An independent guide to the world's downtowns
Down.Town helps you explore a city centre, move into one, and find the right space to work, sell or gather in it. We cover 42 downtowns on four lines, with ten free tools that put numbers on the decision.
Why Down.Town exists
Downtowns are where a city concentrates its work, culture, transit, history and nightlife, and increasingly its homes. They are also changing faster than at any time in decades: office towers become apartments, roads become plazas, and storefronts find new uses.
Good information about them is surprisingly hard to find. Much of it is promotional, written by someone with a district to sell. The rest is scattered across a dozen official websites, each answering a different question. Down.Town puts it in one place, in the same structure for every city, written for the person who has a decision to make: where to spend a weekend, whether to move, where to open, how much space to lease.
We are independent. No city, tourism board, developer or downtown association owns, funds or approves what we publish.
What we promise readers
- Facts checked against official and primary sources
- The same sections and scores in every city guide, so comparisons are fair
- Ads, sponsorships and paid listings clearly labelled
- Your details shared with a partner only when you tick the box to ask for it
- Mistakes corrected quickly, and significant corrections noted on the page
Four lines and a toolbox
Explore
City guides to 42 downtowns: districts, landmarks, food, getting around, where to stay, seasons, signature events and walking-tour videos.
Live
Relocation guides: choosing a building, comparing costs with the suburbs, living car-free, raising children downtown and moving for a new job.
Find Space
Office, retail, coworking and event venues: how much space you need, how commercial leases work in each country and what to check before you sign.
Do Business
Guides for owners: opening a storefront, lease terms, pop-up shops, funding, turning foot traffic into customers and using downtown events.
Tools
Ten free calculators: office space, coworking versus lease, venue budget, moving costs, rent versus buy, rent budget, car versus car-free, storefront revenue, city comparisons and a downtown match quiz.
The Down.Town Index
An editorial ranking that scores every downtown we cover on the same measures, with the method published alongside the scores.
Sources first, then the street
- Official sources
City and transit agencies, tourism boards, official event organisers, universities, museums and published data. When two sources disagree, we go to the one closest to the fact.
- On-the-ground reporting
Freelance city contributors who live in or know the downtowns we cover walk the districts, ride the lines and tell us what the official pages leave out.
- One structure for every city
Every guide answers the same questions in the same order, so you can put Lisbon next to Calgary and compare them fairly.
- Annual review
Each guide is reviewed at least once a year, and sooner when something important changes. The date of the latest review is shown on the page.
Nothing for sale in the guides
Our editorial guides describe districts, streets, public landmarks, markets, parks and transit. They do not recommend named restaurants, shops, brokers or landlords, so there is no spot in a guide for a business to buy its way into.
Where a business pays to appear on Down.Town, through a sponsorship or a Featured or Spotlight listing, the placement is labelled and kept apart from the editorial text.
The full rules are in our editorial policy, including how we score cities, how we handle corrections and how we use software tools.
The Down.Town editors
Down.Town is made by a small, independent editorial team based in Montréal, working with freelance city contributors: writers, photographers, videographers and researchers who know the downtowns we cover.
Guides carry the byline "Down.Town editors" because each one is a team effort. A contributor brings local knowledge; an editor researches, checks the facts and edits the page before it is published. The editors decide what we cover, set the Index scores and are responsible for everything that appears on the site.
We may use software tools, including AI, to help research and draft; editors check facts and take responsibility for everything published.
Would you like to write, shoot or report for us? See careers and contributors.
What every guide goes through
- A brief with the same sections as every other city
- Research against official and primary sources
- Local input from a contributor who knows the area
- A fact check of names, lines, agencies and conventions
- An edit for clarity and consistency
- A review at least once a year after that
How Down.Town makes money
Reading Down.Town is free. You should know how it is paid for, so here is every source of revenue we have.
Display ads served by Google AdSense. Google selects the individual ads; we don't choose or endorse the advertisers, and we keep ads off the Get matched page.
City Partner, Dispatch sponsor, Contest sponsor and Strategic partner placements, each labelled "Sponsored". See advertise and sponsor.
Basic listings are free; Featured and Spotlight are paid upgrades, labelled as such. See list your business.
Voluntary donations and pledges from readers who want more guides, contributors and contest prizes. See support Down.Town.
Brokers, rental agents, realtors, coworking operators, venues and movers may pay us a fee for an introduction you asked for, or when you choose to work with them. Partners never pay for editorial coverage.
Editorial coverage, a place in a guide, a recommendation or an Index score. Partners never pay for editorial coverage, and sponsors never review or approve it.
How free introductions work
- You tell us what you need
A home, an office, a shopfront, a coworking desk, a venue or help relocating a team, through Get matched. It is free and commits you to nothing.
- An editor reads it
A person reviews every request by hand, usually within one business day. Nothing is sent automatically.
- We introduce up to three partners
Only if you ticked the consent box, and only partners who fit your city, size, budget and timing.
- You decide
Partners contact you by your preferred method. Reply to whichever you like, or to none.
- A partner may pay us
Depending on the arrangement, a partner pays Down.Town a fee for each introduction it accepts, a monthly fee as a city's featured partner, or a referral fee if you choose to work with it. You never pay us anything.
What partners never get
- Your details without your consent
- Lists of readers: we do not sell or rent personal information
- Editorial coverage or a better Index score
- Your newsletter sign-up, which is a separate, optional choice
Partners are independent
They are businesses in their own right, not Down.Town staff. Check licences, insurance and terms before you hire anyone. In most commercial markets the landlord pays a tenant broker's commission, so using one usually costs a tenant nothing extra. Read tenant rep brokers explained.
Your data, your call
Exactly what we share, with whom and for how long is set out in requests for introductions in our privacy policy. Are you a broker, agent, venue or mover? Join the partner network.
Independence
"Downtown" is an ordinary English word, and we use it in its ordinary sense. Down.Town is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by any city, government, business improvement district, downtown association, company or brand whose name includes the word. Details are in our trademark and copyright notice.
We pay our own way through the revenue listed above. Advertisers, sponsors and partners can buy clearly labelled space next to our coverage, never the coverage itself.
Corrections
Prices change, lines open, events move and we sometimes get things wrong. When we do, we fix it as quickly as we can, and note significant corrections on the page so readers can see what changed.
Seen something out of date? Send a correction with the page, what is wrong and, if you have one, a source. An editor reads every report.
Contact routes
Questions and corrections
The contact form reaches the editors. We review new messages within one business day.
Introductions to local pros
Moving, leasing, opening or hosting downtown? Tell us once and we'll do the legwork.
Advertising and sponsorship
City Partner, Find Space, Dispatch, contest and strategic packages.
The partner network
For brokers, rental agents, realtors, coworking operators, venues and movers.
Write, shoot or report
Paid freelance and contract roles, credited on everything published.
The domain and website
Enquiries about acquiring, sponsoring or partnering on Down.Town itself go to the owner.
Prefer email? Email us and we'll reply from the editors' inbox.
Found this useful?
Down.Town is independent and free to read. Reader support funds new city guides, contests and prizes.