Gotham City: A Study into the Darkness.

Gotham City, home of the Batman. It is one of the most famous

fictional cities ever, yet relatively little is known about it. A city where
one of the most famous superheroes, battles with some of the most
famous villains comics has to offer. But this is not about the Batman
and his enemies; this is about the city itself, and if this famous fictional
city, actually is a great place to live and work in. I will be diving into
the world and landscape of Gotham, and there will be a picture
appendix at the end of this paper. These pictures will be used to show
you pictures of places in Gotham, and where they are located, but the
paper itself will be talking about if these locations hurt or help the city.
Gotham City, while a large metropolis with plenty to offer
the citizens of the city, actually should not be used as a model
for development.
Claim 1: Sporting Domes, like the one located in Gotham,
actually hurt the surrounding area, rather than profit it. The Gotham
City Knights, which is the citys Professional Football team, are located
in the Amusement Mile section of the city. (Key 49 Appendix 1). While
the city should be feeling lucky to have its own sporting team,
especially a football team, this actually is losing a lot more money than
gaining profits for the surrounding area. A study released by the
Mariners Baseball Club indicated that in 1984 only eight professional

sports teams were profitable (Pg 2 Baade & Dye) While the Seattle
Mariners are a baseball team, their study was for all professional
sports, even football. And while we are on the subject of Professional
Football, Even with revenue sharing in the National Football League
and their 2 billion plus television contract, some teams are claiming
their operations are slipping into the red. (Pg 2 Baade & Dye) Football
is the king of sports. While I dont care much for the game, there is no
denying that it knows how to make millions of dollars annually. But as
quoted by Robert Baade and Richard Dye, there are some football
teams that are sinking, when they should be thriving. But how do we
know if this applies to the Gotham Knights? I have a good reason why
Gothams Sporting Complex can be one of the football teams that are
in the red, and that is the Dome. This is the biggest killer once it comes
to sporting complexes, because overall having a sports team in your
hometown should be great. I wish there was one professional sports
team in Vermont, but alas there is not. What is the worst thing about
having a sports team in your area is when they make the stadium a
dome instead of a normal playing field. In addition, domes are the
fashion in the stadium design, and domes increase stadium costs
substantially. Furthermore, all domed stadiums have been built with
public funds. (Pg 3 Baade & Dye) This is a big problem for Gotham
City; already Gotham has never been a rich metropolis, in fact the city
has been described multiple times in the comics as hellhole, even the

Boy Scout Superman despises it. Im not particularly fond of Gotham.

Its like somebody made a nightmare out of metal and stone. (DC
Database) It can be argued that sport domes can bring crowds in all
sorts of weather, which is true. The question that has to be asked is..
For the final product, I will have the counterpoint figured out.

Claim #2: Gotham City is an extremely dangerous city for

anybody to live in, and I am not just talking about the villains Batman
fights on a regular basis.
The Tower: Wayne Tower, originally put up by Bruce Waynes
father Thomas Wayne, it is where Wayne Enterprises is based
(Appendix 2). While Wayne Enterprises does a lot of good for the city,
from medical services to research and Tec (DC Database), you would
think there is nothing wrong with having a business like this in any city.
While the company itself is fine, the building is the dangerous part, and
when I mean dangerous I mean on the catastrophic level. Wayne Tower
as shown in the movie Batman Begins (Nolan), has a subway station
running through it (Appendex 3). What is not reflected in the movie is
that underneath Wayne Tower there is an electrical system and water
main for the city (DC Database). The combination of these three large
systems can equal disaster according to Bruce R Ellingwood and Takao Adachi.
Civil infrastructure systems, such as water, electrical power, natural gas, and
transportation systems, are essential to the smooth functioning of modern society.

Because of their inter-connected nature, once one infrastructure system is damaged

by an earthquake or other natural hazard, other infrastructure systems may
malfunction as well. (Ellingwood, Bruce R, and Takao Adachi)
Infrastructure systems that may be impacted by a natural or man-made disaster
consist of many interconnected components and delivery systems. These
components are widely distributed over a region and may sustain different levels of
damage when subjected to an extreme event. (Ellingwood, Bruce R, and Takao Adachi)

Like as stated, if any type of disaster were to happen, a chain of

events could lead to catastrophic actions if something happened to
Wayne Tower. So I can hear what you might be thinking, what are the
chances something happens to Wayne Tower? And how would multiple
systems be damaged at the same time? Well an example of how
easily these disastrous events could happen, occurred in Batman
Begins. Towards the end of the movie, Ras al Gual is piloting a subway
car towards Wayne Tower, for his plan is to use his fear gas evaporator,
and when the subway car would enter Wayne Tower, the water mains
will spread the gas throughout the city. (Nolan). Not only is that an
example, but also when Batman saves the day, he does so by blowing
apart the support system for the subway system and plunging the
subway train and Ras al Ghul into the bottom of the Wayne Tower. If
this happened in real life, not only would the subway transportation
system would be shot, but also by having the train smash into the
bottom of the tower, the electrical system would be destroyed with
however many people dead in the process.
The Sewage Plant: The D'Angelo Sewage Treatment Plant
(Appendix #4) is another potential point of danger in the city of

Gotham. While sewage plants are generally needed for a city, they
can be quite dangerous for the workers inside the plant.
The highest number of bacteria was found in areas where the sewage
water was agitated. A significantly higher proportion of employees at
sewage treatment plants reported skin disorders, diarrhea, and other
gastrointestinal symptoms than the control group. Among non-smokers
a higher proportion of sewage treatment workers had increased
amounts of FDP in urine. It is conceivable that the symptoms observed
were caused by toxins from Gram negative bacteria. (M Lundholm)
To make this worse, besides workers being at a much higher risk of
becoming sick, I learned in my research about sewage slime. I
originally believed that sewage plants would get ride of the slime,
because that is their jobs, but turns out it is a lot harder to get rid of it
than I thought. They also pragmatically note that the millions of tons of sewage
sludge generated each year must go somewhere. If not applied to land, most sludge
would have to be burned in incinerators or landfilled. (REBECCA RENNER)

With learning about the damage that can be done by the sewage
plants, there was a fair question I had in defense of the plant. If the
plant was small enough, my thoughts was that maybe the bacteria and
the slime would be contained. Although Gotham is a large city, I had
hopes for a small plant, but what I found on the Dc Wiki page, stopped
all hopes for a safe plant. What I learned was the D'Angelo Sewage
Treatment Plant, was located on the same island as Arkum Asylum
prision, so not a safe place to work for the employees operating the
plant. Also they mentioned how it was the largest sewage plant on the
entire eastern seaboard, and to make it worse, they state how it is

owned by the Gotham Organized Crime Family (DC Database). So at

the end of the day, while the plant does the necessary work needed for
the city, it is extremely dangerous for the workers inside.
The Batman: By far the most famous part of the city is its
masked vigilante known as the Batman. While he does fight crime for
Gotham, it can be argued that he makes the city worse by being in it.
Chuck Tate, Ph.D, assistant professor of psychology at California State
University Bakersfield, argues that the Batman is not out beating bad
guys to a pulp for the city, but because it makes him feel good being
aggressive.
Furthermore, he derives pleasure from the activity of scaring and
hurting criminals, a different sort of pleasure than that of knowing that
someone was helped. Instead, he almost always opts to beat the lesser
criminals into submission, even when this activity is not necessary to
find his true target. (Pg 140 Chuck)
Chuck Tate brings up a good points, Batman does use criminal ways in
order to get what he wants from criminals. Even this is shown in the
movies, for an example in the first Nolan Dark Knight movie, we see
Bruce Wayne start up a fight with a half dozen prisoners in a pen which
he is being held in. (Nolan Batman Begins) As he is led off by some
guards to his own cell, they tell him how they are taking him away to
keep the half dozen thug prisoners safe from him. Once in his cell, Ras
Al Ghul asks him, Do you hate criminals so much, that you lock
yourself in with criminals just to fight them? (Nolan Batman Begins)

Towards the end of Chuck Tates article, An Appetite for Destruction,

Tate gives his final professional opinion on the Batman.
I now make the case for my bold statement that the Batman
does not intend to help people, but incidentally helps them all the
same, and simultaneously shows that he is using hostile, not
instrumental, aggression. (Pg 141 Chuck)
Does Batman do a lot of good? Yes. Does he save plenty of
people from awful fates annually? Yes of course, but what matters here
is not the end result, but how he would help a developing city. And to
this I say, Batman would hurt a developing metropolis. From him
putting himself above the law, to all his methods of torture and
destruction, he only brings out the worst in a city.

For Matt: From here I would go into new claims, such as Airports and
Arkham Asylum. For Arkham, I will be diving into their less than
orthodox means of healing of the mentally insane. For Airports I will be
going into the danger of terrorism, and the effect on nearby residents
ears. I will show how while the Gotham International airport is outside
the city, it is right next to Bludhaven, which a small immigrant town
just outside of Gotham. And of course I will end with a conclusion
restating what I have gone over.

Appendix 1: Gotham City Map

Appendix 2: Wayne Tower.

Appendix 3: Wayne Towers subway

system.

Appendix 4: D'Angelo Sewage Treatment Plant

Citations:

Baade, Robert A., and Richard F. Dye. "The Impact Of Stadium And Professional Sports On
Metropolitan Area Development." Growth and Change: 1-14. The Impact of Stadium and
Professional Sports on Metropolitan Area Development. Web. 1 Apr. 2015.
<http://rpstlaw.stlawu.edu/ebsco-w-a/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=157e4d88-771a-4362bcdd-adedf23557c4@sessionmgr4002&vid=1&hid=4114>.

Ellingwood, Bruce R, and Takao Adachi. "Serviceability of Earthquake-damaged Water

Systems: Effects of Electrical Power Availability and Power Backup Systems on System
Vulnerability." Serviceability of Earthquake-damaged Water Systems: Effects of Electrical
Power Availability and Power Backup Systems on System Vulnerability. 22 Dec. 2006. Web.
30 Mar. 2015. <http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0951832006002493>.
Batman Begins. Dir. Christopher Nolan. By Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer.
Prod. Larry J. Franco. Perf. Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, and Katie
Holmes. Warner Brothers, 2005.
The Dark Knight. Dir. Christopher Nolan. Perfs. Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron
Eckhart, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Gary Oldman. Warner Home Video, 2008. DVD.
The Dark Knight Rises. . Dir. Christopher Nolan Perf. Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Anne
Hathaway, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Gary Oldman and Michael Caine. Distributed
by Warner Home Video, 2012. DVD.

"DC Database." DC Comics Database. Web. 17 Apr. 2015.

<http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page>.

Lopate, Phillip. Waterfront :A Walk Around Manhattan. 1 Anchor Books ed. New York: Anchor
Books, 2005; 2004. Print.
&
M Lundholm,, R Rylander. "Work Related Symptoms among Sewage Workers." -- Lundholm and Rylander
40 (3): 325. Web. 25 Mar. 2015.
http://oem.bmj.com/content/40/3/325.short

&
"Sewage Sludge, Pros & Cons." Environmental Science & Technology. Web. 25 Mar. 2015.
<http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/es0034489>

Tate, Chuck. "An Appetite for Destruction Aggression And The Batman." The Psychology of
Superheroes: An Unauthorized Exploration. Dallas, Tex.: BenBella ;, 2008. 135-145. Print.

All of the photos taken for the appendixes, was taken from the Dc
Wiki page (DC Database)