Editing Paradise City:Urban Geography (section)

=THE PROJECTS=

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The projects are vast tracts of government housing.  Population that is surplus to the needs of the corporations is stored in the projects – the unemployed, the invalid, the young and the old.  Poverty is overwhelming and nutrition and sanitation are worse than in any other zone.  Most residents of the projects do have a job of some kind, but not a contract that would provide them with housing in the Corpzone.  Getting out of the projects and into the Corpzone is the number one dream of most residents.


===Eastside City Projects:  ”The City Dumps”.===

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“The City Dumps” (or “The Dumps”) is a government housing project designed to provide cheap accommodation for welfare recipients.  The citizens who live here generally have no money, no hope, and no purpose in life.  Drug use is epidemic and watching television is a way of life.

Transport:  The city government keeps a rudimentary bus system running.  There are also cheap taxi companies serving the area.  For whatever reason, the city government has been careful to keep the subways running and there is a relatively extensive network of stations.  Subway travel remains risky, due to gang activity.

Police:  Eastside Citypol rules The Dumps, not that any of them are particularly attached to it.  They don’t mind poor citizens attacking one another, provided that they don’t kill and don’t use guns.  However, they won’t stand for destruction of government property.  Always short of money and short of personnel, CityPol has taken to reinforcing their ranks with vicious dogs, often cybernetically enhanced.   Eastside Citypol has a reputation for needless brutality and the residents fear them almost as much as they fear the Gangs.  Police officers here are usually issued with gyroc pistols, auto-pistols, and stun battons.  The department is well-supplied with rifles, shotguns and submachine guns.

Gangs:  Despite the local poverty, there is easy money to be made selling drugs in The Dumps and the gangers compete fiercely for territory.  Gangers who are willing to make payments to the police may be permitted to wear their colors openly, but most gangers try to blend in with everyone else.  Gangers here will typically carry an auto-pistol concealed on their person.  Gangers going to battle usually carry illegal weapons, typically shotguns, machine pistols and submachine guns.

Organized Crime:  The difference between organized crime groups and street gangs is often one of emphasis here, with the gangs focusing on street distribution of contraband and the organized crime groups focusing on importation and production.  Conflict between groups is common and often violent.  The richest gangs have the least street presence, focusing on internet crime.  A lot of profitable internet crime is committed from the Dumps, fueled by millions of people with nothing better to do than get online.  The more ambitious and imaginative organizations have been grabbing control of as much of this internet crime as they can.  A few organizations have even given up everything but virtual territory.

Entertainment:  The locals are as addicted to mindless television as anyone else in the city.

Sports:  The locals love all major sports, especially soccer and American football, often leading to brawls between fans.  Combat sports from all over the world are keenly followed on television.  Police tolerate fighting events provided that no weapons are used.  Fights may or may not have restrictions about what styles may be used and may or may not have rules forbidding “dirty” fighting.  Illegal underground fights are common and involve melee weapons.

Points of Interest:  

“Lake Stink” is the result of burst water pipes and sunken roads, a stagnant pool that extends for blocks and which the government never seems to get around to dealing with.  As horribly polluted as it is, it remains a popular destination for citizens looking for somewhere to swim or even to try out crude boats.  Efforts by local gangs to take over Lake Stink in order to charge people for its use have been met by armed resistance from the populace and have been unsuccessful.  However, nothing has prevented gangers and others from holding aquatic gladiatorial games on the lake, despite the risk to non-combatants.
          
“God’s Clinic” is the name given to the flattened ruins of what used to be Hawk Street, long ago destroyed by battles between different sects of the Jacktites.  Jacktites are a Christian sect who claim that Dr. Philip Jack was an angel sent to Earth to save humanity.  Dr. Jack used to provide free medical care for locals prior to his anonymous assassination fifteen years ago.  While he made no known claims to divine origin during his lifetime, a cult has grown up around him after his death and now they war the holy site where his clinic once stood.  Different groups periodically hold possession of the site until they are ousted by rivals.  Sometimes, sick individuals with travel to Hawk Street in the hopes of a miracle cure.
         
“Nashville” is the unofficial name given to an area that has become a haven for musicians seeking low rent and a musical community.  Understandably, a lot of music bars have sprung up in Nashville and there is a very active music scene.  Nashville has been a meeting place for different musical styles leading to artistic innovation and plenty of street violence between fans of different kinds of music.  The biggest feud right now is between the “Mechsynths”, the “Southern Rockers” and the “Chanters”.
          
Weapons:  Eastside CityPol will not tolerate weapons.  Knives are usually simply confiscated, while a handgun will usually result in a fine and/or a few days in jail and/or a beatdown, depending on the officer’s personal outlook on life.  Carrying a weapon of LR 2 or lower, such as a submachine gun, will result in prison time.

Smuggling:  Citizens may enter and leave the City Dumps without being scanned by the police.  In fact, police scans are rare in the area and generally only occur if an officer is already suspicious.  The system is not effective in keeping much out of the area, although military hardware, such as assault rifles, is generally felt to be too hard to hide.

===Southside City Projects:  ”The Towers”.===

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“The Towers” is an area originally designed to house the unemployed, but now mostly populated by semi-skilled government workers.  The neighborhoods are clearly very poor, but the locals are a step above the welfare recipients who fill most government projects.  The area is seeing increasing commercial development as Downtown expands, bringing some employment, but also raising housing prices forcing many residents to move to even grimmer government projects.

Transport:  The city government keeps a rudimentary bus system running.  There are also many cheap taxi companies serving the area.  Taxies are popular given how difficult Towers streets can be to drive in.

Police:  South CityPol ultimately rules the streets here, but their severe under-funding has led them to give up on the idea of trying to enforce all the laws.  South CityPol wants to keep the peace and they ban theft, fighting, carrying a weapon, or damaging public property.  However, they don’t care if gangers kill each other, rarely bother to prosecute simple assault, and famously, don’t bother enforcing traffic laws unless a driver actually damages something.  Police offers here are typically issued a machine pistol, an auto-pistol, and a stun baton.  The department is well supplied with tanglers, shotguns, rifles, and submachine guns.

Gangs:  Southside gangs are plentiful and, famously, many of them are highly mobile.  With no traffic laws to hold them back, go-gangs on fast motorcycles proliferate through the area.  Such gangs frequently raid into other territories – usually other government projects, but sometimes into nearby Corpzone territories – as far as Eastgate and Westgate on rare occasion.  Gangers typically carry a concealed auto-pistol and some kind of melee weapon, but there is considerable variation.  Gangers going to battle are likely to be carrying illegal weapons, such as shotguns, machine pistols and submachine guns.

Organized Crime:  The Towers is at war in its heart.  Economic renewal near Downtown has brought new opportunity for illegal profit and has brought new competition.  Valuable rackets and territories have been attacked and invaded both by hungry organizations from the Towers and rich organizations from Downtown.  The Downtown groups wield money and business sense that the Towers gangs found hard to match and have already taken the choicest territories.  They continue to spread their influence, slowed only by their inability to cooperate with one another.

Entertainment:  The residents enjoy all of the mindless entertainment that the internet has to offer.

Sport:  The locals have a passion for racing above all other sports.  Even combat sports tend to involve racing elements here, as athletes with vehicles attack each other with melee weapons and try to make each other crash.  Combat motorcycle events are particularly popular.

Points of Interest:  

“Mad Town” is a Durocorp sponsored colony of ex-nomads living on the borders of the Towers, in a reclaimed dead neighborhood.  Conditions are primitive – tents are common and even those who live in buildings are mostly housed in ruins without running water, with power coming from local generators.  Exactly why Durocorp has set the refuge up is unclear.  They certainly hope to recruit employees from the residents and have been able to hire nomads for even less than they pay urban workers.  The locals are often resentful to see nomads taking the few jobs that are available and conflict is frequent. 
          
The White Room is a massive medical supply warehouse / drug emporium / dance-club, in that order.  It is located in a particularly run-down neighborhood near to the Warzone.  Most of its money comes from the medical trade – it supplies medicine, in bulk, at economy prices.  It also sells recreational drugs, from old-fashioned heroin to the latest thing from Kyoto or Jakarta.  The White Room boasts that it can sell you any feeling you want.  The dance club fills a warehouse, but is a minor part of the business.  The major pharmacy corporation continually pressure The White Room to join their chains, but the operation remains independent.
          
The fabulous Casino New York stands in the vanguard of Downtown’s expansion into the Towers.  Outside, the casino is all lights and special effects, offering a dazzling holographic show.  Inside, hundreds of different games of chance are offered, with some bets reaching hundred of thousands of dollars.  Rich and famous people come to play at the casino and great care is taken to make sure that they remain safe.  Some parts of the casino are more exclusive than others and many mysterious rooms are not open except to the most affluent of customers.  It is rumored that some very unsavory games go on back there, possibly involving unwilling participants.  It is well known that the casino is at the heart of some kind of feud between different organized crime groups, but so far, any violence has been kept out of the gaming rooms.

Weapons:  Southside CityPol does not tolerate anything other than improvised weapons, such as knives, chains, or bats with nails.  How the owner of a restricted weapon is treated depends on the situation – a clean-cut stranger who innocently wandered down from Downtown into the more commercial areas of the Southside with his auto-pistol sitting in a holster on his hip is liable to given a light fine and told to leave, while a local ganger caught brandishing a pistol in a dark alleyway is probably going to get the choice between a substantial fine and a short prison sentence.  Anyone caught with a weapon of LR 2 or below weapon is almost certainly going to prison.  However, actually being scanned for weapons by a police officer is not common, except for those who have already been apprehended for something else.

Smuggling:  Citizens may enter and leave The Towers without being scanned by the police.  In fact, police scans are rare in the area and generally only occur if an officer is already suspicious.  The system is not effective in keeping much out, although military hardware, such as assault rifles, is generally felt to be too hard to hide.

===Westside City Projects:  ”The Church Hill Area”===

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The Church Hill Area, often just referred to as “the Hill”, is an area that seems to be eternally teetering on anarchy.  The gangers here are at war with each other and with Westside Citypol, and frequently hate everyone else too.  The war doesn’t seem to be about anything in particular, which is to say, it seems to be about a million different things – traditional rivalries, lingering feuds, or just the love of mindless destruction.

Transport:  The city government keeps a rudimentary bus system running.  There are also cheap taxi companies serving the area.  The subway system has been extensively destroyed.  It may be used to enter or leave the Hill at a few points, but is otherwise useless.

Police:  Westside CityPol is hanging on tenaciously.  They are under siege, but the area is still ultimately in the hands of the police instead of the gangers.  An officer who doesn’t keep her wits about her will not live long, but Westside CityPol retains control of the most important streets, especially during the day, while the gangers are consigned to backstreets, only venturing further afield at night.  Westside CityPol officers are usually issued a gyroc pistol and a stun baton.  The department is well supplied with shotguns, machine pistols and submachine guns.

Gangs:  The gangs are restless and seem to be doing their best to destroy the area.  They frequently engage in vandalism and violence, and battle each other and the police in the streets.  Typically, a ganger with carry a concealed LR 3 weapon, usually an auto-pistol.  A ganger going to battle is liable to carry a heavier weapon, usually shotguns, gyroc pistols, machine pistols, and submachine guns.

Organized Crime:  Organized crime here is a bewildering patchwork of bickering feudal hierarchies.  Professional criminals and police cooperate more closely in the Hill than in most areas due to pressure from the gangs.  The professional criminals like the relative order that the police bring because it is good for business, while the police are too busy fighting the gangs to worry too much about illegitimate businesses.  The truce is unofficial and uneasy with local disagreements between police and crime sometimes devolving into bloodshed.  Police are expected not to take sides in the eternal disputes between different groups of gangsters but often will support one side or another.

Entertainment:  The locals watch mindless television, showing a particular love of game shows.

Sport:  Football and soccer are extremely popular here and the locals follow all major national sports.  Combat sports from all over the world are enjoyed over the internet and local events are common and popular.  Unarmed combats and knife fights are especially appreciated.  Illegal fights may involve large melee weapons.

Points of Interest:  

The United Foods Company of America Charitable Hospital is a large medical complex that is free to the public.  It is well known that the medical care given here, while grim and utilitarian, is a lot better than the minimal to non-existent services obtainable from the state.  On the other hand, it is widely accepted that the hospital uses its patients to test experimental drugs and for other medical research.  It is said that many who supposedly die at the hospital have actually been abducted by the company.
          
“Victory Park” is the unofficial name of an area that is mostly populated by military families, including those of returned veterans.  Many of the veterans are bitter at the government, while others remain fiercely defensive of it.  A large proportion of them are on tiny pensions, having been rendered unfit for work by wounds received in foreign wars.  The locals have banded together to force the gangs out of their streets.  While the gangs continue to invade, they no longer rule as they once did.  Victory Park is a good source of cheap muscle and a prime recruiting ground for mercenary hunters.  Unfortunately, a lot of the residents have psychological problems and are less than stable.

Weapons:  The police will not tolerate weapons heavier than a knife or other small melee weapons.  If a Westside CityPol officer catches a citizen with an ilegal missile weapon, the weapon will likely be confiscated and the perpetrator either fined or beaten up or both.  Discovery of a weapon of LR 2 or below is likely to bring prison time.  If the officer has some reason to believe that a weapon may have been intended for use against a CityPol officer, execution on the spot is quite possible.

Smuggling:  On the other hand, citizens may enter and leave the Church Hill Area without being scanned by the police.  In fact, police scans are rare in the area and generally only occur if an officer is already suspicious.  The system is not effective in keeping much out, although military hardware, such as assault rifles, is generally felt to be too hard to hide.