Sofia

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Sofia, officially the Metropolitan City of Sofia (Baliscano: Ciudad Metropolita de Sofia) is the capital of the Baliscan Confederation. With a metropolitan population over ten million people in 2018, Sofia is largest metropolitan area in the Baliscan Confederation, and the ?? Largest in Latin America. An Alpha+ global city, Sofia has risen to become a center of cuisine, fashion, business, and contemporary arts in the Americas. In addition to being a highly multicultural area, it is one of the world’s most livable cities, and one of Latin America’s most expensive places to live. The city’s name originates in the Aranese discovery of Balisca; the first recorded birth in the Captaincy General of Balisca was a child named Sofia.

Proposals for the construction of a new capital for the Baliscan Confederation formed out of the reconstruction efforts that followed the Baliscan Civil Wars. However, due to the social and economic ruin faced by the Baliscan government, the capital was temporarily placed in Vittora until a more suitable option could be presented. After over 110 years, and several failed proposals, a national referendum in 1952 approved the construction of a new capital. The territory on which Sofia was to be built was officially donated by the Araucaria government on 24 January 1955. This area was already surrounded by several settlements, which were subsequently absorbed by the city. Construction of Sofia commenced on 15 June 1955, with the planting of the first tree jointly by Araucarian President Bruno Montana and Baliscan President Alexander Riesta.

Sofia’s economy was once largely based on the activities of the national government and its affiliated organizations: 80% of the city’s economic activity was generated by the Baliscan government in the 1980s. Today, the city is known as “the Baliscan Silicon Valley” due to the concentration of tech companies, consumer electronics developers, and gaming corporations. Sofia’s rise as a regional tech giant has gained pace with the construction of the eco-village Basilio in the north of the city. The city has consistently ranked highly as one of the world’s most livable, reflecting its commitment to sustainable development, advanced public transportation systems, comprehensive social policies, and a liberal cultural and political climate.

The city is the capital of the surrounding Sofia Metropolitan Region. The process of conurbation between the densely populated city and the suburbs of the metropolitan areas surrounding the Metropolitan Region that collectively form the National Capital Area (Canaveral, Blumenaue and several smaller cities), have created one continuous megapolis named Concordia (Baliscano: “concord” or “harmony”) stretching from the plains of the Pampas to the Atlantic coast of North Araucaria. Concordia, with a population of 26 million people, and a GDP of over $1.243 trillion is one of the world’s most economically powerful regions.

Planning and construction
The construction of Sofia was considered a mega-project in all definitions: it was estimated to take 12 years to build, cost over $75 billion, over 250,000 workers (surveyors, architects, drafters, construction workers, engineers, etc) were contracted for the project. The construction was to be spread out into three phases, with each phase estimated to last a maximum of four years. The first stage, which consisted of large scale infrastructure projects (including sanitation networks, reservoirs, power lines, the laying of roads and zoning). The completion of the Aparicio Dam on the southern edge of Lake Alto in 1982 solved the issue of providing power to the new capital, while also providing a large freshwater source for the city’s projected residents.

The new city also required significant upgrades to the infrastructure in Northern Araucaria. Autostrada 4 (A4) which connected Iskandar with Alexandria was extended and upgraded to three lanes in both directions, instead of the previous one. Three tunnels spanning the Roccioso had to be constructed, the largest of which, the Cristóbal-Martinez Tunnel (named after its designers), carried two high-speed rail lines along with a six-laned highway through the base (over 0,000 ft below ground) of Mount Santissimo, and was completed in 1988.

Construction was temporarily halted following the 1982 Vidavia earthquake, with resources having to be diverted to help with recovery operations. The project was again hampered by Hurricane Amari that next year, a rare storm in the Southern Hemisphere, which battered the Cordovan coastline.

The city was officially inaugurated as the new Baliscan capital in a massive ceremony on June 12, 1988 (what came to be known as Inauguration Day (Baliscano: Dia de Inauguración) attended by hundreds of foreign dignitaries and consisting of a military parade across the Plaza de la Baliscana, an airshow conducted by the Baliscan Air Force (a tradition that continues annually to this day), and a fireworks display over Lake Alto. The last government office to move to the city was the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, doing so on 18 June 1988.

Growth and influx
Despite the influx, government efforts promoting the city with its cheap housing prices and excess of undeveloped land continued. Within the first two years, the Sofia Housing Authority had sold 312,000 units, and over 200,000 plots of land. However the government severely underestimated the rush of people: housing and land prices ballooned, quickly becoming unaffordable to working-class Baliscans. The Sofia Housing Authority, in partnership with dozens of private real estate companies, and with the backing of the Baliscan Ministry of Development, embarked on the One Million Program, an ambitious plan to build enough housing units to accommodate a million new residents. Land acquisition for the project was controversial, with the Sofian government having to resort to using the “imminent domain” clause in court battles to force landowners to sell their land for construction.

The Authority and its partners initially opted to construct hundreds of high-rise apartment blocks, popularly called Multo Altos (Baliscano: “very high” or “many deep”) throughout the city. The blocks were varying in design and height, but were all expected to meet certain requirements: to comfortably house at least 1,250 people, have laundromats, recreation centers/parks, water, waste management, and electrical services and earthquake shelters. By 1985, the Sofia Housing Authority, increasingly saddled with lawsuits, was privatized. From that point, private companies were largely in charge of the program, and had shifted towards smaller, more spacious apartment blocks called condominios, that were grouped together to form their own self-contained communities. The communities found substantial success, and was soon replicated in cities across the Confederation.

The One Million Program surpassed its goal in October 1994, and with much fanfare, was declared completed by the Mayor, Natalia Balasci at a public ceremony with heads of the companies involved in the project. The city’s population at the time of the project’s completion had surpassed four million and was continuing to climb.

Economy
The Sofia Metropolitan Region is the richest region per capita in Balisca, and one of the richest in the Americas. In 2019, its GDP amounted to $530 billion with GDP per capita amounting to $51,827 (#% higher than the national average), making it the most powerful city by gross GDP in South America, and ?? In the world in 2019, surpassing cities such as Atlanta, Barcelona and São Paulo. The greater National Capital Area (which consists of adjacent parts of neighboring Araucaria) had a GDP amounting to $000 billion (equivalent to $00,000 in per capita terms, #% higher than the Baliscan average). Sofia city had a very high GDP of $56,842 per capita in 2019, according to Balistat. Furthermore, Sofia was ranked as Balisca’s best region for conducting business, and had the highest growth rate of any Baliscan city, at #% growth per year.

It has a "very high" rating on the Human Development Index, earning a score of .944 in 2019, the highest in the Baliscan Confederation, and the highest in Latin America. Per capita income varies widely by commune and profession. Sofia contains some of the wealthiest per-capita areas in the Baliscan Confederation, such as the Dorado commune with an average per-capita income of $68,226. It has the highest population of millionaires per capita in the entire country: in Bel Vista, an affluent commune in the foothills of eastern Sofia, 1 out of every 150 residents is a millionaire. Sofia overall has an average poverty rate of 8.2%, one the lowest of any place in the country.

The city is home to the regional headquarters of several multinational corporations including: ?? , along with a sizable portion of Baliscan companies. Notable Baliscan corporations based in the city include the Atlas Corporation, Almercado Co., León Inc., Baliscana (airline), the BR Group, Softel, the Baliscan Broadcasting Corporation, and the Baliscan Aerospace Corporation. Sofia’s Seventh Avenue (Baliscano: Sétimo Avenida) has a concentration of upscale luxury shops and high-rise residential space. The surrounding Dorado (Baliscano: “gilded”) commune is the most expensive commune to live within the Confederation, with an average apartment costing $3,050 a month in rent.

Welfare and social mobility
Every person that has resided in Sofia continuously for a year is entitled to a regionally administered welfare program, through Sofia’s Social Protection Card (Baliscano: Carta Protecion Social). The card entitles the holder to a wide array of programs, such as food subsidies, assistance with disabilities, subsidized medication and childcare services. 24.4% of the city’s population benefit from at least one of the programs included with the Social Protection Card.

Sofia has a progressive tax system

Government and politics
The current Chief Executive is Ricardo de León, a member of the centrist party Ahora Sofía. The city has largely been dominated by Ahora Sofia since its first elections in 1988, allowing the city to avoid political partisanship that is common in the rest of Balisca. The region’s unicameral legislature, the Assembly of Sofia, has 56 elected members (seven members for each commune), who are elected by proportional representation for five year terms.

Sofia is one of the most liberal cities in the world, and is considered a trendsetter in Balisca: it was the first in the country to legalize the consumption of cannabis (2011), the first to legalize same-sex marriage (in 2006), first to legalize prostitution (2009), and has arguably the most developed welfare system in the Baliscan Confederation.

The Baliscan legislature, the Congress of the Confederation (Congresso Confederal), is located 7 km away from downtown Sofia, in the Capo Commune.

Administrative divisions
Sofia is divided into eight districts, called communes: Dorado, Roma, Humboldt, Cassa, Capo, Basilio, Ladino and Bel Vista.

Law enforcement and military
Unlike other Baliscan regions, Sofia does not maintain its own autonomous police force. Instead, it relies on the Fedelissima (Baliscano: “most faithful”), which is a special contingent of the Guardia Civil made up of hand-selected members from across the Baliscan Confederation. The Fedelissima are tasked with of guaranteeing the safety of citizens of Sofia and their property and ensuring that State laws are observed, along with serving as a military force in charge of the defense of the city. The name Fedelissima comes from their proverbial faith to the Baliscan State and its citizens. The Central Command of the National Defense System is based in Sofia’s Roma Commune.

The Sofia Metropolitan Region is the home of the Baliscan 41st Air Squadron, stationed at Crótalo Air Station. Being built at the height of the Cold War, the city of Sofia is at the heart of the Baliscan National Redoubt, with a complex system of tunnels and defenses surrounding and crisscrossing the city. The city’s location, completely ringed by the Roccioso and only accessible by tunnel or by air denies any attempts of a large ground assault, makes the city largely unassailable. Significant amounts of thought and resources were poured into the design and layout of areas of significance that are scattered throughout the city. Major national evacuation routes also pass through the city, utilizing the Rochedy, Juan Marie, and Cristóbal-Martinez tunnels, all of which can be sealed in case of a national emergency.

Demographics
As of 1 January 2020, the city of Sofia has an estimated population of 10,418,127, while the population of the Metropolitan Region of Sofia, as recorded by the 2019 census, was approximately 13,682,000 (62.8 inhabitants per square kilometre or 162.6/sq mi), with a ratio of men to women of 0.98:1 and 96.68% of the population defined as urban. The population is highly decentralized, being almost evenly dispersed across the city’s # communes. Sofia is Balisca’s second most populous region, after the Region of Maceió. The first census in the area n was carried out in 1840 prior to the Maroon Settlement Act and recorded a population of 349,278, with the majority of these being repatriated Afro-Baliscans. Sofia’s population increased significantly between 1940 and 1980, and again between1980 and 2010, the later largely due to the influx of tech companies and their workers, government employees and students.

The proportion of people under 15 is 29.1%, above the Baliscan average of 27.6%, and the proportion of people 65 and older is relatively low, at 8.1%. Sofia has one of Balisca’s lowest population growth rates, recently about 0.6% a year, as well as a comparatively low infant mortality rate. Its birth rate of 1.2 children per woman is less than half than the Baliscan average and well below the replacement level. The median age is approximately 30 years and life expectancy at birth is 83.1 years. However, Sofia’s low birthrate is contrasted by its high rate of incoming migrants, estimated at 131 immigrants per 1,000 residents per year.

Ethnicities and immigration
In 2019, Balistat ranked Sofia as the most ethnically and culturally diverse city and region within the Baliscan Confederation; the largest ethnic group in the region, Afro-Baliscans, made up no more than 18% of the total population. Mestizo (“mixed”) people’s make up the largest racial group in the city, with a majority (56%) identifying with the term. The population of African and White Baliscans in the city are roughly even, at around 15% each. Asian Baliscans made up a further 11% of the city’s population, of a variety of ethnicities, with the vast majority of East Asian (Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Okatian) origin. Indigenous Baliscans made up 5.6% of the population (3.2% as ‘Mapuche’). Also according to the poll, 22% of the population of Sofia consisted of immigrants who have yet to be naturalized. 56% of the of the city’s population had origins outside of the Metropolitan Region, while a further 38% of the population had at least partial origins outside of the Baliscan Confederation.

Approximately 37% of the city's population is foreign born, and more than half of all children are born to mothers who are immigrants. Unlike the rest of Balisca, in Sofia no single country or region of origin dominates. The ten largest sources of foreign-born individuals in the city as of 2019 were the Argentina, Brazil, China, Mexico, Nigeria, Paraguay, Colombia, India, Russia, and Siculia. Since 2016, the fastest growing population are of Nigerian origins.

Ethnic exclaves are widespread throughout the city; Sofia’s Japan Town (in the Cassa commune) is the largest in the Baliscan Confederation, and is home to over 260,000 people of Japanese descent. The Humboldt Commune in the northern quadrant of the region contains Little Italia and Vila Tedesco (“German village”). Sofia has Balisca’s largest concentration of Jewish people, with about 300,000 (around 48% of the total Jewish Baliscan population) living within its borders, most notably in the Ladino commune.

Sexual orientation and gender identity
The Concordia metropolitan area is home to a prominent self-identifying gay and bisexual community estimated at approximately 1,562,719 individuals, the largest in Balisca, the largest in the Americas, and one of the world's largest. Sofia also hosts the largest transgender population within the Confederation, some 100,000 individuals. Same-sex marriages in the Sofia Region were legalized on June 10, 2001 (the first region in Balisca to do so) and were authorized to take place beginning immediately thereafter.

Sofia's LGBT population is largely concentrated around the Mariposa neighborhood, in the Cassa commune. Mariposa has become renowned its gender diversity, and locally owned businesses, including restaurants, cafés, bars, clubs, trendy thrift-stores, and other independent specialty stores. Mariposa has a high population density compared to many other neighborhoods in Sofia, and it has a large and active lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community.

The annual Sofia Pride March (or gay pride parade) traverses southeastward down Damari Avenue and ends at the Piazza dei Baliscana in Capo; over the parade has grown to rival the NYC Pride and Sao Paulo Gay Pride Parade as one of the largest pride parades in the world, attracting tens of thousands of participants and millions of sidewalk spectators each June.The Sofia Pride Parade is heavily supported by the Baliscan confederal government as well as by the Chief Executive of the Metropolitan Region and the city mayor. Many politicians show up to open the main event and the government often parades with a float with politicians on top.

Education
Like the rest of Balisca, the educational system is divided into preschool (for those under age 6), basic education (9 years, in three stages, compulsory), secondary education (3 years, compulsory since 1968), and higher education (subdivided in university and polytechnic education). Starting with preschool, total emersion learning of English is a mandatory; this is reinforced further in each stage of education, with students required to pass progressively harder English exams in order to move on to the next stage.

Total adult literacy rate is 100 percent in Sofia. Primary and secondary school enrollments are also both 100 percent, while 55% of college-age students choose to attend a higher education institution, higher than the 47% rate seen nationally, and the 35% average rate in the OECD countries. Public education is fully funded by the government, and thus there are no tuition fees levied on students who attend public learning institutions. In 2019, 56% of all students attended a publicly-run institution of learning.

University admission is highly competitive and selective in Sofia. Long-term residents of Sofia often find themselves having to compete with prospective students from across the Baliscan Confederation and international students for the few available admission slots at one of Sofia’s # universities.

Languages
The Sofia Metropolitan Region does not have an official language. Being the political center of the Baliscan Confederation, it has been at the heart of the confluence of the Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese languages. This confluence, called Baliscano, dominates everyday speech in the city, and is considered its lingua franca. As of 2019, 97% of Sofian residents responded that they primarily used Baliscano in everyday speech. In addition, the Sofia Metropolitan Council in 2012 established the Association of the Baliscano Language, which was tasked with the standardization of the Baliscano language to be used across the Baliscan Confederation. decrees, and all announcements would be broadcast in Baliscano

A 2018 report by Balistat shows that of Sofia’s residents, 98% declared they can speak Baliscano, 89% Spanish, and 76% know the non-local English. Of those under the age of forty, 69% in Sofia declared that they could speak all three. This reflects a trend of learning third languages in Balisca, with 57-60% of the population able to converse in English. Several other languages have a significant presence in the city. Arabic, Chinese, German, French, Japanese, Korean and many other language media outlets exist in the city. The city’s main television and radio network, the Sofia Broadcasting Service (STS), is broadcast in over 14 languages, via its overseas offices (such as STS France, and STS Japan).

Environment and geography
Sofia is located in the Southern region of the the Baliscan highlands (called Montano, “mountainous”) and is surrounded by the Roccioso’s. It is one of the highest cities in the world, and holds the distinction as one of the highest capital cities in the world, with an average height of 2,263 ft (0,000 m). The city’s easternmost corner is bounded by Lake Alto (Baliscano: Lago Alto, “high lake”), the second largest freshwater lake in the Baliscan Confederation. The construction of the Aparicio Dam, the largest dam in Balisca, on NAME River increased the size and height of the lake by 25% and 12% respectively.

The peaks surrounding Sofia are always covered with snow year-round. 35% of the city is reserved as green spaces, and in 2012 the city passed legislation requiring all new construction over two stories in height to have rooftop or vertical gardens (or dedicated green space) in an effort to combat pollution that becomes a significant problem in the winter. The city has demolished several sections of highway, opting to move them underground and redeveloping the vacant areas into green spaces.

Climate


Summers are cool in Sofia, with temperatures rarely reaching above 60º F in the city between December and February. Thanks to the city’s high elevation, winters are especially cold with temperatures rarely peaking above 30º F and heavy snowfall occurring across the Metropolitan Region.

Natural disasters
The most immediate natural threats to Sofia are the occurrence of avalanches and landslides.The outermost neighborhoods of the city lie in a zone prone to avalanches and landslides. Landslides of the debris flow type in particular are a significant hazard here. The risk of avalanches increases substantially in the winter. In response, the government of the Metropolitan Region has invested significant funds in into the construction of avalanche control structures, such as snow dams, snow sheds, and snow fences.

Culture and society
Sofia has long been a subject of interest in the public mind and has often been promoted by its boosters as a stable oasis. With the economic malaise of the 80s and 90s, and fueled by the efforts of state and local boosters, the region established itself as an ideal migrant destination: a restive, sheltered city with a cool climate, located in the valleys of prosperous Southern Balisca. When the city was nearing completion in the late 1980s, popular music and libertine attitudes were sweeping the country. Sofia was advertised as a place to “get away” and start fresh.

Hundreds of thousands initially answered the calls; thousands of artists, designers, developers and political activists flocked to the city, bringing with them various counter and sub-cultures and diverse political views. Stemming from these initial population movements into the city, called the L'escena de Sofiano (The Sofian Scene), Sofia has developed a very individualist-oriented culture, with individual rights and self-reliance held to a very high degree. Sofia’s success, called the “Miracle on the Alto” is still seen as a symbol of Balisca’s unique economic style, which tends to generate technology, social, entertainment, and economic fads and booms and related busts.

The city competes with Bayreut and Concepcion as a symbol of contemporary Baliscan art, music, and fashion. Sofia was the birthplace of roñaro, a form of dance music, characterized by a fusion of Latin rhythms, dancehall, and hip-hop or rap.