M&M OW - Our New York City

[Dawn OOC]

New York City

The Big Apple. Gotham. The Capital of the World. New York City holds those nicknames for a reason. Its theatres are renowned around the world, its real estate is the most expensive, and it is home to the world’s largest stock exchange. It has one of the most extensive rapid transit systems in existence.

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History

The city was established in 1626 as a colony of New Netherland. Ownership was given to the British in 1664, and the city was named New York. It grew in importance under British rule, even becoming a center of slavery. During the American Revolutionary War, it was a British base of operation. After the colonists threw off their masters, New York was the national capital.

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After Washington DC became the U.S. capital, the city shifted to being a trading center and a center of immigration. Canals were built from inland New York to the city, increasing its trading power. The Great Irish Famine increased New York’s Irish population, and the extensive numbers of German immigrants led to those two groups running the town politicaly. The immigrants displaced black workers, driving out the children of slaves to places like Brooklyn and New Jersey.

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The first consolidation of what would come to be modern New York started in 1898 with Brooklyn, the County of New York, County of Richmond and the western portion of the County of Queens. The opening of the subway in 1904 cemented the growing city into one network.

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In the early 1920s, New York overtook London as the most populous urban area. The Great Despression finally broke the block of Irish and German politicians, and the Harlem Renaissance flourished even as Prohibition came to the city. The next big boom was the World War II veterans returning home. Their arrival pushed the development of large housing tracks and pushed New York into the position of the leading city of the world.

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For a time, New York faltered in the 1960s when job losses from industrial restructuring caused economic issues. As crime rose, so did odd rumors. These stories spoke of monsters in the subways, men who could fade into shadows and men who could do the impossible. The police responded to the crime rates and had brought them down by the 1990’s but their success was marred by rumors of a vigilanette named the Watchman.

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New York saw their first official city defender in 2001. The New Yorkers adopted the Nameless Hero as their own but all that is known about her is that she was young and black. She was in action for one day, on September 11. She was seen flying in and out of the Towers, helping those she could until the fall of the second tower. She was inside that tower when it collapsed. Her body was never recovered but she was believed dead. Thus far, no one has claimed her as their family or given her a name.

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As the city struggled to recover, their next hero arrived. Scott McCoy was from Atlanta. He’d been helping that city as their defender, under the name The Power. He arrived in New York to help with the clean up, and heard the story of the Nameless Hero. In a public address to the city, The Power gave up his name, taking on the moniker ‘Nameless’ in honor of her sacrifice.

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This was not well-received by everyone. Some felt it was insulting to the Nameless Hero; in particular the African American community felt that this Southerner was appropriating the name and heroism of one of the own. Regardless, Mayor Rudi Giuliani accepted the Nameless’s new name and appointment, and he remains the official defender of the city. He is good at his job; crimes involving super powered villains are down. He was also the one to secure a treaty with the Fae when they were discovered living in a mound on Staten Island.

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Unofficially, the Watchman continues his vigilante ways and he has been joined by Watchwoman. Recently, he has not been seen and is presumed to be retired. Darker rumors in the underworld mark him as dead but there is no proof of this--yet.

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Parts of the City

New York is built mostly on three islands, Manhattan, Staten and Long Island. The city is located at the mouth of the Hudson River, which separates the city from New Jersey. The East River is a tidal strait that flows from Long Island Sound and separates the Bronx and Manhattan from Long Island. Manhattan is separated from the Bronx by the Harlem River, which the Bronx River flows between the Bronx and Westchester County; the latter is the only river made entirely of fresh water in the city.

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The city is composed of five boroughs, each of which coexists with a county. There is Manhattan in New York County, Bronx in Bronx County, Brooklyn in Kings County, Queens in Queens County and Staten Island in Richmond County. Manhattan is the most densely populated borough and is home to the Central Park and most of the city’s skyscrapers. It’s also the financial center of the city and many companies have headquarters there. This is also where the UN makes its home. The Bronx is the northernmost borough and home of the New York Yankees and the Bronx Zoo. Hip hop and rap were born here. Brooklyn is on the western tip of Long Island and is known for its diversity. It has an independent art second, distinct neighborhoods and a distinctive architectural heritage. Queens is east of Brooklyn on Long Island and is the most ethnically diverse county in the U.S—African Americans in this county have a median income higher than that of Caucasian Americans. The Mets have their home here, and LaGuardia Airport and JFK International Airport are both in Queens. Staten Island is mostly suburban. It has one of the city’s last undisturbed forests and 28 miles of walking trails in the 2500 acre Staten Island Greenbelt.

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Hidden Places of the City

The Subway is the most extensive public transportation system in the world with 468 stations in operation. It contains 209 miles of routes and delivered over 1.65 billion rides in 2012. It’s one of the oldest systems, and contains miles of old track unused by the city. Here, the homeless, mutants and monsters that can’t mingle in the city above scratch out a life in dank darkness. There are three factions of ‘undesirables’ down here.

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The first is run by Moses, an old man who manipulates shadows. He’s the source of the earliest rumors of oddness in the city. In his youth, he could just move the shadows and walk through them; now he is a shadow and he guards those that pay his toll.

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The second is purely made of inhuman mutants, whom call their place the Little City. It is run by the Mayor, who is elected once a year. The mutants model themselves after New York City above; they have home and stores, all populating the 26 miles of tunnels they own under Central Park. Their codex of laws is rather thick, as it emulates the one Above.

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The third group is mostly rumored. They are monsters that live below the sewers and subways, in the oldest tunnels built by the rich for a private subway system. It was below the water table and constantly floods—but that’s not a problem for these nightmarish monsters. Few have ever seen them, but they are said to be like the Old Ones from Lovecraftian stories. Monstrous half-men lurk in the watery tunnels and destroy your sanity just by gazing at them.

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The Greenbelt Depths is the entrance to Fairy in the New York area. The Fae have a treaty with the city to leave the Greenbelt to them. They are rather fond of Nameless since he was the human who came and flattered them into the current treaty.