New Leeds

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New Leeds
City of New Eiffel
Flag of New Leeds
Coat of arms of New Leeds
Established as SmithingtonJanuary 2018
Renamed to New Leeds11 August 2018
Founded byZabëlle Skye
Government
 • MayorVacant
Elevation
15 m (49 ft)
Population
 (5)
 • Total5
DemonymsNew Leedser
New Leeder
Time zoneNew Eiffelic Time (UTC±00:00)[1]
Mail Code
001
Vehicle registration01

New Leeds, formerly known as Smithington and abbreviated NL, was the largest and most populous city of the Principality of New Eiffel.[2] Situated at the eastern-most point of New Eiffel, bordering Plitvice to the west and the UK to the east at the largest border in New Eiffel, the New Eiffelic South-East Border, New Leeds at its modern alignment has a total size of 260 m² and a population of 5, constituting 100% of the New Eiffelic population. Founded in January 2018 as "Smithington" — a similar name to Plitvice's erstwhile name "Smithton" — alongside New Eiffel's two other cities, Plitvice and Új Repülő, the city is governed by the mayor of New Leeds and the Council of New Leeds.[3]

New Leeds in often considered to be New Eiffel's most important city, and is of high interest. New Leeds has been called New Eiffel's most influential, most visited, most expensive, most diplomatic and most investment-friendly city. New Leeds is also cited as the film capital of the micronational world. It exerts a considerable impact upon the arts, cinema, commerce, fashion, finance, business, professional services and tourism. It is one of the largest micronational financial centres, and is allegedly responsible for 70–90 percent of New Eiffel's GDP (Új Repülő estimating 20–25%, and Plitvice estimating just 2–7%). It is the most-travelled to city in New Eiffel, reporting 700–1,300 crossings a year, however only 30–45 are aware of New Eiffel's existence, thus donating a number of at least 37 recognised tourists. New Leeds has various highly-held businesses headquartered or based in it, such as XCU Therapy, Smith Restaurant, Z&jProductions, the pop-up Win-a-lot Casino, luxury fashion brand Jinxx and statistical and surveying company Statistic-Dime. The government home, colloquially referred to as the "Main Building", houses multiple government rooms, such as government living spaces, the royal residence, parliament and ministries.[4]

Contributing massively upon the arts, New Leeds has two museums, the Surrealist Art Gallery and the New Eiffel Currency Museum. New Leeds was also where the erstwhile Regional Art of New Eiffel Museum was located from January 2018–January 2020. The national archives of New Eiffel, the Royal Archives, are located in New Leeds; it houses important documents and archives, including Zabëlle I's abdication letter, 2018 and 2019 general election ballots and the poster of the adventure comedy-drama web series The Squishes, the first ever poster printed inside New Eiffel.

New Leeds is also a large diplomatic sector, and is twinned with three cities, New Aberdare in Aenopia, Danko House in Essexia and Presaue in Misberia - all of which were gained through the GUM Sister Cities Program.[5] The Main Building also has a Millanian embassy and a cardboard constructed Embassy of Plushunia. New Leeds' massive influence has prompted debate over whether or not it should be made the new capital city of New Eiffel.

Toponymy

New Leeds was originally named "Smithington" after it was established alongside New Eiffel's other two cities in January 2018. It had a similar name to Plitvice's erstwhile "Smithton". It was named for the ruling house of New Finland, the House of Smith. Every city was renamed following the reunification of New Eiffel, and "New Leeds" was based off of Leeds, a major town in West Yorkshire, England, the country in which New Leeds is landlocked in.

History

Former flag of New Leeds; March 2018–27 January 2020

New Leeds was founded on January 2018 as "Smithington" — a similar name to Plitvice's erstwhile "Smithton" — alongside New Eiffel's two other cities, Plitvice and Új Repülő (than Hardwork Village Outback). The city has continuously been the territory of New Eiffel since the Republic of New Finland, through the Kingdom of New Finland and now the Principality of New Eiffel, however has undergone a number of territorial changes, definitions and disputes. New Leeds was originally defined as beginning after the border wall at the New Eiffelic South-East Border, however it was later changed to include the wall in early February 2018, also expanding the overall size of New Eiffel. New Leeds was also just 2 m (6.5 ft) from the NEMR 1 in Plitvice, however following the reunification of New Eiffel on 11 August 2018 when the city was renamed to New Leeds, it was expanded to end just before the NEMR 1.

On 6 October 2018, a short power outage at approximately one a.m. lasting for around eight minutes commenced. A washing machine located in the upstairs room of the Main Building leaked water onto power cables, affecting two wi-fi networks as well as Smith Restaurant and the meeting room.[6] On the same day around twelve a.m. to one p.m., there was also a sewer blockage lasting for about two hours.[7][8]

2019 than saw a huge economic growth, making New Leeds finally able to compete with New Eiffel's capital Új Repülő. Z&jProductions officially set up headquarters in New Leeds, Smith Restaurant expanded, and Jinxx which was established in December 2018 saw a steady growth into an esteemed luxury brand. A cardboard Embassy of Plushunia was constructed in New Leeds on 5 August. Statistic-Fire and DIME officially merged to form Statistic-Dime on 21 October. Win-a-lot Casino hosted its second annual pop-up casino event on 16 November, which was widely regarded as a heavy improvement on its first. 2020 continued to witness economic growth, as well as growth upon the arts, cinema and architecture. The Surrealist Art Gallery opened on 15 January 2020, as a replacement to the long-time struggling Regional Art of New Eiffel Museum. After five months of renovations to the Main Building, a new kitchen and bar was opened for Smith Restaurant in June.

New Leeds alongside Új Repülő joined the GUM Sister Cities Program on 17 January 2020, an ongoing program within the Grand Unified Micronational originally by Nicholas Randouler with the idea of relating cities of member states together to improve relations between nations just like their macronational counterparts. New Leeds got twinned with New Aberdare in Aenopia and Danko House in Essexia in phase one on 26 January. This massively improved New Eiffel's relations with Essexia and Aenopia, further enforcing the city's role as the leading diplomatic sector in New Eiffel. New Leeds than got twinned with Presque in Misberia in phase three on 15 April.

Governance

New Leeds is one of three cities in New Eiffel, indicating that it is a municipality, which has corporate status and powers of self-government and jurisdiction as granted through the constitution. These powers are exercised by the elected Mayor.[9] Such as every New Eiffelic city, New Leeds has a city council, which is elected directly by the government every three years. Zabëlle Skye was the first and only Mayor in New Leeds' recorded history, though there is some speculation that at one point the title of Major could also have been shared with a number of other people; though this has not been confirmed. The Major is granted the style "His Excellency". The position of Mayor has been vacant since New Eiffel's reform back in August 2018. It was announced in late December 2019 that having elections for Mayors of all three cities would be considered for sometime in 2020.

Geography

Potted plants in New Eiffel Gardens, Seat Square
(Left to right): architecture of New Eiffel; sister cities sign and the XCU Therapy building

New Leeds has the smallest amount of geography of any other city in New Eiffel. New Leeds is situated in the eastern-most point in New Eiffel, and is the biggest New Eiffelic city with an area of approximately 260 m². It is also the only populated city. The city is mostly bordered by the United Kingdom; and also borders the New Eiffelic city of Plitvice to the west. The New Eiffelic South-East Border is the most crossed border in New Eiffel, experiencing nearly a thousand a year. The city has a very small amount of plantation, amd has no bodies of water, being mostly covered with pavement and buildings. Near the New Eiffelic South-East Border by XCU Parking is an area filled with a large amount of trees, bushes and grass. Furthermore, Seat Square is also home to a line of potted plants, including roses.

Architecture

Utilities - including electricity, gas and water supplies - are all provided to New Eiffel by the United Kingdom.

The government home, colloquially referred to as the "Main Building", houses multiple government rooms, such as government living spaces, the royal residence, parliament and ministries. One room is open for renting, and was originally used as an office until June 2019, when it was opened for renting. Win-a-lot Casino's second annual event was hosted there in November 2019. The Surrealist Art Gallery than rented the room in January 2020 for a total of one week, however due to its popularity the art gallery permanent purchased the room.

Natural history

Two cats live within the royal residence, Mango and the Royal Cat. A cat called Ralph also sneaks into the royal residence, and is the only animal to have been banned from entering into New Eiffel. The Natural History Society of New Eiffel claims that New Leeds has over 10 species of moths and more than 8 kinds of spider. However, this number has been criticised.

Climate

The climate of New Leeds is of that of New Eiffel's, due to its small size. In general, the climate of New Leeds is cool and often cloudy, and high temperatures are infrequent. It is often rainy in Autumn, Spring, and the Winter. Summers are generally warm, sometimes hot. New Leeds' average July high is above 27 °C. Winter is often very cold and has little temperature variation. Heavy snow is rare but light snow usually happens at least once each winter. Spring and autumn can be pleasant. Plitvice gets a very low amount of precipitation annually. Typically, 25 °C or higher is considered almost unbearable, and -1 °C is worthy of a weather advisement. New Eiffel receives these weather advisements through the Cupertino Alliance weather station project.[10]

The hottest temperature ever recorded in New Leeds was 38.0 °C on 26 July 2019,[citation needed] and the coldest was -11.7 °C on 28 February 2018.[citation needed]

Climate data for the Principality of New Eiffel
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Record high °F (°C) 63
(17.2)
70.2
(21.2)
75.6
(24.2)
84.9
(29.4)
91
(32.8)
96.1
(35.6)
100.4
(38.0)
100.2
(37.9)
95.7
(35.4)
85.8
(29.9)
69.4
(20.8)
63.3
(17.4)
100.6
(38.1)
Average high °F (°C) 46.6
(8.1)
47.1
(8.4)
52.3
(11.3)
57.6
(14.2)
64.2
(17.9)
70.2
(21.2)
74.3
(23.5)
73.8
(23.2)
68
(20.0)
59.9
(15.5)
52
(11.1)
46.9
(8.3)
59.4
(15.2)
Average low °F (°C) 36.1
(2.3)
35.8
(2.1)
39
(3.9)
41.9
(5.5)
47.7
(8.7)
53.1
(11.7)
57
(13.9)
56.7
(13.7)
52.5
(11.4)
47.1
(8.4)
40.8
(4.9)
36.9
(2.7)
45.3
(7.4)
Record low °F (°C) 8.2
(-13.2)
10.9
(-11.7)
22.8
(-5.1)
27.3
(-2.6)
30.4
(-0.9)
34.7
(1.5)
42.1
(5.6)
42.6
(5.9)
35.2
(1.8)
26.1
(-3.3)
19.4
(-7.0)
10.8
(-11.8)
8.2
(−13.2)
Source no. 1: Met Office[11]
Source no. 2: New Eiffel Weather[12]

Economy

Farkasok és Szar Studios' total assets are worth £244, making it the second largest film studio after Z&jProductions.

New Leeds' gross regional product in 2018 was "four digits worth", around a 70–90 percent of New Eiffel's GDP, however In August 2020, the government of New Eiffel made the decision to stop counting gross domestic product (GDP) all together, and the Council of New Leeds instead began requesting businesses to report only their total assets or budgets where precise financial reports were unavailable. New Eiffel has the highest real estate prices in New Eiffel, and perhaps the highest in the micronational world,[citation needed] at £507 per square metre.[13] The central bank, the Official ZedBank o' Ex New Finland and New Eiffel is headquartered in New Leeds, a further two banks also operate primarily in New Leeds including Biggo Banks and the erstwhile Ziggo?.[14] Z&jProductions reported a total budget of £2,863 in October 2019, up from £1,987 in February 2019. Jinxx's total assets make up around £1,400, Public Television Entertainment's make up £302, Farkasok és Szar Studios's makes up £244, Weed Removal Industries £65, Terra Commons £56, Please Recycle, Inc. £29, and Biggo Banks £8. Smith Restaurant allegedly operates on between £845–1,976 a year, though it nor XCU Therapy are included in official annual financial reports as their estimates are considered unreliable.[13]

Fashion

Jinxx, officially Jinxx Fashion is the largest fashion company and brand in New Leeds, as well as New Eiffel.[15] Although it has no directly operated stores, after its foundation on 17 December 2018, Jinxx grew into a prestigious and luxurious fashion icon.[16] Because of New Eiffel's small size, and New Leeds' even smaller size, fashion trends are Incredibly rare, and only happen a few times a year. Jinxx currently sells shoes, bags, shirts and other non-clothing items, such as a wooden stand.[17][18] It operates a large online presence as well, and uploads all of its promotional videos and commercials onto its official YouTube channel.[19]

Gambling

Win-a-lot Casino is a pop-up casino which takes place annually in November. It was first established on 12 November 2018, and had a grand opening night which hosted multiple games and slot machines.[20] Win-a-low Casino has since become a highly anticipated and publicised event. Win-a-lot Casino's second event took place on 16 November 2019 between 9:25—9:42 p.m., and hosted slot machines, spin wheel, roulette, and card games such as blackjack. Over ŁN135 was given out however, losing the casino money.

Transport

Transportation in New Leeds has a smaller industry than most of New Eiffel. Walking is a popular recreational activity in New Leeds. New Leeds has an alley, square, and one street, Worker's Street, which is the only street in New Eiffel which is not located on any officially designated road.[21] New Leeds Alley, formerly known as New Eiffelic Entrance, is the only alley in New Leeds. The alley was known as New Eiffelic Entrance unofficially because of its use, and was officially designated as New Eiffelic Entrance on 23 December 2019, and was renamed to New Leeds Alley on 7 January 2020. Seat Square is an economic-centre shopping city square. The square was originally designated Seat Street on 28 December 2019, and officially recognised as a street alongside ǃkhās Street, the first streets designated in New Eiffel. It was later renamed to Seat Square and its recognition as a street revoked on 9 February 2020.[21] Smith Restaurant and XCU Therapy are located on the square. XCU Therapy owns a car park for its costumers. A car is owned by the royal family and parked in New Leeds, and is often used to transport the residents of New Leeds where needed. New Leeds' Mail Code is 001, and its vehicle registration plate code is 01.[22]

Culture

Museums and art galleries

"Difference" art installation at the Surrealist Art Gallery, in font of "Candy avec une", "The Disc" and the Jinxx Wooden Stand

New Leeds at present has one museum and one art gallery, the Surrealist Art Gallery and the New Eiffel Currency Museum. New Leeds was also where the erstwhile Regional Art of New Eiffel Museum was located from January 2018–January 2020, and the Z&jProductions Museum in 2018. The Surrealist Art Gallery is a modern art art gallery with over thirteen objects from pre-New Eiffelic history to 2020 being exhibited over an area of approximately 10.3 metres (34 ft). The gallery was opened on 15 January 2020, as a replacement to the long-time struggling Regional Art of New Eiffel Museum, which at its early peak contained over fifty-five paintings, drawings, Installations, watercolours and photographs. The Surrealist Art Gallery pened with an exhibition of seven paintings and drawings and six installations, including the 2019 film Soothing Ring of Fire. More objects, including sound art and historical New Eiffelic relics are planning on being added in the near future.

The New Eiffel Currency Museum is about the history of money used in New Eiffel. It was opened on September 2018, and exhibits pre-New Eiffelic money designs which influenced modern New Eiffelic money, to modern-day ŁN. The erstwhile Z&jProductions Museum featured iconic film props, filming equipment and scripts among other things. It closed down in 2018, the same year it opened after a lack of interest.

Literature, film and television

Poster for Insaniam (2020), a film Zabëlle Skye calls his "magnum opus"[23]

Literature is a very small industry, as only one book has been published in New Leeds and the entirety of New Eiffel, with four more currently being written. The main book publishers are Happy Reading, Inc. and Indie Books!. The Micronation Index: A Book About Micronationalism has received some endorsements. The Maze of Learning: Developing Motor Skills was released on Amazon and on physical copies in 2018.

New Leeds has played a significant role in the film industry. Major studios operating within or bordering New Leeds include Farkasok és Szar Studios, Zfilms, Classical Claw Films and the erstwhile Z. S. Movies. Z&jProductions is headquartered in New Leeds. New Leeds largely contributes to the horror and surrealist genres; surreal in tempore was also formed in New Leeds. Multiple popular films have been produced and filmed solely in New Leeds, such as The Doll (2017) and its prequel The Doll: Origins (2018), The Demented Computer (2017), Layers (2018), Scissor: Dawn of a New Game (2018), Dimensions: Choices (2019), Being Born Twelve Times (2019) and Insaniam (2020), which Zabëlle Skye calls his "magnum opus". Other popular films which have had parts of them filmed in New Leeds include When Nibiru Comes (2017), The Farmer (2018), Epic Action Movie (2019) and the Med-Evil Ghost and Star Warz film franchises. New Leeds has two cinemas, New Eiffel Cinema and the Gif Movie Theatre. The Gif Movie Theatre however filed for bankruptcy in June 2019. As most films in New Eiffel are publicly crowdfunded projects, and are released to the public for free, New Leeds makes very little revenue in the box office. ZSR Film Reviews is a popular New Eiffelic film criticism website, which reviews a large number of films across a large variety of genres and cultures. It is based in New Leeds. Soothing Ring of Fire was the first feature-length film to be released in New Eiffel. The film consists of ten hours and thirty-four minutes of slow motion footage of an unchanging view of an electronic heater fan, and is one of the longest films ever made. The film does not have conventional narrative or characters, and largely reduces the experience of cinema to the passing of time. It is currently played on loop and exhibited as an art installation at the Surrealist Art Museum.[24]

New Leeds is also a major centre for television production, with studios including ZEDTV, Spooked Out! Productions and Public Television Entertainment. Many television programmes have been created in New Leeds, mostly comedies and parodies, such as The best soup Opera ever made, (Blank) Commercial! and the first season of The Squishes. Z&jProductions has also tapped into the television industry. New Eiffel TV is a television broadcasts distributor based in New Leeds, having a monopoly over the television market.

Cuisine and drink

A dish being served at Smith Restaurant

Smith Restaurant is by far the largest source for food in New Leeds. Some popular dishes in New Eiffel come from South African origin. Bagels are a very commonly eaten snack. Scones are the national dish of New Eiffel, so it comes to no surprise that they are also commonly eaten in New Leeds. Meat is also a favourite in New Eiffel, with many dishes containing beef and chicken. Vegan dishes like vegan burgers and couscous salad and are also popular in New Eiffel, even eaten by people who are not vegans themselves. French toast, and Dutch Muffin, a recipe that was accidentally made by New Eiffelian Issac Richards after he had no flour for the recipe and substituted it with glutinous rice flour. Smith Restaurant exclusively serves a tea and candy cane dish, two candy canes served with Tea, during the month of December. Drinks like rooibos tea are also ascended from South African origin.

Holidays and celebration

New Eiffel has eighteen national, government-recognised holidays. However, there are over twenty more unrecognised holidays which are widely celebrated exclusively in New Leeds.

Media

Radio and journalism

Television and digital newspapers take an important role in New Eiffelic mass media, though radio and the Internet also take part - impressively, the majority of it is from New Leeds. New Eiffel Broadcasting (NEB) is the main government-owned broadcasting station in New Eiffel, and New Eiffel National Radio (NENR) is the state-owned radio station, both are based in New Leeds. The radio is not defunct however no longer operates any radio stations; it formerly operated EDM Radio, Classics and Top 100: New Eiffel (later titled as the Top 50: New Eiffel). Despacito Radio is based in New Leeds, which was a radio station which played remixes, covers, and parodies of the famous song Despacito by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee. Despacito Radio was presented by Zabëlle Skye, who played the fictional character Malcom Fsh. On 2 May 2019, Smith announced he would be starting podcast. On 19 May, It was officially revealed it would be called "A Prince getting sidetracked a lot". The podcast has been postponed numerous times, however as of July 2020 was confirmed to still be happening.

Notable news brands and stations headquartered in New Leeds include The New Eiffel Times, Grand Italics and New Eiffel News, and former news brands and stations in New Leeds were Today's News!, ZNEWS, Tea Time News and the New Eiffel Weather Show.

Music

Artists living in New Leeds include experimentalist DJ Zeddy — the stage name for Zabëlle Skye — and gamflik artist and coverer F0rtn1te DumpST3R.[25]

DJ Zeddy's comedic music video making fun of the Grand Unified Micronational "GUM DIS TRACK: THE UNITED MICRANATIONS is better", was filmed and released on January 2020 in New Leeds, later becoming his signature song.

Gaming

New Leeds' gaming industry is estimated to be worth $499.05 - $379.05 on console gaming, $61 on mobile gaming, and $59 on PC gaming.

Sister cities

(left): Danko House sister cities sign including New Leeds

New Leeds has three sister cities, all of which were gained through the GUM Sister Cities Program:[26]

See also

References

  1. Time in London. TimeAndDate.com. Retrieved 22 July 2020.
  2. "2019 New Eiffel demographics survey". The New Eiffel Times. 6 July 2019. Archived from the original on 18 December 2019. Retrieved 23 July 2020.
  3. neweiffelgov.home.blog. "What is New Eiffel?". Archived from the original on 17 December 2019.
  4. Main Page. New Eiffel Wiki. Retrieved 22 July 2020.
  5. GUM Sister Cities Program official website. Retrieved 22 July 2020.
  6. Skye, Zabëlle (6 Oct 2018). Power Outage. New Eiffel News. (Archived articles). Retrieved 26 July 2020.
  7. Skye, Zabëlle (6 Oct 2018). Sewer System Blockage Warning. New Eiffel News. (Archived articles). Retrieved 26 July 2020.
  8. Skye, Zabëlle (6 Oct 2018). Sewer System Blockage Update. New Eiffel News. (Archived articles). Retrieved 26 July 2020.
  9. Constitution of the Principality of New Eiffel. Retrieved 22 July 2020.
  10. Lycon, Jayden (15 April 2020) Cupertino Gazette Issue 11. p.11 "Nouakchott project". Retrieved 15 April 2020.
  11. Climate summary. Met Office.
  12. https://mobile.twitter.com/EiffelNew/status/1154385524855119875
  13. 13.0 13.1 New Eiffelic annual financial report, 2019. Published by the Government of New Eiffel. 4 January 2020. Retrieved 26 July 2020.
  14. New Eiffelic annual financial report, 2019. p. 5–7 "Banking". Published by the Government of New Eiffel. 4 January 2020. Retrieved 26 July 2020.
  15. Jinxx News Blog on Tumblr.
  16. Jinxx Fashion Pinterest. Retrieved 22 July 2020.
  17. Jinxx Fashion (4 Nov 2019), Jinxx presents: The Jinxx Wooden Stand on YouTube. Retrieved 22 July 2020.
  18. Jinxx Fashion on Instagram "New shirts ! 👕 💓", posted 21 November 2019. Retrieved 22 July 2020.
  19. Jinxx Fashion official YouTube channel
  20. Eiffel, New (5 Mar 2020) Win-a-lot Casino Advert - Christmas 2019 - "This is Win-a-lot Casino" on YouTube. Retrieved 22 July 2020.
  21. 21.0 21.1 Streets in New Eiffel. New Eiffel Roads Index. Retrieved 22 July 2020.
  22. New Eiffel roads index
  23. Insaniam on YouTube. Retrieved 22 July 2020.
  24. Gréz, Emily (28 Dec 2019) Why did Zabëlle I make a 10 hour-long movie of an electric fan?. The New Eiffel Times at Blogger. Archived from the original on 28 December 2019.
  25. DJ Zeddy on SoundCloud. Retrieved 31 July 2020.
  26. Sister cities