Zone 2

Zone 2 is the second from centre Zone within the city of Birdencaster ^{[Image in the Sidebar]}. Zone 2 is put aside for governmental buildings, the City Hall can be found in this Zone. Zone 2, is renowned for its City Hall and its square adjoining the building, Founders’ square.

People

Residents

Zone 2 is the most inner Zone to have residents. They reside in apartment blocks that are not above anything governmental. While these apartments are in a desirable location, the apartments are not in the best condition. In the sense that the apartments are still fit for human habitation but aren’t looking in good shape, such as paint peeling off.

Visitors

Visitors to this Zone are generally visiting, one of the government buildings. If they are not, then they are visiting the squares or other residents. The Square that is of note, is Founders’ Square which has a sculpture of the history of Birdencaster. When the sculpture depicts the present day has a map like consistency.
Zone 2 is a good place for walks due to the need for local government buildings and activities, citizens can enjoy a walk in Zone 2 which is not busy like Zone 4 or is not polluted like Zone 3.

Places

Museum

Birdencaster City Museum is found in Segment 7. What is notable about the museum is that one of the exhibits is the last printed newspaper.

Courthouse

The Courthouse can be found in Segment 2, of Zone 2. The courthouse has its own cells to confine the defendants so they can't escape before their trial or trials.

Prison

The prison can be found in Segment 3. The prison system is as we would expect, inmates are kept in cells at night and are of course fed and watered. Unlike the prison system of the late 20th Century, the inmate spends their time in penal labour. This labour can be ensuring the inner working of the prison such as laundry duty or cleaning and maintaining grounds [1]. Depending on if an inmate is a man or woman determines what labour they will be doing [2].

Labour Done By Women

The majority of female tasks are in the laundry and kitchens either preparing food or cleaning dishes. Sewing is a minor part of their penal labour as prison garb needs to be repaired, sewing can include repairing the upholstery of governmental buildings.

Labour Done By Men

The majority of the male tasks are in preparation of resources such as potato peeler, stone breaking and bone-crushing. There is a workshop however like other workshops these workshops refine stones so that they can be used in road surfaces and paving slabs. Bones are broken down so that they can be further broken down to make fertilizer which is exported. The surrounding land around Birdencaster, could be used for crop-based agriculture, but is not. This is because the grounds are highly hungry and require a lot of fertilizer to make them fertile and this would not be cost-effective.
The Bone Grinder is hand-cranked; this is another penal for men and a single man can be at the machine for hours at a time.

Why is Penal Labour

It is believed that the old prison system of The Old World was too soft on the prisoners, so ex-convicts would be more likely to be a repeat offenders. It was believed that using the Norwegian model of treating the person like a human being that could be treated like a human being increased the road to crime. It was believed that since they are not doing labour while in prison they would not be as productive so would need to be given something to do.
Inmates who had Extra Employment positions will return to these positions when they have served their sentence. Most positions can cope with absences.

City Guard

The City Guard headquarters can be found in Segment 6. The City Guard are above the police in some ways if someone suspects that the Mayor or his close personal assistants of breaking the law the City Guard have the jurisdiction to deal with it while the police do not. The City Guard are those who patrol the streets in all Zones. They are also the guards who ensure that people aren’t vandalising their area as well as giving directions to those who need it. These people tend to be communitarians as they will greet people they know or have seen on their patrol with advice such as that a particular store or stall that someone likes is running out of an item etc.

Highway Agency

The Highway is in charge of roads and pavements. They will send out people to repair the roads with new cobbles or ensure that the surface of the road is viable. As it may not be the stone but the dirt or gravel around the stone that needs repair.
If the highway agency is needed, citizens can find it in Segment 9. They would be visiting for reporting new road and pavement issues or to make enquiries about said repairs or even to complain about the noise of the works.

Archives

The archives can be found in Segment 11. This is where all census, education and records on who is a Warden along with the necessary governmental records such as taxation are kept. While the archive is in Segment 11 and the City Hall is in 12 they are next door to each other.

City Hall

The City Hall is found in Segment 12. It is where the Birdencaster's administration is processed. City Hall has its inspirations from a City Hall found in Duncan, British Columbia ^[3]. It is said that Sterling Thompson an architect who lived in Duncan, emigrated from Canada to the United Kingdom. He found work as an architect. While the city was being built they didn’t know which style of architecture they would have for the City Hall and with the area land allocated for the City Hall. The immigrant suggested they make a copy of the City Hall in Duncan, BC ^[3]. Since the City Hall was not a corner unit the design, was changed so it had the same style, as the original but a differing footprint.
When going in the City Hall there are three things that would be of note to a visitor; these being that the stairs in buildings such as shops and some apartments are generally located in the corners of rooms and not along one wall. Secondly, there is a bear pelt hung on the back wall, behind the main desk of City Hall. All City Halls, have a Brown Bear pelt, as a symbol. The meaning of the symbol is not fully known, it is believed to be connected to the Houses of Parliament’s Mace ^[4]; it was believed that without the Mace laws could not be passed. So it is believed to be the same for the bear pelt that without it, the City Hall does not have authority. Thirdly, on the left, as the visitor goes in, is the main auditorium meeting room, what is of note is that the doors leading into the meeting room are inlaid with orange stained glass. Stained glass is something that residents do not see a lot of in their general lives, but have knowledge of it.
The City Hall also holds the necessary prototypes for measurements without these, measurements can’t be accurate. ^[7]
There are 3 desks that are used by workers of City Hall who note down various activities that need to be done by the city such as changing bulbs in street lights or clocks that need to be repaired, reported by citizens. Once these have been noted they can be processed by the staff upstairs which can ask further departments or agencies to complete these tasks. These desks are on the right as a visitor goes in.
Since City Hall has multiple floors on other floors can be found in other peoples offices and the Mayor’s office. City Hall is the tallest building in Zone 2.

Emergency Services

Fire and Police Services

Unlike the others, the Fire and Police services of Birdencaster can be found across the city. Police services cover general crimes so that if your apartment gets burgled it is the Police, not the City Guard that the crime needs to be reported to.
Fire services generally haven’t changed. As oil has been exhausted ^[5] fire engines and police cars and the alike, have reverted back to the horse-driven vehicles to accomplish these services. Since horses can be heard when walking or cantering on cobbled streets, sirens aren’t needed.
When hearing the sound of horses cantering, citizens will move out of the way. If they are physically disabled or deaf they will be helped out of the way. When going through Zone 4 there are various gates in the Zone which are gaps in its markets so that horses can go through quickly. Residences and business owners of market stalls are aware that they should not block these areas. Other Zones do not have these gates.
As with all animals, they will leave manure, horses are no different, the manure is left to dry out then is collected by street cleaners.

Things

Particularly in this Zone, 2 12, this Zone and Segment which is renowned for its City Hall and Founder’s Square is also renown for being one of the last remaining areas to have tram lines ^[6]. These lines are no longer used as parts of the line remain at metre stretches at a time and it is not long enough to run the trams. While there is a train line that runs from Zone 3 to Zone 5 this is for the Zone’s rolling stock industry.

Zone 2 by James Woodwright

Article Contents

References

[1] Information on Prison Labour
[2] Information on Workhouse labour
[3] More information on Duncan British Columbia.
[4] Information on the Houses of Parliament’s Mace
[5] For more information on oil being exhausted take a look at: The Great Rewind
[6] Picture taken in Wellesley Road, Croydon UK
[7] A Tom Scott video on standard measurement and accuracy

Acknowledgement

Esongbird24601
esongbird24601’s World Anvil Author Page
Twitch