downtown, v. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

downtown v.

[newly prosperous Harlemites signified their new status by leaving the ghetto and moving downtown, i.e. to more prosperous parts of New York]

(US black) to improve one’s lot in society, to go ‘up in the world’.

1994

C. Major Juba to Jive 148: Downtown, downtowning, n. adj. v. (1920s–1990s) anywhere south of Harlem; to live or work there.