From the
Seattle Sourcebook:
RedmondPopulation: 498k
Human: 82%
Elf: 6%
Dwarf: 1%
Ork: 10%
Troll: 1%
Other: 1%
Density: ~1,142/km^2
Per-capita income: 6.6k¥/year
Poverty rate: 79%
Education:
<12 years: 78%
High School equivalency: 18%
College equivalency: 3%
Advanced studies certificates: 1%
Hospitals and clinics: 6
Some key quotes:
QUOTE ("Smiley (Shadowtalk)")
Redmond is a violent place where possession of the smallest bit of food or the cheapest trinket can be reason enough to die. A weekly convoy of trucks delivering food to the district's few grocery stores always causes riots, as squatters risk death to try to stop the trucks so they can steal the food. Even at its most quiet, the district is a seething, angry mass that could explode at any moment.
Most of the Humans in the district still harbor a passionate hatred for all Metahumans. […]
The few companies with factories in Redmond had to build massive fortifications to protect their facilities against looters and vandals. Some firms have hired as guards the biggest and meanest squatters they can find. Accidental shootings in and around these fortified factories are just another fact of life in the Redmond Barrens. […]
There are hundreds, if not thousands, of thrill gangs thriving in the district. Every corner seems to have its own group of toughs claiming it as their turf. […]
QUOTE ("SPD (Shadowtalk)")
I've worked in both the Redmond and the Puyallup Barrens, and I think that Redmond is definitely tougher. There are more people living here, the air is dirtier, and the racism is worse.
Police patrols never go out in less than four-man squads, for the streets are just too dangerous. That's also why the police prefer to use riot cars like the Ares Citymaster or the smaller Nissan Patrol-1, each able to carry at least four cops. […]
Despite the massive firepower the police have, I don't know anyone who likes to pull duty in the Barrens. More police die here than anywhere else in the city.
Toxin-spewing factories, high security, most industrial transportation is by air or water. Thriving organlegging trade. Melted-down nuclear power plant with still-high radioactivity hosting a large squatter population.
PuyallupPopulation: 506k
Human: 48%
Elf: 21%
Dwarf: 4%
Ork: 22%
Troll: 4%
Other: 1%
Density: ~502/km^2
Per-capita income: 6.2k¥/year
Poverty rate: 81%
Education:
<12 years: 80%
High School equivalency: 16%
College equivalency: 4%
Advanced studies certificates: 0%
Hospitals and clinics: 6
Some key quotes:
QUOTE ("SPD (Shadowtalk)")
From a policeman's standpoint, Puyallup is a slightly safer beat than is Redmond. With fewer people living here, a cop isn't as constantly worried about an ambush. You can even find places to sit down and collect your wits without having to be constantly worried about an ambush. The vastness of Puyallup, on the other hand, does tend to stretch the available police force dangerously thin.
I would put Puyallup just below Redmond in terms of potential for serious racial violence. In Redmon, Humans so outnumber Metahumans that both sides keep to their places in society. In Puyallup, the Human and non-Human races stand in roughly equal numbers, with neither more likely to back down from a challenge.
QUOTE ("Main text (IC)")
On average, the district experiences at least one major earthquake every five years.
QUOTE ("Woppler the Weatherman (Shadowtalk)")
Puyallup has the worst air pollution in the Metroplex. Hundreds of unregulated factories constantly churn toxins into the air, and the mountains to the south trap the filthy air directly over the district. What wind does blow through only serves to stir up the tons of ash, often screening out much of the sun and making midday look like the middle of the night.
The pollution of the Puyallup District is so bad that a Stage Red Smog Alert is declared an average of 189 times a year.
Industrial transport chiefly by air, large regions with "solidified lava flows, boiling mud fields, steam geysers, and ash dunes."
So no, your link is not an accurate portrayal of Barrens life. It's far too civilized, and the police are too restrained. Density-wise, it might be an acceptable comparison to Redmond; Rio De Janeiro's overall urban density is about four times that of the Redmond Barrens, but I don't know how dense the favelas specifically are.
~J