A Look at Millennium City in my Version of the CU

[Mark Rand]

Here's my take on Millennium City.

It's basically the same city found in the book. All we're doing is adding tracks, bars and other stuff.

Two tracks already exist, Michigan International Speedway and Hazel Park. For those who don't know it, Hazel Park is a 5/8-mile track for harness, or Standardbred, horses. We're adding Millennium Downs and Millennium City Speedway. Millennium Downs is a typical Thoroughbred horse track with a 7/8-mile grass (turf) track inside the 1-mile dirt (main0 track. Millennium City Speedway is based on the old Continental Divide Raceway near Castle Rock, Colorado. It has a drag strip, a 1/2-mile oval and a 2.66-mile road course. The oval and road course use part of the dragstrip as their front straights and the oval's back straight is part of the road course.

In Rivertown, besides the arenas mentioned, is the Millennium City Ice Arena. This facility has two rinks, one for figure skating and one for hockey. Instruction in both is provided at the arena and many area amateur hockey clubs use their rink.

Bars, nightclubs and a supperclub are next.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: A Look at Millennium City in my Version of the CU

 

FWIW, here's my own take on Millennium City:

 

I wasn't happy with the destruction of Detroit to create MC; I wanted Detroit to remain Detroit in my world (go figure). I also prefer to put fictional comic-book cities in areas lacking significant population centers in the real world. So I did a bit of "what iffing" with another location in the Champions Universe - Haynesville, Kansas. I changed the Cottonwood Stream to the Cottonwood River, a tributary of the Arkansas, to improve river trade potential, and I made it so that the railroad did pass through Haynesville rather than bypass it.

 

By the time Captain Patriot had his origin in 1938, Haynesville was a prosperous small city of nearly 100,000. Tourism and the presence of McLaughlin Air Force Base boosted the city's growth after WW II. A number of the scientists involved in the Haynesville Project settled in Haynesville and started their own companies, putting the city in the forefront of the burgeoning high-tech industry. By 1992 Haynesville had a thriving diversified economy and a population of over half a million.

 

Dr. Destroyer chose Haynesville as the base for his scheme to cripple the United States for its technological resources, and for its proximity to the geographical center of the contiguous United States. The rest of the "battle of Detroit" happened pretty much as described in Champions Universe.

 

The layout of "my" Millennium City is mostly the same as the official one. The Cottonwood River substitutes for the Detroit River; instead of Windsor, the river separates MC from "New Haynesville," a city that grew from the remains of the old Haynesville not destroyed by Dr. D. New Haynesville swelled to accomodate the workers brought in to construct Millennium City. It wasn't planned the way MC was, though, and conditions are far less utopian - it's the focus for the seedier criminal activities that don't fit as comfortably in its pristine neighbor.

 

(I suspect that putting a major metropolis in the heart of Kansas is also partly due to some unconscious Smallville influence.)

[Hermit]

Re: A Look at Millennium City in my Version of the CU

 

I've gone with the book, then filled in some details.

 

For example, going with the high tech bill boards and such, I've increased other areas of Advertising run amuck. In the MC Mall, sections of floor play messages as you walk over them for you and others around you to hear. The city's populace is adapting... and not always in the way the marketeers want. The Floorads, for example, are used by some creative mall rats who hop from one to the other in groups to create 'music' of sorts.

 

Then, I read about hypersonic tech and realized how far behind my ideas were I'm already incorporating those now.

 

Political matters come up... after yet another villain circumvented, deactivated, or took control of the traffic, there is a small but vocal movement to do away with the darn things as not just a violation of privacy, but ineffective in a world where men can control computers with a thought.

[Mark Rand]

Re: A Look at Millennium City in my Version of the CU

 

Interesting ideas, Hermit. Thank you.

Now, on to the bars, nightclubs and supperclub.

The Ace 'O Clubs is a waterfront bar featuring a pool table, a juke box and an upright piano that one of the patrons play when he's in.

The Cabaret of Magic is a supperclub/magic theatre with rooms for both close-up and stage magic. The resident magician is a young lady that's skilled in both kinds.

Danny's is a jazz club. Although they have no official house band, the Jazz Angels have played there for four nights a week since it opened.

The Falcon's Rest is a Middle Eastern nightclub that features, according to the management, "The World's Best Bellydancers". The dancers, who are paid $50.00 a night, must be booked through an agent, must be members of the American Guild of Variety Artists, and can work at the club only twice a month.

The Funky Feline Bar and Grill is a casual place with feline touches. The staff all wear black pants and tunics with cat ears and tail. Although feline-style half-masks are a required part of the uniform only on Halloween, Jane, the day shift bartender, and Cathy and Sue, two of the evening shift waitresses, wear them all the time.

Jake's is a Western bar. The staff dress like working cowboys and cowgirls.

The Sucubus Club is a Goth nightclub. Loud music, from the DJ or occasional band, can be heard in the parking lot.

Zorba's, a Greek bar, like the Falcon's Rest, is noted for its belly dancers. The first time a dancer plays the club, she works for tips only. After that, it's $10.00 for each time you're on stage. Although some dancers are booked through agents, a group, known as "The Regulars" book themselves. This group includes Salome, a highly-skilled belly dancer who wears long gloves with her costumes and does the Dance of the Seven Veils for the city's opera company when they do Salome, Nura, her mother, and Safura, their Israel=born teacher.

[Mark Rand]

Re: A Look at Millennium City in my Version of the CU

 

Belle Isle doesn't have the only planetarium. There's one on the campus of Millennium City University, too.

The layout of this one, The Harmon Planetarium and Institute of Popular Science, is based on Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania's old Buhl Planetarium and Institute of Popular Science, which was inspired, in part, by Chicago's Adler Planetarium. While it was being planned, Harmon Industries bought the old Zeiss Mark II Planetarium Projector, its control board, the 1,000,000-volt Oudin-type Tesla coil and the 10-inchSiderostat-type refractor telescope from the Buhl Planetarium and installed them in the new building.

The Planetarium's two basement club rooms, or classrooms, and lecture hall, The Little Science Theatre, have state of art audio/visual equipment.

The Planetarium Theatre, or Theatre Of The Stars, uses the now refurbished Zeiss, nicknamed Jake, daily. When it rises, the opening section of Richard Strauss's Also Sprach Zarathustra, usually known as the 2001: A Space Odyssey theme is heard over the sound system.

Besides the Siderostat telescope, the Planetarium has two other telescopes, a 4-inch refractor and a 18-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain reflector that are, weather permitting, set out on the roof for star gazing. Only the Siderostat is used for looking at the sun, however, direct viewing isn't permitted. Instead, the sun's image is projected onto a screen.

During a solar eclipse, a video camera is pointed at the screen and its signal is fed to monitors throughout the building and webcast through the Planetarium's website. During lunar eclipses, the video camera is attached to the Schmidt-Cassegrain reflector. The rest of the setup, however, remains the same.

The building is open for classes all day Monday and in the mornings on Tuesday through Friday. The rest of the time, its open to the public.

Next up, the supernatural side of Millennium City

[Mark Rand]

Re: A Look at Millennium City in my Version of the CU

 

On the supernatural side, we have all kinds of characters and items.

Some preachers claim that Lady Arcane, and other magic-weilding heroes are trying to turn area youth to devil worship.

Since vampires, demons and other undead exist in the CU, It isn't too much of a reach to add Slayers, Watchers and a Hellmouth.

Some of you may have noticed that I've been adding car and horse tracks, a planetarium with the Zeiss Mark II projector, an ice rink for amatuurs and the same bars, nightclubs and supperclub to various cities. True, I have. However, they're only there if the city is the campaign city. If it isn't, they're not there.