Nobody can agree on where Uptown starts and ends. Is there a true definition?

Uptown, Minneapolis. The oft-debated area at Hennepin Avenue and W. Lake Street popularized by Prince is known for shops, nightlife and its proximity to the Chain of Lakes.

The area has also been the focus of an endless amount of hand-wringing about its evolution over the years. From local residents to visitors, everyone has an opinion on what the future could hold for a part of Minneapolis that has faced recent safety and livability concerns, as well as disruptive, but needed, construction.

Uptown business owners seem to recognize that the neighborhood needs more revitalization. They’re hoping that a new business improvement district and other initiatives like rent breaks could help attract 30 to 40 additional businesses to the commercial area.

But where is Uptown, anyway? Where exactly is everyone talking about when they speak of the area’s challenges and potential? And does it include Lyn-Lake or areas farther north or south of Hennepin Avenue and W. Lake Street?

Asking Minneapolitans to define Uptown can elicit a wide variety of opinions. To some, Uptown, Lyn-Lake and surrounding areas are basically the same. Others see them as distinct commercial zones.

The city of Minneapolis maintains no adopted policy that defines the area of Uptown. In 1958, the City Comprehensive Plan established communities and neighborhoods as sub-areas for planning purposes.

Uptown was not defined as an official neighborhood as part of that process, according to a city spokesperson.

So what could be considered Uptown? Here are some possibilities:

A Community Planning and Economic Development neighborhood revitalization project recently used a map from the Uptown Small Area Plan approved by the Minneapolis City Council in 2008.

Those Uptown boundaries include 28th Street to 31st Street, Bde Maka Ska Parkway to Bryant Avenue and the Hennepin Avenue corridor stretching from Franklin Avenue and 36th Street.

Another city entity, the Minneapolis Assessing Department, groups nine neighborhoods as “Uptown” for analysis since they share similar influences on property values: Bryn Mawr, Cedar-Isles-Dean, East Bde Maka Ska, East Isles, Kenwood, Lowry Hill, Lowry Hill East, South Uptown and West Maka Ska.

The Uptown Special Service District Advisory Board, which advises the city’s Public Works Department, has used a much more limited definition of Uptown along stretches of Hennepin, Lake and Lagoon bounded by 28th and 31st streets.

“Lake and Lagoon and Hennepin, that’s the epicenter,” Brauer said. “I feel like when you sort of turn everything in southwest Minneapolis into Uptown, you’re really squeezing a lot of the identity out of the place.”

For Brauer, a broader definition of Uptown swallows up other parts of Minneapolis that have very different characteristics.

And using Dupont Avenue as a delineating boundary also highlights Lagoon Avenue as core to Uptown’s identity.

Mike Norton, a longtime Uptown business owner, stands by Brauer’s map. If someone gives broader boundaries for Uptown, it is an indicator that they probably don’t spend much time there, he said. More narrow boundaries showing the distinction between Uptown and surrounding areas indicate that someone lives there or frequents the area, he said.

“I think you have to be close enough to see the Uptown sign or you’re probably not in Uptown,” Norton said.

It defines Uptown as stretching from 24th to 32nd Streets, and from Irving to Bryant with a section bordering Bde Maka Ska, a definition that includes the iconic Uptown Diner farther north up Hennepin Avenue.

It separately defines Lyn-Lake as an area just around W. Lake Street and Lyndale Avenue that overlaps into Uptown, bounded to the east by Dupont Avenue.

A Minnesota Star Tribune analysis shows businesses, nonprofits and other entities with “Uptown” in their names from recent years have stretched across Minneapolis, including the other side of the Chain of Lakes, along Interstate 94 and east of Interstate 35W.

When analyzing the tribulations of Uptown in recent years, the Star Tribune focused on areas within four neighborhoods: East Isles, East Bde Maka Ska, Lowry Hill East (also known as the Wedge) and South Uptown.

These neighborhoods are home to businesses represented by the Uptown Association, a nonprofit promoting the area’s vitality. While the association states that Uptown’s borders extend to 28th and 31st streets, Dupont Avenue and Bde Maka Ska, the organization also includes businesses beyond that.

Bill Lindeke, an urban geographer at the University of Minnesota’s Department of Geography, believes Minneapolis should embrace combining neighborhoods into large-scale areas, like how Longfellow means several smaller neighborhoods including Cooper and Howe. But many people just call them all Longfellow, he said.

“I guess I’m an advocate for Uptown being shorthand for ‘Greater Uptown,’ a maximalist approach, and just throwing Lyn-Lake into the mix with the traditional Hennepin Avenue ‘Uptown’ area,” Lindeke said.

And considering the many differing definitions, it seems Uptown’s influence can stretch across a broad swath of southwest Minneapolis sandwiched between I-35W and the Chain of Lakes.