Entry 39 : The Timber Ponds (5E136)

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Entry posted by Linoa06 · October 20, 2016

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Hey there party people! Cathnoquey is back, and this time we are going to Ashford, the capital of the Northern Territories

Ashford is a city of some 300,000 inhabitants, with about 1,000,000 people in the surrounding metropolitan area. It is the state capital of the Northern Territories, as well as the seat of Ash County. It is located on the Timber Ponds, in fact a lake that stretches inland, surrounded by hills, forests and salt marshes, twenty miles from the northern coast of Cathnoquey.

Ashford is one of these new towns built in the early Fifth Era, and in fact is known for its grided layout, much more rigidly adhered to than elsewhere. The commission-based city government, one of the few of its kind in Cathnoquey, has spent the last decade breaking the grid in favour of traffic calming solutions. They also keep up the Ashford Metro, which includes the oldest train tunnels in Cathnoquey, beneath the downtown area.

Ashford City Hall is the traditional heart of the city, not just politically but in its geographical layout. City Hall Park was designed by one of the city's founding architect, Skyrim-born Ragna Hoffensdottir; despite the skyscrapers creeping across the skyline the park remains the most visited green space in the county.

While Ashford is a generally pleasant and progressive city, it hasn't always been so. In the 50s, 60s and 70s, the city had one of the highest violent crime rates and gang wars were commonplace. Crime has come down since the reign of radical high commissioner Marcus Bluebanner, who made it his primary goal to eradicate violence from Ashford. Many of his policies centred around gun control, stronger punishment, two state-of-the-art supermax jails, with mixed effects.

It took several decades to clean up entire neighbourhoods, though, and the Bluebanner Act as it became known enabled the city authorities to repossess entire blocks - usually bulldozing them despite public outrage, using the construction of the M3 highway as an excuse. This neighbourhood, since then renamed Morningside, used to be a very impoverished slum - today though it looks sleek and modern, filled with concrete, impressive condos, music halls, and ad billboards.

More cynical commenters would point out that the skooma drug trade and associated violence were at best simply replaced by the cleaner business of money laundering. The Northern Territories are technically not a state but a Special Federal Territory, which means every municipality there have much more freedom in its political organization, taxes and most other aspects of the economy. Ashford is known as a tax haven, and several companies have set up shop there. Likewise, many real estate projects in the city have been called dubious by transparency activists, though fiercely protected by the City Hall's lawyers.

With that said let's take a view at the downtown area. The riverside, mostly reclaimed land, is no popular hangout spot since it is cut off by the metro and high capacity ramps. Nonetheless, here are the fifteen most important landmarks in the downtown area :

1- Central Station

2- Federal Investigation Service HQ & Federal Hospital

3- Louisoix Leveilleur University

4- 1054 State Street Building (Transit Authority building)

5- Bluerise Plaza Building

6- City Hall & Park

7- Columbia Center

8- City Hall Auxiliary Tower

9- Banhammer Regional HQ

10- University Faculty of Medicine

11- Northern Territories Congressional House

12- Bank of Cathnoquey Tower

13- Silverfield Casino

14- John H. Whitemane Tower

15- CathCorp Tower

Here is a view of the historical city hall, where most ceremonial and political functions are concentrated. Administrative services are located further downtown in their own auxiliary building, one of the tallest in the city.

The construction of skyscrapers in the city has been spurred by the low tax rates and reputation of the county as a tax haven, but not just. Good public transit links have also encouraged real estate tycoons to base their offices here, though the city still has a high rate of car dependancy.

One possible explanation is the fact that the M3, one of the nation's major road links, directly serves most of the city's denser neighborhoods. Initially it was supposed to loop around the Bay, with its top half slashing through Ashford; however as of today the M3 links Ashford from the east, before curving all the way around Timber Lake and southwest towards Wellsborough. Grassroot efforts have successfully prevented the final piece of the M3 loop from being completed : a bridge that would go over the mouth of the lake, above the salt marshes, in a more direct southwest direction. Environmentalists and NIMBY lobbyists claimed the destruction caused to the bay would be inacceptable, and most traffic would be rerouted across parts of the city much like this one, causing massive noise pollution.

It's not that Ashford doesn't have good public transportation, though. The central station is actually rather quiet as far as mainline traffic is concerned, but it is also served by the Surburban Ashford Transit Authority's Blue Line and most of the city's bus lines.

Meanwhile, other parts of the city, especially the southern, Khajiit parts of the city, are served by the SATA Green Line light rail service.

However, both these services have a terrible reputation : old trains and trams, slow service, usual delays, high fares... only compounded by the systematic integration of bus services with rail stations, so that many people travelling from the outer surburbs end up forced to transfer to a slow bus or to the Blue or Green lines.

Still, subway service is actually the primary mode among the city's university students and remains quite popular for inhabitants of the more far flung communities.

Downtown itself, however, is easily walkable, with most major buildings within 1 mile of each other. There are also several cycling and sport initiatives in town, though the city council has never made good on promises to make Ashford more cyclable. State Street, one of the city's main north-south axis, traditionally hosts the beginning of the Ashford Marathon every Last Seed.

Let's take some quick views of different parts of the city. In Southwest Ashford, we have Amity Hill, a primarily poor, Khajiit neighbourhood that rigidly follows the downtown grid (or "standard grid", oriented North). Green Line trams run along Pelletine Avenue.

East Ashford and, beyond that, North East Ashford, are located in a hilly area and do not follow any grid conventions.

North East Ashford stretches for miles and miles into the valley...

Places such as Coleridge Heights are made up of affluent and cozy neighborhoods, nested among the rolling hills, populated by lawyers and accountants, but also middle class families, further pushing the historical, poorer residents further away from their decades old homes...

There is one last thing that should be told about Ashford : its music scene, authoritative in Cathnoquey, Tamriel and the entire world. The live music business has defined Ashford for decades, through its nightlife venues in Midtown, its music festivals, or its many cabaret and music halls. Ashford even has its own homebrew label, AshTown Records, which since the 70s has signed a number of high profile performers of many genres, notably rap, hiphop, R&B, but also jazz.

The music business in Ashford is much like the finance and accountancy sectors that lead the city by day : respectable and impressive on the outside, but don't stare too deep into the abyss, lest the city's old demons of crime and drug trafficking stare back into you. A city of contrasts, clinging to its good reputation, but where it becomes clear the problems haven't been solved, but merely pushed to the backstreets...

But we'll get to explore more of the city as we go! I shall leave you on this final overview of the central parts of the city. I have several entries lined up, so I hope you enjoy the reboot

See you in Cathnoquey!