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New Auburn New Jersey is the main location in Tempus Tim. It is the hometown of the Edwards family, as well as the majority of the characters seen in the series. It is a town nestled between the Atlantic City Expressway to the north east, Somer's Point to the south west, Egg Harbor Township to the north west, and the bay behind Absecon Island (Atlantic City, Ventnor, Margate, and Longport) to the south east. It has a population of at least 20 thousand (the exact number is unknown due to various reason), and has multiple sub communities such as the Slavic District, the trailer park, the rich neighborhood, and Micro-Maracaibo.

History

The area now known as New Auburn was originally a part of Egg Harbor township. It was a small village mainly consisting of fishermen and farmers, and had a modest population. In the late 1860s, after the civil war, John Edwards moved into the village outskirts and set up residency, slowly but surely pumping money into the village economy by way of his various investment schemes. This in turn drew new residents to the area, and the town's population and economy grew substantially.

New Auburn was officially (see note 2) established 9th March 1883 by Jeffrey Auburn, with help from John Edwards and various other financers, and rapidly grew into the testing grounds of Edwards Investments and various other subsidies. The town continued to grow up to the end of the 1920s, with the 1910s seeing an influx of eastern European immigrants escaping Autria-Hungary or WWI (leading to the creation of what is now known as "The Slavic District"), and the "Roaring 20s" seeing a massive decadence boom due to the town's "out of the way" nature attracting rich investors at the time (and for being a manufacturing hub for liquor, which was illegal at the time). This growth stalled with the start of the great depression, with the town suffering significant hardship in the 1930s.

The 1930s and 1940s saw a second wave of central and eastern European refugees, escaping either Nazi Germany or the USSR, resulting in the town character changing rapidly from "rich haven" to "refugee haven". The only reason the existent townsfolk didn't grow resentful was that, just like in the 1910s, said refugees were willing to work the crappy jobs for little pay (something which some townsfolk today try to downplay).

With the post WWII suburban boom, New Auburn got a massive wave of new suburban starter houses built and young families looking ton settle down. This led to another prosperous age for the town with new money flowing in, and New Auburn once again being seen as a place for wealthy people. The post WWII economy and cold war fear also significantly boosted up Edwards Investments, resulting in a ton of cold war era projects getting developed all over town (including one of the most expansive bomb shelters in the entire country).

The 1970s saw a massive reccession however, with the town suffering its worst financial crisis ever (even worse than the great depression). This resulted in the town losing 1/3 of its entire population, and buildings all over to start decaying and rotting, particularly older houses which were overly expensive and too large of money sinks due to their age. This changed yet again in the 1980s, with the town getting a new massive influx of investment money akin to the 1920s. This also brough about another real estate boom, resulting in various McMansion developments popping up in the town's outskirts.

The real estate boom collapsed in the 2008 recession, triggering 2 decade long housing shortage which resulted in property values climbing faster than most people could manage (a fate shared by most of the country). This was only exacerbated by the zigzag economy of the early 2020s ccausing inflation to skyrocket and housing prices to soar despite the generally stagnant economy and nobody being able to afford them. This all collapsed again in 2027 when the AI bubble burst, and the entire country's economy absolutely dying due to losing the only thing propping it up. This caused yet another economic downturn, however for once that brought with it a new influx of residents due to New Auburn housing prices falling faster than average.

As of late August 2034 (the start date of the series), New Auburn's economy has come back, and it hosts a widely diverse population of all different types of people, with yet another refugee boom on the horizon due to rising tensions with various emerging hostile foreign powers.

Trivia

• New Auburn is completely fictional, but it occupies the space the real towns of Northfield, Linwood, and Plesantville New Jersey. There's no direct relation to Kenji Koizumi other than the fact it's an area kind of "behind" Atlantic City, Ocean City, and Somer's Point.
• The exact founding date is a massive point of contention, dependent completely on who residents believe actually started the town. Those who side with Jeffrey Auburn claim it was created on 9th March 1883, but those who side with Patrick Lavan believe it was created on 23rd September 1876 (and that the town should be called "Lavantown"). A third camp believes John Edwards created the town, and place its creation date at 7th June 1871, but admit that that's more ceremonial since that's when John Edwards officially declared residency in the area (which was at the time still part of Egg Harbor township).
• The town is absolutely filled to the brim with old rotting Edwards projects from back when the Edwards family had complete control over the town and general control over New Jersey as a whole (and at various times sizeable leverage in the United States). However, ever since the great recession, the Edwards family has never come close to the level of comparative wealth of its predecessors (made worse by David's extreme hatred of wealthy people), leaving all of these old projects to rust and rot.