It always struck me as odd that DS9 was essentially a military instillation in a turbulent part of space yet they had a huge civillian population. Restaraunts, shops, families, etc were all over the station yet they were in the middle of a war zone where the station was in constant threat of being attacked. Did it really make sense that so many people would choose to live on the station?
You'll note during the run of the show, often the civilians did up and leave when things got tense. All things considered though it got attacked a lot less than say.. the Enterprise full of it's families.
But what was the appeal of living there for shopkeepers and families? Was Bajor such a depressed economy post war that it made sense?
The Enterprise was supposed to be on peaceful exploratory missions, but I often thought that having families on board was a mixed bag there too. The difference is that DS9 was in the middle barely out of Cardassian control, next to this wormhole that they didn't know much about, and things got even more dangerous as time went by. If I was a Vulcan I don't think my logic would dictate going there to start a restaraunt for a station full of such diverse races.
Every vessel coming and going to the Gamma Quadrant stopped there, likewise once the war started, it was a prime staging area with lots of traffic. So yeah having a business there would make sense, there is volume. I'd rather be on DS9 and get attacked once a year at worst than be on the Enterprise flying into every random anomaly or getting attacked by a hostile alien species every week.
^ I think Voyager ran into more anomalies put together than any of the Enterprise's did. DS9 is located in a hazardous area of space for sure. But hey it's the frontier. It's not supposed to civilized.
Most of the residents were Bajoran so I don't see why it would be so surprising. Next to all of them would have lived during the occupation, so the danger of DS9 probably pales compared to that. The next biggest group would probably be Starfleet families and they might have a better understanding and acceptance of the risks. Then there's Quark. Sisko flagged him as the lynch pin. His staying signalled that there was a commercial future on the station, it encouraged others to stay making it more palpable for civilians to want to live on the station. As for the Vulcan restaurant, Vulcans were probably the most mentioned group in terms of exploring the GQ, so there might have been a healthy flow of Vulcans through the station. Diversity also would be a factor, if there are enough people wanting to eat Klingon cuisine, whick seems to be meat or alive dishes, there probably are people who would favour vegetarian Vulcan cuisine.
Not really, it was more like one of the old walled citys, Starfleet ran the place and maintained basically a starbase inside a portion of the city. But the entirety of DS9 wasn't a military installation.
DS9 wasn't in a war zone for a the first five years of Starfleet's administration of the starbase. That's five years of civilians comin' to the station, settin' up a place to live & work and make the place a home, which is what Sisko wanted when he convinced Quark to stay in 'Emissary'.
Dunno about the families, but I imagine for the shopkeepers, they might have more traffic and more diverse traffic) going through there than down on the planet.
Absolutely. The best example I can give you today is Kandahar airfield, Afghanistan. A sprawling complex of thousands of mutinationals, although there are no families, there are still thousands of civilians who work and live there. There are restaurants and shops galore. Basically, a Deep Space 9 on the ground. The airfield is not only under threat. but is constantly fired upon. Teams of people go forth from 'the station' to carry out missions. Deep Space 9 is a great parallel to this. Not necessarily safe, as per the thread title, but very real.
Bajorans wanted to be closer to the prophets. Ferengi wanted to be closer to the profits. Starfleet families moved there with the officer in the family. But as others mentioned, families were evacuated when things became especially dangerous.
Considering historically people always found it safer to live near Roman garrisons, castles, and US cavalry forts, I don't think that the presence of the military on DS9 should have been a deterrent to Bajorans to reside there. Unfortunately, we only get peripheral glances at Bajorans living on the station. Only Leeta gets close look.
DS9 wasn't just a military installation, it was also a trading post and (Considering it's at the only entry point to the GQ) a major port city. That made it a huge center of commerce. Most of the families there were families of officers stationed there or people running businesses there.
[/QUOTE] Absolutely. The best example I can give you today is Kandahar airfield, Afghanistan. A sprawling complex of thousands of mutinationals, although there are no families, there are still thousands of civilians who work and live there. There are restaurants and shops galore. Basically, a Deep Space 9 on the ground. The airfield is not only under threat. but is constantly fired upon. Teams of people go forth from 'the station' to carry out missions. Deep Space 9 is a great parallel to this. Not necessarily safe, as per the thread title, but very real.[/QUOTE] That is a FANTASTIC analogy! Thanks for that and for your service.
Good God, you got that right!! I wouldn't go near the Asian kitchen because of its proximity to it!! You should be coming home soon, eh? (Yes, I do say 'eh' a lot)
Yeah the poo pond is horrible! We have a bit of that stink here on Phoenix every now and then, but nothing like KAF. I have a little over 2 months to go, should be starting to head home in mid January.