Bridgetown Stoddard & Long Beach Rock Shores (c. 1972)

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Entry posted by david1314 · December 9, 2014

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Bridgetown Stoddard & Long Beach Rock Shores

(and Kingston and St. George Cliff, also)

The Reyesville metro area's southeast side contains a number of small sea side communities. Like most of the metro area, they have not been spared growing pains with large population jumps. Traffic is particularly severe through Bridgetown and along Long Beach.

The four commonwealth towns of Bridgetown, Stoddard, Long Beach, and Rock Shores are in a bid to form as a statutory city with borders coextensive with the unincorporated portion of the federal district (border visible in black below) with Reyesmount National Park to the North. Their hope is to blunt the planning influence of the city of Reyesville and national government requirements to link it (with road and rail) to surrounding areas.

Of concern was a highway to connect (dashed maroon line) the to be constructed outer ring highway of Reyesville (teal and maroon below). The highway was designed to be 4-6 lanes and connect the Lariette crossing (towards North Cross and Newport) around to the Lydian road (also to be upgraded), and around to the airport and southern stretch of Broadway—the coastal thoroughfare.

The town was ultimately formed and named Bridgetown Stoddard and Long Beach Rock Shores. While mostly united in planning desires, largely due to their collective ability to avoid cleaving their downtowns in half by a major east-west highway, the bridge and tunnel of Bridgetown proved a stumbling block. Bridgetown did not want to lose either the customer base nor the tolls the traffic brought; however, the highways were viewed as an inevitability, and Bridgetown voted overwhelmingly to join the other three towns to protect local planning.

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Long Beach Pier

The Long Beach Pier and Riviera Square is the center of life for the locals of the town.

Beachside

The Beachside area of Long Beach is a luxury resort area, catering to the second homes of Pacific Columbia's elite.

Town of Long Beach

Still further west is the Town of Long Beach. This is the original built-up area of the city, dense with homes, vacation homes, boarding houses, and boutique hotels. This is the place to be seen in summer.

Kingston and St George Cliff

Across the inlet the commonwealth towns of Kingston and St. George Cliff were able to avoid annexation—the boundaries set as the extent of Reyesville form the de facto boundaries of the twin towns. Originally fishing villages, today the two towns are bedroom communities of Reyesville with vibrant town centers along the wharfs. Steep hills drive very dense development. The towns biggest struggle currently is handling the volume of commuter traffic to Reyesville. They also struggle with a lack of transportation options—two bus lines, one from each town, head to Reyesville daily.

Stoddard

The town of Stoddard predates much of the SoEaDo (South Eastern Docks) neighborhood across the river. The bustling city on a hill supports a large fishing community. A modest business district connects the church on the hill to the wharf below. It's known locally as the city on the hill. The town has been a strong proponent of the connecting highways as it stands to gain useful access to the airport, Lydian, and find relief from the substantial burden of traffic of the other towns.