Pitiful way it turns up in City district (8)
I believe the answer is:
pathetic
'pitiful' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'way it turns up in city district' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'way' could be 'path' (synonyms) and 'path' is located in the answer.
'it' could be 't' (abbreviation. e.g. in 'tis) and 't' is present in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for pathetic that I've seen before include "Sort of fallacy" , "Hapless, miserable" , "Tip cheat - truly sad" , "arousing contempt" , "Distressing" .)