Broadcast Square
To the dispassionate observer, Broadcast Square’s several square kilometers of pedestrian plaza have nothing that should warrant the nickname “the heart of New Angeles.” The Beanstalk touches down in Chakana, Laguna Velasco contains all the important government facilities, and the rich and powerful go to play at Manta. However, if you ask anyone in the worlds where the center of New Angeles is, they’ll say Broadcast Square. And they’re right.
Completely off-limits to vehicles, the entire plaza teems with masses of pedestrians at every hour of the day. The buildings surrounding it are so tall they block out the sun. However, this hardly matters, since vidscreens and holographic projections cover every inch of the looming starscrapers and arcologies. Day and night, they bathe Broadcast Square in the flickering glow of a thousand advertisements, news feeds, announcements, and entertainment programs.
The NBN headquarters arcology dominates most of the northern side of the square, presiding over the sensory overload like a deity of media made manifest. Opposite it sits the lumpen beehive of the New Angeles Stock Exchange, where the wealth of three worlds is traded back and forth daily. Countless communications corps vie for ownership of the remaining starscrapers, each desperate to have a toehold in the media center of the three worlds.
The NAPD maintains a constant and highly visible presence in Broadcast Square, backed up by flocks of camdrones and mounted seccams as well as vigilant ranks of corporate and government sysops in cyberspace. They ensure this is one of the safest, and least private, areas in New Angeles. Anyone who thinks they can get away with something in Broadcast Square should remember NBN’s tag line: “The World Is Watching.”
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