Austen Sprake Professor McCluskey New Urbanism 20 April 2015

Gotham City: A Study into the Darkness.

Gotham City, home of the Batman. It is one of the most famous fictional cities

ever, yet relatively little is known about it. A city where one of the most famous

superheroes, battles with some of the most famous villains comics has to offer. But

this is not about the Batman and his enemies; this is about the city itself, and if this

famous fictional city, actually is a great place to live and work in. I will be diving into

the world and landscape of Gotham, and there will be a picture appendix at the end

of this paper. These pictures will be used to show you pictures of places in Gotham,

and where they are located, but the paper itself will be talking about if these

locations hurt or help the city.

Gotham City, while a large metropolis with plenty to offer the citizens of

the city, actually should not be used as a model for development.

Claim 1: Sporting Domes, like the one located in Gotham, actually hurt the

surrounding area, rather than profit it. The Gotham City Knights, which is the city’s

Professional Football team, are located in the Amusement Mile section of the city.

(Key 49 Appendix 1). While the city should be feeling lucky to have its own sporting

team, especially a football team, this actually is losing a lot more money than gaining

profits for the surrounding area. “A study released by the Mariners Baseball Club

indicated that in 1984 only eight professional sports teams were profitable” (Pg 2

Baade & Dye) While the Seattle Mariners are a baseball team, their study was for all

professional sports, even football. And while we are on the subject of Professional

Football, “Even with revenue sharing in the National Football League and their 2

billion plus television contract, some teams are claiming their operations are

slipping into the red.” (Pg 2 Baade & Dye) Football is the king of sports. While I don’t

care much for the game, there is no denying that it knows how to make millions of

dollars annually. But as quoted by Robert Baade and Richard Dye, there are some

football teams that are sinking, when they should be thriving. But how do we know

if this applies to the Gotham Knights? I have a good reason why Gotham’s Sporting

Complex can be one of the football teams that are in the red, and that is the Dome.

This is the biggest killer once it comes to sporting complexes, because overall having

a sports team in your hometown should be great. I wish there was one professional

sports team in Vermont, but alas there is not. What is the worst thing about having a

sports team in your area is when they make the stadium a dome instead of a normal

playing field. “In addition, domes are the fashion in the stadium design, and domes

increase stadium costs substantially. Furthermore, all domed stadiums have been

built with public funds”. (Pg 3 Baade & Dye) This is a big problem for Gotham City;

already Gotham has never been a rich metropolis, in fact the city has been described

multiple times in the comics as hellhole, even the Boy Scout Superman despises it.

“I’m not particularly fond of Gotham. Its like somebody made a nightmare out of

metal and stone”. (DC Database) It can be argued that sport domes can bring crowds

in all sorts of weather, which is true. The question that has to be asked is.. For the

final product, I will have the counterpoint figured out.

Claim #2: Gotham City is an extremely dangerous city for anybody to live in,

and I am not just talking about the villains Batman fights on a regular basis.

The Tower: Wayne Tower, originally put up by Bruce Wayne’s father

Thomas Wayne, it is where Wayne Enterprises is based (Appendix 2). While Wayne

Enterprises does a lot of good for the city, from medical services to research and Tec

(DC Database), you would think there is nothing wrong with having a business like

this in any city. While the company itself is fine, the building is the dangerous part,

and when I mean dangerous I mean on the catastrophic level. Wayne Tower as

shown in the movie Batman Begins (Nolan), has a subway station running through it

(Appendex 3). What is not reflected in the movie is that underneath Wayne Tower

there is an electrical system and water main for the city (DC Database). The

combination of these three large systems can equal disaster according to Bruce R

Ellingwood and Takao Adachi.

“Civil infrastructure systems, such as water, electrical power, natural gas, and transportation systems, are essential to the smooth functioning of modern society. Because of their inter-connected nature, once one infrastructure system is damaged by an earthquake or other natural hazard, other infrastructure systems may malfunction as well.” (Ellingwood, Bruce R, and Takao Adachi)

“Infrastructure systems that may be impacted by a natural or man-made disaster consist of many interconnected components and delivery systems. These components are widely distributed over a region and may sustain different levels of damage when subjected to an extreme event”. (Ellingwood, Bruce R, and Takao Adachi)

Like as stated, if any type of disaster were to happen, a chain of events could

lead to catastrophic actions if something happened to Wayne Tower. So I can hear

what you might be thinking, “what are the chances something happens to Wayne

Tower? And how would multiple systems be damaged at the same time?” Well an

example of how easily these disastrous events could happen, occurred in Batman

Begins. Towards the end of the movie, Ras al Gual is piloting a subway car towards

Wayne Tower, for his plan is to use his fear gas evaporator, and when the subway

car would enter Wayne Tower, the water mains will spread the gas throughout the

city. (Nolan). Not only is that an example, but also when Batman saves the day, he

does so by blowing apart the support system for the subway system and plunging

the subway train and Ra’s al Ghul into the bottom of the Wayne Tower. If this

happened in real life, not only would the subway transportation system would be

shot, but also by having the train smash into the bottom of the tower, the electrical

system would be destroyed with however many people dead in the process.

The Sewage Plant: The D'Angelo Sewage Treatment Plant (Appendix #4) is

another potential point of danger in the city of Gotham. While sewage plants are

generally needed for a city, they can be quite dangerous for the workers inside the

plant.

“The highest number of bacteria was found in areas where the sewage water was agitated. A significantly higher proportion of employees at sewage treatment plants reported skin disorders, diarrhea, and other gastrointestinal symptoms than the control group. Among non-smokers a higher proportion of sewage treatment workers had increased amounts of FDP in urine. It is conceivable that the symptoms observed were caused by toxins from Gram negative bacteria.”” (M Lundholm)

To make this worse, besides workers being at a much higher risk of becoming sick, I

learned in my research about sewage slime. I originally believed that sewage plants

would get ride of the slime, because that is their jobs, but turns out it is a lot harder

to get rid of it than I thought. “They also pragmatically note that the millions of tons of sewage

sludge generated each year must go somewhere. If not applied to land, most sludge would have to be

burned in incinerators or landfilled.” (REBECCA RENNER)

With learning about the damage that can be done by the sewage plants, there was a

fair question I had in defense of the plant. If the plant was small enough, my

thoughts was that maybe the bacteria and the slime would be contained. Although

Gotham is a large city, I had hopes for a small plant, but what I found on the Dc Wiki

page, stopped all hopes for a safe plant. What I learned was the D'Angelo Sewage

Treatment Plant, was located on the same island as Arkum Asylum prision, so not a

safe place to work for the employees operating the plant. Also they mentioned how

it was the largest sewage plant on the entire eastern seaboard, and to make it worse,

they state how it is owned by the Gotham Organized Crime Family (DC Database). So

at the end of the day, while the plant does the necessary work needed for the city, it

is extremely dangerous for the workers inside.

The Batman: By far the most famous part of the city is its masked vigilante

known as the Batman. While he does fight crime for Gotham, it can be argued that

he makes the city worse by being in it. Chuck Tate, Ph.D, assistant professor of

psychology at California State University Bakersfield, argues that the Batman is not

out beating bad guys to a pulp for the city, but because it makes him feel good being

aggressive.

“Furthermore, he derives pleasure from the activity of scaring and hurting criminals, a different sort of pleasure than that of knowing that someone was helped. Instead, he almost always opts to beat the lesser criminals into submission, even when this activity is not necessary to find his true target.” (Pg 140 Chuck)

Chuck Tate brings up a good points, Batman does use criminal ways in order to get

what he wants from criminals. Even this is shown in the movies, for an example in

the first Nolan Dark Knight movie, we see Bruce Wayne start up a fight with a half

dozen prisoners in a pen which he is being held in. (Nolan Batman Begins) As he is

led off by some guards to his own cell, they tell him how they are taking him away to

keep the half dozen thug prisoners safe from him. Once in his cell, Ra’s Al Ghul asks

him, “Do you hate criminals so much, that you lock yourself in with criminals just to

fight them?” (Nolan Batman Begins) Towards the end of Chuck Tate’s article, An

Appetite for Destruction, Tate gives his final professional opinion on the Batman.

“I now make the case for my bold statement that the Batman does not intend

to help people, but incidentally helps them all the same, and simultaneously shows

that he is using hostile, not instrumental, aggression”. (Pg 141 Chuck)

Does Batman do a lot of good? Yes. Does he save plenty of people from awful

fates annually? Yes of course, but what matters here is not the end result, but how

he would help a developing city. And to this I say, Batman would hurt a developing

metropolis. From him putting himself above the law, to all his methods of torture

and destruction, he only brings out the worst in a city.

For Matt: From here I would go into new claims, such as Airports and Arkham

Asylum. For Arkham, I will be diving into their less than orthodox means of healing

of the mentally insane. For Airports I will be going into the danger of terrorism, and

the effect on nearby residents ears. I will show how while the Gotham International

airport is outside the city, it is right next to Bludhaven, which a small immigrant

town just outside of Gotham. And of course I will end with a conclusion restating

what I have gone over.

Appendix 1: Gotham City Map

Appendix 2: Wayne Tower.

Appendix 3: Wayne Tower’s subway system.

Citations:

Baade, Robert A., and Richard F. Dye. "The Impact Of Stadium And Professional Sports On Metropolitan Area Development." Growth and Change: 1-14. The Impact of Stadium and Professional Sports on Metropolitan Area Development. Web. 1 Apr. 2015. <http://rpstlaw.stlawu.edu/ebsco-w-a/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=157e4d88-771a-4362-bcdd-adedf23557c4@sessionmgr4002&vid=1&hid=4114>.

Ellingwood, Bruce R, and Takao Adachi. "Serviceability of Earthquake-damaged Water Systems: Effects of Electrical Power Availability and Power Backup Systems on System Vulnerability." Serviceability of Earthquake-damaged Water Systems: Effects of Electrical Power Availability and Power Backup Systems on System Vulnerability. 22 Dec. 2006. Web. 30 Mar. 2015. <http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0951832006002493>.

Batman Begins. Dir. Christopher Nolan. By Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer. Prod. Larry J. Franco. Perf. Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, and Katie Holmes. Warner Brothers, 2005.

The Dark Knight. Dir. Christopher Nolan. Perfs. Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Gary Oldman. Warner Home Video, 2008. DVD.

The Dark Knight Rises. . Dir. Christopher Nolan Perf. Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Gary Oldman and Michael Caine. Distributed by Warner Home Video, 2012. DVD.

"DC Database." DC Comics Database. Web. 17 Apr. 2015. <http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page>.

Lopate, Phillip. Waterfront :A Walk Around Manhattan. 1 Anchor Books ed. New York: Anchor

Books, 2005; 2004. Print.

&

Appendix 4: D'Angelo Sewage Treatment Plant

M Lundholm,, R Rylander. "Work Related Symptoms among Sewage Workers." -- Lundholm and Rylander 40 (3): 325. Web. 25 Mar. 2015.http://oem.bmj.com/content/40/3/325.short

&"Sewage Sludge, Pros & Cons." Environmental Science & Technology. Web. 25 Mar. 2015. <http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/es0034489>

Tate, Chuck. "An Appetite for Destruction Aggression And The Batman." The Psychology of Superheroes: An Unauthorized Exploration. Dallas, Tex.: BenBella ;, 2008. 135-145. Print.

All of the photos taken for the appendixes, was taken from the Dc Wiki page

(DC Database)