Night City Center
This is where the foundations for Night City were laid, and the symbolism remains strong. In the early years, the eastern parts were known as Little Europe and each block was like various cities on that continent. More to the west were the impressive skyscraper headquarters of the corporations that had sponsored Night City's construction. In between were areas designed to mimic various places in North America, and spreading further away on the island were sections for every culture.
As the heart of the City, the Center has also suffered with all of its setback. Mob rule (2005-2009) only made it marginally safer than the mob war (2009-2011) that ended it, for example. And, of course, once can't talk about central Night City without mentioning the Holocaust. On August 20th, in 2023, a nuclear device detonated inside Arasaka's headquarters. The blast obliterated the tower, severely damaged all nearby skyscrapers, and left countless dead. Corpo Plaza and much of what is now Heywood in the south was irradiated to the point of being uninhabitable. Only the desperate stayed anywhere close to these areas.
As the saying goes, where there's money, there's a way. Irradiated surface material was excavated and removed from the most important corporate areas. While the epicenter of the blast would take longer to scrub, much of the City Center saw the return of both business and residents during the 2030s and 40s. Reconstruction picked up the pace after that, with reconstruction of Corpo Plaza starting in 2052 and by the mid-2060s, City Center was as an impressive symbol of corporate glory as ever!
Corporate Center
If any single location is the symbol of Night City — this is it! Giant skyscrapers — the headquarters of Militech, Petrochem, NightCorp, and more — surround the park and roundabout. Until five years ago, the site of the former Arasaka headquarters was left as a simple memorial and ruin to remember the nuke that devastated the city. As the corporation returned after the Unification War, so did the need for headquarters. The new Night City Arasaka Tower left room for an impressive memorial site but otherwise used the same space as they had before. They compensated for the smaller footprint by making the building even taller.
Only execs with no time for a social life as they climb the corporate ladder live in Corpo Plaza. Most of them have a luxury apartment in Megabuilding H09 that is more intended as displays of success than actual living spaces. Most have little time to spend there, after all. The cheaper living spaces are occupied by workers in the marina, nearby shops, or local entertainment venues.
No gang controls Corpo Plaza, though some do the occasional job here. Any organized crime is very much a high risk, high reward situation. While the police are very much visible, they are nothing compared to the oppressive presence of corporate security. It's hard to move about without being in sight of Arasaka, Militech, or Kang Tao troops. With their mech suits and advanced cyberware, there's no question who's in charge when compared to the beat cops patrolling nearby.
Downtown
This was the charming and intimate part of Night City. Very little of that remains and instead, it's very much the budget version of Corpo Plaza. It's filled with stores and offices that aren't well off enough for Corpo Plaza or Charter Hill but still much too nice for Wellsprings or the Glen. The downtown marina caters to the wealthiest citizens and their yachts. The architecture is grand, but smaller scale than anything in Westbrook or Corpo Plaza.
Corpos who are aiming high but aren't there yet often live downtown. They are the ones who still maintain a life outside work, unlike those living in Corpo Plaza, but have a different angle on climbing the ladder. The rest who live here are headed in the other direction. They are the ones who used to be important, or at least think they were, who are desperate to prove their worth despite it all. They are the servers at luxury restaurants who never climbed to a better position. The executives who botched an assignment and were demoted. They still have a chance, but they'll have to fight for it.
Like the rest of City Center, downtown is mostly patrolled by corporate security. The difference to Corpo Plaza is that locations owned by the large corporations are further between and only the police patrol in-between. This means that criminal activity can get away with a lot as long as it's not out in the open. The large gangs usually prefer to act through intermediaries who take all the risks. Except for The Animals, who are often well-paid hired muscle.
