City Population bottlenecks

[besdayz 1]

Just wanted to get some input on why my city is sort of stuck at 77,000 population for some time....

commerce 24000

industry 23,000

i have NAM installed

a passenger rail system that runs from the edge of residential all teh way tthru commerce and to industry (HT)....

good bus system

there's a heavy industry city next door with about 40,000 people......

couple of questions:

1.  is it a good idea to replace my rail system with monorail or elevated rail?  are those faster options?  i've downloaded

some high capacity monorail stations and hoping that would solve some issues..  and i like the way they look especially after i use hole digger and create some tunnels from which they emerge into my city........

2.  i have lots of parks, trees, and rewards spread aroudn nicely in appropriate zones....overall very good desirability numbers and mayor rating near 100.....

3.  my caps are

    3%/11%/5% for R$/R$$/R$$$

    1%/3% for CO$$/CO$$$

    3% for HT

   demand is neg for co$$ and co$$$, r$$$, and HT. positive for everything else....

4.  wondering if building a highway system is a good idea at this point....i've left spaces....

5.  is an airport required?

i guess i'm flying a bit blind as i don't know what steps to take next to truly grow the city.  skyscrapers,etc....

i'm just wondering if the failure to expand has to do with transport, demand, zoning?

if anyone can suggest some methodical checklist sort of approach.....

[Malos Z. Irkinia 0]

I'm no expert in this type of stuff, but the tutorials have taught me a thing or two.

First of all, what type of density residential do you have?

Do you have water for your medium to high density zones?

Do you have high demand for highrises?

[zahrul3 472]

Well, an airport is required. Just build your airport in the neighboring city, then connect it to your primary city using the Airport Tram. Look it up on the STEX and it might still be there.

[weareanidiot 1]

I don't think you need an airport since caps are not a problem. Try getting more residents, especially R

[Retep Molinari 68]

Here are my thoughts:

Rail

I wouldn't upgrade your rail yet. You don't have enough people going far enough to warrent an upgrade. If you did anything, I would make one light-rail-on-avanue down your major corrdiord, but that's it. You have enough jobs within the city where communting to a neighbor shouldn't be a big deal.

Airport

Having the smallest airport for now--or a bigger one with the fundign way low-- will help you, so get that going.

Other Transit

You should get some bus lines going. Also, have roads and at least one freeway (if you can afford it) to the outside, for the industry.

Parks, Education, et all

Make sure you have lots and lots of parks and a strong education and health system. These can keep yourt city capped low

[besdayz 1]

i get a lot of zone more office zones requests windows.....and commuter airport windows......but my active demand for those zones co$$/$$$ are in the negative...i don't get it. and the few areas of med dens. comm i do zone, very little grows.....

i do have a lot of high density regions...i'm not sure if high dens buildings have grown in all of them. all are watered/powered...

i have a plan to zone a 2nd commerical city center and build a highway connection to the main cbd......

if i can find the airport tram i'll put the airport in the industyr city.....

i'm thinking i should start a 3rd city in the region but not sure....i want it to start exploding with growth but i'm not sure if i should make it a 2nd industry center, a huge residential aria, a suburb, or another commerce city.......

[tungston 19]

Originally posted by: zahrul3

Well, an airport is required. Just build your airport in the neighboring city, then connect it to your primary city using the Airport Tram. Look it up on the STEX and it might still be there.

quote>

The tram doesn't actually connect to an airport in a neighboring city.  It is an airport relotted to look like a tram.  So you don't need the other airport for it to work as an airport.

[Yuu Caa Sim 55]

I find that having two times as many residents as total jobs (C+I) is most conductive to growth. Looking at your population levels, you seem to have too few residents. You should zone for more residents either in the existing cities or in a new city.

Also important is what kind of city you want. You say you want skyscrapers (office skyscrapers I presume). This will require having residents of all wealths and educations, although there is more emphasis towards medium to highly educated R$$, along with some higher educated R$$$ and some R$. In your new residential zones, you should adjust desirability so that R$$ will be the most likeliest to grow, and then educate them to the required level. After your residential demands are satisfied, you should begin to see demand for Co $$-$$$. Fulfilling that demand will in turn create demand for more residents. Keep this cycle up and your commercial population will eventually surpass its population threshold for skyscrapers.

It will also be around this time that you should consider building an airport or the airport tram mentioned above IN the city with all the commercial skyscrapers. This will relieve that demand cap and allow them to continue growing. With all the residents travelling to work, this will also be the time to consider building highways and elevated rail (or monorails if your residents are far from their jobs). Continuous checking of the traffic data map for orange to red areas will identify bottlenecks as they appear so that you have a good sense of when and where to upgrade your transportation network.

Be sure not to zone or upgrade your services too quickly, otherwise you may have trouble managing your finances. Also check out the omnibus (linked at the top of every page). There are more resources there on expanding your city by number and by aesthetics. I hope the advice my give will help you in creating a nice and successful city.

[Riot55 2]

Originally posted by: besdayz

i get a lot of zone more office zones requests windows.....and commuter airport windows......but my active demand for those zones co$$/$$$ are in the negative...i don't get it. and the few areas of med dens. comm i do zone, very little grows.....

quote>

first off, light commercial are still considered office, just low capacity ones.

You need a good mix of all the parts, including medium density residential to expand growth.

Transit and commute times will make areas less desireable.

Trees are a tip around buildings. wont get more into that tip...

and yes, outside cities help.

I just did smart growth and had my taxes up at 9, and now they are down at 7. had them at 3% for high wealth just now so i could fill my downtown. I'm now at 130,000! 

[BowynAerrow 0]

Get an airport.

Zone in more residential, commerce and industry.

Get or make some fill-in parks be they simply base textures at a low monthly cost, or be they tree covered tiles, start using them to fill in the extra spaces in your city blocks. If you go with plain grass tile, add mayor trees.

Do not use a highway system inside of your city. Use it to connect outlying cities that have residents to come in to work in the city, or that has jobs. Use them as your only road connecting cities.

Monorail doesn't do much, except make nice pollution and in my opinion is an eye sore. Use subway systems. These are out of sight, sims appear to love the underground and keeps pollution down.

Taxes:

7 or lower. 8 will keep things going slow - 9% will make things very slow - over 10 and you will see sims leaving.

Co$$ and Co$$$ require educated sims. HT requires sims with brains. R$$$ is the fruits of a higher education.

Education is key to many steps in the game. Having a couple of schools, a couple of libraries will not fully educate the sims. Lots of schools, lots of libraries, museums, university, a couple of colleges (one to start, but think of a couple later on).

Make a "My Sim" have him/her move in and travel about with him/her - send him/her here and there and see what it thinks about the neighborhoods it goes through. One is all you need, trust me if you think the news ticker is a mess to keep up with, wait until you have a sim that seems to want to bend your ear all the time. A useful tool to get an idea of what your city needs in various areas of your city.

Work Regionally with about 5-6 neighboring cities - work their education and health upwards. You can keep a population of 5000 sims in a 'town' and just run the simulation with schools and they will slowly push the demands up. The easiest way is to work toward a few cities with 5,000 populations that have been around for a while to start generating medium and high wealth dwellings.

Mind if your city develops quickly to begin with, population size increases faster than education, then when you reach 70 to 80 thousand there will be a bit of a lag until their education gets higher.