Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Wiktionary
n. The interior, central part of a city, as opposed to the suburbs
WordNet
n. the older and more populated and (usually) poorer central section of a city
Wikipedia
The inner city is the central area of a major city or metropolis. Inner city areas tend to have higher population densities than outer suburbs, with more of the population living inside multi-floored townhouses and apartment buildings.
In the United States and United Kingdom, the term "inner city" is often used as a euphemism for lower-income residential districts in the city centre and nearby areas with, in the US, the additional connotation of impoverished black neighborhoods. Sociologists sometimes turn this euphemism into a formal designation, applying the term "inner city" to such residential areas, rather than to geographically more central commercial districts. However, some inner city areas of American cities have undergone gentrification, especially since the 1990s.
Such connotations are less common in other countries, where deprived areas may be located in outlying parts of cities. For instance, in many European and Brazilian cities, the inner city is the most prosperous part of the metropolis, where housing is expensive and where elites and high-income individuals dwell. Poverty and crime are more associated with the distant suburbs. The same is true of many American cities, like New York and San Francisco, and is becoming true of other cities as they become revitalized. The Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, French and Swedish words for suburb (sobborgo, suburbio, subúrbio, banlieue and förort respectively) often have a negative connotation similar to that of the English term "inner city", especially when used in the plural.
The American sociological usage is rooted in the middle 20th century. When automobiles became affordable in the United States and forced busing ensued, many middle and high-income residents, who were mostly white, moved to suburbs to have larger lots and houses, and a lower crime rate. The loss of population and affluent taxpayers caused many inner city communities to fall into urban decay. Late in the century, many such areas underwent gentrification, especially in the Northeast and West coast, depriving them of the "inner city" label despite their unchanged location.
Inner City (; ) is part of (and more or less equivalent with) the historic old town of Pest. Until 1949, Inner City was the 4th District. Today it is one of the two neighbourhoods of the District V of Budapest, Hungary, the other one being Lipótváros ("Leopold Town") which is the political and financial centre of Hungary. Budapest's main shopping street, Váci utca ("Váci Street") is located in the District V, as is the large part of the city's commercial life, banks and travel agencies. Many tourists start sightseeing there.
Today a colloquial definition of inner city (or city centre, both with lower case letters) also exists according to which the city centre of Budapest in a broader sense is bordered by the Grand Boulevard on Pest side of the city. In Buda (if it is also included), it is bordered by the continuation of Grand Boulevard by Margit körút, Krisztina körút, Budaörsi út and Bocskai út. The broader sense of the city center comprises the whole 5th district and some areas of the 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th and 13th districts on the Pest side, while sometimes even some areas of Buda is also included, like part of the 1st, 2nd, 11th and 12th districts.
Inner City is an American electronic music group that formed in Detroit, Michigan, in 1987. The group is composed of the record producer and composer Kevin Saunderson and the Chicago, Illinois vocalist Paris Grey. Saunderson is renowned as one of the Belleville Three—along with Juan Atkins and Derrick May—high school friends who later originated the Detroit techno sound.
The inner city is the central area of a major city.
Inner City may refer to:
Inner City is a 1995 film directed by Jean-François Richet. It stars Cyrille Autin and Emmanuelle Bercot. It won an award at the 1995 Avignon Film Festival.
Inner City is a role-playing game published by Inner City Games Designs in 1982.
Usage examples of "inner city".
The inner city-world of Lusus was much as I remembered it from my brief sojourn there: a series of Hive towers above the vertical canyons of gray metal.
Garbage was leaving the inner city, though a few of those ash pits turned garbage pits were being made to grow food.
I'm Sapphire Carpenter, and I know more about love than any woman in the inner city.
Paul's sleeping chamber looked over a deep abyss to the gentle arc of a footbridge constructed of crystal-stabilized gold and platinum, decorated by fire jewels from far Ccdon The bridge led to the galleries of the inner city across a pool and fountain filled with waterflowers with blood-red petals In another direction he could see the lower buildings of the government warren Within Paul s view also were coloss&I structures showing every extravagance of architecture a demented history could produce and a rapacious hand could seize terraces like mesas, squares as large as cities parks, premises, bits of cultured wilderness, a postern from most ancient Baghdad, a dome dreamed in mythical Damascus, an arch from the low gravity of Atar .
There, the crews surrendered their reins to servants from the inner city, and each load was vigorously searched before the goods rolled forward.
Scouts had already gone forward to inspect the enemy force, bringing back news that weighed on Valentine like a leaden cloak: an immense army, they reported, a sea of warriors filling the broad flat plain that occupied hundreds of square miles below the Inner City of Bombifale.
Jofre asked as they boarded the port flitter to return to the inner city.
Karkand lay beyond, its vast sprawl of suburbs fortified by walls and its inner city grown up in rings around a hill that rose out of the flat land.