December 9, 2005
Mid-Who?
We first heard the name "midtown" used to refer to a neighborhood in D.C. by a friend who occasionally frequented the clubs along Connecticut Avenue between Farragut Square and Dupont Circle. Other friends have frowned on the term, arguing the name was simply lifted from New York. We're split on the term: it can be a useful descriptor, though we tend to shy away from the New York-D.C. comparisons the word invites. Do you think D.C. has a "midtown"?
Now another neighborhood is seeing the invasion of "mid": In the last year, a cluster of businesses along U and 14th Streets Northwest have created the "MidCity Business Association," and have begun to try to market the area as "MidCity." While the concept of a business association, by any name, comprised of this geographic area certainly makes sense, at least one older resident we spoke to resents the suggestion of the name, pointing out "U Street has always been U Street." The whole episode reminds us of the story surrounding "Little Ethiopia" that popped up last summer, where local residents resisted putting up a sign on 9th Street just off of U, where a number of Ethiopian-owned businesses have opened.
Of course, naming controversies aren't limited to neighborhoods and streets alone. For the sake of market value, developers have been known to invent all sorts of fanciful names for their projects. Our favorite twist is adding "heights" to neighborhood names to stretch their boundaries. Particular offenders pointed out to us include a development in Glover Park that calls itself "Georgetown Heights" and a project we spotted just a block or two off of U Street the developers insisted on calling "Logan Heights". The last time we commented on naming issues a commenter suggested another favorite naming slight-of-hand: "Realtors have a quaint name for the former swampland in Northeast.... 'Capitol Hill.'"
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what about Cardozo? That is somewhere in the vicinity - as in the U St-Cardozo-African American Civil War Memorial metro. Then again, I've never heard anyone say "I live in Cardozo"."
I felt the same way about "West End," but apparently that name is older than the real estate boom.
"Lifted from New York" doesn't seem like a legitimate complaint, the neighborhood in Atlanta along Peachtree Street north of downtown and south of Buckhead has been Midtown for a long time.
I'd have to agree with Matt, numerous, if not most, large cities have a midtown district not just New York. Not that I like that name for the area in question though.
What are the geographical boundaries of "Uptown" in D.C.?
Yeah, it's hard to have a problem with midtown, which, like downtown and uptown, is a geographical indicator common to many cities. As a neighborhood name, though, MidCity seems awful. So bland and impersonal, revealing nothing about the area. Unless the developers want that area to be bland and impersonal.
Wow, do I ever hate Midcity. Sounds so freaking corporate.
And I think uptown starts around the rise in elevation, around U Street, that is. I guess that would make from U to Mass Ave midtown, and below Mass downtown. Or something.
I've always wondered about "Columbia Heights" the sign on the health center calls that neighborhood Upper Cordozo. I assume that we had a name change there at one time, too.
I live in Ward 4, between 13th and 14th Street near Upshur. I swear that this is Petworth. And the city thinks so too, if I use the Citizen's Atlas app at DC.gov. But the houses that are going up for sale on our block are all listed as being in Columbia Heights. I live like 2 blocks from the Petworth library and postal station and like 14 from the CH metro station, I guess the real estate agents are hoping people won't actually walk around the neighborhood and notice where it is.
Even worse, though, is expanding current desirable neighborhoods to encompass less-than-desirable ones. Like advertising houses clearly in Mount Pleasant as "Adams Morgan," or the area around 9th and P as "Logan East"
I've heard Mid-City tossed around from time to time for years. In my mind it means everything in that section of Northwest east of Rock Creek Park.
Out of curiosity, I recently walked through an open house for a condo in the 1400 block of Florida Ave NW, which is a few blocks north of U Street. The flyer for the place definitely said "DUPONT!!!" under the photo. Hardly. Even the realtor said that the walk to the Dupont metro is "a hike."
yeah yeah, This whole Logan Circle neighborhood piece blows my mind too.
Logan is Shaw. I was charged to hear that where I live (by HU) is now "NoLo."
There's a seafood place on 14th Street near Logan Circle called the "Mid-City Fish Market". Looks like it's been there for about 100 years. Maybe the name does pre-date the development.
Yeah, that's a time worn feature. The further you get from the center of a desirable neighborhood, the more the name appears. For instance, technically speaking, the northern edge of Georgetown is Reservoir (west of Wisconsin) and R St. (East of Wisconsin), but try finding a home in Burleith that doesn't advertise itself as being in Georgetown. Let alone all the Wisconsin Ave. businesses between Georgetown and Glover Park.
Although my favorite trick was what you'd see in the Post for apartment listings: "NW". You could always assume that when a listing said the apartment was in northwest, they meant "barely NW".
There shouldn't be a "midtown" in DC, just as there shouldn't be an "uptown," per se, in DC. The downtown/midtown/uptown nomenclature fits cities, like NYC, Atlanta or Seattle, that run primarily North/South (though other North/South cities--like Chicago or San Francisco--don't use that naming convention). I suppose East/West would work as well, but the main east/west cities (e.g. Portland, Boston) don't use that kind of designation (though downtown is always used to refer to the primary office building location).
The "midtown" name just does not work in some cities, and its artificial in DC. Where is "midtown" in L.A.? Where is the "midtown" in Miami? There isn't, and (although I hate to turn the debate that way) the people who use "midtown" are primarily people who come into the city to play on the weekends.
D.C. has neighborhood areas (like many other cities). So, yes, there is a "downtown" where the office buildings are, but no "real" uptown---sure people might call the cleveland park area "uptown" b/c of the Uptown theater, but you more likely to here "cleveland park" than "uptown," which people are just using instead of "north" (b/c they also say uptown to refer to tenleytown).
The "midtown" area is really just Dupont Circle, or lower Dupont if you want to be absolutely clear. How is Lucky Bar in "midtown" but Big Hunt in "dupont"---it doesn't make any sense, they are a block difference.
These names don't work in DC, and its people that don't take the time to learn the neighborhood names in D.C. that use these generic terms.
ALSO: (1) Penn Quarter is another invented name; it didn't exist even 5 years ago. Sells better than Chinatown, I guess. (2) Midcity is a horrible name. I bet the Ad Wizards over at Initech came up with that one.
Respect your city. Don't say "midtown."
Except look at the date the Uptown Theater was built and named, and you will see that Cleveland Park (and north) has been referred to as "uptown" for quite some time. There are many historical references to the Uptown name.
Agreed that "mid-city" is awful, however.
Andrew
manhattans downtown refers to the southern end of the island, so wouldnt that make hains point the dc geographical downtown? and if so, wouldnt that make the office complexes in "downtown" really our "midtown"? the "uptown" urban density decreases north of the calvert street bridge across columbia road, where rowhouses and detached homes are more likely to be found than office buildings and large apartment and condo buildings.
dclounger - Maybe not as neighborhoods, but I don't have any problem using "uptown" and "downtown" as cardinal directions. I mean, Cleveland Park is pretty clearly "uptown" from Farragut Square.
As for the block difference between Big Hunt and Lucky Bar and, therefore, Dupont Circle and Midtown, well, 14th and Columbia is Columbia Heights, 16th and Columbia is the edge of Mount Pleasant, 18th and Columbia is Adams Morgan, and Columbia and Connecticut is Dupont Circle. That's how boundaries work.
I for one support letting the Real Estate Developers name their little Monopoly land areas. That way we don't have to tmeet and debate and think for ourselves.
I just saw an ad in the CityPaper last night for "MidCity" and my immediate thought was, "Wow, a new artificial neighborhood name that I hate even more than 'Penn Quarter'." And that's impressive.
I'm partial to "Middle Earth".
'Midtown' is a helpful descriptor if you're talking to someone not familiar with the area. To those who know their way around, you can just say the neighborhood, and if you're looking for a word for the whole general area....I don't know. Ward 1, maybe?
wouldn't "mid town" be the capitol because its in the middle of the city?
I live at 18th and Florida and have seen it called Dupont, Kalorama, Kalorama Triangle, Temple Hills, etc.
all i know is that i can't wait for the checks cashed to be bought out.
Matt: yea, I think uptown/downtown work as cardinal directions as well. But beyond that it gets dicey: quick---cleveland park or tenleytown, what's the "real" uptown?
My point about the block difference (which I admittedly didn't make to not turn this into a whole DC v. Suburbs thing) is that "midtown" is most often used to describe the club area of the intersection of 18th and Connecticut. People label 1223, Ozio, Setso Senso, Dragonfly, ESL, etc. as "Midtown," but label Lucky Bar as "Dupont" b/c it doesn't fit in with the rest of the "Midtown" mold. And it works in the reverse as well. Their is the (semi?) annual "Mid-Town bar crawl" (run by virginians at last check, btw) which heads from Vida to Rumors to Sign of the Whale and whatnot. The people going to those "midtown" bars would probably tell you that they don't go to the "Dupont" bars of 1223, Ozio, etc.
The point is that "midtown" has a poor concept popularized by people who don't take the time to figure out the real names of places are. True, maybe 18th & Connecticut is too far from Dupont (1 block from the circle at last check*) and deserves its own name, but why people don't just call it lower dupont, south dupont, m street in dupont, or even (gasp) 18th and connecticut is beyond me. If I had to guess, it's because the people calling it "midtown" don't even bother to learn the names of the main roads they take to get there (instead just "knowing" the way).
*I say 1 block, but you could arguable say 2 blocks depending on where you stand on 18th or Connecticut. If you are on the east-side of the street, it's 1 block (b/c it crosses right about at N Street), if you're on the west-side it's arguable 2 blocks b/c it crosses at Jefferson street which is a street halfway between M and N street.
Mid-City is NOT artificial... go to the library's Washingtoniana room and you'll see it listed throughout several old real estate guides. In addition to the Mid City Fish market, there also used to be the Mid City Post Office.
I also like to whine about name changes, but in this case they're going back to their roots.
Michael's right; it was Mid-City before "Logan" was stretched northward and before there was a "Dupont East". I believe a couple of the auto repair places had "mid-city" in the name too, in addition to the Fish Market, where one can apparently get a frighteningly cheap breakfast.
Believe it or not, I have been known to use Cardozo to describe where I live (14th and T). People understand which Metro stop I live near, and it just seems to be more accurate.
I don't mind Mid-City, though, since it encompasses several more granular neighborhoods. Also, Mid-City sounds uniquely DC, and not some blatant emulation of NYC. (re: SoFlo, NoLo, etc.)
instead of just griping, maybe you should have looked at MCBA's website first:
"MidCity Communities and Service Area:
The MidCity commercial district encompasses the neighborhoods of U Street, Logan Circle, Cardozo Shaw, South Columbia Heights, Meridian Hill, Rhode Island West, among others, while bordering on and including parts of Adams Morgan, Dupont Circle, Columbia Heights, Shaw and the Downtown BID."
Yes, they are marketing, but a whole bunch of neighborhoods, not just one. thus, the midcity name, like the old midcity post office.
With more and more complaint and gripe laden "stories" like this one, DCist is quickly moving off of my read list...
Also, remember that the section of the Green Line between downtown and Fort Totten was known as the Mid-City Line in planning and construction. Because the boundaries of Shaw, Logan Circle, Dupont and the U Street corridor all blend together, it isn't at all surprising blanket terminology for the entire area under the name Mid-City has developed. Whether it will catch on, that is a whole other matter.
Let's promise here and now to never refer to Columbia Heights as "CoHi." Please?
Funny how all of the references to where a "midtown" or "mid-city" would be completely ignore that Northeast, Southeast, and Southwest exist.
there were some surprises here. Mid-City is old, but it's goofy. I don't think it ever meant a neighborhood as much as a collection of neighborhoods.
Now LeDroit Park. dang! that's a neighborhood you HAVE to read about. LeDroit Park was the sh*t back in the day.
Or look at how Spring Valley became a "Name" in the 1980s from an area people didn't care much about.
Before Grover Cleveland bought his house in Cleveland Park the term Uptown was used frequently. However Uptown is not a neighborhood, it's a designation like NW- mostly meaningless.
This kind of thing is very common. I grew up in West Bethesda in the 60s-70s when Bethesda was ethnically diverse and middle class so "West Bethesda" was the classy part (sic)
Meh. I don't have anything fundamentally against "Midcity", except that it's horribly bland. The only thing I'd absolutely stipulate is that they CANNOT use two capitals in the name. MidCity--awful.
I've always considered Uptown the area between Connecticut and Wisconsin, north of Cathedral. Obviously it's a name that overlaps a whole lot of different neighborhoods within, each with their own unique names. (Although Cleveland Park is freakin' huge on its own.)
One thing that does differentiate DC from NYC, for instance, is the fact that the Metro stations here are generally named after neighborhoods, or at least streets that can be used as place names...unlike NYC's subway stops, which are normally named after numbered streets of course. Even when streets are used as the name of Metro stops, entire outlying areas have adopted that name. For instance, I live at Connecticut and Albemarle, which traditionally is considered part of Forest Hills...however, I'd challenge anyone to find anybody living here who wouldn't say that they live in "Van Ness". Same for Woodley Park--basically a name that WMATA invented, and Gallery Place, and so forth.
And Matt--you're talking about 9th and P being "Logan East"; not too long ago, in the days before gentrification, real estate agents were referring to Logan proper as "Dupont East".