SoMa

Neighborhoods of San Francisco

• Land 0.635 sq mi (1.64 km2)

• Total Population: 11,457

• Density: 18,000/sq mi (7,000/km2)

Guardian Wu

[[]]

Overseer

• -- Thalia

Kindred Residents 9

• -- Amira - Brujah Bodyguard to Thalia

Reserve #2

The city’s second M-T Sector is in SoMa, short for South of Market (Street), which runs along the northwestern side. The sector also borders 2nd and 8th streets to the northeast and southwest and Brannan to the northwest and southeast. It includes the Greyhound bus station, Moscone Convention Center and many hotels, theaters and other amusements to keep potential vessels passing through.

Historically, the SoMa neighborhood was industrial rather than residential, and its history manifests in the building facades along its streets. Unlike the Victorian row houses characterizing most other San Francisco neighborhoods, SoMa’ s streets are cluttered by enormous, featureless warehouses and rehabbed factory buildings.

While SoMa hasn’t actually been an industrial area in decades, it still maintains that feel. In recent years, many

of the district’s buildings became nightclubs, sex clubs and offices for the dot-com boom. Since the Internet frenzy went bust, however, many of these buildings sit vacant, providing fertile incubating grounds for the city’s social ills: drug manufacture and distribution, snuff film production and assorted gang-related crimes.

For Kindred who distinguish themselves in small ways in the Mandarinate’s eyes, the SoMa M-T Sector provides a socially comfortable setting that is both close to the Kuei- jin power structure in Chinatown and easily monitored by representatives of the Quincunx. It lacks much in the way of power or prestige compared to Pacific Heights. On the other hand, SoMa is the hub of San Francisco’ s nightlife, with no fewer than forty bars or nightclubs in the area providing Kindred here with ample feeding resources.

The Kuei-jin presence around SoMa is notable. The resident Kindred are of high enough status to warrant surveillance, but not so influential that the Quincunx exposes them to the heavy squeeze of Pacific Heights.

As an additional negative element to the SoMa Empty, local Tong activity is heavy. Many Tong members make a hefty income for themselves and their Kuei-jin overseers by providing club-goers with all the drugs they want. This makes Kindred/Tong conflict in SoMa almost unavoidable, and the number of violent incidents between the two groups has increased steadily since the Quincunx established the sector.

While the Quincunx can’t ask the Tongs to cease operations in one of their most lucrative business districts, they can’ t continually intervene on behalf of their Scarlet Screens either. The Kuei-jin initially told Kindred to ignore the Tong members and stay out of their way, but the Tongs took that as carte blanche to harrow the Kindred at every turn. This led to the deaths of eight Tong members in one night and the demotion of the city’ s Brujah scourge to Bayview. While the Kuei-jin still protect the Tongs nominally, the gangsters now know just how much that protection is worth if they antagonize the wrong vampire.

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