Last week, we published a business story titled Opening Soon in Downtown Salem: Celia's Restaurant in an attempt to advance the opening of a new city eatery.
It didn't take long for you, our readers, to point out that the future home of Celia's, 88 Congress St., isn't exactly located in the heart of downtown.
As the emails and comments continued to pour in, I began asking city residents on our Salem Patch Facebook page where downtown Salem starts and ends - and the answers never seemed to be the same.
So, we thought this might be a good opportunity to use one of our interactive maps to settle this dispute once and for all. We've marked off a few proposed limits using the reader comments from our Celia's article.
Here's what some of our Facebook followers had to say:
Joni B Lawrence: Congress Street is "Downtown Salem?"
James Willis: I consider anything over the Congress St. bridge to be unquestionably outside of downtown, it's in the Point.
Megan Nelson Addario: So not downtown!
Kathrynne Belaska: I consider all of the neighborhoods immediately surrounding the center of Salem to be downtown. So, ya. To me, The Point is part of downtown.
Christian Atchason: If that is Downtown then City Hall is Uptown. Map it based on elevation.
Where do you think downtown Salem starts and ends? Give us your limits and we'll add it to the map above.
Jared Robinson
9:28 am on Tuesday, March 5, 2013
The blue line. Dodge St, 43 Church and Red Lulu are "Downtown"
Bill
11:27 am on Tuesday, March 5, 2013
I would agree with Jared, Blue line makes more sense.
Jen French
12:12 pm on Tuesday, March 5, 2013
I've always just thought of all the walkable parts of Salem as 'downtown', Including the Wharf, McIntire, etc. Whoops! I live on Summer Street which is classified on this map as 'McIntire' but since I'm literally a 3 minute walk to the cobblestones of Essex I feel very much that I also live downtown. I think it all comes down to perception and people are too invested in the semantics here...
Don Nadeau
1:19 pm on Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Neighborhood bounds can be fuzzy, but often follow functional boundaries such as rivers and highways, but they can also center on those.
The Esri GIS Dictionary defines the problem of "boundary effect": A problem created during spatial analysis, caused by arbitrary or discrete boundaries being imposed on spatial data representing nondiscrete or unbounded spatial phenomena. Boundary problems include edge effects, in which the shape imposed on the bounded area affects the perceived interactions between phenomena.
Or we can go with Salem authority, with the link to the Salem Downtown Renewal Map: www.Salem.com/Pages/SalemMA_BComm/forms/RenewalMap.jpg
john
1:51 pm on Tuesday, March 5, 2013
From Summer to Hawthorne Blvd Derby to Church. The Almy's clock will always be the center of downtown Salem. Years ago Downtown was basicly Essex St at Washhington Townhouse Sq.
gene
2:27 pm on Tuesday, March 5, 2013
New Derby/Derby to Hawthorne Blvd to Brown St to St Peter to Federal St to North St/Summer St and back to New Derby. Dodge St is part of the Point
David Moisan
3:08 pm on Tuesday, March 5, 2013
The blue borders describe Downtown accurately--20 years ago! For most Salemmites that have never known Parker Brothers when it was here, that corner of Bridge St. at the Jail had a much different feel than it does today. Also, it was only 25 years ago that the current train station opened, which is beyond the northern part of the blue boundary.
I live on the corner of St. Peter & Bridge. I consider myself to live downtown. The "downtown" parking lots and Museum Place are but steps from my building.
I consider Downtown to be bounded by St. Peter St. at Bridge St. on the northeast (including the Salem Jail), following the North River west to the North St. interchange. West side of downtown is North/Summer St continuing to Gedney St. (Steve's Market). The south side is bordered by the old railroad station's tunnel portal on Mill Hill.
From there, the south boundaries roughly go from Washington & Harbor to the southeast end at Harbor & Congress (Shetland Park). Congress St/Hawthorne Boulevard/Washington Sq. form the eastern boundary to Church St. Continue from Church St. to St. Peter.
That is my concept of downtown, and what I have always considered downtown in 18 years of living where I am. Yes, it overlaps somewhat with the Point, boundaries are fuzzy.
Don Nadeau
6:14 pm on Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Can I upload a .GIF map?
Diane Wolf
9:16 pm on Tuesday, March 5, 2013
The blue line makes sense to me.