District 9 in your hometown

[TithonusSyndrome]

Simple enough of a premise; rather than the outskirts of Johannesburg in 1982, the prawn ship comes to a stop near your hometown on the same date. How does your government and community choose to handle what follows?

[[R_H]]

Population density would increase by a factor of six, to approximately 30000 inhabitants/sq. km. Humans would be out numbered by the Prawns. So, most, if not all would be sent to other cities to live. They strongly doubt the Prawn would be living in shanty towns though.

Greens would probably rant and rave about radiation or some bullshit because of the Prawn ship over head.

[Zor]

Winnipeg becomes a much more prominant city and its collective population has just trippled. Space will not be much of a problem for us (Manitoba has a million people people to an area which you could fit Germany in) although accomidations will be a very tricky issue, especially early on (Winnipeg Winter temperatures can get as low as Negative 40 celcius), i am eventually seeing something to the effect of Projects style apartment housing.

Zor

[Aaron]

Winnipeg becomes a much more prominant city and its collective population has just trippled. Space will not be much of a problem for us (Manitoba has a million people people to an area which you could fit Germany in) although accomidations will be a very tricky issue, especially early on (Winnipeg Winter temperatures can get as low as Negative 40 celcius), i am eventually seeing something to the effect of Projects style apartment housing.

Zor

Shove them in the former Army barracks, North side of the city IIRC.

[TheMuffinKing]

If they landed where I'm originally from in New Jersey, it would be a clusterfuck of epic proportions. The North Eastern part of the state was over crowded in 82', and has only gotten worse. I would imagine that this situation would entail the prawn refugees being relocated to a suitable site in the Midwest, or if that's too far, somewhere in New York state, or Pennsylvania.

My community would probably be all abuzz about aliens, but there would almost certainly be no unified community response. With Federal action taking place almost immediately, I'm sure the furor would die down and life would go on as usual.

Since this would be in America, I'm sure we'd blow them up! (not really)

[Darmalus]

The ship would be hovering over NASA Ames, which was also a Navy airfield then, IIRC. Mountain View is also near the center of silicon valley, there was the Berkley SETI program going at the time, and there was a lot more computer manufacturing here back then. Rather than being packed into shanty towns, I could see them being treated as celebrities, having money almost thrown at them for the secrets of their technology. I'm not saying they wouldn't be exploited, but the whole area is almost the ideal landing point for them. The local hippy/activist culture alone would almost guarantee them better treatment by itself.

[Xess]

Shove them in the former Army barracks, North side of the city IIRC.

Wikipedia says Kapyong barracks closed in 2004. Wouldn't they still be in use in 1982? I only moved to Manitoba in 1993 and I was 7 so I don't have any idea.

[Aaron]

Wikipedia says Kapyong barracks closed in 2004. Wouldn't they still be in use in 1982? I only moved to Manitoba in 1993 and I was 7 so I don't have any idea.

Doh! Forgot about the '82 bit. There's plenty of buildings they could use for temporary housing in '82 though. Likely what would happen is they would just move them out to Shilo or Suffield and stick them in a tent city in the training area.

[Mayabird]

Well, depends on which hometown you mean. If you mean the place where I would be born in two years, well, it's in Japan. There are probably mecha animes that begin with that premise.

Now, if you're talking about the place where my parents moved before I hit one year old, and where I grew up, BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA FUCK YOU COMMERCE HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA they deserve an alien invasion.

[Guardsman Bass]

There's some pretty considerable space around Salt Lake City where they could be housed, depending on where you wanted to put them, ranging from complete desert and salt flat around the Great Salt Lake to some significant open areas near the south end of the Salt Lake Valley.

Population density probably wouldn't be a problem due to that (and hopefully due to various corporations coming to use their technology and labor, as well as federal funding), but water would probably be an issue - if a drought came along, the effective doubling of the Salt Lake Metropolitan area population would make water rationing almost a must.

Another issue might be the climate extremes - the Salt Lake Valley can range from about 42 degrees Celsius in the hottest part of summer, to about -10 degrees Celsius during the coldest winter nights. We have no idea what the Prawns' tolerance of cold weather is; if they're particularly sensitive to it, they might all require extensive heating and insulation, less they freeze to death.

It would definitely have an interesting effect on the local people, and the local dominant church. I'd be very fascinated to see what some of the speeches by the Presidency of the LDS Church would be in the wake of such an event. That's one thing that doesn't get touched on District 9, since we never really see the ramifications of the contact with the Prawns in the sense of the greater world's reaction - what impact did it have on theology?

[Venator]

Population of Claremont, Ontario and the surrounding farmland goes up one thousand eight hundred times.

Plans to build a federal airport on the site are shelved indefinitely.

Farmers go apeshit.

Local rodeo prompts Prawns to commit genocide.

I think that about covers it...

[phred]

Population of Claremont, Ontario and the surrounding farmland goes up one thousand eight hundred times.

Plans to build a federal airport on the site are shelved indefinitely.

Farmers go apeshit.

Local rodeo prompts Prawns to commit genocide.

I think that about covers it...

If we're talking about where I lived in '82, on the eastern edge of South Dakota, that, minus the airport plans thing, not sure about the population.

If we're talking about where I live now, Vallejo Ca, I'm sure the guys at Hamilton and Travis AFBs would find it very interesting, along with the people from Berkley going apeshit.

[Gandalf]

I don't think we'd put all of the Prawns in a big slum city. Australian immigration detentions centres would start springing up around the country to deal with these new arrivals.

Detention Services.

[whackadoodle]

Now, if you're talking about the place where my parents moved before I hit one year old, and where I grew up, BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA FUCK YOU COMMERCE HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA they deserve an alien invasion.

Buttrape them, yelling, "Squeel! Squeel, piggie!"?

I know that's what I'd do.

[LadyTevar]

I can't even imagine the response in WV. But it'd be one thing that would not be named for Sen. Byrd.

[Zed Snardbody]

If they come to Vegas, it just makes it shipping them to area 51 that much easier.

[Lonestar]

Now, if you're talking about the place where my parents moved before I hit one year old, and where I grew up, BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA FUCK YOU COMMERCE HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA they deserve an alien invasion.

Just because they are in a rural area does not make them less of a people Maya. *wags finger*

[The Dark]

Oh, man, that would not go well. The population of prawns would outnumber humans by about 243 to 1. On the plus side, it's a staunchly middle-class, well-educated, diverse area, but that kind of population shock...oi vey.

[fgalkin]

Now, if you're talking about the place where my parents moved before I hit one year old, and where I grew up, BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA FUCK YOU COMMERCE HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA they deserve an alien invasion.

Just because they are in a rural area does not make them less of a people Maya. *wags finger*

Nah, it's not because they're rural, it's because they're dumb rednecks of the worst sort.

As for what happened if it showed up over the town I currently live in? Remember that movie, "Escape from New York"? Yeah, it's be like that, but with ALIENZ.

Alternatively, if you're talking about Leningrad, things would get a lot more...interesting.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[Davis 51]

Rich, affluent, mainly conservative area very close to Washington DC, Pentagon, CIA headquarters et. al. pretty much means the federal gov't will be up everyone's ass, and I doubt it would be outsourced to anyone. Not that the federal gov't would sit back if it happened anywhere on US Territory, but one thing is for sure, the traffic problem would go up exponentially .

Anyone here live in Clearwater, Florida? The Scientology reaction would probably be hilarious.

[Lusankya]

The government would probably just move them to Woomera, along with all of the other illegal aliens. It would actually be a lot more convenient for them actually, because Adelaide's closer to Woomera than Christmas Island is.

[Mr Flibble]

The government would probably just move them to Woomera, along with all of the other illegal aliens. It would actually be a lot more convenient for them actually, because Adelaide's closer to Woomera than Christmas Island is.

Whilst they would certainly be moved to Woomera, there wouldn't actually be any other illegal aliens there at the time, as mandatory detention only started in 1992. It would be quite convenient as they could do all the weapons testing they wanted on the missile testing range. Which should also have the effect of extending Woomera's operational life.

[SirNitram]

I can't even imagine the response in WV. But it'd be one thing that would not be named for Sen. Byrd.

Bamdumchi.

I suspect any herding of aliens into the area(And let's face it, it's a good place to shove unwanteds.), will cause lots of consternation among the locals for a while. But I can predict that once they've been around for twenty years, when MNU and the worst of the atrocities on workers start.. Well, a whole generation has now grown up with the Prawns, wierd as they are, they are West Virginians(Which means only other West Virginians can start shit with them in the view of others), and workers being ground under the heel of corporations is something there's too much experience with.

Well, violence was part of the labour movement starting here. And I'm willing to bet UMWA will sign them up and if MNU tries to crack down, there'll be a repeat of the old 'Mine Wars' in the region.

[Skylon]

The population of New Hyde Park skyrockets as an alien craft parks atop this suburban nightmare of Nassau county. There is pretty much nowhere to put them in the immediate area. They are eventually shipped out to eastern Suffolk county, into hastily built homes/tents/shacks...call it what you will. They are certainly segregated (I have no faith in Long Islanders being tolerant of something that has threatened their precious suburban paradise).

Brookhaven National Labs becomes the center for biological study of the prawns.

SUNY Stony Brook and other Long Island universities have frequent protests demanding equal rights for prawns (while the science departments no doubt work in conjunction with BNL).

Grumman and Sperry get unexpected boosts of life as they are major aerospace and engineering with large facilities sitting almost right under this damn thing thereby avoiding the 1980's/post-Cold War contraction, and exodus from Long Island of the two companies.

By the 1990's however, once it is clear that the ship, and the prawns are going nowhere, Long Island is mostly comprised of people who have to be there. Either working in industry, MNU or local utilities. The suburbanites who have to commute to NYC have relocated the Westchester and Jersey.