Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Downtown Hartford
Notability refers to the notability of the topic (see , first sentence -- how elementary does it get?), not the extent to which that notability is reflected in the wording and references of the actual article, so when we discuss a "lack of an assertion of notability" it's with the assumption that an assertion can't actually be made. The idea that Downtown Hartford (or even "downtown Hartford") is not notable defies common sense, sourcing and our notability guidelines. Sourcing: Easily available (Google Books -- plenty of in-depth treatments http://books.google.com/books?q=%22Downtown%20Hartford%22&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7ADBR_en&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wp, Google News Archives -- also plenty of in-depth treatment and details galore in many, many articles http://news.google.com/archivesearch?pz=1&ned=us&hl=en&q=%22Downtown+Hartford%22&cf=all); Common Sense: When walking to work from his home just outside the downtown http://maps.google.com/maps?q=118+Westerly+Terrace,+Hartford,+CT&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7ADBR_en&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=118+Westerly+Terrace,+Hartford,+CT+06105&gl=us&ei=wlC6SoHuGsPU8Ab6ovyMCg&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=title&resnum=1, the major American poet Wallace Stevens walked through part of Downtown Hartford every working day to one of the many large companies that are still headquartered there (getting ideas for his poems as he walked), and when they call Hartford the "Insurance Capital of America", they aren't referring to its suburbs but to the downtown itself. It is where Connecticut was founded, where much of Connecticut's history took place and where America's oldest museum, its oldest public park and the Hartford area's most prestigious music and theater venues are located. Any downtown is a concentration of a city's important economic and cultural institutions, and if there are enough of either, you'll get plenty of sourcing and therefore notability and information for a Wikipedia article that couldn't fit into an article about the city itself. How much more notable does a subject need to be before we no longer have any doubt that the topic is worth an article? And as for the assertion of notability, the article as I read it now indicates very clearly why the topic is important. Just read the lead. It needs an improvement tag, not deletion. The subject could even contain its own good-sized category, except for the fact that every article in it would be important enough to be worth keeping in :Category:Hartford, Connecticut. And another thing: ''Google search turns up hits on the phrase "Downtown Hartford" of course, but those that i reviewed speak of a "downtown area of Hartford" and otherwise do not establish that "Downtown Hartford" has important meaning and definition on its own.'' Doncram, the names that sources use for this topic is irrelevant. What's relevant is that many sources address this topic in detail. The evidence is overwhelming. And if this is deleted, isn't it obvious that someone will just start it again (so shouldn't we save them the trouble of adding back the categories and pictures and links?). Please withdraw the nomination and stop draining the time of editors who have better things to work on. For one thing, we could work on improving this article, but the subject is so large and complex, with so much information to digest and incorporate, that I'm sure more than one editor has found the idea daunting
— User:JohnWBarber, 17:37, 23 September 2009 (UTC)
Stance: keep
Cited policy: WP:N (Wikipedia:Notability)