Buffalo Region

[jcabassa 20]

This is a really sweet city! Too bad there haven't been any updates lately! You should put your Buffolo BAT buildings in there!https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/images/smilies/3.gif>

 

-jcab

[Ryan B 35]

Very nice. I like the way this looks. Keep up the good work!!!

[WIGS 0]

AWESOME WORK!

well done indeed!
Buffalo looks great as a SimCity METRO!
I hope more and more people get inspired by you and they will create all
the great architectural treasures that the Queen City has.
I've seen the Niagara Mohawk building, which is beautiful! and the HSBC tower is the most faithful reproduction I've seen yet.
I hope someone does the city hall, and the Liberty Building as well (ASAP).

Keep up the Great Work!

[Casper3141 60]

How did you make a ground highway onramp?it only lets me make the overpass???

[Sabretooth78 808]

I'm surprised I still get hits in this CJ despite not having worked on it in so long.    BAT really has stolen my interest for at least the time being...

 

WIGS - You'll be happy to know that City Hall is next on my BAT agenda.  Currently I'm working on HSBC Arena.  The Liberty Building is also a potential future project, we'll see - it depends on when I get the itch to start building cities again.

 

Casper3141 - Go into the Highways submenu and choose the ground highway interchange, hit tab until you get the configuration you want, and plop it down on top of the highway.  Make sure you cut the road back a few tiles from the highway (the road you're building the exit onto).  Hope that makes sense!

 

-Chris

 

[cyburbia 0]

Buffalo native here.

The region looks great! It's interesting to see how things will develop when zones are established and roads follow a different route than what is in real life Buffalo. One thing about IRL Buffalo that you probably won't encounter in SimBuffalo - the early presence of the Buffalo Creek Indian Reservation, lake effect snow, a corridor of heavy industry and the former smell of Bethlehem Steel stymied development south of the city for a long time. The result: development skewed to the northeast. The city's most affluent neighborhoods are all north of downtown, and the wealthiest suburbs (Amherst, Clarence) are to the northeast, in what could safely be considered swampland. Orchard Park and East Aurora are catching up, though, especially since Bethlehem Steel closed down in the 1980s.

Slightly OT: building tiles. Great work on the Marine Midland Tower and Niagara Mohawk building! If I learn how to use the bulding editor, I wouldn't mind creating some smaller flavor of Buffalo-style buildings. For example, two-flats ...

(from my site, http://www.cyburbia.org)





Houses with businesses on the first floor







Elmwood Avenue!













Allentown



Also ...

Mighty Taco!
Tops, or as they say back home, Taaaaaaaaps
A Cheektowaga house (Virgin Mary, lawn ornament and Polish flag props)
Big grain mills (should be easy)
Walden Galleria (20x40?)
Main Place
M&T Tower
Broadway Market
East Side telescoping houses
Metro Bus/Rail vehicles
University at Buffalo Ellicott Complex

(Edit ... poop! Images broken. See http://www.cyburbia.org/gallery for lots of everyday Buffalo images.

[FMD 0]

So the author of this thread is a traffic engineer huh? Well, I live in Amherst NY, and let me tell you, main st (rt5) in williamsville is a triffic nightmare! they widened main st to 4 lanes going east from youngs road to transit road, then switches back to 2 lanes just east of transit. But otherwise, nice work, the geographical layout looks right, but as far as city lay out im not sure i dont go into the city unless i have too cause its a ghost town ridden with crime, cause buffalo is like on the verge of bankruptcy.

[Buffalonian1 0]

I love the way your transportation network is set up. Good work.

[Bee21 2]

Quite a bit time span inbetween the two posts.

HSBC Arena and the Town Hall are complete and look great. Hope this CJ comes back to life.

[Amryai200 2]

cool region, and i hope this CJ isn't dead either

[nealos101 20]

It's a shame... I think it is... Lets let it honarbly return to it's grave...

Nealos101.

[Sabretooth78 808]

Wow, I didn't realize that this CJ still had any viewers!

 

I will be honest and say that I haven't worked at all on this region much in the past year or so (I sort of shifted over to my Aurieshire County CJ which has also been stalled for some time), simply because I wanted something different (a change in pace, so to speak), but I will say that I still have this region in its entirety (why would I ever delete anything? ), so now that I know it has some interest, maybe I'll get back to working on it some more!  That is, once I find more free time in my life.  It's still there, I just need to find it!!  Definitely before the summer's been over for too long.

 

Until then, hold tight!

-Chris

 

P.S.  I fixed all of the broken images.  One of the after effects of moving and the change in ISPs that goes along with it.

[Sabretooth78 808]

Well I finally found the time to post another update.  And I did it without even playing; this is all material that was done and built a long time ago, I just never got to posting it.  Enjoy!

 

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Region View Update:https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/images/smilies/3.gif>https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/images/smilies/3.gif>

Summary:

 

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Transportation: (Region as it stands currently)https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/images/smilies/3.gif>https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/images/smilies/3.gif>

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https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/images/smilies/3.gif>http://users.adelphia.net/~sargeantcm/sc4rh/journal/trans_sm.jpg align=baseline>

click here  to view the full-size image (warning: 404kb file!)

 

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Neighborhood Views:

City of Buffalo, Buffalo District:https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/images/smilies/3.gif>https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/images/smilies/3.gif>

 

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 After the upgrade of most of the central bypass to highway standards, mid-rise residential buildings started sprouting like weeds.

 

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The affluent areas around Peace Park are home to the only clean power in the region!

 

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The area of the inner harbor continues to grow.  Note the marina expansion since it was last pictured.  Also note that the avenue to the right has been realigned yet again!

 

City of Buffalo, East Buffalo District:

 

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How do you build an avenue through a densely populated residential area?...

 

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...Just follow the orange lines!

 

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New country club and surrounding development.  The beginnings of urban sprawl?

 

City of Buffalo, South Buffalo District:

 

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Another country club, this one strategically located on a peninsula in the Buffalo River.  Look for the housing values in this area to skyrocket.

 

City of Buffalo, Black Rock District:

 

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The only true beachfront within the city is starting to grow up, literally.  Black Rock's first highrise promises to be the first of many in this area.

 

Town of Kirkwood:

 

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Here's a town we haven't seen up close and personal yet.  Meet Kirkwood, a farming town of 1,324 sims.  The avenue bypassing the village center is the extension of the McKinley spur of the South Buffalo bypass.  It ends in the town of Ridge, shortly off to the right of this view.

 

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Bridging the Gap:

Some more regional bridges...

 

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Staying in Kirkwood, here's a nice example of a big bridge in the middle of nowhere, errr, a bridge built to accomodate future growth!  (If you look at the regional transportation map, you can see how this fits in.)

 

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Remember this old double-span truss?

 

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The folks in Cazenovia finally found the money to upgrade it.  They opted for a highway span instead of an avenue to accomodate future growth.  This bridge was the last link in a direct improved roadway connection from South Buffalo to Depew.

 

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And the newest of all, Black Rock's second signature span.  This bridge finally provides a ground connection between the US and Canada.  Local residents can't fathom why real-life Buffalo can't get it's act together and build one of these!

 

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Highway Upgrades:

 

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You'll note that this mess of transportation in downtown Buffalo has been reconfigured again.  Local officials know they're hamstringed when it comes to upgrading one of these corridors to highway standards.  The lakefront avenue, subject of many demolition talks, still exists, although it's terminus has been moved closer to downtown to facilitate a less confusing configuration at the harbor bridge ramp.

 

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The only missing link in a limited access Black Rock - East Buffalo highway connection.

 

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Same highway, to the north of downtown.  You can readily see two roadways which disconnected by the highway construction.  It follows a new alignment north of the road at bottom left - the old road.  Also note the cut off railroad which used to share the old road's right-of-way.  The highway was too wide to accomodate, making this a sticky issue for commuter rail supporters (as mentioned previously).

 

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A new highway which was visible in earlier posts but not detailed.  This one bypasses the congested avenue south of it.  It doesn't actually relieve any congestion, however.  The avenue carries just as much traffic as it used to, and the highway also carries nearly as much!  Boy, those Sims sure like their inter-city commuting!  This is certainly due in part to the increased residential frontage which the highway's construction helped to open up.

 

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East Buffalo terminus of the same avenue and highway.  To the east, there are two at-grade intersections before the avenue returns to highway status where it enters the western leg of the East Buffalo cloverleaf (pictured previously).  The avenue at center runs through the heart of the CBD and connects to the original Buffalo-East Buffalo highway corridor.

 

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South Buffalo's Riverfront Avenue now has a direct connection to the Lakefront Expressway, while providing better definition between the residential and industrial parts of town.  The at-grade intersection at the eastern end of Riverfront Avenue (not pictured), has also been upgraded into an interchange where it meets the South Buffalo bypass.

 

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The region's first toll booth, it sits in Black Rock at the approach to the new US-Canada border crossing.  Also included is an avenue connection to the Black Rock bypass.

 

 

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Highway Ends:

One of those phenomena that's sure to delight roadgeeks everywhere - abrupt and stub endings of highways!  See if you can find them on the transportation map!

 

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The end of the Black Rock-Kenmore bypass highway just outside of the village of Tonawanda.  This farmer cringes when he hears the words eminent domain for some reason...

 

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The ending of the McKinley spur in the town of Ridge just after crossing the the Kirkwood line.  To be fair, the road portion is also new highway as well.

 

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The abrupt end of the previously-mentioned East Buffalo-Delaware Park highway.  Talk about unceremonious...

 

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The beginning of the Lakefront Expressway down in Athol Springs.

 

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There was much conjecture as to how to terminate the highway at the base of the new international bridge crossing, especially owing to tricky grades at the base of the bridge approach.  This was the shortest possible solution.  The photo encompasses the Black Rock/Erie Beach corporate limits.  While technically unnecessary (especially the western half), the interchange was constructed with the future in mind; the highway is not always intended to terminate at the road along the lakefront.

 

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The abrupt ending of the region's longest uninterrupted stretch of expressway - in eastern Depew.  Expansion plans have this expressway continuing easterly to Lancaster in the near future.

 

 

 

That's it for now, hopefully future my updates might be a bit more frequent!

-Chris

[Simcity_Fan_6022 0]

Simply Spectacular! Great work, this is truly a great CJ

[thisisourcity1 0]

Looking good, I like how detailed the descriptions are. Glad you started this back up agian.

[Deathtoall 28]

Nice work. This is really interesting from the fact you have no reconisable bats in there and it still has character. Lot's of avenues and highways for a small city

[sloppet 3]

Fantastic updates! I hope you will continue this great work!

Regards,
Sloppet

[Sabretooth78 808]

Date: 10/13/2005 3:01:26 AM Author: Deathtoall Nice work. This is really interesting from the fact you have no reconisable bats in there and it still has character. Lot's of avenues and highways for a small city

quote>

Yeah, I admit I tend to overbuild on transportation infrastructure.  I tend to hold off and play it slow, but get bored and then all hell breaks loose!  What do you expect, I'm highway designer and ex-DOT worker.  It's in my blood.

[MayorTim 16]

Wow, very nice work so far, very realistic. Keep it up!