The governing body and centre of New Angeles are found in Laguna Velasco, the district was originally built around the Velasco Ibarra reservoir on the Río Daule. Ever since the region's incorporation to the growing megacity, the extensive gentrification to the area solidified its place as the home for the city's elite and old wealth. Much of the district is well-maintained, even down to the ground level where it is pristine with street lights, trim lawns and lawns and zoned properly for all traffic.
The district is home to upscale restaurants, theatres, galleries, museums, and other establishments that trickles its trends and culture to other parts of the city. Much of the district is made distinct by its architecture that favour high-concept and avant-garde ideas. Of course, sometimes something questionable gets built that may be considered pretentious or due to the result of a bought favour. The district is known for its share of courting and corruption that happens within politics.
Levy University's physical campus is found in its own quarter in Laguna Velasco. The university has a fully established presence on the Network with students around the world but affluent students have a special advantage of learning in front of their teachers and hands-on application of their skills in their elaborate workshop facilities.
Laguna Velasco's quarters are Downtown, Levy University and Lakeside.
City Hall and the New Angeles Police Department Headquarters
Both City Hall and the NAPD HQ are situated around the lake that makes up the Velasco Ibarra reservoir, reinforcing the area as law and order. The area is heavily watched by seccams, camdrones and officers to maintain its security. Thankfully, incidents against the government have been minimal historically. City Hall itself is made by a combination of interlinked buildings over several city blocks and surrounding the central administration silver tower in the middle. The NAPD HQ building is an imposing granite and plascrete building that is visible by most buildings in the quarters. It houses the administrative, training areas and its many crime departments. The area is often busy with traffic as police hoppers move to and from the upper levels of the headquarters.
Barre Civic Centre
Made possible by long-time Levy University contributor, Richard Barre, the architect was granted land just outside of Levy University to build the Barre Civic Centre. The Civic Centre is a large glass multi-level structure with some floors jutting out of the previous one to look vaguely like an uneven stack of books by design concept. Several long stretching fountains circling the concrete courtyard area outside, each outfitted with abstract art pieces made of metal wire to invite speculation to their meaning or deciphering their deeper message. Several successful conventions have been hosted here in the past.
Opus, by Alyssa Choi
Opus is one of the high-class restaurants found Downtown, often catering to corporate dinners or engagement parties. Reservations are often made weeks in advance but lucky guests might be able to take advantage of last-minute cancellations, although banking an occasion to this possibility is a gamble. The cuisine here is rather conventional, focusing on standard American fare made by top chefs. At times, chefs will emerge to have a short chat with their customers to ensure everything is going well and to reassure them that the exquisite food here is prepared by them, rather than a clone or bioroid. The mood here is sombre with low lighting, creating a perfect intimate atmosphere for conversation and winding down after a busy day. Opus has maintained its spot on New Angeles Sol's Best Restaurants Top 100 list consistently for some time now, partially thanks to Alyssa Choi's celebrity chef star power.
The Fox's Den, a Mother Malloy restaurant
The Mother Malloy chain of restaurants are well-known for their pub and grill-style fair, the large selection of beers on tap and their exclusive Malloy line of clones that are leased from Jinteki. The Malloy clones come in makes of both genders, have a Gaelic accent, and are more than happy to seek customer satisfaction. The Fox's Den is a small spin-off of the chain, focusing on catering to the large university crowd in the area. The food is slightly cheaper and served at a smaller portion for student budgets. Most of the profit here is found in alcohol. The Fox's den features a small sports-themed arcade area and will at times host a student band on its tiny stage.
Games ESC Cafe
This cafe focuses on archaic games that are typically played on boards with physical components like miniatures, dice and cards. While rather niche nowadays, the near-ancient novelty is enough to draw some of the more academic students from the nearby Levy University as well as the occasional older patron who wish to delve into the cafe's inexhaustible library of old-fashioned games as a cultural experience. There are multiple blends of coffee that are served on a rotational basis and its baked goods are made on-site in its tiny kitchen. The cafe is also known for its traditional escape rooms, which are built with great detail. While the escape rooms won't fully match the convincing immersion found in VR, the cafe's efforts are still impressive and endearing. The upcoming offering to their suite of escape rooms will be the Nautilus II.