 Residents refer to the Waterloo city centre as "uptown" (often capitalized), while "downtown" is reserved for the Kitchener city centre, as Kitchener had been the dominant centre, and Waterloo was a small town on the Kitchener's north side.Waterloo surged into a significant City in the third quarter of the 20th Century, due in large part to its role as a university city.It has also benefited from the growth of insurance companies.