The Gateway
Overview
The last real city before the Restricted Zone — a downtown of pre-Cascade civic buildings, a Frank Lloyd Wright civic center that still stands because even the Cascade respected good architecture, and a population that defines itself by proximity to two things: the dam crossing to the west and the drone perimeter to the south. Transit through the Gateway is the only reliable land route between the North Bay and the Sprawl's core, which makes the city a chokepoint disguised as a community. Rothwell-aligned property interests control the real estate quietly enough that most residents don't notice the pattern. The Tarmac — the old airfield east of town — serves as a smuggler's landing strip and informal trade corridor, its cracked runway long enough for light aircraft that don't file flight plans. The Curve, a distinctive arc-shaped building on the civic center's eastern edge, has become the Gateway's most recognizable landmark, its sweeping facade visible from the highway approach. The southern neighborhoods look toward hills where surveillance cameras replaced street lights, and the children grow up knowing which direction not to hike.