New Amsterdam
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New Amsterdam is an international center of business, fashion, medicine, culture and entertainment with a large collection of galleries, theaters, musuems, media outlets, corporations and financial markets. The city is also the de facto capital of the Commonwealth of Peoples, serving as the headquarters of the Commonwealth Commission and the Commonwealth General Assembly.
New Amsterdam is sometimes known as the "Untiring City" because it is perceived to be active at all hours. People from all over the world come to New Amsterdam for economic opportunity, culture and the cosmopolitan lifestyle. Although previously infamous for its crime, New Amsterdam is currently experiencing a record low rate of violent crime.
History
New Amsterdam was founded by Dutch settlers who landed in 1624. The city was granted self-government in 1632. The Nabarrans took the city in 1642 but let it keep its original name. The Dutch briefly retook the city in 1646 before permanently and officially ceding it.
During the Lanerian Revolutionary War, the people of New Amsterdam were largely ambivalent. Throughout the war, the city remained under Nabarran control and it was the last naval port abandoned by the Imperial Navy after the war was over.
New Amsterdam was the seat of the Lanerian Government from 1782-1793 and the capital from 1793-1802. In 1832, the opening of a canal to the Lanerian Great Lakes allowed New Amsterdam to overtake the other major Lanerian cities and become economically dominant. However, this dominance did not come without a price. A notoriously corrupt political machine set itself up under the aegis of the Democratic Republican Party, basing itself in Titulaer Hall and relying for support upon recent Irish immigrants. During this period, radical trade unions were brutally repressed, African-Lanerians were kept out and organized crime was allowed to flourish by corrupt police. It wasn't until the election of William Lamb in 1939 on a reform ticket that the city was cleaned up.
In subsequent decades, the growth of the suburbs led to a decline in the city's population. Rising crime rates, declining manufacturing and white flight led to serious social problems. Racial tensions exploded in the late 1990s after a number of dramatic police shootings. All of these shootings involved African-Lanerian fatalities who turned out to have posed no real danger to police. In each case, police and city authorities held that police responded to the situation based on the knowledge they had and made the correct decision given the circumstances as they were aware of them. Many on the left and in the African-Lanerian community disagreed, feeling that the shootings were manifestations of police racism and never would have occurred in white neighborhoods. The resulting racial tensions erupted into mass protests in 1992, 1994 and 1996, as well as sustained criticism and distrust and occassional acts of violence.
The city's problems improved dramatically after the election of Federalist mayor Ian Barr in 2002. Since Barr's election, unemployment and crime has declined, wages have increased and racial tensions have eased.
Geography
New Amsterdam is located in northeastern Laneria on the southeastern tip of New Holland. The city's total area is 468.9 square miles (1,214.4 km²), of which 35.31% is water. Most of the city is located on three major islands: Linschoten Island, Melchers Island and Savelberg Island. Balen is the only borough of New Amsterdam located on the Lanerian mainland.
New Amsterdam's importance as a trading city largely comes from the natural harbor formed by New Amsterdam Bay which is surrounded by Linschoten, Melchers and Savelberg Islands as well as the coast of New Dover. It is sheltered from the Atlantic Ocean by the narrows between Savelberg Island and New Dover.
The Haan River flows from the Haan Valley into New Amsterdam harbor, becoming a tidal estuary. Unfortunately, the estuary's fish population has declined drastically in the last hundred years do to pollution. Environmental efforts have brought about a partial recovery in recent years but fish populations are still too low to allow commerical fishing.
The city's land has been altered substantically by human intervention in the form of land reclamation projects which have pushed back the sea substantially in some areas since Dutch colonial times. Much of the natural variation in topography has also been evened out, either intentionally or as a natural result of dense human habitation over a long period.
Boroughs
The city of New Amsterdam is divided into five boroughs: Melchers, Savelberg, Linschoten, Balen and Arlen. Each borough is a separate county of the State of New Holland with local county institutions. However, all five boroughs are also united under one municipal city government.
The administrative center for the Commonwealth of Peoples is technically located in Melchers although it is not subject to local government. Instead, it is located on twelve blocks of sovereign Commonwealth territory for which the Commonwealth General Assembly acts as a legislature and the Commonwealth Commission as a government.
Climate
New Amsterdam enjoys a humid continental climate resulting from cool air which comes from the interior of Laneria. Winters in the city are cold and snowy. Snowfall averages about two feet a year and there has been no winter recorded in which enough snow did not fall in New Amsterdam to cover the ground at least once. However, the Atlantic Ocean helps keep the city warmer than the interior northeast.
Environment
New Amsterdam's dense population has both positive and negative effects on the environment. On the one hand, New Amsterdam is able to support the most efficient mass transit system in Laneria and one of the most efficient in the Commonwealth. Correspondingly, per capita petrol consumption is the lowest in Laneria. However, pollution is still greatly concentrated in the air above New Amsterdam, leaving its residents especially vulnerable to cancer.
The city has adopted a number of measures to help reduce pollution. The municipal government allows only "green" products to be purchased for use in its offices and in public housing. New Amsterdam also has the largest hybrid bus fleet in the Commonwealth and some of the only hybrid taxis.
The water in New Amsterdam comes from the Kanit Mountains watershed and is naturally pure, requiring only chlorination to keep it clean at the tap. Ironically, the urban heart of Laneria has natural and immediate access to the sort of pure, spring water that would have to be purchased at great expense even in most modern, rural areas.
Architecture
New Amsterdam has a well-known and widely recognized skyline including architecturally important buildings in a great variety of styles including Art Deco, Neo-Heroic, Pantobyzantine, French Second Empire, Gothic revival and post-modern.
The residential parts of New Amsterdam have a distinct character defined largely by the brownstone and redbrick architecture. New Amsterdam's stones are all imported from a wide network of quarries and thus display a variety of colors and textures. Because of previous fires, very few buildings in New Amsterdam are made of wood.
