Aurora:New York

Introduction

The town of New York City is located in the eastern half of North America. It has had an extensive history in the first few months of Aurora, and dozens of influential players have called it home. It is the capital of the New York nation.

Early Days The town was founded by Tafffy, 32tjaayy, and Skunked on May 15th 2022, 15 days after the beginning of Aurora. Surprisingly, it did not originally start out as New York. It started as the town of Connecticut, and the goal was for it to act as a suburb of the town that was called New York at the time. However, things began to change as time went on. The development and growth of Connecticut far outpaced the original New York and its neighbours. Soon after, the town of Paterson (a Connecticut associate) was sold by LovelyPeach2001 to another player. The town was renamed to NYC. The region got even more chaotic in the days that followed. New York was disbanded for no apparent reason, and another town named NewYorkCity was created right next to it. To make things even more confusing, Brooklyn was created by Boxolmo right next to that. This meant that in a 6x6 chunk area there were 3 towns each claiming to be New York, as well as Brooklyn and Connecticut.

Since LovelyPeach2001 had left Paterson to join forces with Connecticut, Tafffy and her were beginning to realize that none of the towns claiming to be New York had any real plans to make it happen. The towns sat there empty for weeks, ruled by incompetent and inactive players. Meanwhile, Connecticut was thriving and quickly becoming one of the largest and most active towns on the server.

Around this time Vladdislav rejoined the server. He had been a long time friend of Tafffy, and was looking to help out the town. The trio of Peach, Taffy, and Vlad, began planning out how to resolve the messy situation in the region. They eventually decided that the best path to take would be to take control of New York once and for all.

Connecticut started by purchasing the town of Brooklyn for 50g. In one night, Long Island was fully claimed and Brooklyn was merged. Connecticut then convinced the mayor of NewYorkCity that the situation was hopeless for them, and merged into that town as well. Now all that was left for them to do was to take control of NYC. Discussions were opened. Connecticut was already displeased with the actions taken by the mayor of that town, as he had previously threatened Connecticut and the other towns in the region with aggressive claiming to boost his own ego. It became more and more apparent that NYC only existed for the sake of having the name, and had no real long term plans. It also became apparent that they were unwilling to compromise with Connecticut or budge from their current position. This made things more difficult than Connecticut had anticipated.

Connecticut eventually had enough of the discord exchanges that weren't going anywhere, and decided to take some action. With the gold saved up, the town claimed across the Hudson, breaking the claim agreement that was in place. They were confident enough to do this because by this point they were working with the USA. At the time, the USA also was sick of NYC and wanted a group in charge who had a better chance of making New York a reality. NYC was now entirely blocked on the north east as a result of the expansion, and it got even worse for them as Connecticut finally proclaimed they would make the nation of New York. At this point, the town of Connecticut will be referred to as New York, since that's what they renamed to at this time. Following the creation of the nation in early June, NYC was sold for 400g to New York. Now, there was only one town left in the region.

June-July Now that the nation had been grinded for and all claim disputes had been resolved, New York could finally focus on their major goals. New members began joining, many of whom were old friends of the founding members. The ruling group of players now consisted of DiamondTuxedo, Lovelypeach2001, Tafffy, lazyrighteye, and 32tjaayy. Tafffy put out an announcement that no new councillors would be added from this point onwards, as there had been a few incidents of small thefts and other suspicious activity. Instead, influential players would be given Builder rank, and were trusted to projects that they wanted to help with. A very basic government system was created, with the priority of not making useless positions that overcomplicated things. It consisted of two councils, and chairman Tafffy. One council consisted of the original founders, and players who had contributed an exceptional amount. The other consisted of all the other influential players and builders. There would be no elections, but players would be promoted to each council with the approval of 3/4 of the members.

New players were dealt with in a few different ways. There were a lot of them, as the town's new main goal was to reach 940 chunks. This required a minimum of 100 residents, but New York peaked at 210. That made them the largest town on the server. However, this many residents required a lot of plots and a lot of housing. New York knew that this would be a lot of work. A brief idea was executed called "The Projects." The plan was to create two low income housing buildings, called Parkchester Apartments and Brown Apartments respectively. They were tall brutalist structures with dozens of small spaces inside for new residents to live in. Residents would be trusted to the plot, and the honour system was used to prevent theft. Unsurprisingly, the idea was a failure. The bistro below Parkchester was violently blown up, and the roof of Brown was ripped apart by bloodthirsty new players. The idea was scrapped, and New York then created what would be one of their best ideas yet. Rather than letting the streets stay as unclaimed chunks and therefore wasted space, sewers were built beneath them by DiamondTuxedo and 32tjaayy. The sewers had luxury apartments on each side, some with beautiful waterfront views of the Hudson river. These apartments were a huge hit with citizens and foreigners alike.

New York also became known for having a relatively strict policy for keeping out unwanted players. Tafffy and the builders soon realized that having annoying players around all the time would ruin the community aspect of the nation, and reduce activity and enjoyment. A lot of nations simply let whoever joined the town stick around and build what they wanted. Thus, a very basic ruleset was put in place.

1. No begging 2. Don't be rude to nation members 3. If you want an aboveground plot, you have to have a building plan for it.

These rules worked for most people and kept everything organized, especially relating to builds. Wooden houses and ugly cobble towers were never seen anywhere in the town, because they were never allowed to exist in the first place. At the same time, players with less building skill had the same amount of opportunity, because they had pre built houses and sewer apartments to work with. However, many players also broke the first two rules. Around 25 people were kicked from the town during the recruiting stages.

August-September

New York hit 940 claims around the beginning of August, thanks to the extreme lengths Lovelypeach2001 went to with mining gold to get it done. Tafffy and the others also contributed by mining gold and selling stacks and stacks of netherite scraps. 19k was raised in just four weeks.

A detailed plan was made by lazyrighteye for every single one of those 940 chunks. Building began immediately. New York adopted a unique strategy of recruiting as many foreigners as possible to build skyscrapers and other projects. It was made relatively simple for them, by simply having them refer to the 940 chunk plan, and letting them pick a project they liked. Once the design was approved, the nation would help them source building materials. The foreign builder was rewarded by keeping the rights to the property afterward. They could either sell it or keep it for themselves. If they chose to sell it, the nation would compensate their efforts by advertising for them and driving the price up.

The nation itself had many builders as well. Many of them were new recruits who had demonstrated their talents. PlacidSine, lazyrighteye, DiamondTuxedo, Dauffolk, Skunked, Mactrcks, AnastasiaNoel, Vladdislav, and countless others all helped build some of the most well known landmarks on the server. The Statue of Liberty, OWTC, Twin Towers, UN building, Costco Tower, Four Seasons, and Paramount Building were all erected in only a few weeks. Rows of townhouses were built to fill in the gaps, as well as countless other skyscrapers and low rises. The western regions are planned to be suburbs, and Long Island is going to have small colourful waterfront properties.

Notable Players

lazyrighteye

Led the construction and planning of over 75% of the city, and redesigned hundreds of chunks of roads. He did a lot of the brunt work of recruiting and vetting new players when others were working or not available. He is one of the most active members to date and is the reason for the sudden spike in speed and quality of New York's recent development.

Tafffy

Led the strategic claiming efforts, and grinded for a large percentage of the gold needed for the nation and claims. He oversaw the policies put into place that got New York to where it is right now, and made most of the major decisions to send it in the right direction. He manages foreign policy and vets foreign builders, and settles disputes between builders and residents.

DiamondTuxedo

Was responsible for building some of New York's largest projects, as well as overseeing much of the building in the early months. He also grinded for many of the materials needed for building, and made significant gold donations to the nation.

LovelyPeach2001

Contributed over 10k gold to claims, and established New York's constitution and social/economic policies. She supplied a huge number of building materials, and made plans for Long Island. She also had significant influence on Tafffy's decision making for the nation, and later made a very influential New York town that will serve as a suburb of the city itself.

Mr_Scutoid

Created the town of Saratoga and worked very closely with the New York government from day one. He is currently leading the development of Central Park while working on his own town, and has helped mediate disputes between New York and her rivals. He also created a party for New York with his premium perks, as Tafffy did not have premium at the time.

PlacidSine

Oversaw the construction of Chinatown and many other New York mid rises. He also built the Twin Towers in just three days.

FishEmployee

Recruited a huge number of new players to the town, and provided them with housing. He also helped clear many chunks of land, on which he built roads.

Vladdislav

Led initial development of the western regions of New York, and helped with the purchase of NYC. He constructed Vanderbilt manor, and currently holds the town of NYC for the nation.

RedMatthew2

Manages the Four Seasons hotel and brings in tourists to the city, while also providing cheap housing to new residents. He donated a beacon to Times Square and a bunch of flag heads. He also helped reconstruct the UN building when it had to be moved.

Significant Foreign Contributors

wishful_

Serves as a great ally and donated gold to help us with claims. He created two sksycrapers next to Times Square that give New York its iconic look.

Lemoncy'

Created one of Times Square's biggest skyscrapers, entirely self funded.

saph_

Built many iconic skyscrapers herself, and helped New York with countless other projects.

Social and Economic policies

New York prides itself on its progressive character, indicated by very high levels of human and economic development, wealth, quality of life, quality of education, human rights, womens' and childrens' rights, and economic freedoms. A few groundbreaking achievements are highlighted below:

New York is the first state on TA to implement a free, comprehensive universal healthcare system for each citizen. New York has also implemented free, universal higher education, a food security/adequacy programme (right to food), among other social policies that have allowed the standard of living and HDI in New York City to be the highest on the server, along with other towns part of the nation.

New York City is the most multicultural and religiously diverse town on the server. Citizens from all over the world from many different backgrounds and ethnicities have established businesses and places of worship to serve their communities, effectively to contributing to the thriving nature of New York City. For example, New York City is home to the highest concentration of Chinese players outside of China proper, who have made their homes in Chinatown (Manhattan) and suburban New Jersey. Other significant populations include but are not limited to immigrants from India (Edison), Mexico (Queens), Italy (Bronx), Philippines (Edison), Russia (Brooklyn), Turkey (Queens), Colombia (Queens), Dominican Republic (Paterson), Jamaica (Queens), Pakistan (Brooklyn), France (Manhattan), Albania (Bronx), and Nigeria (Bronx) all of whom have greatly contributed to the exceptional diversity of New York City.

Political Parties

Many political parties are present in New York, whose party leaders and members attend global party conferences and meetings. Consequently, the diversity in political parties represented at all levels of government promotes collaboration and trust in government officials. Below are the four (4) main political parties that have exerted considerable influence in the political system of New York.

Conservative Party (Right wing to far right)

Leader: Vladdislav Policies: Nationalism, social conservatism, fiscal conservatism, restricting immigration, militarism

Neoliberal Party (Centre to centre-right)

Leader: Deng Xiaoping Tafffy Policies: Economic conservatism, social liberalism, libertarianism

Christian Democratic/Centrist Party (Centre-left to centre)

Leader: DiamondTuxedo Policies: Economic liberalism, social conservatism

Socialist Party (Left wing to centre-left)

Leader: lazyrighteye Policies: Social democracy, economic liberalism, upholding of human/minority rights, social liberalism, humanitarian intervention