My city's great. So why don't they want to live there?

[Wizard of ID 1]

All is well with my city.  My mayor rating is 1000% and has been for ages.  Taxes are low, crime is low, life expectancy is high, as is education.  Pollution is almost non-existent.  We don't have fires.  There's plenty of hospitals and schools.  My Sims have plenty of amusements and plenty of jobs.  I have a little traffic congestion, but nothing remarkable, and public transport is extensive and popular.  Health, education, safety, pollution are all excellent and getting better, in my Sims' opinion.  In fact, everything is just great!

So why doesn't anybody want to move in?  I have about 300,000 living there, of which about a half are R$$ and most of the rest are R$$$.  I don't have a lot of R$ -- everyone's upwardly mobile in my city.

But demand for R$ and R$$ is depressed, and demand for R$$$ is negative.  Demand for CS$$$ and CO$$ and CO$$$ is also negative, although CS$ and CS$$ is still good.  Demand for industry is also good, and I$$$ is fabulous -- but since I've got far more $$$ jobs than I do people to fill them, I can't really develop it without my CO$$$ shutting down.

I don't really see what else I can do.  My advisors are no help whatever.  I don't understand why nobody wants to move in.  There's nothing wrong, and my Sims love everything about my city, but they don't want to live there.

Is there some sort of cap on numbers of residents?  And if so, is there a mod to disable it?  Does anybody have any suggestions for how I can increase demand?

It's frustrating -- I have room to expand, but whatever I zone stays unbuilt!

[wannabe123456789 0]

there is no cap in the number of residents, I've built a city with 2,082,000 with no mods or custom lots. from what you have written I can see that you have not developed enough industry in you region to support any more economic development in your city. I need to see your city in the game to know exactly what to do, however, I think you need to expand high tech industry in your region to promote the development of high wealth offices and and attract more wealthy business sims.

[jammoe 0]

Also, one of the tricky things to get about the game (though it makes sense) is you need low-wealth and medium-wealth residents to fill the dingy jobs, even in high-wealth commercial and industry. Maybe fiddle with your taxes for them, and build some high-density housing projects to encourage low-wealth residents to show up.

[Wizard of ID 1]

You mean, I have to have POOR people?????    Only beautiful people are allowed in my city, and to be truly beautiful, you have to be able to afford all that surgery!  I can't have unattractive people with no money living here.

Well, alright, if there's no alternative.  Can I at least make them all live in concentration camps?  Is there a concentration camp available on the STEX?

[Estanton22 0]

What I usually do is build a seperate city for R$. I zone it dense, create lots of people, then play my main cities of R$$ and R$$$, you should see a good increase in demand.

Aslo in my poor city, I create a lot of CS$ and CS$$ jobs as well ad Dirty and Manufacturing industry. This should also help to create demand for the CO and HT industry in your other city.

[Evilheat 0]

You should make R$, R$$ and R$$$ mixed together. If you do the R$ wil start building first followed by the R$$ or R$$$. if you want R$$ or R$$$ to start build plot. 

My suggestion if you want R$$$ to build instantly in your plotted lot do a 7x8 lot. If your lucky they might build a skyscraper instantly

[Meg 368]

There are demand caps which put a limit on demand.   Try adding some parks and see if that inspires people to move in.

You have to have some R$ people somewhere.  If you don't want them in this city, you could put them in the city next door. 

[xxbydesign 1]

You need a mix of residents for your city to be fully functional. But I find it surprising that you have negative demand for R$; thats normally impossible, unless one of your neighbor cities has a boom in residents. How many and how big are your neighbor connections? I might try downsizing the residential options in those towns to adjust your demand regionally.

[NBAFAN1 28]

In my main city that has 200,000 residents I have -6000 demand for R$. The city has 120,000 R$$, 40,000 R$$$ and R$.

[Wizard of ID 1]

Originally posted by: xxbydesign I find it surprising that you have negative demand for R$; thats normally impossible.quote>

 

My R$ demand is positive, but low, as is my R$$.  It's my R$$$ that's negative.  I've since taken wannabe123456789's advice and massively expanded my industry, since my Hi-Tech demand was very high.  I've expanded that to the point that hi-tech demand has dropped to almost nothing.  Manufacturing has picked up a little, but nothing exciting, and my other demands remain low.  When I create new residential zones, they remain empty for a long time and eventually get built on with low density housing.

I'm now taking Estanton22's advice and building a neighboring city.  It's expanding very fast right now, and we'll see what effect this has on the great city of Andropolis!

[hunkske 53]

I'd also suggest building a neighbouring city.. It's very hard to put all kinds of zones/types into one city tile.. Also, add parks or other kind of landsmarks (as suggested by SkiGeek).. That's what I usually do.. 

Check whether you have placed enough amenities (police, schools, fire brigade, etc) in the area's where you don't get growth, since this also will attract new growth (not so much in the beginning of a city though). That usually helps a whole lot..

Hopefully this all will help you!

[Za 164]

I may just be imagining things, but I have always found that when construction stagnates, building a stadium (Maxis) helps a lot. (in the original, SC2000, and this one I've observed it) Although, judging by your population, I'd assume you've already built the two available.

[dabadon5 295]

you will probably have to rezone some more, take down lots you dont need and add more high dense residential areas

[Wizard of ID 1]

Thanks for all the advice. Here's an update:

Last time I posted, my R$$$ was strongly negative, while R$ and R$$ was positive but low. All CO demand was negative, as was CS$$$, although there was some need for CS$ and CS$$. After much re-zoning, demand for HT-I had also fallen, while other industrial demand was negative. My city's population had fallen from 315,000 to 260,000 during the previous 50 Sim years. It looked like gradual, but unarrestable decline, and I was feeling frustrated and depressed.

In accordance with your kind advice, I have since built two new cities on opposite sides of Andropolis, one called French City, and the other called Redwood Heights. They occupy small city tiles, and I developed them primarily as R$ and R$$, with lots of low-class industry and commercial businesses, and strong transit connections to Andropolis. Both new cities developed very rapidly and now have populations in excess of 100,000.

It seems their R$ and R$$ populations commute to Andropolis. Now, Andropolis' has negative demand for R$ and R$$, but strong demand for R$$$. HT-I demand has also soared again. CO$$$ is still negative, but only slightly. For the first time in Sim decades, I'm seeing lovely tower blocks going up, and dilapidated buildings restored to their former glory. I can now confidently plop magnificent, soaring skyscrapers without seeing them abandoned within the Sim year. All is going very nicely now, and I'm very pleased.

So thank you all for your advice. I'm very grateful, because I love my city, and it hurt to watch it failing.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Couple of things might be of help:

1. You don't say anything about the age of your city nor of your residents. Your people could be aging out, retiring and dying. You need to encourage R$ to start the upwardly mobile cycle. Lots of cheap housing and parks.

2. You don't say if you have connecting cities. These are always a good idea. Consider creating some R$ ex-uirbs with minimal CS$ and no industry. Connect with either rail or subway.  In this scenario, you manage the cities, but the main stats are for the region.