Meadowlands
The Meadowlands is a residential district in Zootopia, a stretch of rolling grassland and open sky on the north-central side of the city. It is the location of Pawthorne Mansion and of several neighboring families who become part of Pawbert's expanded social world.
Overview
The district runs to grassland and gentle hills, with quiet roads threading between them and oaks closing overhead along the private drives. It sits far enough from the weather walls to keep its own mild, temperate air all year, so mornings there arrive cool and clear without any wall doing the work.
The stretch around Pawthorne Mansion is old money. Manicured lawns give way to bigger houses, wider lots and taller fences; the properties sit back from the street behind hedges and iron gates, and the mammals living on them have gardeners and time. It is a neighborhood where nothing bad is supposed to happen, which is how it looks to Pawbert on the drive up on his first day out of prison.
Notable Locations
- Pawthorne Mansion — the pack's home, at the end of an oak-lined private drive
- Meadowlands Community Center — the district evacuation point during the Icener climate crisis, and later a citywide evacuation center during the Rainforest District fire
- Rainbow Falls station — the ZTA interchange on the Meadowlands/Rainforest border, a walk from the mansion
- The Meadowlands relay station — a decommissioned infrastructure site raided during the search for Icener's staging sites
Notable Residents
| Residence | Household | Species |
|---|---|---|
| Pawthorne Mansion | Luther & Pawbert, Nick Wilde, Judy Hopps | Gray wolf, lynx, red fox, rabbit |
| Down the lane | Cameron & Mitchell, married | Both jackrabbits |
| Between the estates | Mr. Dunphy & Mrs. Dunphy | Ram and ewe |
| Between the estates | Mr. Delgado & Mrs. Delgado | Ibex and markhor |
History
The district first enters the story from the other end of its income range. Garcia traces Mawl's call in "I Choose to Stay" to a modest apartment building on the edge of the Meadowlands, and the BAU and ZPD raid it that night. The street is quiet, the windows warm, the mailboxes inked with names, and the calm too even for the hour — chosen precisely because nobody would look for anyone dangerous there.
The Meadowlands becomes the pack's home ground when Luther brings Pawbert to Pawthorne Mansion after his release. Pawbert walks the neighborhood on his commute, learns the shape of it, and gets to know the neighbors over the following years in the way Luther never quite did — borrowed sugar, waves from the driveway. The press corps that camps at the mansion gate in "Front Lawn" treats the block's quiet as cover, hiding behind hedges and parked vans until the gate opens.
The neighborhood's own instincts show during the Icener climate crisis in "Misdirection". When the district's systems begin failing, the Dunphys and the Delgados gather in the street between their estates to move an elderly armadillo to safety, and Pawbert opens the mansion — which runs on independent backup climate control — as a shelter for twenty-two mammals. The Meadowlands Community Center absorbs the rest of the district and becomes the place Pawbert works the rest of that night.
Notes
- The Meadowlands neighbors are named after Modern Family characters
- The district provides Pawbert with "normal" neighbor interactions during Season 4