Gotham City and the Dark Deco State
"What good are insights? They only make things worse." - Raymond Carver
“The streets are safe in Philadelphia, it's only the people who make them unsafe.” - Mayor Frank L. Rizzo
There are a few points that are necessary here: I started reading Batman & Detective when I was six and have basically been reading the Bat Universe since. Secondly, I grew up in Philadelphia. I've lived in Germantown, Fairmount, West Philly (between University City and Southwest), South Philly and finally Center City before leaving my city, my home, for the first time in my mid 20's to move to Austin, Texas. Austin was mostly a bad idea but it did give me some very interesting new insights into my relationship to Philadelphia. At which point, home became a much bigger place for me and got me thinking about infrastructural and urban design elements like I had never thought of them before, which I will dive more into below. Finally, after two grueling years, I left Austin, went back to Philly for the summer en route to my latest destination, Chicago where I currently live in the Rogers Park neighborhood.
"But John, what the heck does you stupid life story have to do with Gotham?"
I'm very glad you asked, self. Having read most issues since 1988 in Philadelphia, I had been empathizing with Bruce Wayne's relationship to Gotham by using my own relationship to Philadelphia ... a dark, at times violent, post-industrial port city in the Northeast. I later on found myself feeling that Austin was more the peak of Mt. Hozomeen of Kerouac's Desolation Angels than the large urban oasis tucked deep in the heart of Texas that it has the reputation for being (which I will admit was almost entirely due to my total homesickness. No Austin bashing intended.) The point is that as I was reading Dick Greyson rediscover Gotham City and take over the mantle as Batman (this was right before the Battle for the Cowl stories), I found myself using Gotham City as a gateway to my own hometown taking pleasure in the simple things like having sidewalks on both sides of the street ... every street , a viable albeit slightly unreliable public transit system, street signs on every corner that used address numbers and cardinal directions, most importantly a navigable grid pattern that made sense, and all the amenities of living in a large Northeastern city.
It was then that, as I mentioned above, home became a much bigger place. Texan cities are not designed like Northeastern cities. Its just a very different kind of America, not better or worse. Philadelphia signed its first city Charter in 1691 & first settled in 1642 ... a good 200 years before Austin (then Waterloo). I mention this to point out that the infrastructure of Philadelphia (and almost every city from Baltimore to Boston) being designed for heavy pedestrian traffic, later rail traffic evolving then to include the automobile, where that of Austin was designed exclusively with the car in mind making it next to impossible to get around town without one. I found myself missing the 2 hour train ride to New York, 3 hours to Botson, 2 hours to D.C. ... how I could just move around an entire region of the Unites States without ever getting in a car. Now past this very generalized history lesson, lets get back to Gotham.
"Wait a second John, isn't Gotham city just an pseudonym for New York?"
Bill Finger once said, "We didn't call it New York because we didn't want anybody in any city to identify with it." This and my new expanded home view is what drives this project. We know that Gotham is a Northeastern port city just like most every city from, again, Baltimore to Boston. We also know that it grew out of the industrial boom, and was a center of manufacturing and shipping. It features a large currently underutilized main port with several smaller ports spread among the islands, and at least at some point was a major transit hub for passenger and freight rail. This could be New York but could just as easily be Philadelphia or Boston; all of which are no more than 100 miles from each other. Contrast that with Austin which is more that 250 miles to anything, and even then you're only talking about Houston, Dallas and ... Odessa (sorry Waco). But Bob Kane once said that he pulled his inspiration from the whole Northeast, everything from New York and Philadelphia to Wilmington, Delaware to create a sort of Metro City, USA.
Gotham as Philadelphia, but not really:
Now Where the pulse and personality of New York and Philadelphia are dramatically different, so then are all those cities compared to Gotham. From my own reading, I've always felt that the shadows Metropolis casts down on Gotham were akin to the chip all us Philadelphians carry on our shoulders as we relate to New York. Ask anyone from Philly how they feel about New York and don't be surprised if you get an earful of expletives. It's nothing personal really, but I've always found myself defending Philadelphia to New Yorkers; "Philly is NOT a garbage dump OR the sixth borough. So ef you, pal." I've always felt that the way that Metropolis and their big Blue Boyscout seem to think that the world revolves around them and the way that Gotham is almost always trying to remind the world that yes in fact it does still exist even after No Man's Land, is not unlike how Philadelphian's think of ourselves in relation to New York. This isn't a slight to New Yorkers at all so please don't take it that way ... or fans of Superman. I love Superman. Batman is better though. So being from Philly, of course I read Gotham as being Philadelphia. But I say "not really" because there are obvious differences. For starters ... Gotham is a lot bigger.
So at this point I'm just ranting so probably a good time to regroup write another post where I'm going to look at "the many states of Gotham." Where is it? What State is it in? The local, state and federal politics of Gotham City, which is unavoidable when you're talking about city building and urban design. Then, I'm going to get into what I really want to talk about; how, in my mind, Gotham is actual designed. How are the neighborhoods set up ... what does it really look like, etc.
For Now, I'll give you my starting point. I've decided to start with Uptown (the north-most island) working my way from Granton to Lemmars Park.
Uptown with neighboring Farrow, Ensbury, Ganton and Yeavley.
Funny story: after terraforming Endsbury, I realized that I forgot to type the "d" when naming it. I decided I liked the name Ensbury better. I don't know, I felt "Endsbury" was a bit to literal. Just keeping it simple for now. A few neighborhoods, very small industrial parks, passenger rail and bus service. Once I get to a regional industrial pop. of about 20k, I'll start with freight lines.
Also, quick note ... I've assumed that the Pennsylvania/NY Central and Reading railroads have built independent rail lines serving Gotham City (PA Central to the "west" and Reading to the "east") which were later connected by Amtrak and either leased or sold to Gotham City Railraod or maintained by Amtrak for use with such lines as the Lake Shore Limited and Accela. I put those in quotes because you'll also notice that I rotated the map. Just seemed easier to work with horizontally rather than vertically. So the North arrow on the SC map is actually pointing west. Although if anyone finds that too confusing for whatever reason I can just keep that to myself and refer to SC's north as north.
Initial development of Ensbury. Former Penn Central Line now serviing Amtrak and GCRR's R1 - Pettsburg/Ditherling Line (the Orange line on Nolan's GC transit map)
I know what you're thinking ... that this is way too nice to be Gotham. Remember, this is Uptown. Just North of here is Wayne Manor. I'm envisioning something a bit more W2W as it grows.
As always ... whatever insights or criticisms anyone may have are welcome.
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