Magid

Magis is located in west Washington, west of Olympia nestled against the Pacific Ocean. The city is comprised of few smaller cities that grew together over the years. There has always been some sort of a settlement on this spot, from the Indians in the days gone by, to the first trappers of the American west, to the modern glass and steel jungle that is Magid.
Magid Falls (Old Town), was a white settlement in the beginning, while Magid Hills was where the others lived (North Weatherford). Then science, and industry came to the area and the docks and the railroad boomed. Steel and gold reigned supreme in the west, and so too it was in Magid. Then like everything else, it vanished into the rot of modernization. There is glitz and glamour in this city, but that is just the surface, what lies beneath you will have to discover for yourself.

The downtown half of the city center dwarves the rest of the city - massive sky scrapers reach into the air, the personal towers of massive conglomerates, huge buildings divided between many firms. Downtown is the heart of business in the city.The North part of the city is not a safe place to walk alone at any time and down right hostile at night. In contrast to this, South Magid, has some of the safest, cleanest streets of any main city, the city really is going through a renewal, half of it anyway.Magid, has the highest crime rate and murder rate in North America, it has the highest ratio of homeless and unemployed also. Yet only Los Angeles and New York have a higher number of millionaires living in them. In Magid, the rich-poor divide seems more of a gulf, and it widens every year.

History

Magid grew into the city it is today from a dozen smaller cities which formed due to the rich nest of minerals located in the region. Mountains that contained gold, iron, tin and copper in rich supply formed a solid mining industry, and coal mines and forests provided fuel for the furnaces of invention. Magid grew rich with the industries which formed from this abundance of natural resources, boasting a steel industry second to none in the whole of the US. It was these raw material spawned industries, factories, production plants and such, that drew in an abundance of of fresh workers. This expansion occured at such a rate that by the start of the Second World War Magid was one of the most populated cities in the US, however still smaller in area than almost all of equal population (Magid currently has a population of 2.3 Million). With the factories came high-profile labor strife, powerful unions formed, and dominated city politics, causing havock throughout the 1930's over employee pay. Shamefully Magid had one of the lowest wage rates in the country at the time, using a lot of ethnic minorities for cheap manual labor. This led to to massive riots in 1934, that in turn led to the relocation of the city's rich and powerful south of the river, from what is now Oldtown, to Litchfield and Newtown. Little was it known that this would set up the city for the north-south divide seen today. The city suffered then, but was redeemed for a time by the Second World War - chemical plants were needed more than ever, and failing factories designed for the manufacture of nails, or rivets became bullet factories and Magid was revived.

After the war Magid maintained a level of stability until the 70s, when the combination of free trade, meaning cheaper products from overseas, and a recession, put the final Magid Steel nails in the coffin. Unemployment rose as factories closed, unable to compete with overseas jobs and high paying manufacturing and engineering jobs gave way to other low paying work. The city continued in steady decline, north of the river especially. Places like Cabrini Green, which 20 years ago was a place to be proud of, now exists as a foul den of drugs and crime. In the late 90s it seemed like Magid was going through a revival, when major companies were lured by the Mayor's (Jules Abram) polices and cheap land. During the period of 98-99 Brookfield was very much reborn, as the city became home to the headquarters of 27 fortune 500 companies, communications, information technology, medical research, pharmaceutical production, high tech engineering, and 3 military production and research companies. However, rather than reviving the city as a whole, this influx of business only widened the divide between north and south Magid. Middle and upper-class, educated citizens began getting high paid jobs, and Abram gave tax cuts to the wealthy also - this combined with a national trend for the same thing, well, the poor got poorer, while the rich got richer.

Now we come to 2006. Business in top end engineering, research, technology and communications is booming, the city is getting richer again, but the people of north Magid and the slums are ignored, getting poor paying manual labor or service jobs.

Transport

Magid has a subway that connects Newtown, Beacon Falls, Harrington, Colebrook, Newhaven, Litchfield, and Wallingford. The old subway stretched into Watertown, Oldtown, and Tifton also, but due to neglect and lack of funds, it was shut down, leaving subway tunnels and stations left to rot. For those outside these areas without a car, the only options are taxi or city bus, though the bus service of Magid is poor at best. Dirty overcrowded buses are irregular, and infrequent, and worse still, it is quite common for crimes to be committed on buses. Such things have become urban legend, including one such crime of gang rape that occured on a full bus where no one did anything to stop it or help the poor victim. Assaults and muggings happen again and again, and no one seems to be doing anything about it, even the occasional murder is reported.

In and out of the city: Magid International Airport's primary function is industrial (shipping), though it does handle a good level of passenger traffic. Magid Airport is located west of Riverside. Magid still has a large rail link, with tracks running from Portland, to Olympia, Tacoma and north into Canada. The rail system, along side shipping, used to form a major artery of Magid, and in many ways still does. Magid is also connected to Interstate 5, which provides the major road link to the rest of the state.

Finally, the shipping industry of Magid, which used to make use of many active docks. Along with the fall of industry, came the fall of that shipping industry - but all was not lost, a few shipping companies were farsighted enough to abandon the failing manufacturing industry of Magid and switch to importing, almost half a million Japanese and European automobiles are shipped through Magid every year, and American cars shipped overseas from Magid. Likewise many consumables such as food and exotics from Asia first see American shores via Magid. So although no longer the industry it once was, shipping is one of the few industries to survive and still turn a profit.

Government

Magid is a consolidated city-county. Magid City and Magid County form a single government body run by the Mayor and a 22 member city council (one for each borough), elected at large on a nonpartisan ballot. Municipal elections are held every year congruent to 1 modulo 4 (e.g., 1993, 1997, 2001, 2005, 2009). The city in addition to property tax, levies an income tax between 1-3% depending on the borough. This used to be a flat 2% but an initiative to revitalize the city lowered this in some boroughs. The boroughs that got cut, were almost all the richer business and residence boroughs, with the poorer boroughs and suburbs having tax rises to support the changes.