From SuspireWiki

The Area

Stroker Hive has the unfortunate distinction of being second in a city that appreciates winners and ignores losers. Initially, when the plans for revamping and expanding Carcosa into a monolithic city were being discussed, Stroker Hive was at the forefront of all of the talks. It had good location, good solid support soil, everything that was needed to support being the center and focal point of Carcosa high class. Everything except the influence and owners to place pressure on the bureaucrats. Having lost the battle to become the premiere place in Carcosa, the residents and land and business owners decided that they would try and lure high class institutions there anyway with tax breaks. It didn't quite work as well as they'd hoped. While they did get a good amount of businesses and nightlife, they weren't as classy and upscale as they planned.

For the majority of the city, that's not a bad thing, though. Everyone likes to go to a good pool hall, or a good pub every once in awhile, and Stroker Hive is littered with what seems like at least a hundred of them. There are cinemas in the area, and one of the three city malls, but everything seems as though it's on the lower scale of classy. The fact that there's not as stringent requirements for admission to bars and the like means that the lower classes are free to come and go as they please, which ultimately tarnishes the original vision. But, it isn't all terrible for the business owners in the area. By marketing to the wider population, Stroker Hive has become a weekend Mecca for college students, mid-grade "escorts" and socialites just getting involved in the city.

The business owners keep the neighborhood at least moderately respectable and the streets at least moderately kept up, which puts Stroker Hive as one of the very, very few middle-class areas in the entire city. In fact, some people swear there's not anywhere else like it... so much that Stroker Hive has adopted the slogan "Nothin' else like it".