The Overpacked Suburbs was the name designated for the neighborhoods around Night City that became overpopulated by refugees during the Time of the Red.
History[]
2020s - 2030s[]
The Fourth Corporate War fights razed a large part the housing areas of Night City. Then, the 2023 Holocaust happened, destroying much of the central downtown. The areas most affected were named as the Hot Zone, the lethally radioactive remains of the City & Corporate Districts. Much of the destroyed central city surrounding the Hot Zone became uninhabitable too, not because of residual radiation, but from the loss of power, sewer, and water services. Fleeing the radioactive ruins, roughly 2 million people in the greater Night City area became homeless from direct effects of the bomb, and with the flooding by the liquefaction of the city's foundations — which had been built on fill and sand - these refugees were forced to move over to either the adjacent towns or further out. Survivors fled into overcrowded tent cities in the surrounding suburbs of North Oak, Westbrook, Pacifica, Heywood, and South Night City. By 2030s, it was obvious that something needed to be done fast.
Over the following years plans were made to regulate this, but due to the lack of infrastructure and difficulty in shipping, things moved very slow. Aras like Pacifica or the Watson Development managed to pour in enough money to quickly recover. However, Heywood, Rancho Coronado and New Westbrook didn't have that kind of help. Even worse, South Night City and other neighboring districts fell into hard times after becoming dangerous Combat Zones. The fringes of the ruined city center, the Hot Zone, also became overpopulated by tent cities.[1]
2040s[]
By 2040, huge megabuildings were under construction to house most of the refugees still hosting a huge number of tent cities and unregulated camps smacked in the middle of what had previously been the safe suburban corporate beavervilles, and the surrounding foothills. These suburban areas were crowded, crime-ridden, and on the edge of disaster all the time. The NCPD working on this area (Second Division mostly) was overworked and had to devote more than half of its forces to deal with gangs of scavvers. They also had come to rely on Zhirafa drones to patrol the vast expanse of the overpacked neighborhoods. Around this time a new trend popped up in the suburbs of Night City: the Street Theaters. Entertainers affiliated with the Julliard Performers Guild begun doing shows on street corners, managing to gain in popularity. There was no cost to attend the shows, but the performers still took in donations. In some cases, these thespians were bringing in almost 500eb a night. The more elaborate the production the more people would come to watch. This draw in techies looking to make some eurodollars on the side.
The City Council considered the Overpacked Suburs to have a threat level of "Moderate/Combat", which meant that the people who were outside of the most dangerous zones lived in relative peace, as long as the dangers of the Combat Zones didn't leak out, being these last areas one of the worst places in the city, where people died, and no one cleaned it up afterwards.[1]
Locations[]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 PONDSMITH, M. Cyberpunk RED Core Rulebook. Kenmore, WA, R. Talsorian Games, 2020. (pp.241,292–297,299,325,431)