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,” a reference back to the original US-Philippine Compact. Its districts are officially “Compact Barangays.”
The four districts
- Downtown Core & Civic Plateau (CB-01, North) is the “administrative and financial heart” of the city and, in its own promotional language, “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) is “the intellectual engine of the city” and “the birthplace of IO Fox’s early VDMH-1 cold-fusion work.”
- The Canopy, known as “Tranco” (CB-07, Middle) is “a sprawling, vibrant cultural corridor,” designated the “Arts & Queer Transition Zone.”
- Shibuya by the Sea (CB-14, South Port) goes by “Shibs” or “Sibuyas,” the latter being “Tagalog for onion.” It is “the cultural, entertainment, and vice epicenter of Talaris,” built atop a vast underground network of former US-military limestone caves.