City, Town, Downtown and Town Center

[tonado]

Today my wife asked me the difference between "City" and "Town". I told her that a big city has many people and a small town has not many people. Then she asked me what does "downtown" means. I told her that downtown is the center of a big city. She said "how come they don't call it 'downcity". Then she asked me where is the downtown of my town. I told her that a small town doesn't have a downtown. The small town has a center. She was confused.

[Guest bbridges51]

Oh, i don't know about that. For me, it's like the difference between a tree and a bush or a hill and a mountain.

 

And, small towns have downtowns too. They're just really really small.

 

B

[tonado]

Oh, i don't know about that. For me, it's like the difference between a tree and a bush or a hill and a mountain.

 

And, small towns have downtowns too. They're just really really small.

 

B

In Massachusetts, towns have centers (no downtowns).

[Bobby]

I did some digging around on dictionary.com.. it seems a city is incorporated, a town is not, but has a common market, and a village does not have a market.

 

Here's the difference from about.com (link):

In the United States, an incorporated city is a legally defined government entity, with powers delegated by the state and county and created and approved by the voters of the city. It can provide local government services to its citizens.

In most places in the U.S. a town, village, community, or neighborhood is simply an unincorporated community with no governmental powers. Usually, county governments provide services to these unincorporated communities. Some states do have official designations of "towns" that include limited powers.

 

What I was taught in highschool (for what its worth) is that its all dependent on the population/size of the community.

 

As far as 'downtown' goes, here's the formal definition (from The American Heritage Dictionary): The lower part or the business center of a city or town.

 

But I think what you say is probably regional. Colloquialisms are really tricky to explain, especially when they're taken in a literal sense (i.e. "My head's going to explode!"). One thing I read (on some random webpage) was that the US is somewhat unique in that when you ask someone how they are doing, the expected response is, "Fine" or "Ok". Apparently Americans always try to project a positive attitude no matter the circumstances (something I never really noticed, as an American).