The Sprawl

Population: 87 Million (Search +3)

Environment

Terrain: Varied
Appearance: Normal
Hygiene: +1

Culture And Economy

Language: English, Spanish, Arabic
Literacy: Native
TL: 9
Wealth: Average
Status: -2 to 8

Political Environment

Government: Representaive Democracy, Municipality
CR: 3 (Corruption -1)
Military Resources: $1.44 Billion (Police budget)
Defense Bonus: +13

History

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The Sprawl was once formally known as the B.A.M.A. (The Boston-Atlanta Metropolitan Area), the massively urbanized area encompassing much of seventeen entire old States. It was formally reorganized into the Northeast and Piedmont Metroplexes in 2021, to try to take advantage of economies of scale and to ease local martial law during the worst years of the Collapse then again into The Sprawl Megacity in 2037 under the PATRIOT IV Act of that year.

Today

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The Sprawl comprises the conjoined major urban areas of the former States of CT, DE, MA, MD, ME, NH, NJ, NY, PA, RI, VA, WV in the Northeast and AL, GA, NC, TN, and VA in the South. The megacity as a whole is run by a Governor and his staff, selected and appointed by the President with congressional approval, who run the city with considerable input from the Senators and Representatives of its constituent States. (About the only thing the old State boundaries are still used for is electing members to the US Congress and to the Electoral College.) The position of Governor of Sprawl Megacity is a Cabinet level post.

The Megacity is split into a total of nine Sectors, each named for the primary old city or most populous conurbation in the Sector. Thus there is no “New York, New York” anymore – it has become singular. The Sectors are: Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Hampton Roads, Charlotte, Atlanta, Birmingham and Nashville.

Each Sector is a joint civil and military administrative area, each with it’s own Mayor and Council answerable to the Governor – and each with it’s own Combined Operations Group commanding officer, although that may be a general or an admiral depending upon the COG’s main constituent units. Sectors are further subdivided into Districts and Precincts, each of which has it’s own District or Precinct Council with some devolved power of local government.

While the population density of the United States as a whole is around 260 per square mile, the Sprawl’s vast urban tracts sees an average density of 537 per square mile over its 162,000 square miles of built-up area – in some areas far, far higher. The strongest commerce sectors are Finance and Logistics/Trade, although hi-tech manufacturing and research is close behind.

The Sprawl has been indelibly colored by the events of the Collapse and the Militia wars as well as by massive over-crowding and chronic under-funding. It is smelly, hot, crime-ridden, mostly poverty-stricken, and dotted by the blockhouse fortresses of the military and police barracks and precinct stations. Yet it is also a place where artists create amazing works, where the ultra-rich live in glittering towers and where – if they get the breaks- even a lowly Zoner can rise to greatness. It is in many ways the archetype of the modern city.

Personalities

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None as yet.

Locations

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Washington D.C. Security District: the center of U.S. government, where provisions equivalent to martial law are still in force, as set down in PATRIOT IV.

India Point Contamination Zone: the officially designated exclusion area around the site of the 2018 India Point disaster, also known as the “Thirty Mile Zone”.

Manhattan Domes: the Fuller domes that now enclose areas of the island keep the rich safe from even the nastiest weather events climate change has to offer.

Barrytown: A deprived area of Atlanta which was originally to have been the first of several massive housing projects with their own Fuller domes. Money ran out and the domes were never completed. Microclimate drizzle and smogs often form under the ragged-edged coverings.