Downtown and inner city : the downtown area is divided into a 'modern' central business district (CBD) and 'traditional' market district. The distinction is seen most visibly in the physical contrasls between small street-orienled businesses and self-contained mega-structures. Unlike in most large North American cities, the CBD has remained the principal employment. cominercial and entertainment node of the Latin American city. The relative dominance of the CBD is explained in part by reliance on public transport lines that continue to focus on the CBD. and in part by the existence of a relatively affluent middle-class population in the inner rings of the city. The CBD is surrounded by an "inner city', but this area is not typified to the same extent by the population and economic decline evident in North American cities. The Lalin American inner city exhibits economic viability, with commercial districts providing cheap foodstuffs. clothing, wholesale and retail markets, and a wide variety of goods manufactured in small-scale workshops and sweatshops, many of which form part of the informal economy (see Chapter 24). The area accommodates stable working-class communities with urban cultural traditions akin to that of areas such as the Cockney East End of London or the Jewish working-class district of the Bronx in New York. It also acts as a reception area for new. migrants. which helps to maintain the resident population. Which the inner city represents the principal contrution of urban problems in North America or the UK, this is not the situation in Latin America.