Metropolis
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City of Metropolis
Ciudad de Metrópolis | |
|---|---|
City | |
 Skyline of Metropolis along the Puracé river | |
 Flag | |
| Motto: Metropolis Advances | |
| Country |  Valladares |
| State | District of Metropolis |
| Established | 1795, as Buenavista |
| Government | |
| • District Mayor | Augusto Barrera (PCV) |
| Area | |
| • City | 245 km2 (95 sq mi) |
| • Land | 245 km2 (95 sq mi) |
| • Urban | 245 km2 (95 sq mi) |
| • Metro | 6,375.32 km2 (2,461.52 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 1,059 m (3,474 ft) |
| Population (2022) | |
| • City | 5,112,303 |
| • Density | 21,000/km2 (54,000/sq mi) |
| Demonym(s) | metropolitano (m) metropolitana (f) |
| Time zone | UTC+4 (MT) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+5 (MST) |
| Area code | +1 |
| ISO 3166 code | VD-ME |
Metropolis is the capital city of Valladares. The city is part of the District of Metropolis, the federal entity created to house the nation's federal capital made of the city of Metropolis and six other nearby municipalities, which is a federal state in its own right. Metropolis is the political, economic, administrative, and industrial center of the country.
Metropolis was founded in the eighteenth century by Spanish-speaking settlers from the colony of Valladares moving east towards the Ituyán mountain range and the Endemien Ocean. Buenavista (Spanish for "Fairview", its name until 1910) quickly grew as a point of supply for the increasing numbers of settlers travelling east and south towards the territories that eventually became Río Oscuro, the city of Junín and the Alto Danubio state and became the second largest city in the colony after Columbus. After Valladar independence was declared on 8 October 1881, Buenavista became the starting point for the military campaigns by Francisco de Baraguez looking to annex the territory of Illiria, and with the 1910 Royal Constitution it was federalized along with some nearby towns and turned into the new national capital. It was the Constitutional Assembly who rebaptized the city with the name of Metropolis, as a way to express their aim for a modern nation.
The city is located in the southeast of the Valladar mainland, on the western extension of the Foix Valley and at the point where the Danubio River meets its main tributary, the Rivière de Foix. Subdivided into 8 communes and 42 neighborhoods, Metropolis has an area of 245 square kilometers (95 square miles) with a population of 5 million people within the city limits. The Greater Metropolis conurbation, which includes the District of Metropolis as well as several cities and towns in the Angostura, Chiquito, Foix and Alto Danubio states, constitutes the biggest metropolitan area in the nation, with a population of around 18.9 million.
The city is home to the King of Valladares as well as the executive branch (Office of the Prime Minister), the legislative branch (Royal Parliament) and the judicial branch (Supreme Court of Justice, Constitutional Court, Council of State and the Superior Council of Judicature) of the Valladar government. Metropolis stands out for its economic strength and associated financial maturity, its attractiveness to global companies and the quality of human capital. It is the financial and commercial heart of the country, with the most business activity of any city in Valladares. The capital hosts the main financial market in Valladares, and is the leading destination for new foreign direct investment projects coming into the nation. It has the highest nominal GDP in the country, responsible for almost a third of the nation's total (32.5%). Metropolis is also home to the largest number of universities and research centers in the country, and is an important cultural center, with many theaters, libraries and museums.
History
Geography
Metropolis lies in the Danubio valley region, part of the larger Foix Valley, at a height of 1,159 meters above sea leavel measured at Plaza Federal, the historical center of the city. The city lies along the Danubio River, immediately north of the point where the river leaves its mountainous upper course and at the place where it turns west to flow through the Ituyán range in what is known as the Danube Canyon. This place is also known as Valladares's Fluvial Star since it is where the Danubio river meets the Rivière de Foix and the Montreux River from the east and the Cerro Creek and Puracé River from the west. The Puracé River, which has its source in the Puracé Indigenous Area in the Ituyán mountains, flows northwest through Los Chorros and western Greater Metropolis and splits the city into two zones before flowing into the Danubio, while the Cerro creek, which formerly flowed through the eastern zone of the city, was channeled in its lower course and nowadays forms the border between the city and the District of Metropolis's Servette municipality. Although the Metropolis conurbation extends away from the Danubio River in all directions, the city of Metropolis proper resides only on the west bank of the river.
Government
Since its federalization and the adoption of the District of Metropolis's Constitution in 1912, Metropolis has counted with a democratically elected executive. The executive power is vested on the District Mayor of Metropolis, who also serves as head of government for the District of Metropolis and presides over the city's legislative body, the City of Metropolis Council. The District Mayor and City Council are both elected for four-year terms. Elections use the D'Hondt method of proportional representation. The judicial branch institutions are shared with the District.
Local government in the city is based on the Communes (comunas), clusters of nearby neighborhoods which are managed by elected committees (Juntas Comunales) of seven members each, one of which is appointed by the District Mayor.
Administrative division
The city of Metropolis has been traditionally divided into barrios (neighborhoods), a division originally based on Catholic parroquias (parishes), of which there are 42 official ones. Coloquially, Metropolis inhabitants divide the city into two zones separated by the Puracé River: northern and southern Metropolis, due to the fact that the historical language divide ran along this river, with northern Metropolis being mainly populated by English speakers and southern Metropolis being populated by a Spanish-speaking majority. A newer scheme has divided the city into 8 comunas (communes), grouping nearby neighborhoods with similar sociocultural backgrounds for administrative purposes.
Demographics
| Year | Pop. | ±% |
|---|---|---|
| 1910 | 379,430 | — |
| 1940 | 848,397 | +123.6% |
| 1970 | 1,649,232 | +94.4% |
| 1980 | 2,572,781 | +56.0% |
| 1990 | 3,314,948 | +28.8% |
| 2000 | 4,123,521 | +24.4% |
| 2010 | 4,788,191 | +16.1% |
| 2020 | 5,034,533 | +5.1% |
In the 2020 census there were 5,034,533 people residing in the city. The population of the District of the Metropolis was 7,959,303, whilst the population of the Greater Metropolis conurbation was 18,033,202 according to census data. The population of both the City of Metropolis and Greater Metropolis has steadily increased since federalization in 1910, due to strong migration from rural areas and relatively high birth rates.
The 2020 census showed a relatively young population: with 24% under the age of fifteen and 13% over sixty, they are younger than Valladars as a whole (of whom 22% were under 15, and 14% over 60).
Two-thirds of the city's residents live in apartment buildings and 30% in single-family homes; 4% live in sub-standard housing. The city's exponential population growth has led local authorities to adopt densification measures reflected in the construction of high-rise residential complexes, especially in the southwest of the city where shantytowns could be found at the beginning of the 70s. Measured in terms of income, the city's poverty rate was 5.4% in 2009 and, including the metro area, 11.2%.
The city's resident labor force of 2.9 million in 2020 was mostly employed in the services sector, particularly business and financial services (23%) and commerce and tourism (20%); despite the city's role as Valladares's capital, public administration employed only 6%. Manufacturing also showed low numbers, employing 5% given that most industries originally based in the Metropolis area have relocated to the Greater Metropolis towns of Fontvielle and Yumbo since the 90s.
Transportation
Roads
Metropolis is based on a square, rectangular grid pattern, save for natural barriers such as rivers or the relatively rare developments explicitly designed otherwise (most notably, the Parque Rushmore and Ciudad Real neighborhoods). The rectangular grid provides for 110-meter (361 ft)-long square blocks named manzanas. Although motorization rates in Metropolis are the highest in the country, with 6 out of 10 residents owning a car or motorcycle, public transport is widely used by the residents of the city.
Metropolis's urban road network is structured from two orthogonal avenues which alleviate traffic and provide better access to Plaza Federal and the city center in general; most avenues running into and out of it are one-way and feature two or four lanes, with computer-controlled green waves to speed up traffic outside of peak times. The city's principal avenues include the 20 kilometer-long Avenida del Río, which runs along the Danubio River and links the northern and southern zones of the city, Jaramillo Avenue, which runs along the Puracé River and links the city's CBD with the airport and the western zones of Greater Metropolis, and Suárez Avenue, which originates from the Avenida del Río at Nápoles neighborhood and runs from north to southeast, being the city's main thoroughfare of culture and entertainment. The General Baraguez Avenue, built in the 1960s, surrounds the city along its border with the District of Metropolis, and is the other main important road in Metropolis. With its construction, both it and the Avenida del Río became part of the urban beltway surrounding the city's urban perimeter, ensuring that vehicles with destinations other than the city proper would be able to avoid entering the city and add further congestion in the CBD.
Airports
The Stanford-Miller International Airport, commonly known as Villena Airport due to its location in the suburb of Villena in the District of Metropolis, is Metropolis's and Valladares's main airport, located approximately 15 km southeast of the city's CBD. This airport handles most international air traffic to and from Valladares as well as a vast majority of domestic flights.
The Borly Airport, located in the Borly suburb in the Foix area of Greater Metropolis, is currently under construction and will be expected to serve primarily low-cost domestic traffic within Valladares and some regional flights to neighboring Rushmori countries, to alleviate the current congestion issues at Stanford-Miller.
Other airports near the city are CATAM (Centro Activo de Transporte Aéreo Militar or Active Center for Military Air Transport), which is the main base for the Valladar Royal Air Force and is located within the premises of Stanford-Miller International Airport, and the smaller Lierravus Airport which currently only serves general aviation.
Urban rail
Buses
Culture
Sports
Association football is the most popular sport in the city, both in terms of participants and spectators. Metropolis has one of the highest concentrations of football teams of any city in the multiverse (featuring at least 20 professional football teams) with many of its teams playing in the top tier Valladar Liga-1, with the most successful and popular ones being Metropolis Alligators, Marinos Metropolis, Nacional, and Bohemians Metropolis. This, as well as the regionalization of football competitions in Valladares prior to the creation of the nationwide domestic league, has led to the development of several rivalries within the city such as the Derby Metropolitano between Alligators and Marinos, the Southern Metropolis Derby between Marinos and Nacional, and the Duelo Abuelo (Grandpa Derby) between Nacional and Bohemians, among others. Other clubs include Atlético Nápoles, Danubio FC, and Dynamo Metropolis. The Asociación Distrital de Fútbol (District Football Association), founded in 1922, is the oldest state football association in Valladares.
In spite of football's overwhelming dominance in the city's sporting panorama, basketball holds a considerable degree of popularity with the Metropolis Eagles being the team representing the city at the Liga Superior de Baloncesto, Valladares' national basketball league. The Valladar capital is also represented in the baseball league by the Metropolis Tigers, who play their games at the Metropolis Dome, a former venue for association football.