VANCOUVER MEGACITY: EAST HASTINGS DISTRICT

A fractured megacity divided by megacorporations, subject to slight, ineffective, and incompetent federal oversight.


The infamous East Hastings street has developed into its own district. Containing the now not-so-unique Chinatown of Vancouver, it is not a 'respectable' part of the city. Home to drug addicts, poverty, but nevertheless sources of opportunity, East Hastings is the kind of place where frustrated cops go to take out their anger and where smart mobsters stop by to drop off corpses.

Like the rest of the Vancouver Megacity, the district is feuded over by several corporations. The mostly Chinese ruling class of the city seeks to maximize profits and limit state powers through monopolization and corporate mergers. However, each and every individual has their own stake in such an endeavor, so competition is still a factor, though businessmen loyal to Beijing seek to stomp this out using nationalist fervor.

The Vancouver Metropolitan Police force does operate in East Hastings, but only seeks to keep the peace and preserve what little respectable society remains in the district. Working on a contract by contract basis, financial incentives outweigh the societal incentives of police work, leading to most to be either cutthroat corrupt cops or disillusioned would-be good guys.

While crime flourishes in East Hastings, the corporate and triad establishment seek to stomp out the more unpredictable elements of crime. Heists and other attempts by gangs or loners to get rich quick have become the target of both the Vancouver Metropolitan Police and the security arm of the corporate world. Many experienced in the world of robbing a place blind know to plan for both an armed police response and a handful of contractors or muscle hired by a local ganglord or company administrator.


Generally speaking, shootouts are not desirable in East Hastings. While the Vancouver Metropolitan Police bring in revenue from bribes, pay-offs, and cuts of criminal industry, those at the very top understand that its primary source of funding is from the federal level. The higher the murder rate is in Vancouver, the more oversight there is when it comes to federal funding, preventing the security firm's chief executives from skimming their cut from taxpayer money. Despite this, East Hastings has one of the highest murder rates in the city, and it's unknown if the police will make an effort to change this. Despite greater profit margins if East Hastings cools down and plays by the rules, enforcing such codes would cost employee lives, and local enforcement in the district cares more about its men.