| New Brighton | |
| |
| Political Information | |
| Government: | Dictatorship |
| Leader Title: | Pakhan |
| Leader: | Vladimir Medvedev |
| Societal Information | |
| Location: | Brooklyn, New York |
| Population: | 650 |
| Historical Information | |
| Policy Information | |
| Allies: | Army of the Righteous Goo |
| Enemies: | Federal Republic of Libeteria, Shtetl Tzaddikim, Coney Island Jokers |
New Brighton is a small settlement in southern Brooklyn, located in the ruins of what used to be a community of large apartment buildings on the Atlantic shoreline.
History
Pre-War History
Founding
The first permanent settlements in the area that would eventually become New Brighton appeared in the mid-1600s. Originally called the “middle division”, the area was a part of the British settlement Gravesend, and consisted of little more than small farms carved from the salt marsh wetlands and sandy dunes of the Atlantic Coastline. For nearly 200 years little changed, until a group of enterprising businessmen bought most of the property in the area and began developing it as a resort town. Mirroring what was going on in beachfront property all across the region- including Cape May and Atlantic City- businessmen began building hotels, casinos, racecourses, music halls, amusement parks, and other recreational opportunities and live entertainment for vacationing upperclassmen and the burgeoning middle class. The centerpiece of this new construction was the Brighton Hotel, from which the area got its name, Brighton Beach.
By the turn of the 20th century, the area shifted from a vacation spot into a dense residential community as newly constructed lines from the New York City Subway system brought waves of people looking to take advantage of cheap property costs and ample room. Most of the beachfront businesses that offered entertainment and recreation either folded or moved to Coney Island as the area became more and more residential and less and less commercial.
Ethnic Enclave
During and shortly after World War II, Eastern European Jews began settling in the area due to its cheap property costs. Their arrival radically altered the ethnic and cultural make up of the neighborhood. Formerly home to a majority of lower-and-middle class whites, their arrival transformed the area into an ethnic enclave.
In the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, the area became flooded with émigrés from the Soviet Union and Central Asian Soviet satellite countries. Though many of these new immigrants shared similar cultural characteristics of the Eastern European Jews, this new wave of immigrants were more secular, and were more interested in simply continuing their old lives in the relative safety and prosperity of America than assimilating into American culture. By the turn of the century, less than a quarter of Brighton Beach residents were born in the United States, while as compared to nearly three-quarters being born abroad. Because of this, Russian became the lingua franca of the area, with a large number of shops and businesses only speaking Russian, dealing only with Russian-speaking clientele only.
Brighton Beach was famously home to a Chinese sleeper cell that was discovered and prosecuted during the Sino-American War. In 2073, a group of five Chinese men and two Chinese women exited a submarine that sailed into Sheepshead Bay and holed up in a safe house in an apartment in Brighton Beach. Thanks to a tip weeks later, federal agents discovered and arrested the sleeper cell. The Chinese operatives were put on trial and eventually sentenced to life in prison. During the televised trial proceedings, it was revealed that two of the agents were doctors with specialties in chemistry, microbiology, and virology. The Chinese government had tasked them with unleashing deadly chemical, biological and viral agents into the New York City subway system.
Records indicated that the sleeper cell was given their safe house and were supposed to be supplied by the Brighton Bratva, the Russian Mafia in Brighton Beach. Given that the leaders of the Brighton Bratva supposedly had connections as high as members of the Russian Kremlin, this raised something of an alarm among the general public, though no doubt the U.S. government was already aware of the Russians possibly attempting to play both sides. Conservative members of the press, in addition to some conservative politicians, began demanding further scrutiny of Russian-Americans and Russian nationals in the country, as was already the case with Chinese-Americans and Chinese nationals, but before anything could come of it, the Great War occurred.
Post-War History
Rebuilding
Brighton Beach itself was not directly hit by a nuclear weapon, but it was nonetheless devastated, being in close proximity to other targets in the area. Pre-War Brighton Beach was home to tens of thousands of people living in a neighborhood that was roughly one square mile. Large apartment buildings- which composed slightly more than 90% of all of the residential buildings in the neighborhood- collapsed. Thousands died instantly during these collapses. In the days that followed, thousands more perished from exposure and other related causes- with a median age of 50, most residents were unable to survive the apocalypse.
Because of the hazardous nature of the ruins in the area- rubble was constantly shifting and causing new dangers- organized society was slow to return to the area. While wastelanders inhabited the area, it wasn’t until late in the 22nd century that their presence coalesced into an actual community. They banded together in a communal wasteland settlement, a society where all were equal and all had input in how the community would be run.
Hostile Takeover
In 2278, a group of outsiders took over the small settlement settlement, expanding it and turning it into a political player in the New York City area. Led by trio former Enclave officers that had abandoned their secret post in the area after the destruction of Raven Rock and Adams Air Force Base, the outsiders used force to seize control, making quick work of those that took up arms to defend the settlement. The leader of the group, Vladimir Medvedev, became the de facto leader of New Brighton.
Since Medvedev took control, New Brighton has slowly expanding its imprint in the world. Because of its location, the settlement is somewhat isolated in New York City. The closest major settlement is the main Army of the Righteous Goo encampment to the northwest. New Brighton trades with the mutants, much to the consternation of the Federal Republic of Libeteria, another settlement that New Brighton has recently sent diplomatic representatives to.
The biggest change that Medvedev’s leadership has brought is that the conflict with the Coney Island Jokers has intensified into a war. In the past, the raiders would attack New Brighton, but the pacifists would hide behind their walls rather than fight back. Medvedev regularly rounds up groups composed of his Vories, Super Mutant mercenaries, human mercenaries and residents to leave the safety of New Brighton and take the fight to the raiders.
Economy
Much of the New Brighton economy relies on scavenging the massive amounts of rubble that still sits all over the settlement. Buildings as tall as 20 and 30 stories collapsed during the Great War, resulting in massive mountains of rubble that still contains valuables such as raw building materials and Pre-War personal items.
New Brighton possesses a small fleet of fishing vessels, docked on the eastern side of the settlement in Sheepshead Bay. Fishermen make regular trips not far out into the Atlantic to bring back fish, sailing far enough to escape much of the residual radiation still trapped in the waters closer to the shore. Their main bounty are mudcrabs, mutated crabs related to mirelurks that have been enlarged but remain mostly edible despite living in irradiated waters. Occasionally, fishermen are able to catch species of fish that are edible, not having been completely irradiated and made inedible. Such species include clacker, fluke, flounder, porgies, blackfish, flounder, striped bass, snapper blues, pilotfish, blowfish and eels.
Government
When New Brighton was first settled, it was founded on the principles of communalism. No one resident was in charge, but rather, all residents were equal and all made decisions regarding the small community. As years passed, the realism caught up with their idealism, and greed and violence supplanted the utopian dream. Composed of a trio of former Enclave members along with hired mercenaries and other assorted wasteland hooligans and toughs, the group took over New Brighton in 2251.
Vladimir Medvedev, the man in charge of the takeover, became the de facto leader of New Brighton. Known as the Pakhan, Medvedev enforces his will through the use of his personal police, the Vories, a corruption of the Russian word vory, or ‘outlaws’. Nikolai Reznokova and Dimitri Putlova are Medvedev’s avtoritet, or ‘authorities’. They are his second-in-command, and while both covet leadership of the settlement, know they do not yet have the means to challenge Medvedev- though both have long been plotting to do so, secretly forging alliances with groups within New Brighton as well as outside groups.
Layout
New Brighton sits in the footsteps of the Pre-War Brooklyn neighborhoods of Brighton Beach, Manhattan Beach, and part of Coney Island. North to south, New Brighton stretches from the ruins of the Belt Parkway to the Atlantic Ocean. East to west, the settlement stretches from the ruins of Ocean Parkway to Sheepshead Bay. New Brighton’s two land borders have extensive walls built to separate the people of the settlement from the dangers of the wastes.
Because the area was a highly populated and very dense residential area in the days before the Great War, there is a great deal of rubble and ruins in New Brighton, from large apartment buildings that were destroyed since 2077. Most residents of the settlement live among this rubble and in these ruins. The wealthy and elite of New Brighton primarily live in the east, in the homes belonging to more affluent Pre-War Manhattan Beach homeowners and property once belonging to Kingsborough Community College.
Relations
New Brighton is fairly isolated, existing at the end of the Coney Island Peninsula in southern Brooklyn. Their closest neighbors are the Coney Island Jokers, a raider gang to the west that regularly harasses them. They trade with groups of settlers dotted around the ruins of Brooklyn,but are primarily an isolated settlement.
Historically, New Brighton and Shtetl Tzaddikim were strong trading partners. Not only were the two geographically close, but were culturally very similar as well. In 2278, Medvedev began trading with the Army of the Righteous Goo, interested in profits over anything else. Because the Super Mutant army was laying siege to Shtetl Tzaddikim, the leaders of the Hasidic settlement placed an embargo on goods to and from New Brighton until their The leaders of New Brighton have recently begun engaging the leaders of the Federal Republic of Libeteria regarding trade, but the two groups have not been able to progress much past the initial stages of talk due to similar issues Shtetl Tzaddikim had.
New Brighton regularly trades fish, crabs and raw materials with the mutants and receive weapons and loaned mercenaries in return.
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