OPEN

[keenly]

FORM: Sending Crystal
SENDER: Colin
RECIPIENT: Everyone
WHAT: Think tanking about Darktown
WHEN: Present
WHERE: Kirkwall
NOTES: CW: Descriptions of medical conditions associated with poverty, specifically trench foot and scurvy.

This is Colin the shopkeep. Now that two separate crises are under control, I have something I want to bring to your attention because I know how good-hearted and generous all of you are, as demonstrated all last month.

It's Darktown. I've been helping Anders in his clinic there, and...I thought I'd seen poverty before. I thought I'd lived it. I thought my family was poor when I was a kid because we didn't have much. We shared a wall with our neighbors and there were seven of us living in two tiny rooms. Sometimes we didn't eat well, but we never starved. Our roof leaked sometimes, but we could fix it and be dry after that. We had a roof and walls and clothes and food. After the, um, the war started a few years back, I went hungry for a while, but my teeth weren't falling out.

People in Darktown don't have walls or a roof. You'd think living under Hightown would mean they have at least a roof, but they don't. On the seaward side, people are exposed to everything--cold, rain, snow, everything. And the muck that leaks down from Hightown is some of the worst stuff you'll ever smell. Most people down there can't work, or can't find work, and they have to live down there with their families because they can't afford rent in Lowtown. They spend day in and day out wading through filth trying to find coins people dropped through grates. That means their feet are constantly wet and cold, and that's bad even in summer. I treated feet what were soaked and pale and cracking, skin sloughing off and frozen in some places. Some of them have to take a cot in the clinic till they get warm and dry, but it'll only happen again after they've left, and on and on till they lose their feet.

And they don't have food, not really. Sometimes they'll get lucky and catch rats or pigeons or seagulls, but otherwise it's whatever they can find what was thrown away or dropped. And yes, their teeth are falling out, some of them. They have scurvy, they have rickets, they can't breathe for the chokedamp. Sometimes you find people who suffocated to death without anyone there to help. By the time a healer gets there, it's too late. And magical healing can't do anything about the damp and the cold and the hunger. It can't cure scurvy or rickets, or fleas and lice, and it's not very useful against frostbite.

If they try to go up to Hightown they'll just be arrested, or worse, escorted back. Everyone thinks they're thieves and carry diseases. There's nowhere for them and nobody wants to help them. And you can see in their eyes that they know that. They have these...hollow, vacant looks. They've given up. They're broken.

I think that this is the kind of thing the Inquisition is meant for, and we need to address it. These people need food, clothing, and shelter. It needs to make a real difference and not just look good. And seeing as we all have different experiences and different expertises--is that the right word?--we all must have something to bring to the table. So I wanted to discuss all of this with all of you and maybe together we can come up with some ideas we can bring to our leaders. So what can we do about Darktown? What are some possible solutions to these problems?

[OOC: for the sake of organization, I'm putting in a few top-levels under which people can make comments about specific concerns. Anything that doesn't fall under these, or any suggestions to improve the overall state of poverty in Darktown, you can make your own top-level for. Threadjack, go crazy, y'all know the drill.]

Comments

Disease

[keenly]

[keenly]

Something economical: something to get them up out of the mud and water and filth when they're scavenging. Stilts would do the trick, or those...platform things people strap to their shoes. Keeping feet dry would do these people a world of good.

Less economical: aboard ships they put lemon, lime, or orange juice in the drinking water. It prevents scurvy. Of course we can't give people a lifetime's worth of expensive imported fruit, but I'm mentioning it because it's something we know that works.

[degenere]

Why is the mud not just cleaned up?

Food

[keenly]

[faithlikeaseed]

Is there light enough that anything might grow down there? [A murmured aside,] Well, there's always mushrooms--

I wonder that Sina didn't have the right idea--give them gardens, if we can. Something to work on and take pride in. It won't be as useful in the winter months unless they've got secure places to lay food up, but it's a start.

[wheretheferngrows]

[helpfully,] There's vegetables that'll grow in winter. And for others, I could place those warming glyphs.

[Yeah Fern, go down to Darktown, you'll be just fine.]

[keenly]

Gardening is...gardens are good, but they're territory. Territory will be disputed and fought over. And stolen, and profited from like we saw with the Chantry forest.

Clothing

[keenly]

Re: Clothing

[sunshinethroughgrey]

I am a constant knitter for the poor -- but if we can get more people with sewing or knitting? We can put together a circle to get more clothes to them.

May I also say that I am so very pleased that other people are going to get involved in Darktown?

[justice_is_blond]

How much yarn does a pair of socks take? And how long? A massive amount of socks could make a definite difference.

[Despite temptation, Anders is not going to ask about non-circle shapes even jokingly. This is about Darktown.]

[winterwinds]

I can knit! I'm an okay seamstress as well, I won't be making any ballgowns but I don't think anyone has much of a need for those in Darktown. We could see if we can find some others who knit, or those willing to learn and put together a knitting group?

Shelter

[keenly]

[nadasharillen]

If I come and survey the area, I could start drafting some plans that would provide the most shelter for the fewest needed materials. With input from the locals, of course.

There's plenty of work available on a project like that, both skilled and unskilled. If the Inquisition could find some coin, it would ultimately be less drain on our personnel and resources to hire the residents, not to mention the morale boost for them, and the goodwill we'd gain.

[justice_is_blond]

This could be massively beneficial. Protection from the elements is one of the greater needs down there. If you need... Um.

[He pauses.]

If you need a human to smooth over matters with humans who may be... assholes, [racists,] the Clinic will have people who can back you up even if Colin or myself is not there.

[keenly]

Would it be possible to have the shelters elevated a bit? Keep them out of the water when it floods? The people there will show you how high they'd need to be built. And they'd need windows to let the chokedamp out.

[exsecutus]

There are plenty of mansions in Hightown.

[crowncitizen]

The lack of jobs is a big part of the problem. People turn to crime because they literally have nothing else left. Like, getting them actual houses and clothes and food is important and they need it badly down there, but they gotta have a means of being able to keep supporting themselves. They need work.

[Which is totally easier said than done and he absolutely recognizes that.]

Someone said having them do construction jobs to help build their own houses, which would be a good start. I wonder if there's other construction efforts in the city and surrounding areas that could use workers, too.

[keenly]

Some of them have jobs but they don't pay enough. The ones what don't, they can't get work because they have no way to get clean. You have to be fit and clean to work at the docks, for example.

[crowncitizen]

Uh... massive pool slash bath party in Darktown when it finally gets warm out?

[degenere]

A charitable thought, my friend. But we can hardly trust construction to the unskilled.

[deserteur]

Maybe if this war goes on long enough your Inquisition will give them jobs. Put them in some new boots and send them to the frontlines.

[ He sounds perfectly cheerful. It’s funny, see! Definitely not something he’s ready to hang anyone over. ]

Do you think you will get more than volunteers with a few hours to spare and some leftover food in the meantime?

[keenly]

I think so. The Inquisition would have to approve or deny funding. If they deny it, we're at the mercy of donors, and we have wealthy people among us. If they approve it, we'd have better resources to improve the conditions in Darktown.

[tar_minyatur]

Ah! I'm glad to see there are folk who are working to this end. In better weather I was going out with the fishing boats, but I'm happy to turn my hand to anything that needs doing. The suggestion of private gardens is a good one - you really don't need much soil, you can grow fresh vegetables in windowboxes and pots, if you care for them! I'm not much of a healer, but I know my way around a sickroom, if extra hands are needed there, but I'd probably be best put to work doing things like digging wells and building homes.

[ipseite]

These are kind thoughts. Please remember such projects in your personal time must not interfere with your duties or make use of Inquisition resources and plan wisely.

[keenly]

Hm? Oh-- [Shit, it's the boss.] Um, of course, milady. [Not that Colin has Inquisition money to spend, but he'll be sure to keep an eye out.]