Sunset District

This is the west most area of the city proper, all of it new growth beyond the existing city walls.

It began with buildings along the sunset road, the road to the west. As the paving of the road extended, so did the buildings and the new roads parallel to it and avenues perpendicular. Since the roadwork has been periodic and there have been numerous plans to create a new city wall to encompass the new buildings, westward progress has been slow. The creation of an Eastern gate has been the only city wall work done in some time. The district is now nearly as wide as the city. The sunset district is sometimes called the DawnShadow by the poetic, romantic, and the highly political, as the city's long shadow at dawn is cast over the district.

Filling those blocks has been town homes, tall, narrow, and long two story affairs. There is practically no space between them. Every bit of space has been used, since they expected to be stopped by a new city wall anyday now. There have been a few businesses built along the way, most having to do with horses, wagons, carriages, and metalwork (business practically prohibited to be inside the city because of taxes related to them). Multilevel horse barns/ carriage garages used to be the most common business squeezed between the town homes. As time has gone on, and the population has grown, there are others (washers, cobblers, tailors, tea shops, furniture makers), but most of the district is residential. The district allows people who would of been merely taking a room to actually own a home, if they don't mind living outside the city wall AND travelling into city for work. (Some enterprising carters are creating 'buses', bringing workers into the city and taking them home again.)

The bakers, also escaping old tax laws, have moved into the Sunset district en mass. If you want a lovely loaf, buttery croisants, or any variety of bread (from any ethnic/ racial group), you have to visit one of the excellent bakeries in the Sunset District. In fact, many of these bakeries deliver to shops inside the city (a marriage between a horsetrainer and a baker's wife was said to be the origin of this shipping arrangement).

The district has only one distinctive feature in their mind- The Reading Market. The Readings had one large carriage garrage not too far from the city gate. They lent (later renting) some of their land a few days a week during good weather to some farmers and merchants, so they could have a small market. Fearful of serious talks to extend the wall (which would increase their tax burden), The Readings practically abandoned it, and created a huge facility outside the district boundries of the day. (Decades later, the city has caught up with it). Now, the market people eyed the building now abandoned. They first asked, 'could we store our things inside'. The Readings said yes. Unexpected rain looked to cancel the market, but the merchants simply set up inside. While business was not brisk, it did continue. The Readings, seeing a new source of income, sectioned off the building into 'streets' (e/w) and avenues (n/s) like the district and rented out 'blocks' to merchants, fishermen, and farmer groups. The top floor is mostly merchants, the first floor mostly food stuffs, and the basement a mixmash of food and odd merchants, mostly catering to odd ethnic and racial groups. This indoor space allows them to have a market nearly all year, increasing the revenue from space rentals. For decades now, the market has been one of the Readings' main sources of revenue (and a major source of tax and guild revenue for the city).

Note: The Readings are looking into building a similar building (and market) on the Corneth Road, the road out of the city towards Corneth. They think a district will build up around it, increasing customers.

And though people have been talking about it for centuries, there seems to be no real thrust to build new cities wall. The lands about the city have been fairly safe for nearly century, with new cities being frontiers. Besides, the District people could crowd into the City proper if danger loomed.