Chapter 109

When the staff member in charge of vetting election candidates saw that name on the first page of the documents submitted by Cat Getan, he almost threw the documents in his hand away.

Cat Getan's old Godfather intends to enter politics????

Of course, after calming down, this wasn't impossible. Let's put it this way: Falcone's age, although a bit old for a gang leader, is only because gang leadership turns over very quickly. Rarely can a gang leader sit firmly in that position for so many years, so it makes Falcone seem very special.

But when it comes to entering politics, people of Falcone's age are a dime a dozen. The average age in Congress now is over 50, and there is no shortage of old politicians in their seventies or eighties. If Falcone intends to enter politics now, it actually isn't too late, because his starting point is already much higher than others; he isn't starting from zero.

At the very least, if he wants to be the Mayor of Cat Getan and subsequently become a State Senator for New Jersey, there is certainly no one who could stop him.

After becoming a State Senator, if the Wayne Group is willing to continue helping him run for office, then entering Congress or even taking another step up isn't impossible.

But this mayoral election was originally intended to clean up that outburst of gang-mayor-style rhetoric from Luo Yi. Now, this is great—if Falcone runs and gets elected, becoming the Mayor of Cat Getan, it would be equivalent to letting go of a loach only to fish up a great white shark.

The state government assemblymen all believed that Falcone wouldn't make such arrogant remarks like his godson, but the problem is that this would be even worse than making arrogant remarks!

A keyboard warrior is at most annoying, but a national-level champion is deadly!

If Falcone really became mayor, then the entire surface and underground world of Cat Getan City would be held in his hands.

Countless people have already used their lives to test just how difficult the old Godfather is to deal with.

The state government assemblymen had to hurriedly call Falcone's manor, and what made them feel they had escaped a disaster was that the old Godfather seemed to be just expressing support for his godson and didn't really want to run.

The Godfather's own son, young Falcone, told them that his father was already old, was already starting to retire, and did not intend to enter the political arena.

This news undoubtedly made everyone breathe a sigh of relief. After all, Luo Yi being mayor might be a small nuisance, but if Falcone entered the political arena, it might be a path never before imagined.

With this incident, the state assemblymen had to strengthen their vetting of Cat Getan mayoral candidates.

Then they discovered that finding someone among these candidates who could actually be mayor was almost as difficult as panning for gold in sewage.

Anyone with a normal brain knows that you don't live long as mayor in Cat Getan, so there's no need to say what kind of people would sign up.

Out of the 23 candidate applications submitted, 19 were well-known gang bosses in Cat Getan. Of the remaining 4, 3 were submitted by minors, the youngest of whom was 6 years old, and the last one was a cat raised at Cat Getan's Golden Cup Bar.

What was even more laughable was that among all the documents, only this cat had filled out all the information completely; as for the others, well, let's just say they couldn't have been written with less than two bottles of vodka.

Trying to find a candidate who could actually be mayor among these documents really gave the state assemblymen a headache.

"Sword of the Coming"

First of all, even if they could pick one out, whether this person could understand the rules of voting was a problem.

Secondly, if they really did elect one, whether he would curse even worse than Luo Yi was a bigger problem.

Most importantly, if they chose one of them, the other gang families who had grudges against him would think the election was rigged, and their fate would definitely be suicide by eight shots to the back.

Facts have proven that Cat Getan is completely a mud pit; anyone who has anything to do with this city won't have a good ending. The state assemblymen are now completely stuck in a dilemma.

Those who could be elected don't want to come, and those who want to come can't be elected—so what other way is there?

After thinking it over, the state assemblymen found that it might be better to just let Luo Yi continue.

Think about it: Luo Yi didn't use more than 10 swear words in his entire speech, but those candidates, in their short 300-word application reasons, used over 100 words of profanity even in the conservative ones. If any of them were to become mayor, I'm afraid all the members of Congress would have their mothers insulted.

Helpless, this election turned back into a formality. From the suspension of the investigation to Luo Yi becoming a candidate again, to the announcement of the voting results and his reelection as mayor, the whole process didn't even take a week.

The impact this brought was huge.

The bosses of these gang cities were bursting with frustration; they had long been sick of those reporters and critics who stood on the sidelines and talked without back pain. When it comes to trash-talking, these gang bosses who grew up in the streets have never been afraid of anyone.

The first to start trash-talking wasn't the coastal cities near Cat Getan, but Detroit.

If one were to talk about the most miserable city in the history of modern industrial development, one would have to mention Detroit.

Roughly between 1960 and 1970, the oil crisis caused the automotive industry to suffer heavy losses. The Motor City, Detroit, turned from a prosperous industrial metropolis into a mess of displaced people and rampant gangs almost overnight.

Because the speed of Detroit's economic decline was so fast—it didn't even take a generation—the group of people alive now watched with their own eyes how this prosperous city headed toward destruction. They are practically living proof of Luo Yi's theory.

When Detroit fell, there was no savior. The ordinary people here, who lost order overnight, almost instantly fell into hell. Racial conflicts, riots, shootings—the light of gunfire that erupted in countless Detroit nights was as bright as the lights of the once-prosperous factories, never ceasing throughout the night.

In short, the official department staff, gang bosses, and civil representatives among them all stood up to denounce each other, then united to curse those critics who stood on the sidelines, pointing their fingers directly at Congress.

Schiller was also slightly surprised that it caused such an intense reaction. In the draft he gave Luo Yi, he had already tried his best to delete some radical debates and avoided certain sensitive topics.

The purpose of this speech was actually just to pave the way for later urban integration and industrial transformation and upgrading. Simply put: if you want to fight a war, you must first raise the flag.

It was to allow these crime capitals in the same situation to have a reasonable excuse to unite.

Since our rot isn't our fault, what's wrong with us uniting to make money?

But Schiller didn't expect that this actually pointed out the biggest dilemma of economic development in the eastern United States in this era with piercing accuracy.

The economic crisis cycle brought about by systemic contradictions leads to wave after wave of unemployment, and unemployed personnel cannot be effectively controlled or handled, so they spontaneously form associations, which then turn into organizations like gangs.

The existence of gangs seriously threatens local security, which in turn leads to investors being unable to develop in a safe environment. Afterward, there will be capital flight, and new investors will be unwilling to come due to the city's bad reputation, leading to further economic decline, more unemployed people, and more rampant gangs.

The prosperous shipping trade on the East Coast naturally provided soil for the development of illegal industries. Once gangs flourish, what naturally follows is the flourishing of various illegal industries.

And the flourishing of illegal industries will instinctively repel those normal industries, which leads to normal industries being further unable to develop, and thus the city falls into an endless dark cycle.

Most cities don't have a heaven-sent powerhouse like Falcone who can find a path in an increasingly worsening vicious cycle to bring about evil order through extreme violent rule, and then bring about profits through this order to feed back into the social structure itself.

Therefore, most of these cities cannot be like Cat Getan—evil but rich. Most of them are both chaotic and poor, crazily testing the edge of bankruptcy.

The resentment of these city people is definitely much greater than that of Cat Getan. After all, Cat Getan, whether in terms of infrastructure, population density, or living conditions, actually ranks among the top in the United States. Except for the fact that the weather and ecosystem here are a bit strange, it is actually a very modern and prosperous metropolis.

But post-industrial cities like Detroit are not like this. The rapid development of the automotive industry brought about an imbalance in industries, as well as the backwardness of other urban infrastructure and the human environment.

People found that when they had money before, this wasn't an issue, but now that they have no money, this backwardness brings all kinds of troubles, making their lives even worse.

As the saying goes, "not as good as the best, but better than the worst." This speech written by Schiller from the perspectives of Cat Getan and Chicago actually still had a bit of a "humblebrag" flavor.

Chicago and Cat Getan can already be counted as leaders among this type of city. Even Detroit can be considered not bad—at least it was once glorious, and most people still have some foundation. Those smaller cities have it even harder.

Almost overnight, the situation in major East Coast cities became somewhat restless. They felt that what this gang mayor said made a lot of sense: if no one comes to save us, then we will find a way to save ourselves.

And what Schiller didn't expect was that in the trinity system of Cat Getan, Chicago, and Miami that he had originally set as a goal, the preliminary cooperation between Cat Getan and Chicago was quite effective, but before they could start the next step—linking up with Miami—the gangs of another city reached out first: that was Empire City.

Empire City is also a unique city in DC comics, the hometown of the superhero hunter Paul, and also a mega-city on the East Coast.

Of course, the situation in Empire City is definitely much better than in Cat Getan. There is still basic order here; gangs are a part of the city, but not the whole thing.

But just like all other East Coast cities, the black industry is also a major source of income here, though what it is most famous for is tourism and casinos.

Empire City is a city with beautiful scenery and a pleasant climate. The gambling industry here has a long history, and casinos of all sizes have become part of the tourism industry. Economic development has been quite good in recent years, and even when most cities were going against the tide, it was still progressing steadily.

The Mayor of Empire City also has an unclear relationship with the city's largest gang. After all, it is almost impossible for something like casinos not to have a relationship with gangs.

On the second day after Luo Yi resumed office, he received a call from the Mayor of Empire City.

On the phone, they exchanged opinions on the process of friendly exchanges between Cat Getan and Chicago, put forward their own views on the future development of their respective cities, and reached a preliminary consensus.

The two mayors, who care about their citizens, reflected on the painful history of East Coast port cities while also looking forward to a future scene of prosperity, and both sides expressed their wishes for the beautiful prospect of win-win cooperation.

Luo Yi will also go to Empire City next month for inspection and a visit to see if there is anything Cat Getan can learn from.

After hearing this news, the Twelve Families all expressed that everyone has a responsibility to develop Cat Getan, and they are willing to contribute a meager effort to this inspection.

The potential of the gambling industry is infinite, and there is also a foundation for developing tourism. Once a complete black industry is no longer feasible, gambling and tourism are the best directions for urban transformation.