Requesting worldbuilding advice from New Yorkers

[Symmys]

I've recently taken it into my head to write a book. The story, as I have it now, is set entirely in a post-apocalyptic New York City, and as I've never been there, some research is clearly in order. That's where you lovely Playgrounders come in.

Suppose magic were to suddenly become real. Most plants and animals 'mutate' and become more dangerous (or simply different), while humans either become more monstrous or learn how to harness magic. Modern technology like cars and electricity are also affected in bizarre ways, and eventually communication systems collapse. As per most apocalypses, society fragments into small groups that have to fight for survival.

This brings me to my question: How would the geography of New York City affect the forming of factions? What locations are most defensible? Where could semi-permanent settlements viably exist? Time isn't a factor, as I'm planning on setting the story an indefinite time after the magipocalypse (at least several generations). Also, if there are any areas where it's more likely that a lab may be set up (to, for example, study the effects of magic upon the internet...) that would be very helpful.

(For the record, I only chose New York because of its size and skyscrapers; if there's another city you think may fit the idea better, I'm all ears.)

[snoopy13a]

The two biggest issues with a post-apocalypic story are food and water.

New York has an excellent water system but the infrastructure would collaspe or be sabotaged. Food supply would be worse as highways and seaways would shut down. Simply, it would be impossible to transport food over long distances.

Manhattan, with the notable exception of Central Park, is simply unfit for farming. It is full of tall buildings, and it would be practically impossible for survivors to convert these neighborhoods into farmlands. Central Park has open spaces, but it could only support a very small community.

For the rest of city, it would probably more or less the same. Even suburban sprawl would be somewhat impractical for survivors to convert to farmland. Instead, it is more probable that survivors would migrate to rural areas (and come into conflict with rural survivors).

Cities would largely be abandoned during the aftermath because supplying cities with food and water is too impractical and creates dangerous supply lines. More likely, survivors will set up small farming communties in rural areas. Eventually, city lands would be reclaimed as society redeveloped but those lands are low priority.

[SarahV]

In NYC, there are a few smaller islands in the area that might be a defensible fortess for various factions: Roosevelt Island, Governor's Island, Ellis Island. But it would be hard to be self-sustaining on them. Manhattan itself is kinda tough to pick out defensible locations, because for the most part the streets are a grid and it's pretty much flat. Maybe the north and south ends where it gets thinner could be walled off.

Reading your description though, I think it would be kind of fun to see it written where I live (Boston metro area). We have a lot of rivers, islands, peninsulas, tunnels and bridges that would make for interesting geography and a lot of ways to have separate factions living close together. There are both subway trains and above-ground electric trolleys, which could be fun if magic-fied. We have Harvard and MIT here in Cambridge and as a result there are lots of interesting things here just itching for sci-fi treatment: observatories, a nuclear reactor, biotech labs, a robotics museum, a million tech-related companies, lots of research labs at the universities... something to think about maybe :smallsmile:

[Phase]

As the others have said, New York is a pretty poor place to live in the post-apocalypse... or it can be a goldmine, depending on the pre-fall incidence and the remaining population. What New York lacks in farmable area (to which rooftops and Central Park can be somewhat readily converted) it makes up for in sheer density. If even 30% of people remain, the leftover processed food with non-immediate expiration will be able to sustain people in the short run, with non-perishables like canned goods and dried goods allowing a meager subsistence until the parks and rooftops can be fully converted.

That said, from your setting, there's only one thing that really ever crossed my mind. And that one thing is NORTH BROTHER ISLAND. aka the most haunted location in New York. aka the home to a building that was at points of its history an insane asylum, a 'rehab' facility, a typhoid quarantine (Typhoid Mary died there), and a veterans hospital. aka the place where ships love sinking and washing their dead up on the shore.

Magic's a thing? THAT ISLAND IS BASICALLY MADE OF GHOSTS NOW UH OH

[Morph Bark]

How odd and weird is magic in your world as opposed to "normal stuff"? Someone with control over magic could possibly (depending on your magic rules) grow crops right out of the concrete, which would change survival conditions in New York considerably. If s/he'd be the only one around capable of doing that, his/her secrets would be very valuable and desired, and s/he'd either become very rich (in terms of trade goods, likely, as money loses its value in those situations) or become the target of people trying to take him/her away to learn his/her secrets, or even kill him/her.

Central Park is also a very good area to put farm animals to graze, though there are very few of them in Manhattan, and importing them would be dangerous (and if you'd go out to get them, you might as well stay wherever you got them, as it's likely more suited to your and their needs).

[nedz]

Long term, it would probably be a bit like London in the Anglo-Saxon period — abandoned. It's simply a poor location for agriculture. The bridges would be of strategic value though.

In the short to medium term you would have a series of transitional stages, but what these are would depend upon the nature of The Event.

[Orzel]

As many said, NYC has little farmable area. The biggest park is Pelham Bay Park and it's in North Bronx, less than 3000 acres, AND a freaking saltmarsh so consider that gone.

I could go in particular with my home borough by splitting it by Brooklyn old town names... but Brooklyn would be a ghost town with most people either leaving the city or hunkering down in surviving housing project buildings. The only the coastal 'hoods would be viable like Coney Island, Marine Park, and Canarsie (Brooklyn North would be a death trap).


As for military installations, few of the forts or navy yards are easily defensible.

If the recent hurricane and snowstorms haven't shown it enough already, NYC would not be able to handle a major weather event without a strong infrastructure or outside help. So if you hit the city with something big during your apocalypse, you might drop the population down to near sustainable levels. There was a History Channel documentary that described how the city would look if something bad when down.

[Symmys]

Okay, I'm going to be honest. The issue of food supplies had not crossed my mind at all. :smallredface: That more or less rules out New York, barring some sort of explosive plant growth...


Reading your description though, I think it would be kind of fun to see it written where I live (Boston metro area).
Boston, you say? Tell me more. :smallamused:

And North Brother Island sounds terrifying. I'll definitely give that a look. :smalleek: