Ralston Metro Area

[meinhosen 11]

http://img370.imageshack.us/img370/8610/ralstonsplash9fi.jpg align=baseline>

 

Welcome, and an Introduction

Welcome to Ralston, KY; located on the southern shore of the Ohio River.  Built where the RW Louisville, KY is, this journal is going to be a brief tour the current city and surrounding area, and a shared lesson in urban and suburban redevelopment and development.  This is not going to be any sort of an attempt at recreating Louisville, however my goal is to share and recreate an aging Midwestern US industrial city.  And where better to do that than the southern portion of the Rustbelt and Ohio River Valley.

 

http://img370.imageshack.us/img370/5461/ralstonthumbnonames800x4134ki.jpg align=baseline>

 

A fairly recent regional view.

 

 

Teaser Shots and Info

 

 

http://img370.imageshack.us/img370/4561/ralstoncityhallplaza8pt.jpg align=baseline>

 

http://img370.imageshack.us/img370/6869/7thandashton5nl.jpg align=baseline>

 

The corner of 7^th Ave. and Ashton Blvd., downtown Ralston, KY. 

 

http://img370.imageshack.us/img370/1001/ohioriverrustbelt9ws.jpg align=baseline>

 

Heavy industry and abandoned homes just south of the Ohio River, as well as a small railyard.  (the river is slightly south of this photo).

 

http://img371.imageshack.us/img371/8459/greenwoodburbs13tm.jpg align=baseline> 

Suburban development south of the City of Ralston.  Seen here in the early morning, you can make out a few earlybirds getting an early start on the inbound-downtown traffic.

Cheats n such

First, all of you should know that I enjoy playing as cheat-free a game as possible

[Darmok 34]

Looking very good meinhosen!

I liked the sun reflecting in those windows!

The region map looks very challenging, will keep an eye on this!

Best of luck with it!

[Her.Little.Cookie 0]

awesome start, i love your city hall!!! best of luck with your CJ

going to have to keep on eye on this one

[oroen 0]

These are my favorite types of cities (at least in this game), that typical feel of the northeast or midwest. You've presented a nice variety of teasers to get our appetites whetted.

[sloppet 3]

nice work so far! the pictures are very nice!

[jacqulina 162]

great start nice work so far

[Traffic_Jam 0]

Awesome start!

[bazzuka 0]

Awsome start and very niceCan't wait for more pics.

[halo_lover 1]

You stole the name of my old CJ:
https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/view.asp?topicID=51451&forumID=36&search=1&searchstring=

I really don't care, just an odd coincidence, eh? Good luck with yours.

[Simshoe 0]

Great start   hope you can keep it up and nice city hall too.

[meinhosen 11]

Hey, thanks to all of you who took time to reply!  Let me provide some feedback.

Darmok-  I can't believe I forgot to add you to my list of inspiration and thanks!  My apologies.  And I never really thought of the region as being challenging... I actually thought it was pretty easy to build on, being as it's so flat.  Hope to see you back!

 

Her.Little.Cookie- Glad you liked the City Hall.  Stick around, I've got some great shots of that whole area (it's my personal favorite part of the whole city).

 

oroen- Thanks for the comment.  You don't know how much I sweated when I opened this topic, knowing all the other awesome CJs out there, and it made my day to read that I'm not the only person who likes NE/MidWest US urban areas.

 

sloppet & jacqulina & Traffic_Jam- Thanks for stopping by!  Glad you liked this small, teaser update- I think you'll enjoy some in depth visits in and around the city.

 

bazzuka- I appreciate your comment!  Thanks!

 

halo_lover- I knew there was another Ralston on ST, and I didn't mean to steal the name.     If it interests you (I think it's weird how this worked)- way back in the original Sim City (now SC Classic), my very first city was named Ralston.  I've managed to use the name in every iteration of SC (SC2k, SC3k, SC4).  If I had screenshots of all the old Ralston's, I really think this one's the best.

 

EDIT

Simshoe- you posted while I was typing this reply.  Glad you liked the city hall, and yes, I too hope I can keep it up, at least for a little while.

 

Here's a taste of what's coming (hopefully on Sunday or Monday).

http://img106.imageshack.us/img106/2971/foxchapelin0xs.jpg align=baseline>

 

On the banks of the Ohio...sunset at Fox Chapel.

[Superchan 23]

looks good.

[palmgurl 1]

yeah it looks good

[Mikeaut1 261]

Meinhosen - great suburbs, very nicely worked out. Great work, looks promising!

[Gen 0]

 

Mer

 

 

 

http://img370.imageshack.us/img370/6869/7thandashton5nl.jpg align=baseline>

 

 Meinhosen,

 how did get the three lane avenue which is shown on top of the picture?

[sirgeoj2 1]

This is looking very nice!!  Great pics!  Looks like this will be a quality CJ! 

[Darmok 34]

Meinhosen,
It's exactly because it is mostly flat that I find it challenging! When you work in a map with lots of denivelation all you have to do is adjust them to your liking. But on flat land you must rely on other tricks to put your work in valor!
And as far as your region shot is concerned the overall distribution of your zoning looks quite convincing.
Again best of luck with your CJ

to GEN those avenue comes with the NAM, or if you prefer the long name, The Network addon mod. There is a link to it on the home page in simtropolis.

or you can click HERE

 

to meinhosen I just wanted to help, sorry if I intruded.

[dfnva 34]

Good luck, the region looks interesting and I like the contrast between the city and the suburbs.

-Dan

[meinhosen 11]

Here's some feedback before I start Round II.

 

superchad & palmgurl- Thanks for visiting.

 

Mikeaut1-  Thanks for the comments on the suburbs.  I've been experimenting with designs and layout, and I think those turned out exceptionally well.

 

Gen- Thanks for visiting, looks like Darmok handled the response to your question.

 

sirgeoj2- Thank you for the compliment.  Quality is what I'm striving for, and let's hope that only gets better as time goes on.

 

Darmok-  Don't ever worry about intruding.  I've always been scared of working in mountainous regions, mainly because they were so hard to work around in previous versions of SC.  I think that it's great how different types of terrain can bring out different forms of beauty in the game.

 

dfnva-  Thanks for your comment!  And I'll be showing just how contrasted the urban/suburban areas are in a week or so.

 

---

And, without further adieu,

UPDATE 2

 

North of the River:

This is southern Indiana.  Rural, small-town America.  My home and the place where my heart always is.  You really can

[Traffic_Jam 0]

Great job!

[sirgeoj2 1]

Another great update!  I like the farms, and the pond with the gazebo.  I like that train too!

[Nardo69 51]

WOW.

Great start. I guess I am going to love this one!
I like that pic with the avenue intersction and the church. Perfect shot! Not more to say about it.

Your region view with the skyscrapers, the suburbs and the large rural area is one of the best region views I saw here ever.
The pic with the farm, PEG's stream and the cables from the powerline - undescribable real and beautiful (you may have flatten the road a bit though IMHO).
The lake with the gazebo great. And I like that you still have the powerpoles. My poles and power lines disappear since my plying style is covering as much tiles with lots as possible.
And the last pic with the freight train is a real nice sweetie for a railway fan like me!

Keep on with this great work!!!!

Nardo

[ACEfanatic 7]

Wow... reminds me of paletexan's stuff...

Ah, the good old days!

-ACE

[gggg 9]

Very lovely region. and nice pics.

I see a great future for this CJ..

[Simshoe 0]

Great job with the farming towns and exellent region pic. Keep it up

[meinhosen 11]

Update 2.5

Thanks so much to all of you who took time to reply.  This is a hit and run update for me, RL calls and this is my breaktime activity.   I'll be responding individually to each of you Friday.

 

Enjoy the train watching.

 

http://img294.imageshack.us/img294/8549/vanderveldttower15cy.jpg align=baseline>

 

http://img294.imageshack.us/img294/9681/vanderveldttower27bo.jpg align=baseline>

 

More to follow at this busy RR crossing.  Thanks, ardecila, for the interlocking tower.

 

http://img294.imageshack.us/img294/3823/suburbiarepublican12ma.jpg align=baseline>

 

Suburban Ralston

[____----____ 37]

i really really really like those houses please tell me are they on the STEX

 

.............runs off to look...

 

great pics by the way

 

Alek

[oroen 0]

I really like this redrawing of this particular part of country, and though I've never lived there specifically (although central PA certainly has its similarities), from my visits to the area I can see what you mean by its being a very unique region of the country.

A few specific things I really like from some of the pictures:
>The view of SR147, with the farm and the single house, and the stream and rail tracks and power lines running alongside--so typical and real and just nice to look at.
>The dirt trails, farm fences, irrigation canals, wildflowers... so many rural lots that fit together so well here.
>I like the view of Regent, with the occasional commercial building between houses along the street... and the obligatory church... just the kind of look you'd expect in such towns.
>The freight trains look great through the region, especially the one from the previous update crossing over the irrigation canal. (I can tell you were going for just the right look in that picture )

[Traffic_Jam 0]

Very nice!

[Nardo69 51]

Hey, I like this smaşşll update on the run!!! Especially that RR crossing makes me wish/say/scream/shout: