Chapter 2544: Whistling Down (Part 2)

Chapter 2518: Down the Xiaoxiao River (II)

Gotham’s traffic is still a commonplace problem, but the traffic renovation project and the building renovation project started almost simultaneously, so it has achieved remarkable results.

Before the renovation, the main problem of Gotham’s traffic was the lack of public transportation functions, the large number of private cars, and the long-term lack of repairs on the ground roads, resulting in most of the traffic being stuck on a few roads.

Unlike Metropolis, Gotham is difficult to build a subway due to its underground water system structure. In the era when subway construction in major American cities was in full swing, they temporarily failed to solve such technical problems, resulting in Gotham not even having a remaining subway, and only two lines in the center of the main city with better geology, which is a disaster for a large city with a population of tens of millions.

Gotham’s car trading market is very prosperous, with the largest second-hand car trading market on the East Coast. In addition, car prices and oil prices are not that expensive, and any family with a little savings will choose to buy a car.

Gotham and Metropolis have different terrains. Most of the places in Gotham are hilly and there are many slopes. Riding bicycles and motorcycles is just asking for trouble, so many young people will choose to buy cars after work.

This leads to a much higher number of private cars in Gotham than in Metropolis, which has a larger population next door.

In contrast, Gotham has a poor road maintenance system. The roads were not wide when they were first built, and the materials used were not good. There are too many outlaws driving overweight trucks to crush them, and repairs and maintenance require occupying the road, so Gotham’s city center is always blocked.

The technology of building subways has indeed developed a lot in recent years. Even without the Wayne Group, Gotham’s subway can start construction. But with the Wayne Group, they decided to do it in one step, not to build subways, but to build high-speed railways directly.

However, there is basically no group in the United States that can undertake the construction of high-speed railways, because this mode of transportation is not very important to them. The main mode of transportation in the United States is still roads and airplanes.

If Gotham wants to build a high-speed railway, it can either find a team from another country or start research from scratch, but neither is very realistic, not to mention that Gotham wants to build a high-speed underground railway that is spread across a complex water network. Basically, there is no similar technology and experience in the world.

At this time, a technology came into the sight of the Wayne Group, that is, magnetic levitation. There are many examples of using magnetic levitation trains as high-speed urban transportation in history.

But similarly, this type of patented technology is basically mastered by Germany, Japan and China. The United States does not have patented technology in this area, so it can only either hire a team or research it itself.

But before, in order to improve Gotham's transportation network, Bruce got a lot of dark energy. In fact, the essence of magnetic levitation is to convert electrical energy into kinetic energy, so he can actually convert other energy into kinetic energy, as long as there is energy.

So Bruce decided to start the technology tree from the beginning, using the endless dark energy obtained from Barbatos to build a floating subway for Gotham.

However, before that, he first took advantage of the previous relocation wave to build many new roads and flyovers to alleviate the existing traffic problems, and then added buses, ferries, and even cable cars, and frantically built bridges in the Gotham River and Delta area, which slightly eased the traffic situation.

In the commercial part, the South District, which was originally a commercial gathering area, is also undergoing new commercial integration. To put it bluntly, it is also gathering those scattered commercial shops into business districts and commercial centers.

This is actually a task that should have been completed more than 100 years ago, but Gotham has its own situation. The poor security environment makes investors feel uneasy about putting all their industries in one basket. Isn’t it just for people to rob to build such a large commercial center?

Even if no one will rob every day, the gangsters will come to the door every day to ask for protection money, and there is no way to blow it up if they don’t pay. It is acceptable to damage a storefront, but the cost of destroying an entire commercial center is too high.

Therefore, Gotham has never been able to complete commercial gathering. Until recently, the public security situation in Gotham has greatly improved, the traditional gangs have completely declined, and the modern corporate gangs need new means of making money, which has led to the construction of various prosperous business districts in the entire South District.

In fact, from the perspective of municipal planning, it is the best choice to place the industrial zone in the North District, strengthen the connection with the inland industry, keep a distance from the rich area, and place the consumption and entertainment center in the West District and the South District to promote consumption.

But on the one hand, historical conditions do not allow it, and on the other hand, many people are gradually realizing that the consumption power of the rich is not that strong, and giving them a luxury street is enough to go shopping.

On the contrary, a commercial district adjacent to a densely populated residential area with countless affordable goods and many food, drink and entertainment experience centers is the real hen that lays golden eggs. The real consumption still depends on mass consumption.

And this is also the most important reason why the city of Gotham can significantly surpass other cities after the Great Depression.

In late fall, the big thing that Gotham residents are paying attention to is not the second Great Depression that the whole United States and even the whole world are paying attention to. There are many more important things that are worth their attention and seizing opportunities.

One is that Mayor Roy has become the strongest candidate for the governorship. His achievements in Gotham are obvious to all, and even the mayor of Metropolis cannot compare with him. He has said in interviews several times that he has little hope and Roy is the one that everyone expects.

It is good news for the people of Gotham that their mayor is going to be the governor, but they like their current mayor very much and feel that no one in the future can surpass him, so they still feel sorry for his departure.

But no matter what, Roy will definitely be promoted, and the citizens are very worried about who will be the new mayor.

The most promising candidate among the current candidates is Oswald Cobblepot, who has also made a lot of contributions to the construction of Gotham, but he has been criticized for his background as a gangster.

Of course, James Gordon also ran for the election, but he said that he was just a runner-up, because if he became the mayor, Gotham would not be able to elect a competent police chief, and the citizens agreed with him.

Another candidate is Harvey Dent, but it is the same as Gordon. If he becomes the mayor, what about the Attorney General?

Many people also called for Bruce Wayne to run for election, but most people did not have hope for this. They believed that if Bruce Wayne wanted to participate, he would participate in the presidential election, and he would not come to be a small mayor.

Some of the remaining candidates also had the same problem as the above characters. Either they were not well-born or they could not leave because of their duties. Therefore, in the past few days, local news has been discussing this topic, and even the Great Depression was put behind.

Another major event is that Gotham University is moving, or to be more precise, it is to build a branch campus and move most of the majors there.

The reason is that on the one hand, Gotham University is too old, and many teaching buildings are not maintained, so it is better to demolish and rebuild. On the other hand, the land area is indeed too small, and many high-tech laboratories have no space for expansion.

Moreover, the land where Gotham University is located is very important. It is more profitable to build anything than to build a university. In urban planning, this is the best terminal for Gotham's levitating train, so even a university has to make way for it.

However, the good thing is that the target location for Gotham University's relocation is the West District, where a large area is reserved for the construction of a university town. The high-tech laboratory can also interact well with the high-tech industrial zone, so that professors and technicians do not have to run back and forth, and it is also closer to the densely populated East District, which shortens the commuting distance to and from work. Most faculty and students are happy to see this happen.

The same is true for Schiller. His manor is in the West District. Although it is on the suburban line of the West District, it is basically the same distance to any place in the city, but at least it is closer than before.

However, after the industrial zone was built, Schiller also considered moving, because the original few facilities for maintaining people's livelihood in the West District had to be moved to other places. Even if there is only one manor area left in the end, it is impossible to live without supporting facilities.

Schiller now has two choices, either move to the South District and buy a similar villa in the rich area of ​​the South District, or move to the East District and buy a flat house.

Indeed, no matter how you look at it, the former is better, but the problem is that the United States is in a serious economic crisis now, and basically no one will be so desperate as to buy a manor that is destined to decline. Schiller's manor in the West District cannot be sold.

In other words, he can only buy a house with the funds he has on hand, but you can imagine how expensive houses in the South District are.

Some people may say that they can't afford a manor, so is it so difficult to buy a villa? In fact, villas are the choice of most rich people. Even if Wayne is rich, it is not the Middle Ages now. The living comfort and convenience of the manor are completely inferior to modern luxury villas. Everyone who sees him will say that he is sick.

In fact, Bruce has wavered more than once, because Alfred is old, and it is hellish to clean up such a huge Gothic manor.

And the children are getting older. Dick is about to take the college entrance examination, Jason and Tim are about to go to high school, and Elsa has not graduated from elementary school because she is not tall enough, but she has grown faster and faster recently.

They were exposed to modern equipment in school and lived like normal modern people. They played skateboards and basketball when they had nothing to do. Jason even wanted to join the football team.

The Gothic Wayne Manor was indeed very high-end, but they were not taking the final exams for vampires or werewolves. If they wanted to play basketball, they had to go to the basketball court in the opposite community. Otherwise, breaking any bottles and jars at home would be considered damaging cultural relics. Who could stand this?

But Wayne Manor was built too early. Now this area is not a suburb but an urban area. The surrounding communities and supporting systems are too mature. There is no place to expand. If you want a sports field or something like that, you can only demolish the garden.

But Bruce has another way, which is to dig underground. The technical difficulties for others are not a problem for him.

He used to laugh at other Batmen digging holes under their homes, but after going around in circles, he still had to build a bat cave.