Basic Life in Pacifica

What does life look like in Pacifica?
Local markets appeal to locals and are made and produced by locals. Fabricators make what is needed, but all of it is intrinsically Coalition in design and vibe. Things from elsewhere are rare and strange and often at a premium.
The Streets are slowly filling with people, just like the building with auto-lights seems somehow haunted despite being empty. The City is mostly empty, buildings built rapidlyly for an expansive population hoping to grow rapidly in the next decade. The Coalition controls where people go to control where money and resources go. The Elites of Mexico City do not want to lose their power, but the political vibe in the coalition has been strained by the Anglo domination that a lot of pressure it being put on trying to make Latin American for “Chicanos.” Some former us citizens wouldn’t mind that, either. This is despite the fact that the Deep South and Texas are still parts of the Coalition but much like during the US they aren’t exactly Economic powerhouses, Texas to some extend, but Oil is not the powerhouse it once was.
The “natives” were given three choices, become Coalition citizens, fuck off, or try their luck with the Coalition Troops. Most chose either option 1, with some choosing option 2. Even then there were very few survivors. Most feeling the coast or further south and to the safety of coalition.
So there are really four kinds of people in Pacifica: the returning elites, the poor survivors who have always been here, the bitter remnants, and the new immigrants.
The Returning Elites survived the crises in the comfort and safety of the most protected places of the Coalition. Where Defenses were stacked, and the front lines were pushed out to keep the civilians safe and out of artillery range, where Missile defense platforms and AA and Antidrone Fire control towers were hidden behind duck blinds to give the illusion of safety.
The poor survivors either missed evacuation or actively couldn’t. Forced to stay behind in the wrecks of Santa Diego, LA, and the surrounding areas of California, dealing with hunter-killer strikes, invasion forces moving through, and Kaiju incursions. They weathered them and have come out the other side a little tougher perhaps, but lucky to be just alive and are scrappy survivors. Some might welcome the Coalition's arrival in the area; it means stability, safety, protection, and possibly much better opportunities. I should again stress the Crises took place over decades with waves of intensivities, the survivors' elders are few and far between and are likely living historical records to the before and after, and their children hardened survivors and their children veterans, while their children have heard stories of how it was before.
The Bitter Remnants are the people who suffered due to multiple factors. Much like the survivors, they have seen the worst of the crises but also how the New World discarded them. Perhaps they are veterans who carved out a home in the “what was” for the last few decades nothing more than an abandoned wasteland. Maybe they were anti-Coalition and fled northern. Or maybe they were survivors who the coalition literally refused to rescue or left behind intentionally for many reasons from they had to they wanted.
Finally, the new immigrants. The rest of the world and the general Coalition is locked down. Either these fortress cities where generational locked now or in sort of Arcologies, not quiet 40k’s hives but close. The Elites control the housing, and the availability for everything is limited to what is around. It might be comfortable, it might even be secure, but it isn’t yours, living with relatives or living with collections of people in dorm-style apartments due to work similarities. Pacifica offers a chance for new opportunities and a chance to become something new or better than what was.
Since corporations have many incentives to move, they are uprooting their shadow-run style Arcologies themselves. These self constant city-states are designed to promote a strong worker culture and people working the ideal Corporate lifestyle while serving as a living advertisement for the personnel and skills the corporation needs to advance both profit and market share. The Corporations managed to amass enough resources and power to carve out little city-states inside nations, and that is why they can manage their own super programs. Corporations are fiercely protective of their technological edge, which includes not only the IPs but also the personnel. The board is constantly chasing profit and market domination. Each one makes soft and hard plays to get what they want. The Rat Race is often as fierce as any gang war. This leads to a Shadowrun style hiring various costume freaks to attack corporations, where law enforcement, superheroes, and private security intersect with gang warfare, arching, and crime.
An undergrown Tram system connects much of the city, but the CRVA, Coalition Road Vehicle Association, sometimes called Caravan, is pushing strongly for consumer vehicles, which one can purchase to enjoy the open roads of Pacifica. You can travel the city by renting a electronic car for the street if you really want to get around. Few people really own cars but many companies have work vehicles, and corporations want to sell how good it is to work for them and loan out, a low fee, a company car.
The Coalition Air Defense manages Air Space, and a pilot license is required; otherwise, the vehicle gets flagged and targeted. Many villains use cloaking devices or point defenses for this reason. Several Drone Taxis and Drone Delivery services operate, allowing high-rise residents to dos shop and receive items from the comfort of their balconies.
There are very few big box stores no mass globalization makes such stores a relic of an era long lost. Shopping in the Coalition and especially in Pacifica requires either a personal shopper, fortune, or a general desire to visit many smaller stores. Haggling is a tradition in some parts of Pacifica, a holdover from the Survivors who moved into the area and had a general sense of personal connectivity. There is a lot of etiquette that goes into haggling.
As the city fills with more Corporations, the empty high rises fill with people, which requires “support” services, shops, food places, entertainment, and the staff to run them for the comfort of those drones uprooted by Corporate Mandates. A vast amount of the city's workforce is in the service industry. Elites are willing to shell money at other people to solve problems so they can work longer and harder. These are thankless jobs that are often hidden from the people who are upset when there is a problem—the Divide between who has and who has not.
The Rat Race Corpos are not the only elites, celebrities, producers, and executives. Pacifica is trying very hard to capture Hollywood's glory days. The Hollywood sign was bombed when a Kaiju took shelter at the broadcasting center above it, so all that remains on the Hill is “HOLL.” Mexico City took over as Cinema Ground Zero for the world like Hollywood did before the complete collapse of the Modern Internet.
The Internet is much more isolated, a return to pre-Web 2.0. Local Nets use local sites for connections and communications. Much of the telecom has been shunted to intra-networks. Smart devices are far less common beyond the hyper elites who, again, are willing to pay a premium not to be bothered by things like remembering they need to buy coffee for their coffee machine to work—a return to more elementary personal communication devices. Much of the Internet is likely shaped by the technology of the local area. The world has expected regressed to a pre-millennium level, kind of Evangelion-style phones and internet, simple LCDs and basic information combined with digital terminals rather than complex UIs. Some likely still exist. HTML and CSS is much more personalized in a Myspace sort of way.
Law enforcement is naturally a mixed bag. AEU has a dedicated civil Police force based on long standing traditions which NuTypes fols right into.OMNI has division between those under Rasputin and those under Ares.
The Coalition Military and Law Enforcement are often blurred. A strange hold over of both Us militarisation wof it's police and Mexico's long history in the war on the Cartels. Not help with the Cartel War itself. While a Federal, Local, and Military division, in theory, exists, many officers are reservists and many active military personnel work with Local Authorities on matters of public security. Unlike other powers, there is still a degree of how things have always worked. Military Checkpoints are often also regular Police Checkpoints where both check travel papers, vistas, and warrants. Security Watchtower has military personnel operating recon equipment and radios, while police use cameras to watch the surrounding area.
For the average person, go to wake up, go to work, end work, do something for yourself sleep, and repeat. The break to this is when Grilltron has broken into your company's Vault and has kidnapped your manager, forcing you to hide behind the SWAT line while Water Boy tries to save the manager. A few hours later, a company email tells you to go home; you’re on half-pay leave until the work site is clean. You’ll hear a rumor that Grillton was hired to kidnap the Manager, and the vault was a bonus. You’ll hear Water Boy actually raided the vault, especially the safety deposit box and was told to kill the manager if he couldn’t rescue the manager, you haven’t heard anything about the Manager but thought you saw him getting on a helicopter of a Japanese company when you visited your friend.