Update 1- Intro Update
Entry 2
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*The next three paragraphs are just a "story" of the region since this is an intro update. You could skip it if you aren't into reading silly stories... (don't forget to vote in the poll!)
Nearly two years ago I posted an update to The Forgotten announcing a recreation of Kellan and even created this new city journal, Kellan V2, to prepare. Unfortunately, I never actually managed to post an update and at one point Kellan became a completely abandoned project, but not anymore. Northeast Vancouver Island is now back and better than ever with the Kellan Valley and the Alpine Cities.
The Kellan Valley is an urbanized, rapidly growing, and rapidly densifying valley that many now refer to as the "Silicon Forest" due to its bustling tech scene (and overpriced homes to match). Kellan, which used to be a small fishing and farming village on the Eastern shores of Vancouver Island, annexed vast swaths of land between 1981 and 2005 as the area's tech scene started to erupt, and saw it as a chance to create a new "urban village" plan to turn the city into the new gem of the tech world . Many residents claimed that this was just to artificially inflate the city's population for various financial reasons and to attract "hip" tech companies with the idea of urban villages, though Kellan's plan to create a walkable city miserably failed anyway as the city is now just as car-centric as any other city on the North American West Coast. Walkability isn't the Kellan Valley's only problem, skyrocketing home prices due to high demand and low supply, constantly gridlocked traffic, an explosive population boom that continues to stretch regional resources and services past their limits, and a "civil war" between residents over where to build new medium and high density homes while demolishing single-family homes (as many native residents claim lawmakers are trying to turn Kellan into the "Hong Kong of the West") seems to keep the Valley from becoming the true tech utopia it desperately wants to be so bad.
On the other hand, The Alpine Cities are a group of three high altitude cities that are internationally known for their high annual snow totals that allow them to be the perfect winter resorts (the city of Peak not only averages 485 inches/1,232 cm of snow a year but also received over 1,000 inches/2,540cm of snow in it's snowiest year). Cedar Valley, one of the three Alpine Cities, is also home to Henderson Inc., a tech company that is not only known for their smartphones but is also projected to become the first tech company to surpass Apple in yearly revenue by the end of 2018. In contrast to the chaotic urban life of the Kellan Valley, life in the fairly affluent Alpine Cities is actually quite peaceful and continues to be immune to the curse of the dreadful population boom (save for the winter and spring snowstorms that practically bury the cities in snow).
Current regional map of Kellan
Current traffic map of Kellan
Current political map of the Kellan Metropolitan Area. Fun fact, every single urban village of Kellan except for Downtown, Lakefront District, and Gresham, either used to be their own town/city or unincorporated farmland due to the fact that Radiation was actually the former "CBD" of the region and even had the largest population by a wide margin. Areas like Mountainview, annexed in 2005 with a population of 142,000 people at the time of annexation, even had their own municipal laws and local traditions before being swiped up by the city of Kellan in the late 20th century.
The major freeways that run in/through Kellan. The Interstate 5 is a mega-regional freeway that starts at the US-Mexico border in San Diego, California and passes through numerous large cities including Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver, while making the trek up the Pacific Coast to Anchorage, Alaska (although in real life the freeway actually stops at the US-Canada border near White Rock, BC). Similar to other cities along the I-5, the freeway suffers from horrendous traffic that progressively gets worse as you travel North on the freeway deeper into Kellan and climaxes at the I-5/Valley Connector interchange, a huge bottleneck that proves to be a nightmare for residents and tourists alike who are forced to sit through traffic that nearly gridlocks every single evening rush hour. While other area freeways do suffer similarly horrendous traffic, especially the Lakefront Express, their traffic jams account for significantly smaller portions of the freeways' total distance and also don't last nearly as long as those on the I-5.
A map of the spider web known as the Kellan Metropolitan Rapid Transport [Authority], or KMRTA. At the turn of the 21st century, the region's population boom continued to get more intense, with the region's annual population change peaking at 235,000/year in 2006 (a peak the region has come close to passing). In response to this, the KMRTA came up with a plan to upgrade its puny two-line light rail system into one with numerous light rail and subway lines that will future-proof Kellan's transit and put all the other West Coast cities to shame. While the system is definitely not future proof as fast population growth has outpaced public transit upgrades, it definitely has put the other wannabe walkable cities of the West Coast like to shame when it comes to light rails and subways (however, cities like San Francisco are still significantly more walkable than Kellan and it's suburbs).
A .gif of my progress developing the region over time.
Some preview shots of selected areas in Kellan
(Lakefront District area of Kellan)
Usually, replies will be at the bottom but there are none, so hope you liked the intro update and don't forget to vote in the poll!
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