Why is Gotham such a crap hole?

[Trekker4747]

I mean it's literally the worst place in the DC universe to live and, yet, it seems quite a great deal of people live there. The streets seemed filled with sociopaths only one of which is actually doing any "good." And the one place in the city where those sociopaths are held completely fails at its one function.

Arkham. A place so terrible at functioning it doesn't have revolving door policy with inmates it has an open door policy.

Come on, Batman, I think you need to up your game a tiny bit.

 

[Obiwanshinobi]

Gotham City and Batman on blast!

Well my assumption it's such a shithole is because there is so much crime. With the mafias battling it out and the Rogues Gallery members escaping Arkham and plundering the city, it's probably a wee bit difficult for one man and his various sidekicks to consistently maintain it but at least he's trying. Can't say so much for you Trekker, why aren't you out there helping this fictional character to clean this fictional city of all the filth and scumbags? Huh Trekker, huh?

 

[Newspaper Taxi]

I imagine the citizens of Gotham are mostly chained by their socio-economic status. Lots of places hiring, but mostly crappy jobs that barely let them get by. Have a job in Gotham, or risk being homeless somewhere else -- assuming you could literally make it out of town.

Then I imagine the middle level people are making a decent amount of money, but their evnironment sucks, and it comes down to do I want to be poor in another city or make a decent amount here? A lot of people just choose consistancy.

I'm not famillar with Batman lore, though, so I may be totally offbase as to the economic status of Gotham. : P

 

[Obiwanshinobi]

Hmm kind of sounds very timely with actual world events.

#OccupyGothamCity.

 

[Gotham Central]

Well technically EVERY city in the DCU has problems. Imagine living in Metropolis where the criminals have superpowers or you face rampaging aliens and threats from the future or parallel universes.

The face is that unlike a lot of other places in the DCU, Gotham is a fairly normal city. The criminals are heinous, but at least they are human and commit normal crimes.

In truth, Gotham is a lot like 1920s-30s New York or Chicago. Filled with crime and corruption, with no one really willing or able to do anything about it. Yet despite all of that...people still lived in Chicago and New York.

Hell...there are worse places in the world NOW with all sorts of crime and decay...and those cities tend to be even bigger

 

[Hound of UIster]

Metropolis still has a higher standard of living and greater infrastructure investments.

Gotham is a decaying city with its best days in its past and rampant super crime and corruption.

 

[Davros]

Come on, Batman, I think you need to up your game a tiny bit.

IIRC Batman had a hand in creating more than one of those who plague his city.

 

[the G-man]

A lot of real world major cities have been, or are, arguably shitholes but people-often very wealthy people-still live there.

Think NY in the 1970s or Washington, Miami or Philly today.

 

[the G-man]

A lot of real world major cities have been, or are, arguably shitholes but people-often very wealthy people-still live there.

Think NY in the 1970s or Washington, Miami or Philly today.

 

[doubleohfive]

Washington isn't that bad. Just Southeast.

 

[Anwar]

Real reason? Gotham being a crap-hole is too integral to Batman. If the City even cleaned up a little bit it would mess things up too much for the story to still happen.

In-Universe, Bruce won't give up on the city so he uses his wealth to keep it alive as much as he can.

 

[the G-man]

Washington isn't that bad. Just Southeast.

I personally really like visiting DC and haven't noticed much of aproblem. However, I looked up "most dangerous US cities" and DC was there.

 

[Samurai8472]

Well technically EVERY city in the DCU has problems. Imagine living in Metropolis where the criminals have superpowers or you face rampaging aliens and threats from the future or parallel universes.

Not to mention living under the thumb of Lex Luthor and his real estate acquistions. Property taxes must be crazy.

 

[mswood]

No what really sucks about it, is that the heroes of the DC universe frankly seem more then to let the place go to hell. Its easily the worst of any US major city, yet the legion of heroes across the US due nothing about it. Yet we have heroes with such vast powers that even if they lived on the other side of the nation could easily spend some time there each and every day.

Even a shared universe with such a variety of beings whose powers dwarf those at Gotham, mean someone like WW, Flash, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, Superman (and all with legacy versions of themselves or multiple beings of similar powers) could easily stop the threats that arise in minutes, some in literal seconds.

 

[Samurai8472]

^ It would all boil down to a territory thing.

Batman must fix Gotham.

Superman must keep Metropolis in order.

Basically a "You worry about your own section and i'll deal with mine"

 

[Hound of UIster]

Well technically EVERY city in the DCU has problems. Imagine living in Metropolis where the criminals have superpowers or you face rampaging aliens and threats from the future or parallel universes.

Not to mention living under the thumb of Lex Luthor and his real estate acquistions. Property taxes must be crazy.

I would think taxes are relatively low given how much of the city that Lexcorp controls.

 

[Trekker4747]

I'm sure some of you have seen this: LINK, if not watch it.

Anyway, I think there a point in it. There's got to be a balance between a hero having crime to fight but also the hero being successful in those pursuits. If all Batman is doing is creating more sociopathic themed criminals or not making the crime situation any better in Gotham then he's really sort of useless, isn't he? Sure he may have prevented major disasters but the question could be that those disasters wouldn't have happened had it not been for Batman.

Look at the movie "The Dark Knight." The entire plot of the movie happens because of Batman! The mob was running scared because of Batman, this piqued the interest of the Joker who helped the mob in trying to bring down The Bat. This resulted in the death of the police commissioner, death of a judge, the attempt on the life of the mayor and of the DA and consequently the death of that DA and an assistant DA. All because Batman pissed off the mob.

Sure he made it harder for the mob to do their dirty work but the result was much, much worse.

For everything going on Metropolis at least Superman isn't making the situation there any worse and is there to stop the major things from happening.

 

[David cgc]

There are plenty of guys who only attack Metropolis because they want a piece of Superman. Metallo, Brainiac, Darkseid, the list goes on. Add in all of Lex Luthor's anti-Superman schemes that are on top of his regular stuff.

 

[Admiral_Young]

Even Lex Luthor's B-13 tech rebuild of the city after No Man Land's that spearheaded his bid for the Presidency eventually went to the crapper. It's really for story reasons. As mentioned Gotham is a decaying old city that has met it's share of recessions. The Wayne family has done a great deal to try and help matters over the years but corruption and crime have always countered that effort.

 

[Nerys Myk]

No what really sucks about it, is that the heroes of the DC universe frankly seem more then to let the place go to hell. Its easily the worst of any US major city, yet the legion of heroes across the US due nothing about it. Yet we have heroes with such vast powers that even if they lived on the other side of the nation could easily spend some time there each and every day.

Even a shared universe with such a variety of beings whose powers dwarf those at Gotham, mean someone like WW, Flash, Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter, Superman (and all with legacy versions of themselves or multiple beings of similar powers) could easily stop the threats that arise in minutes, some in literal seconds.

Gotham is Batman's problem. The others are busy in their own necks of the wood, not being able to solve similar problems in minutes or seconds.

Of course given that shared universe logic, the NYC of the Marvel Universe should be a paradise, yet its not.

Bottom line, its fiction. Try not to dig too deep and just enjoy the stories as Batman adventures. Leave the "shared universe" BS at the door.