Central business district: Difference between revisions
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*[[Sydney]], [[Sydney central business district]], [[New South Wales]] |
*[[Sydney]], [[Sydney central business district]], [[New South Wales]] |
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*[[Brisbane]], [[Brisbane central business district]], [[Queensland]] |
*[[Brisbane]], [[Brisbane central business district]], [[Queensland]] |
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*[[Gold Coast, Australia|Gold Coast]], [[Surfers Paradise]] ''(CBD)'', [[Queensland]] |
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*[[Perth, Western Australia|Perth]], [[Perth central business district]], [[Western Australia]] |
*[[Perth, Western Australia|Perth]], [[Perth central business district]], [[Western Australia]] |
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*[[Canberra]], [[City Centre, Australian Capital Territory]] |
*[[Canberra]], [[City Centre, Australian Capital Territory]] |
Revision as of 16:32, 12 March 2006
- For other meanings of the term downtown, see downtown (disambiguation).
- "City center" redirects here. For the performing arts venue, see New York City Center.
Central business district (CBD) and downtown are terms referring to a commercial heart of a city. Downtown is the usual term in North America. In the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Ireland, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand the term "central business district" is used by geographers and sometimes by others, but the term city centre is much more common in colloquial usage. In the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand, the term is often just shortened to the single word "city" in general conversation among residents of a city, giving rise to the phrase "going to the city". One exception is in London where "the City" specifically refers to the City of London financial district rather than to any other part of central London. Some cities in the United States have a mixed use district known as uptown near the downtown area (in Minneapolis, for example, Uptown is a district nearly adjacent to downtown, centered around the Uptown Theater on the intersection of Lagoon St. and Hennepin Ave.) On the other hand, in some cities, like Charlotte, North Carolina, uptown is simply the historic name for the business center.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/New_York_from_Empire_State_Building.jpg/200px-New_York_from_Empire_State_Building.jpg)
The CBD or downtown is the central district of a city, usually typified by a concentration of retail and commercial buildings. Although applicable to any city, both terms usually refer to larger cities.
The term city centre (or center city) is similar to CBD or downtown in that both serve the same purpose for the city, and both are seen by a higher-than-usual urban density as well as the often having the tallest buildings in a city. City centre differs from downtown in that downtown can be geographically located anywhere in a city, while city centre is located near the geographic heart of the city. Examples of a city centre can be found in Philadelphia, Boston, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Vancouver, Toronto, London, Sydney, and other cities. London effectively has three city centres rolled into one, namely the City of London, the medieval City of Westminster, and the newly built Canary Wharf.
List of typical CBD characteristics
A CBD is likely to have many of the following characteristics:
- It has a distinct land use pattern that can be delimited from the rest of the settlement.
- It is the geographical centre of the settlement.
- It contains the settlement's main public buildings.
- It contains the major retail outlets (though this is becoming less often the case, especially in the United States).
- Similar activities within it are concentrated in certain areas (functional zoning).
- It features vertical zoning.
- It has the greatest concentration and number of pedestrians and traffic in general.
- It is a focal point for transport.
- It contains the greatest proportion of the settlement's offices.
- It has the tallest buildings in the region to maximize land use.
- It has the highest land values of the region.
- It attracts people from outside its sphere of influence to work and spend money inside.
- It is advancing into new areas (assimilation) and/or losing old commercial functions (discard).
List of some notable CBDs and downtowns
Africa and the Middle East
- Johannesburg, Central Business District & Sandton
- Cape Town, Central Business District
- Durban, Central Business District and Umhlanga New Town Center
- Abidjan, Central Business District/Le Plateau
- Lagos, Victoria Island
- Nairobi, Central Business District
- Jerusalem, Ben-Yehuda Street
- Tel Aviv, Central Business District Tel Aviv
- Beijing, Beijing Central Business District
- Hong Kong, Central and Tsim Sha Tsui
- Shanghai, Pudong District
- Tokyo,Marunouchi and Otemachi ward.
- Saddar, Karachi
- Kuala Lumpur, Daerah Sentral Johor Bahru (Central District of Johor Bahru), Golden Triangle of Kuala Lumpur.Kuala Lumpur City Centre
- Manila, Makati, Ortigas Center, Taguig
- Singapore,The Central Area, Raffles Place, Orchard Road, Shenton Way and Marina Centre,Marina Bay, Singapore
- Adelaide, Adelaide central business district, South Australia
- Melbourne, Melbourne central business district, Victoria
- Sydney, Sydney central business district, New South Wales
- Brisbane, Brisbane central business district, Queensland
- Gold Coast, Surfers Paradise (CBD), Queensland
- Perth, Perth central business district, Western Australia
- Canberra, City Centre, Australian Capital Territory
- Townsville, Queensland, Townsville central business district
- Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin central business district
- Hobart, Hobart central business district, Tasmania
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e2/La_D%C3%A9fense1.jpg/150px-La_D%C3%A9fense1.jpg)
- Amsterdam around the central rings of canals.
- Antwerp, between the river Scheldt and main station.
- Barcelona The Northern section of the Barri Gotic, Ramblas and surrounding Eixample area.
- Berlin With two downtowns, one between Zoolog.Gtn Station to Kurfürstendamm (Traditionally West Berlin), and the other from Potsdamer Platz to Unter den Linden (Traditionally East Berlin)
- Birmingham, Surrounding the Bullring complex and business center.
- Brussels, in particular, the city of Brussels
- Budapest, central core and surrounding areas.
- Copenhagen, central core
- Dublin, Ireland, Dublin City Centre - central area of Greater Dublin Area, including docklands and city core.
- Düsseldorf, central core.
- Edinburgh, area's between the Old and New Towns.
- Frankfurt, The Bankenviertel (Banking District) or Innenstadt
- Geneva, near the mouth of the Rhône River
- Glasgow, in particular the city of Glasgow area.
- Hamburg, between the Elbe River to Binnenalster
- Helsinki, central core.
- Istanbul, The Levent District.
- Lisbon, central core.
- London, The City of London, West End, Canary Wharf.
- Lyon, Quartier de la Part-Dieu.
- Madrid, AZCA / Nuevos Ministerios
- Manchester, Manchester Central Business District
- Milan within central ring.
- Munich, The central core of the city.
- Naples central core and Centro Direzionale
- Oslo, central core
- Paris, Quartier de La Defense, Quartier de l'Opéra, Quartier du Val de Seine.
- Porto, central core.
- Prague, central core and surrounding areas.
- Rome, within central area. and the E.U.R. Esposizione Universale Roma
- Rotterdam, central city core.
- Stockholm, central core near entrance of lake Mälaren
- Valencia The area surrounding it's historical core.
- Vienna, centrao core and UNO-City
- Warsaw, Śródmieście
- Zurich, between the rivers Sihl and Limmat
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/41/Key_tower.jpg/150px-Key_tower.jpg)
- Downtown Albuquerque, New Mexico
- Journal Center, Albuquerque, New Mexico
- Downtown Anchorage, Alaska
- Downtown Atlanta, Georgia
- Loda, Downtown Mobile, Alabama
- Downtown Boston, Massachusetts
- Downtown Calgary, Alberta
- Uptown Charlotte, North Carolina
- Downtown Chattanooga, Tennessee
- Chicago Loop, Chicago, Illinois
- Downtown Cleveland, Ohio
- Downtown Dallas, Texas
- Downtown Detroit, Michigan
- Downtown Edmonton, Alberta
- Downtown Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
- Downtown Halifax, Nova Scotia
- Downtown Hamilton, Ontario
- Downtown Houston, Texas
- Downtown Kansas City, Missouri
- Downtown Los Angeles, California
- San Francisco Financial District, California
- Downtown Manhattan, New York City (the Lower Manhattan CBD)
- Midtown Manhattan, New York City (the largest CBD in the country)
- Downtown Miami, Florida
- Downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin
- Mississauga City Centre, Ontario
- Downtown Montreal, Quebec
- Downtown Nashville, Tennessee
- Downtown New Haven, Connecticut
- Central Business District, New Orleans, Louisiana
- Downtown Orlando, Florida
- Center City, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Downtown Phoenix, Arizona
- Downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- Downtown Portland, Oregon
- Downtown Quebec City, Quebec
- Downtown Regina, Saskatchewan
- Downtown Richmond, Virginia
- Downtown Salt Lake City, Utah
- Downtown San Jose, California
- Downtown Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
- Downtown Seattle, Washington
- Downtown Syracuse, New York
- Downtown Tampa and Westshore, Tampa, Florida
- Downtown Toronto, Ontario
- Downtown Vancouver, British Columbia
- Downtown Columbus, Ohio
- Downtown Columbia, Missouri
- El Centro, Mexico City, Mexico
- Santa Fe de Mexico, Mexico City, Mexico
- Providencia, Country Club and Puerta de Hierro, Guadalajara, Mexico
- Panama City, Panama