A dilemma regarding CO$$$.

[toll_booth 0]

 I've started a new region, and so far I have this:

  BB

ABB

CDD

EDD

A = Residential city with tax breaks for $$$

B = Mostly commercial city

C = Farm city

D = Hybrid city: Largely residential, plus some commercial and high-tech

E = Waste & power city, with primarily dirty industry

Here's my dilemma: For whatever reason, CO$$$ demand went down, and now I've got abandoned offices all over cities B and D, which is causing unemployment in A and D.  Is it as simple as lowering their commercial taxes, or should I think about starting a new city with emphasis on high-tech industry?

[Jasoncw 11,840]

I've personally found that taxes don't really make a big difference. If you lower the taxes you might be able to squeeze in some more of that type, but if you have the right RCI mix in the first place, you'll get better long term growth without sacrificing tax money.

Also, imo, even though Maxis stressed the gameplay possibility of specializing cities (I think this was a bit of a gimmick), I think it's better to keep each city tile generally balanced within itself. It's easier to manage your RCI that way, and you'll also have shorter commute times, and I also think that it's aesthetically better that way.

[Korot 6]

Toll_booth, you've probably hit a so-called demand cap. To get rid of it, build some plaza's + rewards/landmarks. This should help to develop more CO$$$. That is the only reason I can think of why your CO$$$ demand would drop all of a sudden. Another reason would be installing the NAM with another traffic simulator or un-installing CAM.

Regards,

Korot

[RedImperator 16]

If demand crashed in multiple cities, it doesn't sound like a demand cap problem, unless he hit it in more than one place simultaneously. I would think it's more likely he just overbuilt, especially since it's relatively easy to overbuild CO$$$. Get your zones back in balance and the problem will take care of itself.

[Spinmaster 75]

Among other things check your education - CO$$$ requires well-educated sims, of all wealth levels (primarily mid and low; only about 15% high-wealth workers). Note that if you had a mass-exodus of residents from any particular city, then suddenly "they came back" - well actually nobody came back, they're new uneducated sims who aren't smart enough to demand CO$$$ yet. Dunno if that happened to you at any point, just something to keep in mind in case it did or does.

[toll_booth 0]

Originally posted by: RedImperator

If demand crashed in multiple cities, it doesn't sound like a demand cap problem, unless he hit it in more than one place simultaneously. I would think it's more likely he just overbuilt, especially since it's relatively easy to overbuild CO$$$. Get your zones back in balance and the problem will take care of itself.quote>

I have a hunch that this is the problem.  Which means it's time to do what I suspected all along: Expand some more, with emphasis on high-tech.

[toll_booth 0]

I got it fixed! But not by the method I thought. Starting a high-tech city did little, but unclogging a mess in city A did (see OP).

The problem was some sort of glitch with the way I laid down a pair of one-way roads. One of its intersections for some reason didn't let traffic through like it looked like it should, and being stubborn like they are, the sims wanted no other way to go to work. I fixed that, and all the "no job" zots dropped like flies, which spurred CO$$$ demand in the next-door commercial city!

In city D the ending was not as happy, but since it has a lot less commercial, I just bulldozed the rows of abandoned CO$$$. Mostly CS took their place, which is not as nice, but anything is nicer than abandoned buildings.

[SC4BOY 20]

Originally posted by: Jasoncw

I've personally found that taxes don't really make a big difference. If you lower the taxes you might be able to squeeze in some more of that type, but if you have the right RCI mix in the first place, you'll get better long term growth without sacrificing tax money.quote>

I find that taxes work great for LIMITING demand, but very poorly for PROMOTING demand. If you lower them by 2% and demand isnn't high, then that isn't going to help much. Find the real cause for the demand problem (usually inadequate R supply of the proper wealth) and your demand problems will go away.

Also, imo, even though Maxis stressed the gameplay possibility of specializing cities (I think this was a bit of a gimmick), I think it's better to keep each city tile generally balanced within itself. It's easier to manage your RCI that way, and you'll also have shorter commute times, and I also think that it's aesthetically better that way.quote>

I totally agree here!

[plug 4]

Really, one way streets caused the whole mess? Amazing!!! The smallest details can have such great impact. When you check the traffic charts did it show up as a red mess?

Still some great ideas given by the community.

plug

[IronDogg 0]

Hmm, I would like to see some pics of your situation to advise for sure, but let me speculate on whats wrong with your CO$$$.

CO$$$ demand cap relief will increase with every TYPE of connection you create to neighbours, however will decrease when increasing the number of same type of connections. So for example in your CO$$$ city if you have one road connection, one highway, one monorail, and one passenger train track connection to an adjacent city, then CO$$$ demand cap relief will increase according to the regions "growth extrapolation". As soon as you add a second road, or a second highway, or a second rail connection, then CO$$$ demand cap relief starts to decrease accordingly. Remember that Sim Nation is one neighbour no matter how many adjacent cities you have, so exit your city and name all your adjacent cities so that you can get more demand cap relief from each neighbour.

[toll_booth 0]

Originally posted by: plug

Really, one way streets caused the whole mess? Amazing!!! The smallest details can have such great impact. When you check the traffic charts did it show up as a red mess?

Still some great ideas given by the community.

plugquote>

The sims literally would not drive to work.  Some resorted to walking across the city border, but the rest just hunkered down and stayed home.  This despite the fact that they could have easily taken other routes.  I wonder if their decision was a NAM thing, which I have?

But again, the ultimate source of the problem was a bad intersection.  Once I fixed that, it fixed the unemployment problem.

[toll_booth 0]

Interesting.  I've been building this region slowly, so that once I get to the bigger cities in the middle, they'll have the support of these cities already there.

I put a crude, letter-coded diagram in the OP; see if that helps.