Nenova: Riverine

 After Orange, one of Nenova's struggling districts marked by a troubling history of redlining and brutalism (call it "heroic architecture" if you must), comes Riverine, an upscale, newer riverside development. The word riverine, a synonym of riparian, is rarely used in speech but makes for a good neighborhood name.

In Aquilia, the dryness and relative age of the buildings means that stucco is very popular as it is in the American west. Older buildings in other neighborhoods might still have a brick veneer (thinner layer) as siding, although the nostalgia of this building style means brick is still appealing in newer neighborhoods. This same nostalgia powers stone (limestone and granite) sidings, both full and veneer. In newer apartments, vinyl is the most common siding due to its inexpensive price and relative durability. My apartment complex has fiber cement siding, which looks similar to vinyl, but has an artificial wood aesthetic that doubles the price. In this neighborhood in particular, most buildings will be stucco, with some brick and stone and vinyl apartments. This has no influence on the map, but does help visualize the area.

This neighborhood will probably have the lowest population out of all Nenova neighborhoods, given that the vast majority of the area is taken up by a park. Much of the area is in front of the levee, in the floodplains of the Akogama river. This levee is east of the rail, and should only break in a once-in-two-hundred-years flooding event. Still, land this close to the floodplain (and rail) is unappealing for anyone with enough money to avoid settling there. However, its close proximity to appealing parts of the downtown (convention center, major office complexes) allows building here. Still, the two blocks very closest to the river are not allowed for residential.

There is an elementary school on Arton Street, a large and older church on Main Street, and several churches that are relegated to alleyways. Even the residential areas have concentrations of commercial development, and industry is not heavy and mostly concentrated on logistics. There are several smaller apartment complexes, but none as major as the one presented in the last blog. A decent approximation of the population of Riverine is about 250, compared to the 1750 (even with almost 50% vacancies!) population of the significantly larger and more dense Orange neighborhood.

The park, given its position beyond the levee, is often flooded and was an old neighborhood that had been demolished. The main road of that neighborhood was changed in some parts to the new bike path, though it has since been repaved. By the park is a wastewater treatment plant, though it is fenced off and hidden from view for the pleasure of park-goers. The design of that plant is mostly inspired by Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant in Brooklyn, using a similar digester egg system. Given its distance from the homes, it does not impact them much. However, it has a questionable environmental history, given that it does not reach the 85% pollutant removal, which though it does not necessary apply in Aquilia is a requirement set by the US' Clean Water Act.

Map link: https://opengeofiction.net/#map=15/-38.6353/143.1660

Thanks for reading,

Jacob

Nenova: Orange

Abandoned lots are a serious problem in many Midwestern cities. The decline of heavy industry in the United States heralded a rapid population decline in the cities that depended on this industry, which was often built up in cities around the great American rail hubs of Chicago and Kansas City. Often, a decreasing population also diminishes the ability of the city and county governments to revive and diversify the city, or even just to demolish the buildings or clean up the lots. This is not to say that there have not been efforts to do so- especially in Detroit, St. Louis, and Cleveland. This problem of urban decay has been exacerbated by the United States government through the discriminatory process of redlining where minority communities were labled as "infiltrations". Communities were ranked by nationality and income and many poorer and diverse communities were refused housing loans from the Federal Housing Association, a practice which was picked up by many other banks.

The Orange neighborhood of Nenova is one that would have been redlined. Many of its residents live in townhouses and work manufacturing jobs by the neighboring rail yard. Abandoned lots are common, and represented by grass. Apartments are present, which are often used as a means of recovering abandoned places. The region at the corner of South Huntington Street and Josephs Crescent was likely considered unacceptable, especially for a neighborhood in such a visible location. Wilkinson Yard, part of which is visible here, is a place for trains containing a variety of cargo- from wheat and other cereals to materials for concrete production. This neighborhood lacks a park, which is another way which the government has failed this community and reflects many comparable neighborhoods in the real world.

Nenova Community College is in this neighborhood, likely because the college is underfunded and because of the cheaper price of lots in the area. It is rare to see a college so close to the rail tracks, but it is not unheard of, and reflects Wayne State University in Midtown Detroit. There are some small details not readily visible in this screenshot, including the abrupt stopping of sidewalks in most of the neighborhood as well as allotments (a community garden). Some larger homes are copy-pasted, and reflect the development of newer model homes. Many apartments have simple shapes, which reflect government-sponsored brutalist architecture.

Like I mentioned in the pinned "geofiction" blog post, the purpose of my mapping is not to be ideal, but to reflect the real world, including all of its problems. This has called my attention to many of these issues, and this blog has given my mapping more meaning in that I am able to teach these problems through my artwork. There are, of course, realistic ways to escape these problems, and many places in which they do not exist, or at least are not as prominent. But in the United States, especially since the glorification of suburban life, the growth of car culture, and the development of the Interstate Highway System, we have failed our urban and rural areas alike.

Please explore this digital recreation of the original redlining maps: https://dsl.richmond.edu/panorama/redlining

Thanks for reading,
Jacob