City Breakdown Terminology? (suburban, Atlanta, regional, New Orleans)

[Sharif662]

Is there a word or words for the geographic division of cities when referring to the different sides of a city ( ex: North/East/West/South side, Etc)?

[TheTimidBlueBars]

I've heard "direction" or "side", I don't think there's a specific word for it.

I've also used "borough" by analogy with NYC, especially when the "borough" has some kind of cultural or demographic identifying features or is curtained off from the rest of the city (e.g. West Seattle, which is across a long bridge from the rest of Seattle, and has an independent identity as a more "suburban" place that is also forgotten/ignored).

[manitopiaaa]

"Quadrants"

It's what DC uses for its NE, NW, SE, SW splits.

[cdw1084]

Originally Posted by Sharif662

Is there a word or words for the geographic division of cities when referring to the different sides of a city ( ex: North/East/West/South side, Etc)?

In Atlanta, many people like to use police "zones" to divide the city. Six zones exist and people use them to explain where they stay.

[TheTimidBlueBars]

Originally Posted by cdw1084

In Atlanta, many people like to use police "zones" to divide the city. Six zones exist and people use them to explain where they stay.

Besides the quadrants, DC also has its 8 "wards".

[BigCity76]

Originally Posted by TheTimidBlueBars

Besides the quadrants, DC also has its 8 "wards".

The large majority doesn't use the term wards in everyday speak in DC the way they would in Houston or New Orleans. Those two cities specifically are the only ones I can think of that use it like that. I've always heard of Houston's 3rd and 5th ward. Same with New Orleans and the Lower 9th ward.

DC has wards but NW, NE, SE, SW is everyday speak in DC for the different geographic areas of the city.

[luv4horses]

Before current zip codes were introduced areas immediately outside of a major city may have been given names like Washington DC, SW.

[Karl Lagos]

Quadrant or Section seem to work.

[ciceropolo]

Districts, Quadrants, Sectors, etc... many of the individual use is regional based upon scale of geography and its extants. A smaller municipality may use simple Quadrants while a larger municipality may use districts or sectors based upon some preferred division for safety and operations department services. You also can find neighborhood designations of planning designations based upon neighborhood configurations.

From a logical perspective, the geographic cardinal points make most sense. Note, not all cities have ease of orientation based upon their geographical environmental constraints or their center point of origin to which they are oriented. I.e. Large natural barriers (Bodies of Water, Mountains, irregularities in land mass which may or may not be easily develop-able and habitable.

[MarianRavenwood]

Broadly speaking Chicago has the north side, south side, and west side. But mostly people just use the names of the neighborhoods. The city's too big, with 2.6 million people, 'south side' doesn't really tell anyone very much.