GTA 6 City of the Week is a weekly article series here on GTA BOOM. Every week, we will evaluate a different city in the United States, gauging how well it would fit GTA 6 as a setting.
Moving back to the coast after last week's in-land look at the country's most dangerous city, St.Louis, we move back to the coast. With most truly major cities ticked off from the list (correct us if we're wrong), it's time to take a look at some of the smaller-yet-not-small settlements throughout the USA.
Charleston
Also known as the Holy City due to church towers being prominent in its relatively low-profile skyline, Charleston is both a famous and pretty infamous city throughout the USA. The source of this infamy lies in its history, as Charleston is often credited as being the cradle of the secessionist movement, which eventually led to the American Civil War between the Confederacy and the Union.
While Charleston has done much to shake off the stigma of its past — with quite a bit of success, seeing as it is today renowned for its culture — the shadow of that past seems to haunt it continuously, and certain laws don't exactly help. South Carolina is one of the very few states in the USA where the Confederate Battle Flag (often mistakenly referred to as the Confederate flag proper) is protected by law in the same way other national flags are, meaning that burning or damaging one in public is an offence.
Much of the city was burned in the closing stretch of the Civil War, however the region's abundance in resources and the city's importance as a port ensured that it would be rebuilt and expanded during the Reconstruction era. True enough, Charleston was swiftly rebuilt, and left mostly untouched ever since. The city is today well known for its well preserved post-colonial architecture.
Charleston today is a city of about 132,600, making it one of the smallest cities in terms of population we've looked at in these articles. However, in terms of area, it isn't particularly smaller than the others, seeing as you'll be hard pressed to find any building in the city taller than 6 floors. Charleston isn't tightly packed, rather spacious and filled with small, neat and charming houses. It would not seem out of place in a historical film, really.
The efforts of the people and government of Charleston have achieved much in way of leaving behind old issues. There exists a general stereotype for "southerners", and while it must be said that stereotypes exist for a reason, Charleston has managed to defy these. Having been ranked among the friendliest cities of the USA and named "the most polite and hospitable city in America", the people of Charleston have a reputation for good manners — the exact opposite of the southerner stereotype.
