Inner City Neighborhoods

Neglected by affluent residents and all but ignored by city aldermen, the inner city neighborhoods of Cape Suzette are the absolute antithesis of the vital, vibrant suburbs. The oldest parts of the city used to be the town's center of activity just a generation ago. Now the old town, hemmed in between midtown and the docks, belongs to a population of low-income groups who put up with the crowded conditions.

Housing in the inner city comes in the form of wall-to-wall apartment buildings and crummy hotels. Local employment has plummeted in these poor neighborhoods, barely sustained by a string of odd jobs in manual labor and packaging.

People from the lowest strata of society inhabit the neighborhoods of the inner city. Cape Suzette police on patrol stop street crimes and petty thievery, but their token presence does not deter sleazy nightclub owners, pawn shop operators, and rack-rent landlords. Dangerous criminals slink through the shadows of the underworld: gangsters and racketeers who vie to organize crooks into citywide crime syndicates.

Pity the late-night traveler who exploits the deepest parts of the inner city as a shortcut — back alleys are the haunts of the homeless, and the turf of muggers and "street pirate" gangs just waiting for easy pickings.