Downtown is the center of the urban universe, the place where all roads converge and every story starts. It is the knot in the pretzel, the hub of the wheel, the nucleus of the primal cell that swelled and split to become the Milwaukee metropolis.
The Milwaukee River runs through downtown, flowing from north to south. The river separates East Town from Westown, and Yankee Hill overlooks both. The three districts fit snugly inside a belt of encircling freeways, both built and unbuilt, and together they form the common core of a metro region that sprawls across four counties.