City of reputation

We are brought news of other new "towns" similar to ours by travelers passing between and beyond. One, we heard, has a type of military leadership, to which a transient's requests for temporary stay are all but ignored. The number of people inside, and as to each's willingness or desire to be or remain within the town is still unknown to us. How a city with such reputation even comes to be, after all that's been lost and learned, is beyond me. And yet, our group is not naive enough to be blind to this, life's little reminder to us, that our new home has not a guarantee of safe haven. Precautions must be taken, a consensus determined, by all in our community, as to where we stand should dire immediate decisions need to be made to ensure the safety of as many of our group as possible.