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Realities (And citizens)

Terms & Tech

Culture

(unreal estate copyright
2001 stefan gagne)
[unauthorized use is
strictly prohibited]

 

Urbana

"Urbana, Urbana, it's a hell of a town." Or, if you're unfortunate enough to live there 24/7, "Urbana, it's a living hell."

Urbana is a reality comprised entirely of one gigantic city-sprawl that is roughly five hundred miles in diameter. It's packed with buildings of all sorts, from squat commercial complexes to great skyscrapers of office productivity. Over half of all business conducted across the multiverse is conducted here, and various multi-reality corporations keep impressive branch offices here to be close to the action. The second largest RealWare office outside of Reality Prime is here as well.

The city is sparkling clean and crime free during business hours, allowing for a safe envrionment to conduct business in. There are city parks to take your lunch breaks in, terrific shopping facilities, even a few private schools for the kids to bus into in the morning from other realities. Points change hands and stuff gets done.

Then the sun goes down and everybody important and rich goes home to SubUrbana or various other realities. That's when things get worse.

There are people unfortunate enough to have to live in Urbana: mall clerks, barbers, short order cooks, janitors, etc... the working class that keep the machine running for the commuters to enjoy. Once the commuters are nustled in their safe beds in other realities, the seedy side of Urbana pops up to play. It's not nearly as crazy as Antiparadisia, but Urbana at night could easily pass for Antiparadisia's psychotic little brother. This chaos goes largely unchecked, since most of the cops are also commuters. Police presence at night is largely there only to handle emergencies or gross blemishes that could be a problem when the commuters return the next morning.

Before morning, an army of cops and janitors and such scrubs the city up and makes it ready for the day ahead. The commuters return, clock in, and Urbana's rolling again. It ticks along quite steadily; many other realities tune their day/night cycles to match Urbana's rather than risk doing business there at other hours.

The situation has gotten steadily worse over the last few hundred years, when commuting became a more attractive solution to Urbana's social ills. The Urbana Business Bureau has largely given up trying to do anything more than sweep the obvious problems under the carpet while beefing up daytime police presence, so at least the money keeps flowing with a minimum of hassle. Even the money from Urbana's nightlife can be a positive force for commerce.

Urbana has the most docks of any other reality, as a result of the commuter issues. Of course, that makes passport processing even harder, since you have to worry about parking and rental fees and so on. Most commuters simply purchase annual subscriptions to conveniently located docks so they don't have to find a new space every morning.