Where the people are!
Jefferson is a residential sector. It is the most populated sectors of Zone 01. And also the largest one on the map. It extends from residential single family houses with pretty lawns of A-Grass in the west, to the titanesque towers of the apartment blocks in East Jefferson, all connected by aerial metros and 8 lane highways.
This is where most recruits are sent to do their first months of patrol. The streets there are busy 24/7, not too rough … and not too friendly either. Maybe you did your first nights there as well Captain? Beating the asphalt with your feet or behind the wheel of an interceptor. Maybe that’s where you are about to send your men? Under Jefferson’s rainy sky?
The wealth in the west
West Jefferson is wealthy. It was one of the first neighborhoods to be built outside of the original Retrocity wall (Today Sector 01) during the Great 20s. Apparently, at the time, the citizens were so excited to be able to see the outside world that the wealthiest of them invested in expensive housing outside the wall. Deluxe villas in the Hills, and nice expensive family houses in the brand new residential blocks of West Jefferson, named “New Jefferson” at the time.
To this day, it is still trendy for families with a bit of money to buy a house in West Jefferson, with a piece of lawn, an individual garage for their vehicle and sometime even a pool equipped with a rain-shield. In the west the Citizens can see the ominous wall that used to enclose the Old City, as well as the massive broken sign reading “..TROCITY” standing on the northern hills.
The south of West Jefferson is home to many of the Defense sector employees and workers who can easily afford the peace and comfort of their quiet neighborhood. And when I say “peace” and “quiet” I hope you read the hint of sarcasm, because in all the years of my career, I have seen the worst happening behind the curtains of those comfy little homes.
East Jefferson
East Jefferson is a completely different story. Blocks after blocks of giant towers made of blackened concrete. Architectural titans hosting the life of the families that cannot afford anything else but one of the tiny apartments they contain.
These towers were built to welcome as many inhabitants they could in the smallest space possible. A significant amount of them were built on the Hover model, consisting in a square structure on the ground, rising to the sky around an open well. Apartments inside the towers have balcony leading to the central opening. People live in there like bunnies in cages. Each tower is like a small city built in height. The higher up you get, the more expensive the rent, and the better your life gets. The people there, they yell at each other from a balcony to another, they throw their shit in the well rather than using the trash containers that are never taken care of anyway … There are always accidents, people getting killed or worst by something or someone falling from higher up.
We get suicide calls all the time. The misery there is just a ramp for the final jump.
The smart ones find a way to get by. Dealing drugs, or their body, whatever it takes to make enough cash to feed their family or buy more drug. I can’t speak for all officers, but I know that in my times we used to let them get by. At least to a certain degree. Use the small fish and let him go, as long as you catch the big one. To be perfectly honest, other than helping ourselves feeling a bit of compassion, I am not sure anything we do in East Jefferson is of any help at all. If you ask me, I’ll tell you that this city has a plan of her own. And that plan seems to include the death of many officers.
East Jefferson is on the edge of Zone 01, next to the ultra-industrial Zone 04. Many residents of the Sector still try to make honest money by working in the factories of Zone 04, for a humiliating pay check, under work conditions that only machines should handle. The smokes and fumes of Zone 04 are what gives the atmosphere of East Jefferson its suspicious orange color.
Central Jefferson never sleeps
Jefferson is a sector full of contrasts, social and economic gaps, cultural and racial tensions, and yet the sector found a special kind of harmony. The daily violence of the sector depicted on Holo-channels and on the network are only one of the multiple faces of Jefferson. The sector is fully alive. Night and day. Full of people walking or driving around. Pressing themselves in the staircases or the elevators leading the metro stations, whether they are underground or 70 stories above ground!
Central Jefferson is the heart of the sector. Restaurants, dine ins, boutiques and stores, agencies and all kinds of businesses, all available for the residents. A good bunch of Jefferson inhabitants never has to leave the sector. Working at a sandwich place somewhere within an aerial metro station, and renting a flat at the next stop down the line. You can find anything at any time in Jefferson. Legal or illegal. So many people living in the same place have so many needs, and a need is a market.
My grandmother used to describe New York City or Paris the same way: always active, traffic and honking cars all night long. People trapped in their routine, jumping from work to the metro with a greasy slice of pizza in their hands or nervously lighting a cigarette at the station exit door. Nothing really changed. It just got worse, I guess. Children with metallic prosthesis begging for a bit of cash, cameras everywhere, even inside the eyes of the citizen themselves. Artificial intelligences, holograms and synthetic skin. But the routine is the same. Toxic, dehumanizing.
As always, keep in mind that the content posted here is a work in progress and subject to change!