Unlike most cities, the developers actually used common sense in planning the city’s transportation grid. The space port and shuttle port are located in the heart of the city like a hub on a wagon wheel. Running out from the hub at the center of Capital City like spokes on a wheel are the main thoroughfares.
Running at each of the four points of the compass are the primary transportation routes, consisting of hovercraft highways, metro subways and rail lines for movement of heavy freight. Bisecting the four primary highways, named after the point of the compass the road travels toward, are additional radial lines. Some are smaller in size while others are large in size, all depending on the traffic generated by the areas served.
As Capital City grew, loops called hoverways were constructed, creating major transportation routes connecting each of the radial routes. For the most part, carefully laid out grid patterns of streets and secondary roads provided the transportation needs of those traveling in the sector.
Sections of Capital City are underground, particularly in the Northwest Quadrant where the elites of the planet prefer to live. To avoid the effect of the dreaded “miner’s cough” the underground structures in this section of Capital City have been completely sealed away from the geological surface strata of Beta Prime. This expensive, but necessary, architectural detail prevents the parasite that lives in the crust of the planet from infecting the elites who live in the quadrant.
The Northeast section of Capital City is a mix of middle class neighborhoods where the university educated live along with other high skill workers. Like the Southeast section, it has a heavy mix of industry and warehousing. Good manufactured from raw materials found and processed on Beta Prime are made and assembled here for export to other worlds. Because of its location close to manufacturing, large numbers of warehouses are found in this section, holding goods until they can be shipped out from the space port.
A new, large rail facility is being built to ship goods to a new spaceport being constructed in Icetown, located to the east of Capital City. Necessitated by having long outgrown its first spaceport, the new construction and economic activity brings jobs, wealth and growth to both Beta Prime and Capital City.
The Southeast section of Capital City is a mix of mines, processing plants and housing for blue collar workers and the few middle class merchants who eke out their living providing miners, plant workers and other laborers with the necessities they need. Improvements to the underground rail network and the development of newer housing has led to an increase in the number of middle class families living and working in the northern and and northwestern areas of this section of Capital City.
Sullivan lives in this part of Capital City as does Ralph, Alice and Joe. Father Nathan’s church parish is located here, close to Joe’s restaurant.
Southwest Capital City contains the poorest sections of the city, largely on the outskirts of the section. The areas closest to the center of Capital City and the space port are middle class and home to merchants, service companies and office buildings. As the distance from the center of the city increases, the seedier the area becomes.
The southern half of Capital City, which contains the largest segments of middle, working class, and poor along with mining and industrial facilities, is the highest crime area in the city. These two sections also have fewer resources available for the IAPF, resulting in higher crime rates for these parts of the city.
If you like back story and history like this, sign up for The Inspector’s Report, the fan newsletter for all things Inspector Thomas Sullivan related. Back story for your favorite, or most hated, character(s) will be a regular feature along with short stories and announcements concerning anything related to Inspector Sullivan.