One problem with the way we talk about cities is by talking about them if all they were is "downtown." The bit with the skyscrapers, the bit where the tourists tend to visit. We call it "center city" here. About 90,000 of the 1.5 million residents of Philadelphia (the city proper, not the metro area) live in center city (I don't, but I don't live too far from it), depending on where we draw the lines. Some of the city (NE bit) is more suburban in character, but most of the rest of the city is urban - good and bad - but not "downtown."
It reinforces the basic view that your choices are Midtown Manhattan or the suburbs and there's nothing in between. It isn't true.
