Northwood

A mid-sized Midwest city built on industry that left and never came back. Population ~300,000. The river cuts through the south side. Grey skies most of the year—overcast, cold, the kind of weather that gets into your bones and stays.

This is a city of layers. Four districts, four completely different worlds, all pressed up against each other like they're pretending they don't share the same zip code.

Southgate

The south end of Northwood. Industrial roots, brick rowhomes, chain-link fences, and rent that's actually affordable. The residents are working-class, ex-con, immigrant, artist, or all of the above. The kind of people who mind their own business unless you give them a reason not to. The main strip has a tattoo shop, a diner, and a few bars that have been there longer than anyone can remember. Trouble is familiar here, but so is loyalty. It's the kind of place where people have each other's backs not because they're saints, but because that's just how Southgate works. You look out for your own. You don't ask questions you don't need the answers to. And you definitely don't snitch.

The Heights

The wealthy part of Northwood, where old money dresses up as new money and nobody asks where any of it came from. Historic homes with manicured lawns, tree-lined streets, and iron fences that cost more than a Southgate rowhome. Generational wealth, corporate climbers, and families who've "always lived here" and intend to keep it that way. High-end boutiques, farm-to-table restaurants, a country club that's never needed to advertise. Everything is clean, curated, and quietly suffocating—the kind of place where people smile to your face and dissect you behind your back. If you don't belong, you'll feel it before anyone says a word.

Riverside

The district that hugs the river along Northwood's south side, bleeding into the edge of Southgate. What used to be warehouses and shipping docks is now converted lofts, craft breweries, art galleries, and overpriced coffee shops with exposed brick and Instagram aesthetics. The gentrification is aggressive but incomplete—you'll see a $2,000/month apartment above a building that still has a loading dock and rust stains on the concrete. Young professionals, artists who can almost afford it, and people who want Southgate's edge without Southgate's problems. It's where you go when you want to feel like you live in a real city without giving up your oat milk latte. The riverwalk is the one genuinely beautiful thing here—reclaimed industrial space turned into a walking path with string lights and benches that people actually use.

Downtown

The commercial heart of Northwood. Glass-and-steel towers rising between repurposed industrial buildings—the city's past and its present squeezed into the same skyline. This is where the money moves: corporate offices, law firms, banks, investment companies, etc.