Where the millionaires live Options

[Daddy's Litt...]

In the old SR books we know what neighborhoods are particularly rich but what other cities have what neighborhoods of luxery?

Not just where they live, like Central Park West in New York, there are normal shops and people there too, but where is the air rarified? In Philladelphia it is the "main Line" south and west of the city proper. In NYC is is actually the Hampton's-at the end of Long Island- and Westchester county to the north You hear about Beverly Hills and Holmby Hills in LA but what else is there? Parts of Miami Beach? Jamaica? Paris? London? Montecarlo?

I was reading a book set in the 1960's and it talked about a man in the Miami scene and it said, "He stood out among millionaires in a place where millionaires were common."

[Headshot_Joe]

Where the millionaires live? I can tell you it's far away from where the wild things are...

In other words, far away from the urban sprawl, in their own little gated communities, with well paid and equipped security. Far enough out of the way that any Shadowrun team who wants to get in probably can't.

[nezumi]

My initial inclination is to say far from the cities, accessible by air travel. However, given how danger the 'wild' is, enclaves within or near the city would seem more sensible.

[Daddy's Litt...]

That's what I meant, or areas with such a high security precence that it is not an issue. The same book spoke about certain streets in Paris as being 'the most respectable' while not as rich as 'x' it was far more respectable. I was thinking of the strips of Miami beach. Just over the NY/Connecticut border is Greenwich. My husband has a friend who is a policeman there. He has joked with him that it must bne hard keeping people safe behind their garden walls made of dollar bills. The policeman told him "It is dirty work, but someone has to do it." While looknig smug. (To be fair, the officer previously did 7 years in the south Bronx. read: Redmon Barrens.)

[Backgammon]

Every city has a district where the millionaires live, smack inside the city. In Montreal it's called Westmount, right in the middle of the city (but kinda out of the way too, just because of how roads and stuff are built). In the Old Port there are also several million-dollar condos, but I think those are mostly owned as pied-a-terre by rich non-locals.

It's true a lot of these wealthy people ALSO have houses outside the city, but if you're rich it's usually cause you work a lot. 2 hour commute every day just isn't going to cut it, I guess. I mean, if you CAN live in a nice little isolated island of tranquility inside the city, wouldn't you?

[Mongoose]

If you are rich in 2070, commuting isn't an issue. You either use the matrix, or use high speed transport to go to the various locations you'd likely have to visit anyhow.

[Daylen]

yer not rich if you live planet side in the 2070s.

[DWC]

yer not rich if you live planet side in the 2070s.

The rich still live on the planet. The wealthy have gone upwell.

[Fatum]

You'd imagine that wherever they wish to live, they are able to get all the security and tranquility needed, making it a question of preference and comfort more than anything.
Starting with buyouts of whole housing blocks and turning them into well-guarded enclaves and ending with hiring runners or using strike teams for some "urban renewal".

[The Jake]

I would just imagine that the wealthy gather where they can use their wealth to insulate themselves as much as possible and tailor their environments to suit.

In that respect, the Bellevue of Shadowrun's Seattle isn't that different to today's Malibu, to my thinking.

- J.

[Daylen]

I would just imagine that the wealthy gather where they can use their wealth to insulate themselves as much as possible and tailor their environments to suit.

In that respect, the Bellevue of Shadowrun's Seattle isn't that different to today's Malibu, to my thinking.

- J.

and yestermillenia's kings with the poor farmers living just outside the castle walls. The rich and wealthy need those just above poverty around to be servants but don't want them too close.

[Snow_Fox]

The rich have always had country estatews. The Loire chateau of France, the country houses of the English and the coastal estates of the gilded age Americans, and sure with the modern world luxeries they could retreat there but you're missing an important element. They like to mix. To see clubs and art and galleries and shopping and even more important they are seen by their peers. Have all the neat toys in your country house in bedfore Hills NY or the compund in Hyannis and no one can see them and be jelous.

[Daylen]

true but generally only with others closish to their level.

[Headshot_Joe]

The rich have always had country estatews. The Loire chateau of France, the country houses of the English and the coastal estates of the gilded age Americans, and sure with the modern world luxeries they could retreat there but you're missing an important element. They like to mix. To see clubs and art and galleries and shopping and even more important they are seen by their peers. Have all the neat toys in your country house in bedfore Hills NY or the compund in Hyannis and no one can see them and be jelous.

Right, but even so, you're less apt to see a member of the financially elite caste strutting about in downtown urbia. They're showing off in their own, usually gated neighborhoods. It's not going to be a fortress like facility with elite special ops troopers, but it will have the best rent-a-cops-plus money can buy, and you'd better believe they'll have tanked out security drones. They like their nice stuff, and are likely to have their homes wired out their hoops with all the intrusion countermeasures on the civilian market, and knowing how deep some of their pockets are, even stuff that may well surpass that which is available to Joe Shadowrunner. With how violence crazed 2070's culture is, I'm sure it'd be a rarity to find any house without a gun in it, and the rich have bigger houses, and so need more and/or bigger guns. Big houses, fancy neighborhoods, rent-a-cop facilities, country clubs, luxury auto dealers, long winding roads on which to drive high performance luxury cars, upscale schools for their spoiled children, boutique-style shopping malls, all of these things necessitate living outside the mainstream urban sprawl.

[Snow_Fox]

sure, hense playgrounds of the rich like the Hamptons at the end of Long Island

[Daylen]

Course we all tend to stay within our socioeconomic circles and not stray outside that. besides those with more wealth worried about having that wealth separated from themselfs by those with less there are other reasons for such associations. It would be hard to say much at a conversation about how to beat Ares at corp warfare if you are a low level wage slave.

[last_of_the_grea...]

So...just where do you live, Snowy? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Toxic Summon]

I don't have the book, but I know rich people live in Snohomish, Seattle. I think Council Island is also very rich. I'll update this when I check the PDF.

EDIT: My mistake, Downtown Seattle is actually the richest area, followed by Bellevue. Snohomish isn't that rich at all, really.

This post has been edited by Toxic Summon: Mar 24 2010, 11:08 PM

[nezumi]

According to the books, Snohomish includes a whole lot of farmland. WHile that means plenty of space for a compound, farmland rarely has the high prestige I'd expect for upper class snobbery.

[Garou]

Let us no forget that all these beautiful rich people that had villas and chalets on the countryside in the last 2 centuries also brought almost all their friends over to spend a month or two with them. So, the need to mingle trumps the need to get away from the the city. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)