OK, could you clear up some neighborhood names for me......

[douglasm]

.....a guy who hasn't lived in the Detroit area for a while.

I understand where Downtown is, but the term "Midtown" is confusing me a bit.

I'm trying to get a handle on what constitutes Midtown, and maybe some geographic guidelines using street names would help me. I'm assuming Midtown is centered around Wayne State and includes the Cultural Center, but does it include New Center? And how far towards Downtown does it extend. I guess east and west borders would be helpful, too....

Thanks in advance.

[48202]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midtown_Detroit

[douglasm]

OK, this is where I get lost. Note that I haven't lived in the Detroit area in about 40 years, but I was always under the impression that I guess what could be described as the "University District" ran up Cass to about the Dalglesh Cadillac building at Cass and Amsterdam. I am safe in assuming then that the New Amsterdam Historical District is NOT a part of Midtown, right?

Now, the second historical question. When did the term "Midtown" begin to come into common usage to describe the area in question?

[DetroitPlanner]

Midtown is the most popular place among the hipsters because it is surrounded by freeways. The freeways form a moat around it to keep out the rest of Detroit.

I think you are starting to split hairs. Amsterdam, like Midtown is a recently made up name. It refers to a street in New Center.

[48202]

Wrong University for the University District

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Univers...trict,_Detroit

[48202]

New Amsterdam Historic District is in New Center, not Midtown.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Ams...toric_District

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Center,_Detroit




I thought the freeways keep the hipsters out of the rest of Detroit.

[JenniferL]

I don't think Midtown has official borders, but I'd say it does include the New Amsterdam district as well as all the other neighborhoods along the Woodward between downtown and New Center-- the Cass Corridor, Brush Park, the Medical Center, the Cultural Center, the WSU campus, New Amsterdam. The Woodbridge neighborhood to the west of WSU is also considered part of Midtown, but I rarely see North Corktown described this way. I guess it's not hipster enough?

Obviously, I am the traditional type who prefers the old neighborhood names. Midtown is too generic.

[poobert]

I've NEVER heard of the "New Amsterdam" historic district referred to by anyone EVER, as such, and I had a friend who, oddly enough, lived there. Midtown is the box surrounded by the freeways, north of downtown. North of that is New Center, until you hit some vague place around Philadelphia Street.

[JenniferL]

I first heard the term New Amsterdam about ten years ago, when the hipsters began working/living there. Before then, it was just this vague area between WSU and New Center.

I guess hipsters like their neighborhoods to have a name?

[rb336]

Midtown is a state of mind man...

actually, for once, I think wikipedia is about right - bounded by I-75 on the east and south, lodge on the west and 94 to the north.

[48202]

The Midtown name was created by the UCCA, I think in the late 1990's. the New Amsterdam name was created by the New Center Council. The UCCA and New Center Council have since merged to form Midtown Detroit Inc.

Wikipedia has the boundaries of Midtown correct. I remember the newspaper articles from when it was first announced.

[KJ5]

I know they're trying to promote Midtown and eradicate usage of Cass Corridor but, to me, anything between MLK and 75 is still Cass Corridor. Ain't nuthin Midtown about Stadium Liquor or Peterboro between Cass and Second.

[313WX]

I know they're trying to promote Midtown and eradicate usage of Cass Corridor but, to me, anything between MLK and 75 is still Cass Corridor. Ain't nuthin Midtown about Stadium Liquor or Peterboro between Cass and Second.

^^^^^^Agreed.

[old guy]

New Amsterdam? Where would that location be? Just curious. Might want to make a trip back to Detroit.

[old guy]

Sounds better than wild wings for some odd reason.

[NoHeartAnthony]

The Corridor >>> Midtown.

[DetroitPlanner]

I thought the freeways keep the hipsters out of the rest of Detroit.

I am not worthy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oS2fEd1nhe8

[CleveBill]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midtown_Detroit

Wow, I don't know who the enterprising Wikipediac was who wrote this entry, but it's remarkably well done, with well-researched history of the area, maps and diagrams, and a lot of pretty photographs of the districts many fine buildings. All those non-Detroiters with visions of blighted neighborhoods and no grocery stores should be referred here.

[Hamtragedy]

Does that make 4th street the redlight district of New Amsterdam?

[greekt0wn]

Midtown is the most popular place among the hipsters because it is surrounded by freeways. The freeways form a moat around it to keep out the rest of Detroit.

Where do you people come up with this stuff? Protected by the highways, huh? Everything south of Mack and everything more than a block east or west of Woodward slumville. If everything goes right [[odds are against it), your comment might make sense in 20 years.

[Wesley Mouch]

Midtown is a recently created name for the Cass Corridor. We lost a unique place name in favor of an effort to forget the Corridor's bad days of the 70s thru the aughts. Too bad. The area was going to revitalize anyway. And we could gave kept a great place name. Now it's just yet another 'midtown' amongst dozens. It was the only Cas a Corridor.

[preserve]

Jumbo's in Midtown?????I don't think so, it's Jumbo's in the Cass Corridor

[douglasm]

I think in a way I find myself agreeing with Wesley in that I find that "created" names for areas just mess up my head. I am told that the inability to adapt to new things is a sign of growing old. Maybe it's so.

I think what confused me a little more than a little bit is that if there was a "Midtown" back in the 60's, I would have considered New Center to be it [[about midway between Downtown and the northern border), with "The Cultural Center" covering the general Wayne State area.

Just to be clear, Alvin's Finer Delicatessen IS [[or would have been) in Midtown but Dalgleish Cadillac would have been too far north, right?

[DetroiterOnTheWestCoast]

I think in a way I find myself agreeing with Wesley in that I find that "created" names for areas just mess up my head. I am told that the inability to adapt to new things is a sign of growing old. Maybe it's so.

I think what confused me a little more than a little bit is that if there was a "Midtown" back in the 60's, I would have considered New Center to be it [[about midway between Downtown and the northern border), with "The Cultural Center" covering the general Wayne State area.

Just to be clear, Alvin's Finer Delicatessen IS [[or would have been) in Midtown but Dalgleish Cadillac would have been too far north, right?

I know a lot of people seem to have issues with the "created" Midtown name. I personally think its a great way of branding and unifying the various smaller neighborhoods that make up midtown. As well as a way for an entity like Midtown Inc. to coordinate development.

Besides, all neighborhood names are just made up initially. Somebody "made up" the term Cass Corridor, it has no inherent superiority just because it was made up earlier.

[Wesley Mouch]

...Besides, all neighborhood names are just made up initially. Somebody "made up" the term Cass Corridor, it has no inherent superiority just because it was made up earlier.

By that logic, there's no inherent superiority in old buildings. Someone just built them. We can ignore the past safely.