Building The City

[Sibboleth]

Am about to try a fairly basic landuse map - commercial, residential, industrial, parks-woods-etc. Though it's worth pointing out that, if we assume this is an English speaking city (as seems to have been agreed), then people will be living in some of the industrial areas (which I don't think is the case with Le Havre) and to a lesser extent in the commericial core.

[afleitch]

Am about to try a fairly basic landuse map - commercial, residential, industrial, parks-woods-etc. Though it's worth pointing out that, if we assume this is an English speaking city (as seems to have been agreed), then people will be living in some of the industrial areas (which I don't think is the case with Le Havre) and to a lesser extent in the commericial core.

True; and to a greater extent if this is set in the 50's. It would also be the areas most likely to simply be cleared of housing all together if the city council was being brutal with redevelopment.

[Sibboleth]

As for the letters...

C: Cathedral
T: Town Hall
U: University
FS: Football Stadium
SW: Steelworks
PS: Power Station
M: Mine

White represents open ground and etc.

Edit: shipbuilding goes on in the far south of the main industrial-port area.

[Sibboleth]

Oh yes, we need a name for the city.

After that the fun stuff starts - dividing the city into bits and then... but we need a name first.

[afleitch]

Perhaps something with 'port' or 'mouth' at the end of it. Or maybe just a simple 'borough' (or burgh )

What about Alunsborough?

[Sibboleth]

Modesty forbids

Think it should have "by" on the end. Because Vikings are cool and we nicked the outline for this city from somewhere in Normandy

[Χahar]

Alunsby?

[Smid]

Alunsby?

How about Port Alunsby?

[Sibboleth]

Stovesby? That has a nice sound to it.

[Sibboleth]

Please note that the areas shown are not wards. Wards will be subject to change and will have some relationship to population. They are, rather, recognised districts of the city, areas with a lot in common even if not united for electoral purposes. The colours are those of an extremely crude class pattern - the assumption is that the game will start in about 1955 or so.

And they are also a good way of getting this to work out well.

What you do now is simple - declare an interest in a couple of districts. And then once we've sorted all that out, write stuff up (quite detailed if thou like) about them. Some notes (in part just to save you the bother of trying to stick one map on top of the other) to help out:

I contains the commercial core of the city, as well as the Cathedral, the Town Hall and various cultural amenities. It's also the only area I'll make a class note on - while it's a middle class area at the start of the game, it won't remain one unless some very strange things happen with urban planning. So don't go overboard wi' that.

Talking of cultural amenities, IX includes the main football ground.

III contains the University and, obviously, most of city's students. The main railway station is in IV.
 
XIII looks to be commuter villages overrun by suburban developments. VII is probably filthy rich.

I think you can all work out for yourselves where the docks are, even without checking the other map , but steelworks be found in IX,X and XXII. XV includes a coal power station (marked on the map) and chemical works (not marked), amongst other things (maybe refinaries and stuff. You get the picture). Outside the main industrial zones (ie; around the port and the old mining towns), there is an industrial estate in XX, which you might have missed.

XX and XXI are, quite obviously, large interwar council estates. XXII is a collection of mining towns and industrial areas recently added to the city, while XVII is a mining village overrun with overspill estates.

And finally, hardly anyone lives in XIX right now. This is intentional. It's a pretty obvious target for some of those delightful new tower blocks, but we aren't there yet.

[Bacon King]

I'd love to do this, I'm just afraid I don't know that much about culture/politics/society in the time period in question.

[afleitch]

Southport VII it is for me then

[Hashemite]

What is II like?

Southport VII it is for me then

A good place to check what your region is like is to look up the city of Sainte-Adresse.

[Sibboleth]

What is II like?

The idea is for it to be a working class area squeezed between the higher ground and the city centre. Ie; a working class area because of flooding and being on the wrong side of the old town walls, rather than because of docks and industry. Either largely early 19th century slumland or by-law housing (by-law housing = the straight rows of terraced cottages stereotypically associated as being "typical" traditional English/Welsh working class housing and largely built after local authorities started to demand a few minimum standards for housing (late 19th century). Proper slum housing looked very different), though likely a mixture of the two. Probably a lot of the orginal population lives in XX by 1955.

[Hashemite]

What's the second-richest region after VII? I obviously want a right-wing wealthyland area.

[Sibboleth]

What's the second-richest region after VII? I obviously want a right-wing wealthyland area.

Up to you

But I'd have guessed VI from where it is. Maybe VIII. The other outer-blues are probably more in the way of standard middle class interwar suburbia. In the early 20th century the richest would have been III, obviously, but urban decay in such places had already set in by the '50's.

[Sibboleth]

I'd love to do this, I'm just afraid I don't know that much about culture/politics/society in the time period in question.

Oh, don't worry about that. I know more about it than is exactly healthy, and the same goes for a couple of other people. And all will happily share information, I'm sure.

[Smid]

I think I'd like VIII, unless Hashemite wants it. If he wants it, I'd appreciate XIII.

I found this website about Le Havre: http://www.ville-lehavre.fr/delia-CMS/quartier/index/article_id-/topic_id-456/danton-rond-point.html - Google can translate, I think. It might give some ideas about some of the areas out there.

[Χahar]

Wonder where I go here. XIII?

[Hashemite]

I'd like XIII on the condition that it's also wealthy. If not, then I.

[afleitch]

I'd like XIII on the condition that it's also wealthy. If not, then I.

Just stay away from any area that has green space around it. Then the town planners will drop in a few concrete tower blocks and voila; 5000 'socialist' voters on your patch They can even build the damn things in time for an election...

[Sibboleth]

I'd like XIII on the condition that it's also wealthy. If not, then I.

If you want it to be wealthy, it certainly can be. You can also incorporate features from anywhere you like, so long as they fit in with what's already been established.

[Smid]

So how many wards will there be in the city - and roughly how many wards per district?

[Sibboleth]

So how many wards will there be in the city - and roughly how many wards per district?

Don't know yet

[Sibboleth]

Just in case this all seems a little intimidating I'll do IV to give an example of how 'tis done, etc.

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IV - St Jude's

East of the old city walls and west of the inner port, St Jude's is a densely populated working class district and a minor industrial area. It was largely built before the onset of by-law housing and is home to Stoveby's worst slums, some of which were cleared by bombing in the War. Housing in St Jude's, beyond being largely unsuitable for human habitation, is noted for its unusual architecture and (according to public health officials) dangerous high stairs originally built for flood protection:



Employment is dominated by various small workshops in the district, by the port and railways, and by low order public sector and service jobs in the city centre. The population of the district has been falling since the council house construction boom that followed the Wheatley Act, but the area remains overcrowded, a situation not improved by the destruction of parts of the district during the war. St Jude's also includes the city's main railway station.
St Jude's has been a Socialist stronghold since the early 1920's and the area is regarded as dangerous one by activists for other parties - reports of canvassers being thrown down the district's characteristic long stairs, while never confirmed, have entered the political folklore of Stovesby.