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Urban Segregation: Difference between revisions
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Obviously, the entirety of a city cannot always be adequately presented in a work, and often there is no point in doing so, due to [[The Law of Conservation of Detail]]. However, since ''some'' diversity is needed, the [[City of Adventure]] you happened to end up in will usually be split into districts by their prestige level. Most often, there are three of them:
* The slum, inhabited by [[The City Narrows|scum]] and [[Wrong Side of the Tracks|poor people]], and, in a [[Dystopia]], it may be a [[Fantastic Ghetto|ghetto for beings judged as "inferior"]] by whoever is in charge. Home to many a [[Gentleman Thief]] and [[Moses in The
* The "normal" district, where different cultures meet. Often the center of trade activity in the area, as well as the place where you can learn the latest news and gossip. The people here are generally satisfied with their lives, or brainwashed into satisfaction in a dystopia.
* The elite district, inhabited by the "cream of the crop", usually the aristocrats. The government, if one is featured, also resides here. The inhabitants may be shown as outright evil or simply not caring for the common folk. A [[Shining City]], often featuring [[Crystal Spires and Togas]].
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While real life segregation is mostly horizontal, a common sci-fi setting is a city of skyscrapers with vertical Urban Segregation - usually the poor live at the bottom in smog and darkness, while the rich live in the upper levels with sunlight and fresh air.
{{examples
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* Contrast the districts of Makati and Pandacan in Manila.
* Rio De Janiero's famous skyline has favela's, which are quite poor and often full of drug-related crime, contrasting sharply to luxury suberbs.
* In [[Istanbul]] during the days of the Ottoman Empire much of the city was like this. Part of the reason was the ''Millet'' system in which different ethnic and religious groups had neighborhoods set aside for them with leaders that answered to [[The Government]]. In some ways this was pre-Ottoman. During the conquest in 1453 some neighborhoods were able to avoid [[Rape, Pillage and Burn]] by forting up and then making a separate peace; just forcing the invaders to stop and take a breath before continuing the sack was sometimes enough to save a neighborhood.
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
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* ''[[Fallout]] 2'''s Vault City is divided between the Citizens who have access to high tech services and a good quality life and the Denizens who live in the slums outside the city proper and can only get in by passing a ridiculously hard citizen test (which most Citizens would not be able to pass either) or becoming "servants", i.e. slaves (but the Citizens get ''really'' [[Insistent Terminology|annoyed if you call them that]]).
** Most other places in the Fallout verse have no problems like this though, one of the few improvements they have over modern society. But then again they live in a post apocalyptic kill or be killed slaver and monster infested hellhole.
* In ''TES: [[Morrowind]]'', The cantons of Vivec have a bit of this going on. The lower you are in one of the cantons the worse off people are, until you get to the sewers which tend to be filled with vermin. [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|And rats]].
** Most of the major cities had a subtle amount of segregation. Note Balmora with "Poor Town", "Commercial Row" and "Temple (or High) Hill", or Ald'Rhun with "Under Skar".
** ''[[The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim]]'' features this in several of the major cities. Markarth is mostly a city of gray-white stone built into an old dwarven ruin, where the middle class lives on the ground level, the nobility in the upper levels of the cliffs around the main keep, and the poor underclass lives in tunnels referred to as the "Warrens." Windhelm, capital of the Stormcloak rebels, is more conventional, with the west side of the city featuring large mansions and the east side of the city being a slum with narrow alleys. The former is home to the native Nord nobility, while the latter is home to the poorer Dunmer immigrants. (Argonians who work the docks aren't even allowed in the city in the first place). A more benevolent version is the central city of Whiterun, built around a large hill, where the business/lower class "Plains" district is located at the bottom of the hill, the residential "Wind" district is partway up the hill, and the Jarl's keep is located in the "Cloud" district at the top of the hill.
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* Exaggerated ridiculously in ''[[The Fairly Odd Parents]]'' - Chester and AJ literally live across the railroad tracks from each other. However, Chester's side is a rundown trailer park, and AJ's side is a wealthy suburb where everyone lives in a huge house.
* Hill Valley in ''[[The Oblongs]]'' is divided between "the Hills" (upper-class) and "the valley" (horrible polution). One line implied that the people from the valley can't afford to live anywhere else because they spend all of their money on treating the illness they get from living there, which makes sense as anybody born there suffers from at least one birth defect. The titular family has a man from the Valley (who has no arms or legs) married to a Hill girl, she moved into the valley and lost all her hair, though she wears a wig most of the time.
* The city of [[Where the Hell Is Springfield?|Springfield]] from ''[[The Simpsons (Animation)|The Simpsons]]'' underwent that when the city adopted new area codes. 939 was the poor area while 636 was the rich area and a wall was built between the two areas.
** Which was more like the inner german wall in Berlin making 939 the East and 636 the West.
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