Need an American city

[MrZJunior]

I'm going to argue for an unconventional choice: Washington, DC. It has a gigantic Federal Mental Hospital at St Elizabeths, strange weapons tests going on at the Navy Yard and other locations (the Army Corps of Engineers is still trying to get all the chemical weapons out of the ground in certain neiborhoods), one of the largest libraries in the world with a gigantic collection of ancient books in the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian Institution is a large museum most of whose collections never see the light of day, and it's got an unconventional street plan supposedly laid out by the Freemasons for nefarious purposes (for instance DC has a street named after every letter in the alphabet except J, the streets go straight from I to K).

Georgetown, Capitol Hill, and the Dupont area are wealth areas where the political elite live, though Georgetown is also one of the few industrialized parts of the city.

Much of the rest of the city outside of a few government offices is a crime ridden slum. Areas that are now covered by monuments were malarial swamps in the 1920's, popular as places to dump bodies. Less than a block from the White House was a notorious red light district called Murder Bay.

The outer parts of the city are starting to develop thanks to the street car system, these new suburbs are where a lot of the more affluent people are fleeing too.

I don't think DC ever had much in the way of organized crime, for instance bootlegging was an individual concern rather than a big business. You could probably provide a similar effect with power brokers and lobbyists working behind the scenes to twist the government to their will.

[Bohandas]

Much of the rest of the city outside of a few government offices is a crime ridden slum.

Why not just leave it at "Much of the rest of the city is a crime ridden slum"

[Artemis97]

Oh I like the idea of Washington DC! There's a lot of potential there for strange architectural alignments and the like. I didn't know they skipped J on the street names, either. That's rather curious. I miss the Navy Yard, I worked in the museum there one summer. It was great. So much history!

[MrZJunior]

I didn't know they skipped J on the street names, either. That's rather curious.

The story as I have heard it is that in 18th century when they were drawing up the city plans there was no typographical distinction made between the letters I and J so they left out J to avoid confusion. But that's a boring answer so you should make up something cool.

[Telonius]

The one big problem with Washington, DC as a setting is the lack of skyscrapers. That sort of dark, claustrophobic and cramped visual that places like Chicago and New York have, isn't usually present in the District. No structure is allowed to be taller than the Capitol Dome, and there are some other height restrictions that generally prevent anything above 13 stories (with a couple of exceptions made for the National Cathedral, the Basilica, and things like the Old Post Office and the Washington Monument that were built before the height restrictions went into effect).

[MrZJunior]

The one big problem with Washington, DC as a setting is the lack of skyscrapers. That sort of dark, claustrophobic and cramped visual that places like Chicago and New York have, isn't usually present in the District. No structure is allowed to be taller than the Capitol Dome, and there are some other height restrictions that generally prevent anything above 13 stories (with a couple of exceptions made for the National Cathedral, the Basilica, and things like the Old Post Office and the Washington Monument that were built before the height restrictions went into effect).

An excellent point, the thought hadn't occurred to me. That being said a claustrophobic setting isn't necessary for a noir feel, many of the most famous noir films and stories are set in sunny and open Southern California.

[Bohandas]

The one big problem with Washington, DC as a setting is the lack of skyscrapers. That sort of dark, claustrophobic and cramped visual that places like Chicago and New York have, isn't usually present in the District. No structure is allowed to be taller than the Capitol Dome, and there are some other height restrictions that generally prevent anything above 13 stories (with a couple of exceptions made for the National Cathedral, the Basilica, and things like the Old Post Office and the Washington Monument that were built before the height restrictions went into effect).

Philadelphia used to have something like that too until so etime i the 1980's or 1990's

[Lazloki]

I don't know if this will help or not, but White Wolf put out a series of 'by Night' supplements for Vampire the Masquerade. I'm not sure how many were published. Examples include: 'New Orleans by Night', 'D.C by Night', 'Chicago by Night', and 'Los Angeles by Night'. I believe they contain a bunch of materiel of potential use in other roleplaying games. It's old enough that there might be free copies out there, or there are pdf's for sale at Drive Thru RPG.

[Ulthraun]

If you aren't looking for anything big, I live close to a town called Rabbit Hash. It was settled in the late 1800s as a river side trade town and is still in use till this day. Most of the original builds are still used as well, except for the general store which has sadly burnt down.

[Ulthraun]

Or... if you're looking for something a bit larger, Cincinnati is where the ol' famous markiplier came from. :D