midtown

[Donald M. Lance]

Alton IL has a "midtown" some 10 blocks up (elevationwise) from downtown.  My guess is
that some businesses were built along a somewhat major artery that went around the
original part of the town and then as houses were built beyond this area it was a
"semi-downtown" in a mid part of the town.  Some of the businesses have 'midtown' in their
names.  I doubt that there would be any inherent collar-color association with the word,
just whatever one finds in the socio-cultural idio-geography of the community that has
down-/mid-/up-towns.
DMLance

David Bergdahl wrote:

> In this small univ town students have always referred to the three
> blocks of small stores and bars a block wide on each side (with the
> courthouse and catty-corner a church in the center) as "uptown." I've
> always assumed it was used b/c there's no area developed enough to be
> called "downtown."  Dorm residents have to climb jeff Hill to get
> there--another explanation given for the "uptown" label.  Other shopping
> is done at malls on the state route going out of town which are known as
> "East State Street." Other streetsw with only small strip malls or
> retailers abutting the street are known by their street names also;
> "Columbus Rd," "Stimson Av" or "Richland Av."  I'm surprised to hear the
> blue collar/white collar distinction mentioned in an earlier post.
>
> -- db
> ____________________________________________________________________
> David Bergdahl          http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~bergdahl
> tel:  (740) 593-2783
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