Baton Rouge
Located in the heart of the Marathon Basin, Baton Rouge sprawls over an area of roughly three hundred square kilometers, broken into a host of local communities linked by a series of twenty broad boulevards. Farmland, industrial areas and housing are intermingled throughout, with no definable city-center.
Originally little more than a collection of farming communities, Baton Rouge incorporated as a city in 1072. The region had been mercilessly exploited by Terran corporations and the formation of a city, no matter how geographically dispersed, gave the region's farmers political leverage against the conglomerates. This distrust of outside interference persisted even past Earth's withdrawal, with a succession of mayors working to keep the city-state isolated. When Mayor Brandal Finch met with the leaders of neighboring city-states to discuss the formation of the Lyonnesse League he was going out on a limb, and a combination of pressure from home and "unreasonable" demands on the part of the other citystates prompted him to withdraw in TN 1527. He managed to keep Baton Rouge out of the league until TN 1531, but by then economic pressures on the city-state were so great that they had to join or face ruin.
Remaining true to its agricultural roots, the city-state has been spared the horrors of war, though it has twice been occupied by enemy troops -the AST in the Merchant War and again in the St. Vincent's War. While the city itself has been spared damage, large tracts of land 500 kilometers south and west of the city were ruined in the War of the Alliance by the UMFA's use of nuclear and chemical weapons to halt the invaders. These hot zones have been the subject of a massive clean-up operation since the war, but farmers are concerned about toxins and fallout blown down-wind from the battlefields. The Natural Resources Secretariat monitors all foodstuffs originating in Baton Rouge and has, to date, passed them fit for consumption.
Though agriculture dominates the city-state - it i s the primary food production center in the Mercantile Federation - it is not the only industry. The city contains a wide range of service and manufacturing industries, and is largely selfsufficient with regard to the inhabitants' basic needs. Pharmaceutical products play a major part in the local economy as well, driven by the numerous plants with medical uses growing here. In fact, the Willow-Jones drugs company dominates employment in the area, coming behind only agriculture in terms of total number of employees. Perhaps surprisingly, though, petrochemical extraction to the north of the city provides it with substantial revenue, coming in third for percentage of gross product. There are several large areas covered with sophisticated automated oil derricks, but it is not uncommon to see pumps located in the heart of a field of johar or cattle.
Demographics
Working the Land
Since joining the UMF, the local distrust of outsiders has faded, though the regional dialect retains a number of words and usages that reflect the 'us and them' mentality such as Grockle (a tourist) or Foreigner (anyone not a citizen of Baton Rouge). Indeed, the city-state's charter only grants citizenship to those born in Baton Rouge or who have lived there for at least twenty cycles. Anyone else i s regarded as a resident alien. To the citizens of Lyonnesse or Rapid City, the sedate rural life of Baton Rouge lacks sophistication, but the standard of living is above the national average, and the city is a major retirement center. The limited employment prospects in the city - working on the farms, in a processing plant and the like - has driven many of the city's youngsters to relocate to more cosmopolitan cities like Marathon or Lyonnesse. This exodus of the young has been the city's greatest problem in recent years
Violent crime is almost non-existent in Baton Rouge, limited to the occasional drunken scuffle outside one of the city's many pubs. Vandalism, mainly malicious crop damage, is rife, however, particularly among bored youngsters. The city also serves as a center for smuggling, particularly along the rail link from Red Sands, and is thus the focus of numerous corporate and government anti-smuggling operations. As a result the ongoing gang wars among Wounded Knee smugglers appears to hardly touch the Mercantile city. Neither the Forzi nor Kolson Cartels wish to attract undue attention to their operations in the city and have agreed upon a truce in the region. This has not stopped each leaking details of the other's operations to the Baton Rouge PD.
Baton Rouge is the center of the UMFs third religion. the Mahayana Buddhists of the Drepang Monastery. The Buddhist community is largely integrated with the principally Mahayana Buddhists of the Drepang Monastery population, though since the resurgence of Revisionism in the UMF the homes of several prominent Buddhists have been daubed with graffiti. Furthermore, the Buddhist's attempts to block shipments to the UMFA and Northern Guard has prompted outrage among the local population, being dubbed 'unpatriotic' and prompting a number of violent incidents
Government
Industry & Trade
- Agriculture
- Fine arts
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