The JD Strip is Talaris’s primary population corridor, hugging “the sheltered eastern side of the island, nestled between the deep-water harbor and the steep, protective slopes of the central mountain spine.” The name is short for “Joint Development,” referring back to the original US–Philippine Compact. Its districts are officially “Compact Barangays.”
The four districts
- Downtown Core & Civic Plateau (CB-01, North) — the “administrative and financial heart,” “the absolute triumph of corporate dominance in a hyper-free market”: neon office towers, luxury arcologies, and pristine autonomous-grid streets.
- University of Talaris & Tech Park (CB-04, Middle) — “the intellectual engine of the city” and “the birthplace of IO Fox’s early VDMH-1 cold-fusion work.”
- The Canopy / “Tranco” (CB-07) — “a sprawling, vibrant cultural corridor,” the “Arts & Queer Transition Zone.”
- Shibuya by the Sea / “Shibs” / “Sibuyas” (CB-14, South Port) — “‘Sibuyas’ (Tagalog for onion),” “the cultural, entertainment, and vice epicenter of Talaris,” built atop a vast underground network of former US-military limestone caves.