Schweindorf

Schweindorf is the most populous city in both Sober Thought and its Central Province. Its name is German and may be understood as "Hog Village" or "Boorish Village." Locals prefer the former connotation and out-of-towners the latter. Dislike or ridicule of the hog town is one of the sinews that binds the country together.

Factions of the Christian Unity Party variously identify the city with Babylon, Egypt and Sodom depending on the point they are trying to make with their audience. More charitably, the city is identified with its twin of Sivaris in Antrium and Nei in Baranxtu.

Geography

Physical geography

Small rivers and creeks wend their way through the city. Some of them, especially in older neighbourhoods, were filled in during the 19th century to relieve land scarcity. Unfortunately, this shortsighted policy resulted in grave environmental harm as waterways were permanently diverted and fauna corridors interrupted. Fortunately, later residents realised the harm caused by infill so they ceased covering new watercourses and uncovered some of the more important ones already damaged.

Urban geography

The city limits expanded in fits and starts over the 18th and 19th centuries as Schweindorf freely annexed its rural hinterland when Central Province was independent. However, upon federation and the chartering of surrounding Horseshoe County, the city had to rely on negotiation and reason to expand. Thus, in the 20th centuries the territory expanded much more slowly but it included much more committed new burghers.

As the provincial capital, and the national and provincial metropolis, Schweindorf has an interesting architectural history. And because of the voluntary and subsidised efforts of enthusiasts, much of this history has been preserved (even if just as façades). There are many public institutions created to serve the municipal, provincial and federal governments, and most of these have very striking architectural features.

Demographics

Roughly one sixth of the residents of the city are native-born Schweindorfers, another sixth natives of Central Province, one third natives of other provinces in Sober Thought and the final third natives of other countries. The diverse racial, ethnic, cultural and linguistic origins, and communal peace the city maintains, makes it the most cosmopolitan city in the land.

Schweindorfers are also more likely to be younger for a variety of reasons. Firstly, native-born elderly on fixed incomes are more likely to retire outside the city where the cost of housing and living is lower. Secondly, residents from elsewhere in Sober Thought are usually drawn by work and so tend to be aged in their 20s to 40s. Thirdly, immigrants are usually younger since older people have a greater attachment to their land of birth and weaker desire to emigrate to a new land of opportunity (save for refugees who are not immigrants).

City government

As a chartered municipality, Schweindorf has certain areas of exclusive jurisdiction and some which are unofficially shared. Like the national and provincial governments, it also has democratic control and civilian oversight.

City councils

Schweindorf City Councils tend to resemble provincial legislatures because the city is more populous than all but four provinces: Central Province of which it is part, Hochelaga, Thuvia and Cholmestay.

The electorate chooses the mayor to represent the city at large and act as the de facto head of city-state. Each 0.1% of the national population is represented by a city councillor elected only by the people resident in each single-member district. The city council, acting as the de jure legislature, elects one of its 78 members vice mayor to act as the de facto head of government. The whole council conducts roughly a third of the business brought to the municipal government's attention, an additional third delegated to topical committees of the whole council and the final third delegated to neighbourhood councils.

The city council districts are grouped into 12 neighbourhood councils, comprising 6 to 12 councillors. Each council elects its own deputy mayor and exercises the responsibilities that the executive committee delegates to it.

The executive committee, the de facto cabinet with geographic rather than portfolio representation, consists of the mayor, the vice mayor and the twelve neighbourhood deputy mayors. It decides which matters rightfully belong to the whole council and which belong to the neighbourhood councils.

Fire

The Schweindorf Fire Chief is appointed by the City Council as a whole and is responsible for firefighting, fire education, fire prevention, and arson investigation. The latter three functions are conducted at the city level while the former is subdivided geographically.

The entire city is divided into four districts based on cardinal points of the compass, each the responsibility of a fire superintendent. Each neighbourhood raises a fire brigade under the command of a fire brigadier. Two to four fire battalions exist in each neighbourhood, commanded by fire captains.

At the smallest level is the fire company, commanded by a fire lieutenant. It typically comprises one piece of specialised firefighting equipment such as a ladder, pumper, hazardous materials or rescue vehicle. Six to twelve crew are need to operate and support each piece of equipment, and there are three shifts (headed by deputy fire lieutenants) dedicated to each piece of equipment. Most fire companies are located in their own station, hence the colloquial use of the unofficial rank of "station chief," but some are co-located.

Waste

Although lacking glamour, waste management is one of the most important functions of any city. Schweindorf has benefited from national policies requiring businesses to be responsible for their products throughout the lifecycle from the extraction of raw materials to final disposal. It has additionally aggressively promoted composting for organic wastes and burning other wastes with the added benefit of electrical or thermal co-generation. The latter technique has draw comment and sometimes sharp criticism from individuals and political parties.

Other jurisdictions

While not officially shared jurisdictions, they work better with cooperation between or among levels of government. This is especially true of a populous and important municipality like Schweindorf.

Higher legislatures

The number and name of all 18 constituencies in the city are the same for both the federal House of the Federation and provincial Legislative Assembly. It is a rare election that all seven national parties are not represented, even the Christian Unity Party (Sober Thought) which sees the city as the root of evil.

Police

The entire city forms an area of the Central Province Police, and it is further subdivided into districts corresponding with the dozen municipally recognized neighbourhoods. Finally, stations are established in each of the council wards.

Civil Guard

The city raises about eight battalion equivalents for the Civil Guard in each wave of one hundred million national population. They come from the following regiments:

• Schweindorf Hussars, armour in light armoured cars
• Schweindorf Dragoons, armoured infantry in wheeled armoured personnel carriers
• Schweindorf Mounted Rifles, armoured infantry in wheeled APCs
• Schweindorf Fusiliers, infantry with organic soft skinned trucks
• Schweindorf Engineers, equal numbers of combat, civil and maintenance engineers
• Schweindorf Health Regiment, comprised of health care professionals and paraprofessionals
• Schweindorf Quartermaster Regiment, comprised of warehousing experts
• headquarters companies for: armoured infantry division, armoured infantry brigade, light infantry brigade and logistics demi-brigade.

On provincial service, they consist of one giant brigade group per wave, until wave 10 when they are reorganised into armoured infantry and one light infantry divisions totalling two armoured, four armoured infantry and two light infantry brigades. On federal service, they are incorporated mostly into 6 and 9 series divisions.

Economy

Schweindorf is the economic engine of its province and the entire community. Therefore, a detailed examination of its inner workings and investments is worthwhile.

Infrastructure

Municipal governments have learned, sometimes at their own peril, the value of building and maintaining a good infrastructure of physical and human capital. Public transit is relatively cheap, reliable, accessible and safe. Its backbone is the subway system downtown and the gauge-compatible above-ground light rail system outside the core. Streetcars operating on rights of way and variable-route buses feed into this system. The high quality of public transit makes it cost- and time-effective across socio-economic boundaries, so rich and poor are equally likely to “ride the public limousine.”

Greenspaces are found throughout the city, including the watersheds of preserved or rehabilitated creeks and streams. One is rarely a kilometre from a parkette or five kilometres from a major destination park. These serve a number of interconnected and positive functions: rainwater is channelled into naturally occurring and environmentally beneficial areas, people have easy access to recreation areas, and the greenery absorbs carbon dioxide exudes oxygen.

Hydro-electrical power generation, the standard in the country, occurs mainly outside the city because the watercourses inside are simply uneconomical. However, as much power as possible is generated municipally through photo-electric cells, windmills and thermal co-generation to reduce the total load. Energy conservation is encouraged by the use of differential electricity rates, so that residential and commercial users alter consumption patterns to even out the peaks and valleys of electrical usage.

Primary and secondary industry

As one might expect, primary industry is virtually absent Schweindorf, represented by some offseason vegetable greenhouses, vermiculture and mushroom growing. Even the famous slaughterhouses that gave the city its name have disappeared.

Secondary industry is also somewhat weak, with most manufacturing jobs migrating elsewhere. Construction, though, is very strong in both the residential and commercial sectors, driven by tertiary and quaternary industry.

Tertiary and quaternary industry

The services or tertiary industry is very active in Schweindorf, especially in financial services like banking, insurance and the stock market. Captains of industry from across the country travel here to float their stock or seek their loans. Other services are also strong, buoyed by the large and dense population of the city.

Government services or quaternary industry is also strong, given that the city is the provincial capital and of national importance. Civil servants tend to have relatively well-paying, stable jobs, and their consumer confidence fuels the personal services sector. The parapublic service sectors of education and research also boost the impact of this industry.

Hinterland

Schweindorf is such a large place that in some respects it acts more like a province than a municipality. As such, it has some "tributaries" as it were that are closely integrated into the city's economy, infrastructure and psyche.

Horseshoe County

The ring of suburbs around Schweindorf finally united and got a charter for a single municipality, realising that in union there is strength with 4.3% of the national population. Much of it was built before proper environmental controls and city planning were in effect, but some measures have been taken to make public transit more feasible, increase the density and eschew the more absurd aspects of suburban life.

Many people commute to Schweindorf for work and return home. However, the domestic economy has developed to the extent that much of this daily outflow is counterbalanced by inflow from Schweindorf itself, Oak County or unincorporated territories on its fringes.

Oak County

If Horseshoe County is where Schweindorfers sleep, then Oak County is where they play. It is a wide spread of two-season resort communities catering to the summer boaters and winter skiers. The number of year-round residents is 2.0% of the national total.

The vast sums of money spent on recreational property have driven up property values beyond the reach of most locals, causing some resentment. However, the same factors have also created almost-steady employment for a minority of townies and strong seasonal employment for a majority of them.