Ashkelon

Ashkelon
City
City of Ashkelon
The city business district (foreground), with the Thalassan Ocean in the distance. The city business district (foreground), with the Thalassan Ocean in the distance.
Nickname:  "The Railroad City"
Country	Yisrael
District	Western
Founded	c. 2000 BCE
Rebuilt and continuously inhabited	c. 578 CE
Founded by	Mordecai ben Bar-Lev
Government
• Type	Strong Mayor-Council Form
• Body	City Council
• Mayor	Yossi Jacobi (Constitutional Liberal)
• City Council President	Uzriel Mizrahi (Constitutional Liberal)
• Minority Leader	Noami Normstein (Conservative)
Population  (2018)
• Total	279,591
Demonym(s)	Ashkeloner Ashkelonian
Ethnic groups
Time zone	UTC-3 (WST)

The City of Ashkelon, commonly referred to as Ashkelon, is a large metropolitan city in western Yisrael, on the western coast bordering the Thalassan Ocean. It is the third-largest city in the Kingdom.

It was founded as a trading post in the early 6th-century by Yisraeli Jews under Latin sponsorship. It has transformed over the centuries into a prosperous mid-sized city and a center for maritime and industrial economic activities, as well as a major West Scipian transportation hub. It is the headquarters of Ashkelon Energy Group.

Demographics

The city population is highly self-segregated, mirroring other Belhavian cities, especially in the Four Provinces. A self-described "immigrant" city, Ashkelon has a large foreign-born and foreign expatriate population, as well as native-born city dwellers with strong ethnic, religious, and cultural immigrant customs and subcultures.

Although ethnic Belhavian Jews make up a thin majority (50.6%), ethnic Rodarian Jews, ethnic Estovnian Jews, and ethnic Sephardi and Mizrachi Jews from Canaan make up nearly 30.4%, each living in their own well-defined neighborhoods.

Among non-Jews, there are large populations of Aisling Western Catholics and Basilerian Orthodox Catholics, along with ethnic Rodar-Catholics.

Economy

The Ashkelonian economy is largely industrial and blue-collar, as well as transporation and maritime industry-heavy.

Ashkelon is a major port and shipping hub, and serves as the base for numerous maritime trades and companies. Trans-Scipian Chemical Company has an export distribution center on the city harbor. It is also a base for the Trans-Periclean Pipeline that transects the Pericles Sea transporting oil and gas from the south, having an oil terminal that collects petroleum products from King's Island. [TBD]

It is the headquarters of Ashkelon Energy Group and its well-known CEO, Shmuel Ashkenazi.

Media

The local newspaper of record is the Ashkelon Coastal Intelligencer. The city has over a two dozen radio stations.

Network television dominates both cable and satellite television in the city, with a 2009 survey by the Ashkelonian Daily News finding that network TV commands 61% of the market compared to cable TV's 25% and satellite TV's 14%.

Government & Politics

Municipal

Form

Tel Avson has a Strong Mayor-Council form of government. The current mayor is Yossi Jacobi (Liberal Democrat).

The City Council has 7 seats, all elected "at-large." The current City Council President is Uzriel Mizrahi (Liberal Democrat). The current Minority Leader is Naomi Normstein (Conservative).

Education

Ashkelon is home to the Ashkelon Yeshiva, a major college-age yeshiva for religious Jews. A large Charedi and Dati Jewish community lives in the vicinity of AY.

The city is also home to the second campus of Southern Belhavian University, the largest private university in the province.

Infrastructure

Main article: Economy_of_the_Empire_(Belhavia) § Transportation

The city has few high-ways and is mostly local roads. The city traffic has a reputation for being slow and congested. Imperial Weekly rated Ashkelon as the second-worst traffic city in the country in 2007 and 2012.

A private bus system with public subsidies operates in the city center, with a light rail company operating a outer-city passenger and commuter train line called the "Outer Loop."

Two private rail lines pass through Ashkelon; the "Dakos Peninsula Line" by the Cross-National Rail Company that heads northeast to Dakos. Also, the Peninsular Local Railway Company's "Four Province Line" starts in the city and has northeast and southeast, to Dakos, and Raffenburg, respectively.