Isn’t Gotham city just an unpublished name for New York City?

Yes, it is.  Gotham is synonymous with New York, and when the Batman comics were first written, the name was more commonly used.  Everyone would have recognized it not as a generic East Coast city but THE East Coast city.  Outside of comic books there is still no gray area at all.  Variety calls its New York section "Gotham," and Gotham Magazine highlights the best of upscale Manhattan each and every month. Gotham is New York, end of discussion.

Don’t fall into the comic book trap of thinking New York, Metropolis, and Gotham are all clustered together as sister cities.  If Gotham and New York both exist, then there is another Wall Street, Broadway, Diamond District, Fashion Mecca, Publishing Center, Business Megalopolis, Embassy Row and UN right across the river, and both are diminished.  Gotham becomes an also-ran, and the Batman’s City is no also-ran. 

As a matter of interest, Metropolis isn’t an East Coast city at all.  It is what we know as Chicago, the biggest city closest to farm country. 

Ciaomeow,as we say in the real neighborhood,
Catwoman

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