City of New Hamelin
New Hamelin was founded in 1802. It's located on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, and surrounds Widow's Bay. In 1924, it's population was 350, mostly fishermen. In 1998, it's population was 12,342, as larger fishing companies moved in, and brought workers with them.
In 2035, New Hamelin has a population of roughly 158,000. Over three quarters of these people work for the largest corporation to have facilities in the city, Ibiscorp.
The city has a large town center, dominated by two mega skyscrapers... one is the City Hall, the other is the Ibiscorp Executive Plaza.
Around the town center is a fairly common business section. New Hamelin has almost no industrial zone. It's income is almost entirely a byproduct of Ibiscorp's business. Ibiscorp is the world leader in sea-floor exploitation. The coastal conditions in Widow's Bay makes New Hamelin the ideal location for a sizeable submarine bay, located on the edge of town.
As one moves away from the center of town, however, as in most cities, the buildings become less well maintained, and house less well maintained people. Less than three miles from the edges of the Ibiscorp Executive Plaza, presswood "Temporary Houses" hold the lowest level of the corporation's employees.
While much of the original town's buildings were demolished around 2015 to make room for the new City Center, many buildings dating back to the first years of the town's existence still stand. They're scattered amongst the business districts, and even amongst the tenements for the poor. Among these buildings are a number of churches. Most of them are disused, but are considered historical landmarks, not to be demolished so long as they can stand on their own.
Ibiscorp's tremendous success in the area has generated a Halo effect. Hundreds of small businesses, capitalizing on the rich resources that Ibiscorp extracts from the ocean floor, surround the plaza, forming most of the new businesses in the town. While most of the executives of Ibiscorp live in the Executive Plaza itself, the wealthiest executives, as well as wealthy executives from the "Halo" companies live in freshly constructed houses on the outskirts of town, in what was once a farm community.
The weather in New Hamelin is generally cold and damp, with a persistent fog layer that remains nine months of the year. It burns off, for a time, during the summer, but returns in the fall with a vengence. Rainfall for the town is actually above the area average, with precipitation on over 300 days of the year.
Examine the Rumor Mill for Story Seeds
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