Editing Paradise City:Urban Geography (section)

===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.