A city at the edge of the mountains on the Canadian prairies, Birchmont is a fictional city of about a million people that is industrial and urbanized and modern. Some of the essays here are about people who spent time working for the local municipal government of Birchmont, a little city trying to be big, or maybe a big city trying to overcome the momentum of being small for so long.
Birchmont has dealt with a huge number of basic city issues. It is a growing, sprawling, land-locked urban centre with a University and a strong resource-driven economy. But it also has a huge tourism flux, with many homeowners departing the city seasonally and becoming landlords to a transient tourist population.