Cardiff: An Engineer's View!

[GreekMan 246]

Introduction

 

Hello and welcome to my next City Journal! This City Journal was largely inspired by Nyhaven by wooodb3kmaster. This CJ will follow a civil engineer as he embarks on making Cardiff a better place to live. I will try to update once a week if I can. I have to juggle high school, football, and karate during the week but my first semester is full of half days and no school days so you can expect an update on those days! As you will see I have put a lot of work into building this region. I hope that this CJ will be even greater than my pervious city journal, Halifax! Ok enough of this jibber jabber let’s get to the update!

 

Update 1: Arrival

 

 

“This is you captain speaking, we will be arriving in Cardiff in a few minutes. The local time is 4: 25 and it is a cool 72 degrees outside. Fasten your seat belts and put you seats upright. Thank you.”

 

 

Ahhh, I was coming back home to Cardiff. I had lived in San Diego for about ten years getting my PhD. in civil engineering (my other degrees were in geography and history). While living in America’s Finest City I got a part time job with SANDAG, a regional planning agency in San Diego. Deciding to go to San Diego State instead of the University of Cardiff was a shocker for my parents. My whole family went to local universities within Victoria. I was the first to leave by going to SDSU.

 

As the plane got lower to the ground I could see in the distance Downtown Cardiff.

 

 

With a load roar and a heart pounding thud the plane landed. “Welcome to Cardiff,” said the captain. “Keep your seat belts on until we stop.” A short time later the plane reached the terminal and the seat belt sign came off.

 

 

I waited at the carousel and collected all be luggage having quite some difficulty with it. After I got all my belongings I decided to buy a newspaper:

 

 

 

Once I got outside on that partly cloudy day I decided what form of transport I should take to my apartment bus, subway, or taxi. After a few seconds of thought I hailed a cab.

 

 

Within no time, I reached Hotel Circle, a new multimillion development created by the city to allow tens of thousands of people to stay at the airport. When I lived here, Cardiff was in desperate need of hotels. Of course Hotel Circle was a huge debacle and was opposed by many liberals. Eventually they took little interest over time and moved on.

 

 

Finally we reached the expressway. Surprisingly traffic was not bad at this time. Normally the airport was always congested. We passed the suburbs and the end of the city limits of Cardiff.

 

 

Within ten minutes we reached the neibourhood of Memorial Park. I thought to myself that I should come to Memorial Park on a Sunday afternoon and relax by the lake.

 

 

 As we got closer to my new apartment, traffic seemed to get worse. I remembered why I came back to Cardiff. The city’s head engineer was caught in a huge money scandal and was forced to resign. The city had no trouble hiring a local to help rebuild a city disgraced by the engineer.

 

Eventually the buildings seemed yo get taller as I got closer. I was a nice change from seeing  the suburban expansion.

 

Traffic did get worse as we got closer to Uptown or Greektown. We got off at Danforth St. and I could see a street full of excitement that was full of Greek shops and restaurants.

 

 

We reached Constantine Square, a round-a-bout which had a huge Greek flag in the center. Greektown was truly a very ethnic neibourhood.

 

 

The taxi turned right and I got a glimpse of my new apartment. I would be on the highest floor and I would have a pretty nice view!

 

 

“That will be $38.50,” said the taxi driver. I handed him the money and he left. I heard a huge truck rumble behind me and turned around to see the moving truck with all my things. It was right on time and I couldn’t help but smile. I was back in Cardiff!

All comments and welcomed so do your part and help me out!

[GreekMan 246]

Fast facts about Cardiff

 

Name Motto	City of Cardiff Een Draght Mackt Maght (In Unity, There is Strength)
Population	City: 500,000+ Metro:800,000+
Government	Mayor(Paul Sullivan) -7 council members -34 Districts
Established Founder	1821 Sir Robert Macdonald

 

Area	5386 km² (2,079.5 sq mi)
Density	289/km² (748.5/sq mi)
Transport	-Cardiff International Airport -BART(Bay Area Rapid Transit) Bus, Rail, ferry
Nicknames	-City by the Bay -The Jewel by the Ocean

Table of Contents:

Page 1

Update 1: Introduction and Arival

Update 2: First Day of Work

Page 2

Update 3: Friday Night Lights

[jacqulina 162]

fantastic work you have done my friend

[TmiguelT 10]

... Wow another engineer's view CJ... This is gonna be Awesome ! Great Start and nice set of pictures..

I hope you have a nice stay in cardiff and enjoy your new job.

I'll be keeping an eye on this CJ

[chrissc94 1]

It's finally here! The city looks great, especially the skyline. I can't wait to see more of the city, and how the engineer improves it. Great job!

[Hawkeye9 0]

Wow spectacular start Greekman!!! The city building looks awsome, i love the airport, Hotel Circle (San Diego!!!), and the suburbs aswell!!! Im excited i finally get to activate the link in my Sig. for this CJ!!! Lookin forward to more!!!!!!

[ironicepitome 0]

very nice! and right on schedule!

[Equilibria 16]

This looks nice already, and it looks like you'll have a lot of fun expanding and improving. Good luck!

[thepokemaniac 18]

This region looks great!

[buildsolid 4]

WOW nice start here greekman, just one question, did the ritz carlton grow?

[crazychickensc12 84]

Hmmm... My only concern is finding parking around the Hotel Area by the airport..looks a tad slim! Great start to this CJ and I look forward to some more beautiful pictures!

And in response to buildsolid, the Ritz Carlton should have a plopable, I have it and used it early in my CJ as a plop.

[Duke of York 23]

Excellent Start to your C.J ! I loved it ...

Memorial park is great .

Sincerely,

Duke of York

[Schulmanator 5,787]

Nice start! My magic 8 ball predicts great things for Cardiff

[woodb3kmaster 342]

This is all eerily familiar... That being said, good job on your first update! I like your variety of BATs, and the whole city has a very coherent feel to it. Commiserations on not winning the Simlympic hosting rights this time around, but there will be other opportunities down the road. Don't forget to keep backups of your region on another hard drive or flash drive, so Cardiff doesn't suffer the same fate as Nyhaven 1.0! You can bet I'll be following Cardiff closely.

[aiumkastarkius 0]

Awesome start, I'll be back to read this one.

[Cleaner475 150]

Great work - It looks fantastic, can't wait for another update - Nice newspaper, I love a newspaper

Richard

[Raysfan16 5]

Wow, that intro is very creepily similar to Nyhaven, I hope Zack is ok with it...

Anyways, nice update! I can't wait to see your adventures with connecting all of the city!

[City2TheMax 3]

you've got a fascinating intro

[pickled_pig 7]

Looks nice. I've not looked at Nyhaven yet, so I can't comment on the similarities and differences.

[GreekMan 246]

Replies

jacqulina-Thanks a lot jacky!

TmiguelT-Yes yet another one! Thanks!

chrissc94-Yes there will besome  fun times here. Thank you!

Hawkeye9-ahh the loyal fan  has arrived and I thank him! Hotel Circle! yes yes. I think i might put Mission Bay here too.

ironicepitome-Yep I thought Sept 1st was today but I had to do it before school last week. Thanks!

Equilibria-Thank you!

thepokemaniac-Thanks I agree too!

buildsolid-Yeah it's a grow/landmark thing. Thanks!

crazychickensc12- I will be building more parking in the future and thanks for comming!

Duke of York-Thanks a lot Duke!

Schulmanator-Thanks and I hope so too!

woodb3kmaster-Yeah the first few updates will be similar to yours and then I go into a different direction. Ahh well what can I do about the Simlympics. i lost to a better candidate no worries. How do you back up this stuff up?

aiumkastarkius-Thanks!

Cleaner475-Thanks an dmore papers will come!

Raysfan16-Don't worry I asked him about it! Thanks and it will be a challenging thing to do!

City2TheMax-Thank you!

pickled_pig-Thanks but you should see Nyhaven too!

WOW! 17 comments that must be a first for me! Thanks for all of the comments now here's the next update!

Update 2: First Day of Work

> 

>

Beep…….Beep…….Beep>>

> 

>

It was Monday, the first day of work…..I turned off the alarm and two minutes later I was in the shower. After the shower, I got dressed and had some breakfast (two eggs and toast) while watching the morning news. Ten minutes later I had my briefcase in one hand and coffee in the other. I walked to the subway station a block away from my apartment and took the Green Line to City Hall.

> 

>

 

Twenty minutes later I arrived at the station and I was astounded to see it packed with so many commuters.

>

I fought my way up a few escalators and got above ground and stood in the presence of City Hall.

>

I walked in and asked the receptionist where my office was. She pointed me to the East Wing of the building and within no time I was at my office. I was putting things away and organizing everything when there was a knock at my door. I turned.

>>

“You are John Petruzzo, right?” said an aging man at my door.

>>

“Yes sir.”

>>

“I am Tom Brewer from Mayor Sullivan’s office.” After shaking hands he told me that the mayor called a meeting to discuss lace w:st="on">Cardifflace> and also to introduce me to my fellow colleagues. So after the short introduction he headed to the board room and took our seats.

>

>

Within no time the mayor came in. We took time to introduce each other and after ten minutes the meeting started.

>>

“Welcome everyone! lace w:st="on">Cardifflace> is in the midst of a population boom. Jim Honeycutt, what are we expecting?” Mayor Paul Sullivan said. I turned to see the head of the Planning Department standing up to speak. He put up a few pictures on the power point and said, “Thank you mayor, lace w:st="on">Cardifflace> is expected to add another 230,000 in regional population within the next five years. As you can see suburban expansion will happen across the bay as Metro Cardiff will create new towns.”

>

>

“Yes as Mr. Honeycutt has said, there will be a major population increase within five years,” said Mary Junefield from the Airport Authority. “The airport will be going under some major construction projects within the next ten years.  We are going to experience over crowing if we don’t work fast. In the end we have three runways and an estimated 8-9 terminals with over 100 gates.”

>

>

Mayor Sullivan spoke, “With all of this increase, transport improvements will have to be made. Our Freeways are all ready congested and subway lines don’t reach the outer suburbs.”

>>

“What about the subway lines?” I asked.

>>

> >

>>

“As you can see the subway line will need new lines as well as extending lines to increase ridership. Ridership is projected to increase by 300% after all improvements have been made. So as you can see John you have a lot of work to do.”

>>

“Yes I do. Thanks Mr. Mayor,” I said and looked at the map again.

>>

The slide changed and I heard a young Michelle Chrétien, head of Tourism speak. “lace w:st="on">Cardifflace> is in need of a major attraction that will bring in more people. My department has proposed a new tower to be built in downtown to compete with other world cities. I think it is necessary to have a building that can enhance our world image.”>>

>

(Don't you just love photoshop!?)

>

“So there you have it. I will go to The Prime Minister and ask for more funds to build all these projects. We are all dismissed and thanks for coming,” The mayor said.>>

>>

Everyone stood up and left the board room one by one.>>

>

Can someone tell me how to remove these arrows.>

[bluemoose 223]

yes.. I see the problem with the arrows, but...

THe cj is nice... I dont like how the city just STOPS at the end of the suburbs.. I feel like there needs to be something else...

[buildsolid 4]

Hope the improvements to the city happen fast..........don't want to see this city colapse and have no idea how to remove the arrows, all I know is that its from transfering from word to here.

[Sky Guy 163]

Wow! This is so exciting! I cant wait to see all the construction!

Sorry- not sure about the arrows...

[N106 10]

Interesting update. Looking forward to more!

[Follarch 326]

You're filling up those tiles nicely, looking like on large metropolis is springing up on that bay.

Good work!

[Shilka 0]

I really like your close ups and story in this update. And wow, your city already seems HUGE!

IMO your airport is in dear need of taxiways so the runways can be cleared faster for traffic, but I see there's lots of building going on, so I'm curious at the next update

[woodb3kmaster 342]

Looks like John has his work cut out for him. That's plenty of projects to work on for the next few years! You're definitely setting Cardiff up for a long, successful run.

I keep backups of my regions and plugins on an external harddrive. Harddrives aren't cheap, but if you want to ensure that you don't lose all your work, it's the best way to go. I don't update my backups as often as I probably should, but I think copying your Documents/SimCity 4 folder onto an external drive every week or two is probably frequent enough to prevent losing too much work if disaster strikes.

[Hawkeye9 0]

Wow a very nice update Greekman!!! You should definatly create a mission bay and continue adding San Diego names!!! I really enjoyed reading the text and to be honest the arrows didnt bother me at all!!! I really look forward to see all the renovations put into action!!! Lookin out for more!!!

[Helborne 0]

I'm enjoying your CJ very much so far, I especially like the proposed layouts you've made to show the expansion of Cardiff.  Also did you make an intentional Tom Goes to the Mayor reference?

[jacqulina 162]

awesome close up shots my friend,great region views too