KSDK Doesn’t Know Where Downtown Is
Today a Newschannel 5 news anchor said, and I am paraphrasing, ‘Head downtown for this year’s First Night in Grand Center.’
Since when is Grand Center in downtown?
To suburbanites from Chesterfield or St. Charles County everything in the City of St. Louis is “downtown.” Those who live in the land of strip malls, front garage tract homes and office parks don’t understand urbanity and the difference between downtown and other urban areas. To them, if it doesn’t look like suburban hell it must be downtown.
I’ve got a long way to go to get people to understand urbanity…
This New Year’s consider Grand Center’s First Night 2004 located in midtown’s Grand Center.
– Steve
I understand your point, but I think you are trying to “split hairs” a bit here. KSDK is going out to the entire St. Louis Area. The thinking is that unless you live in THE CITY proper, then anywhere in the City is considered Downtown.
I have lived in the City of St. Louis for over 6 years now, and I have very very rarely ever heard people refer to the various ‘PARTS’ of the City as Uptown, Midtown and Downtown. I think most refer to the area by Street name or by direction (e.g., “Wash Ave Area,” North St. Louis, CWE, etc. And this is from exclusively City People.
So, you have to educate a lot of CITY people about urbanity as well as the county folks!!
[Chris – you are right – I am splitting hairs. Which is funny considering I have a shaved head. Anyway, I agree I’ve got lots of educating to do. For decades we’ve been ruining our landscape with sprawl and as a result the concept of downtown has been changed in the public mind from the city center to anything resembling urbanity which includes many non-downtown areas such as midtown. – Steve]
Chris, my little transplanted friend, Steve is right on here. Having grown up here and still having many friends and family in the ‘burbs(regardless how they choose to live their lives I still love them, I just hope they don’t do it in public)they almost all refer to anywhere in the City of St. Louis as “downtown.” I live six miles from downtown yet that is where they INSIST I live and when I correct them they either say, “Yes, you do,” or “well, you know what I mean.” The variety of this city is far too rich than to be so easily trivialized in one lump.
Steve, I have to agree with you also. I live about 5 miles from downtown. You would be amazed at how everything in the city is “downtown” to friends and relatives who live in the county. I think it is just generalizing an area they may not be familiar with. One recent example, I had a family member call me on my cell phone wanting to meet up for lunch “downtown”. As luck would have it, I was already downtown running some errands. When I asked what they had in mind, they suggested a Vietnamese restaruant in the South Grand Business District.
As Dustin points out, this is a St. Louis tendency. In Chicago, I’ve found a different and more urbanistic one: if you tell an old-timer in one of the city’s neighborhood that you are “from Chicago” s/he’ll think that you mean that you live in the Loop or dowtown area. Anywhere else in th city has to be referred to by its actual neighborhood name or many lifelong Chicagoans will be confused.
This is something that has been bugging me since I moved here four years ago. And it is all of the major television media that does this as well. It was just a couple of months ago that KSDK had breaking news on their website that a construction worker was hurt downtown in an accident. It turns out it was really in the Central West End. That is quite a difference. It just seems so naive and takes their credibility away when they obviously know very little about the city. Fox2 is even worse, but they are so bad at everything that I rarely watch them.
I do not think it is splitting hairs at all……it is just one more indication that so few people in this region know much about the city, and they have no desire to. The city isn’t the center of this metro area to them, thanks to sprawl.
This made me laugh so hard, and it shouldn’t have because it’s so annoying. Have you heard the new Barnes/Children’s Hospital ads? They are infuriating! “My friend asked me why I would go ALL THE WAY DOWNTOWN. I told her I already drive that far for soccer games.” Is that not unbelievable? These are radio spots that are airing now. I spurt steam from my ears every time I hear them. I wasn’t aware that we had moved the CWE downtown–were you? 😉
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