Midtown

Midtown may refer to:

Places

In cities

Other places

Midtown Manhattan

Midtown Manhattan, or simply Midtown, represents the central lengthwise portion of the borough and island of Manhattan in New York City. Midtown is home to some of the city's most iconic buildings, including the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, and the headquarters of the United Nations, and it contains world-renowned commercial zones such as Rockefeller Center, Broadway, and Times Square. Along Manhattan's north-south long axis, Midtown Manhattan separates Lower Manhattan from Upper Manhattan.

Midtown Manhattan is the largest central business district in the world and ranks among the most intensely used pieces of real estate in the world. While Lower Manhattan is the main financial center, Midtown is the country's largest commercial, entertainment, and media center; Midtown Manhattan is also a growing financial center, second in importance in the United States only to Lower Manhattan's Financial District. The majority of New York City's skyscrapers, including its tallest hotels and apartment towers, lie within Midtown. The area hosts commuters and residents working in its offices, hotels, and retail establishments; many tourists, visiting residents, and students populate the district. Some areas, such as Times Square and the Fifth Avenue corridor, have large clusters of retail stores, and Times Square is the center of Broadway theatre. The Avenue of the Americas holds the headquarters of three of the four major U.S. television networks.

Midtown, Houston

Midtown is a district southwest of Downtown Houston, bordered by Neartown, Interstate 69/U.S. Highway 59 and Interstate 45.

History

Around 1906 what is now Midtown was divided between the Third Ward and Fourth Ward. Before the 1950s what is now Midtown was a popular residential district. Increasingly, commercial development lead homeowners to leave for neighborhoods they considered less busy. The area became a group of small apartment complexes, low-rise commercial buildings, and older houses. According to a City of Houston report, the remaining churches and the Houston Community College System Central campuses provided the neighborhood's "only stability."

In the 1970s, Midtown became home to Little Saigon, a neighborhood of Vietnamese and Vietnamese Americans, who pioneered the redevelopment of Midtown Houston. During the 1980s, Travis and Milam Streets were viewed as a mirror image of 1970s era Saigon. The Vietnamese areas were established around Milam Street, Webster Street, Fannin Street, and San Jacinto Street. By 1991 this Little Saigon had Vietnamese restaurants, hair salons, car shops, and travel agencies. Mimi Swartz of Texas Monthly stated in 1991 that "Little Saigon is a place to begin easing into a new country".