of the oregon expressway; this
    is a fairly recent development, and it's mostly a shopping
    area; it's also close to the geographic center of palo alto.

district (1) is "downtown".  district (2) is just "california
avenue" ("california avenue business district" on signs).  district
(3) is "midtown".

arnold (zwicky at csli.stanford.edu), adding that columbus, ohio,
  has an obvious downtown, so called, and a bunch of other business
  districts, but nothing called "midtown"