Editing Paradise City:Urban Geography (section)

=OVERVIEW=

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Paradise is officially divided into five boroughs, Central Borough, Eastside Borough, Northside Borough, Southside Borough, and Westside Borough.  Each borough has its own police division, which further divides the area into precincts.  Central Borough contains all of the most commercially important parts of Paradise, including most the central business district.  North Borough contains neighborhoods of rich corporates.  Eastside, Southside and Westside boroughs officially extend east, south and west of the CBD to the distant edges of the city.  In practice, police presence ranges from intense near the CBD to non-existent in some of the more far-flung and anarchic parts of the city.
To the average citizen, borough means little more than an excuse for a fight with a stranger.  Much more important is the unofficial designation “zone”.  There are four recognized “zones” – the Corpzone, the Projects, the Warzone and the Wastes.  
The Corpzone contains those parts of the city that are kept relatively well ordered by the corporations - including the mid-town and uptown sections of the central business district, the middle-class to upper-class neighborhoods, and the corporate slums.  The Projects consist in vast tracts of drab government-subsidized housing, populated by the particularly poor and desperate.  The Warzone contains those neighborhoods that are considered to be ruled by the gangs rather than by the police.  Gang rule (like police rule) is always a matter of degree, but as a rule of thumb, an area is considered part of the Warzone if the police won’t stop gangers from having gunfights in the middle of the street.  Naturally, there isn’t a lot of economic activity in a Warzone.  The Wastes is the open desert beyond the city.  

Each Zone is further divided into areas or types of area, depending on the borough and distance from the heart of the city.  These areas are huge – most are the size of a 21st century city in their own right.  Each area has its own unique character and rules for survival, which may vary from neighborhood to neighborhood even within an area.  The Zones and their constituent areas are described below.  It is important to keep in mind that each area has a complex internal structure that is not touched on in their general description.  Residential areas in the Corpzone and Projects will have their own business districts, commercial areas, and workplaces, as well as anything else the government or corporation decides to build there.  Gangland areas have little in the way of internal structure – they are a chaotic and ever-changing patchwork of turfs.

There are two maglev rail systems for public transport in Paradise – the “highline” which operates high above street level and the “subway” which operates below street level.  The highline serves the central business district known as “the city”, as well as the prosperous neighborhoods of Eastgate, Westgate, and the entire Northside.  The subway also serves “the city” (the CBD at the heart of Paradise), as well as the residential areas known as “the jungles”, “the lockdowns” and “the projects”.  Passengers traveling between areas may have to pass through checkpoints where they are scanned for forbidden possessions.