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Aside from the Lords, their direct agents, a contingent of the city guard, and the few close-mouthed folk of the city who traffic with the lawless port, few within Waterdeep believe this legendary port city beneath the waves truly exists beyond the tavern songs of sailors and other unsavory denizens of Dock Ward.

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Originally posted by Wooly Rupert

From the 2E City of Splendors boxed set:

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Aside from the Lords, their direct agents, a contingent of the city guard, and the few close-mouthed folk of the city who traffic with the lawless port, few within Waterdeep believe this legendary port city beneath the waves truly exists beyond the tavern songs of sailors and other unsavory denizens of Dock Ward.

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Originally posted by ericlboyd

It might be worth asking Ed how he sees it in light of the entirety of products.

--Eric

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Now, as for Skullport: I doubt Waterdhavians would ever go into unrest over the mere existence of Skullport; I can only see unrest occurring if nightly raids on the city that clearly came from Skullport(such as by bands of Drow or other "known to be of the Underdark" creatures, coupled with the inevitable lurid rumours) began and went on for days without any response from the authorities.
The existence of Skullport is common knowledge in Waterdeep, and has been for years.
So have the publicly-given reasons for the Lords of Waterdeep tolerating its presence: it enriches Waterdeep greatly, making possible all the wealth and great selection of wares and bustling progress that “advances us all," and it neatly provides a place for dangerous beings (wizards and drow and illithids and the like) to trade in valuable and sometimes dangerous goods, and "keep all that away from all of us who never have any reason to venture down there." In other words, you as a citizen or resident of Waterdeep enjoy great prosperity and safety that you would not, if Skullport didn't exist. Among all the lurid legends and tall tales of goings-on in Skullport are tales "planted" as reassurance, such as: "And if anything ever gets out of hand in Skullport, the Blackstaff has all sorts of spells 'hanging ready' to take care of it all: invaders from there will get blasted to dust! In the meantime, he and Laeral take their apprentices down there for training, and Watchful Order magists, too, so they can blast a few monsters and remind everyone not to try anything with Waterdeep, or - - blam!"
So if adventurers did "tell everyone else about it “they’d probably get responses of: "Uh-huh. 'Sware the bad folk trade, and go, and they deserve whatever befalls them. Glad the Lords keep it all out of OUR hair, anyroads!"
Ed

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