Gotham in Progress (Part 2)

As Stark narrates, a model of a future city gradually emerges in Schiller's mind.

Just like Stark said, this is indeed a good fit for Gotham.

The main problem in Gotham right now is that no matter how much the logistics system is modified, it will always be in a state of extreme saturation, meaning that there is no redundancy left for unexpected situations.

Don't forget, the future Gotham Big Stage is full of unexpected events, with all sorts of villains taking turns to appear, and natural and man-made disasters following one after another. If an accident causes the city to be paralyzed for half a day, then it's better not to develop at all, as everyone will be exhausted from patching things up every day.

But now, Stark has proposed a groundbreaking concept of a three-dimensional city. Calling it a three-dimensional city isn't quite accurate; it's more like a completely new Hive city, where each cell is an independent structure with its own independent ecosystem, much like Living Hell.

To achieve this, simply building one structure after another on a flat surface is insufficient, as the space cannot be fully utilized; therefore, it is necessary to create a three-dimensional structure.

Roads don't have to be right on the ground; they can also wind through the city. Parking lots and parks can be built in mid-air, and apartments and residences can be stacked vertically.

This concept has actually been proposed before, but as Stark said, Gotham is a perfect testing ground because, due to some historical developments, many areas of Gotham have spontaneously formed this pattern, such as the Living Hell.

Indeed, Living Hell is a Slums, extremely dirty and chaotic, but that doesn't mean it's not part of a vertical city. Living Hell has already achieved the key characteristics that Stark mentioned: regional independence, extremely high space utilization, and an independent urban ecosystem.

This means that once the issues of water and electricity supply and living environment are resolved, a small section of the honeycomb will be completed.

The same applies to other areas of Gotham; by modifying them piece by piece, one honeycomb after another is completed.

All that's needed is to assemble these cells and then connect them with a city-wide transportation system, and Gotham City will become a true three-dimensional city.

This is Gotham's unique advantage; for other cities to achieve this structure, they would almost have to demolish and rebuild the entire city.

Bruce's proposed publishing plan was actually quite ahead of its time. In Bruce plan, he designed a modern city that was almost perfect, from the urban ecosystem to the logistics system. The One problem was that to achieve this effect, it was basically equivalent to tearing down and rebuilding Gotham.

The manpower, resources, and costs required are astronomical. Even Wayne Enterprises would find it difficult to afford the reconstruction of such a megacity.

Moreover, rebuilding would require the resettlement of a large number of people, which is precisely what gives Bruce and Falcone a headache.

You can't just say that if you want to demolish the houses, everyone should live on the street, right?

To resettle these people, new houses need to be built, which would double all construction costs and time costs. Therefore, they felt that this plan could only be used as a last resort and hoped that Schiller could provide a better suggestion.

Stark truly deserves the title of a genius cursed by knowledge. Perhaps it's not a matter of knowledge, but rather that compared to Batman, he is more imaginative and creative.

Vertical cities, even in Marvel's era, have never been successfully realized by any city. Perhaps some cities have this attribute naturally due to their terrain, but in reality, none of them have been fully realized. They may only have taken shape in a small part of the area.

However, if this plan were applied to Gotham, it would indeed achieve the effect of low reconstruction costs, less time investment, and a large amount of traffic redundancy.

Soon, Stark, brimming with enthusiasm, used Jarvis's computing power to come up with a detailed plan, which was divided into three versions and six modification plans. Then, he proudly put his hands on his hips and said, "Now who is the most powerful genius in the world? Of course, it's Stark!"

"Indeed," Bruce replied after seeing the plan. "Your friend is indeed a genius."

Although he didn't understand why the Symbiote in his mind made a series of terrified gurgling sounds and then hid after seeing the words, Bruce was still very satisfied.

"Is he interested in developing his career in Gotham? Wayne Enterprises will offer him a very good compensation package," Bruce asked.

"That's probably difficult. He's not short of money and has a very high opinion of himself. He probably won't be employed by anyone."

"It's a common ailment of geniuses," Bruce said, but he didn't think it was a big deal. There are plenty of geniuses in the world, and not all of them can work for him. Besides, given Gotham's reputation, basically no one with a screw loose would come here.

After showing the proposal to the architectural planning experts they had hired at great expense, everyone was amazed. In this day and age, without the help of computers, most urban planning schemes do not provide many details; confirmation is usually only made after the actual construction has begun.

However, thanks to Jarvis, a groundbreaking super AI, Stark's solution was more detailed than Lego's assembly instructions, specifying almost every detail, from the height of each wall to the load-bearing capacity of each pillar and the laying method of each wire.

Simply put, if you take this information and build it step by step, you'll get a brand new Gotham City as easily as assembling building blocks.

Moreover, because the modifications are relatively minor, mostly involving additions, there is no need for large-scale relocation and resettlement of personnel. At most, there will be small-scale relocations during the renovation of the original buildings, which is entirely within the acceptable range for Falcone and Wayne Enterprises.

Schiller offered them a suggestion: you can't get fat in one bite, there's no need to start with the most difficult part, you can just find the simplest place to modify, anyway, if something goes wrong, it won't get any worse.

Yes, this place is Living Hell. The living conditions here are truly indescribable. Bruce and Falcone have both been here, and they agree with Schiller's point of view: no matter how much this hellhole is improved, it can't get any worse than it is now.

Therefore, the first phase of Gotham City's transformation plan was piloted in Living Hell.

Of course, Living Hell is inhabited, and there are many of them. They heard that the place is going to be redeveloped. They don't want to, but they have no choice. If it were just the Wayne Enterprises, it would be fine, but there's also the Falcone family Gotham. They can't resist them at all. They heard that there is compensation, and they are already planning to take the money and move out and never come back.

But to their surprise, the renovation was not a grand demolition and reconstruction, but more like patching and repairing.

First, a construction team composed of Mafia families hired a large number of people to clean the place inside and out.

It turns out that the Living Hell has no garbage disposal facilities. Most of the garbage is thrown out of the windows, which has turned the place into a huge garbage dump. Just cleaning up the garbage took hundreds of people and several days.

Immediately afterwards, the water conservancy engineering team arrived and began a comprehensive renovation of the water pipes. According to Stark's design, the water supply facilities for the vertical city will not only include full access to tap water, but also solar water heaters and water purification devices.

Schiller skipped the water heater step entirely. Gotham people don't care that much. It's only 1987. If they want hot water, can't they just heat it up themselves?

However, a water purification system is indeed necessary. This is where Bruce comes in. He sets up a regional water purification pump, buried underground in each Hive City module, to purify and filter the region's circulating water, and also to facilitate the filtration of boiling water before it is discharged into the sea.

Batman's actions are naturally extraordinary; the power of this water purification device is more than enough to meet the needs of domestic water recycling, and it's also very environmentally friendly.

Next, water pipes were laid to connect to the tap water supply. The entire Living Hell has more than 2,800 water points. After completion, water supply to almost every household was achieved, and there was no longer a need to use public wells or water pumps.

Next came the installation of the power system, which Bruce himself designed. Gotham City has plenty of electricity, but its utilization rate is low.

All the haphazardly strung power lines and antennas in the Living Hell were removed. Stark had already calculated the optimal power line design with the help of Jarvis, and Batman further adapted it for local use upon landing. After the power lines were laid, not a single power line could be seen in the entire city, but the power utilization rate was extremely high, and there was no power outage all day long.

Next are the gas and heating issues, and the solutions are basically the same.

In addition, the passageways inside the Living Hell have been refined. The original dozens of intestinal passageways have been integrated with the architecture, widened and connected, so that all the corridors and rooms are connected by the shortest routes without altering the main structure of the building.

Based on Stark's design, Bruce also designed a separate tunnel elevator suitable for the Living Hell. The elevator tunnels were designed as a grid, and the transport cabins could be transported from the residential corridors to the nearest living areas via the elevator tunnels.

In addition, the entire area has been equipped with essential environmental facilities for a three-dimensional city, such as Police Department branch, an emergency hospital, a rooftop park, ecological forests on building rooftops, sports facilities in alleyways, and a rooftop soccer field.

Because this was a joint effort by several major factions in Gotham, the manpower and resources used far exceeded the needs, and the efficiency and speed were extremely high.

Most importantly, under the threat of force, the wishes of the residents could be disregarded, and no resident came forward to express any different opinions or oppose the transformation. With the full force of an entire city mobilized to transform it, the Living Hell was almost quickly transformed into a complete honeycomb module.

The final step is to renovate the exterior, including installing more than 6,000 lights with sufficient power, re-insulating the building's exterior walls, designing window security measures, adding balconies, and beautifying the building's facade.

Inside the building, all the corridors were renovated, unreasonable apartment layouts were redesigned, and all the shops in the living area were rebuilt and converted into modern Shop.

In addition, fire-fighting equipment was installed, including reserving fire lanes, installing fire-fighting equipment, and installing fire sprinklers.

The last thing to be completed was the landscaping. Although there was no green space on the ground in the entire Living Hell area, the greening on rooftops of varying heights, the greening in alleys, the greening on balconies, etc., still managed to bring the green area up to the standard.

So when the residents of the Living Hell who had been relocated moved back, they found themselves living in a place that seemed familiar yet completely different.

This is a modern, even futuristic, three-dimensional honeycomb city. It is dense but not crowded, well-connected but not chaotic. It may seem to lack some things, but in fact, it is well-equipped. It seems that everything is in the wrong place, yet it is very convenient.

More importantly, in addition to its practical functions, its aesthetics have also reached their peak.

A steel forest rises from the ground, Metal Passage handrails become branches, and countless lights become leaves. Amidst the dancing points of light, the vitality growing in the cold steel skeleton perfectly matches this crazy city. People move about, light and shadow intertwine, and warmth and coldness pile up. The city becomes larger and larger, and humanity appears even smaller.

It was only 1987, an era when most cities were still just skyscrapers and highways. This cyberpunk-style city would be cutting-edge even in the 21st century, and it would be awe-inspiring today.

Moreover, this is not just to improve the quality of life for citizens. More importantly, the two overpasses running through this modular city center have tripled the transportation capacity of the entire street.

Many truck drivers are now bypassing the surface road next to the street and taking the overpass instead, which has instantly boosted the area's transportation capacity. Moreover, if an accident occurs on one road, a sign will light up at the entrance, allowing drivers to choose another route. This provides considerable redundancy for logistics transportation.

I'm asking for votes for today's 10,000-word story!

That's right! This book has been renamed!

As for why this name was chosen, it's because shorter names are often duplicated and can't be used, and we also need some gimmicks to attract new readers—it's better than before! (Hands on hips)