Turry Metro Region to Scale

[Superstar 69]

This is looking really good, love the details in it

[Dannato 4]

Project -- Public Transport Network Improvement

This project is mostly happening underground. To provide a symbol of the importance of the upcoming mass transit system renewal everybody can see, I started the project with replacing the major trains stations. First and foremost, West Central Station:

Credits -- King's Cross Station courtesy of BCS/Frogface. This is the kind of station I've been looking for for so long.

Second and more challenging Station: Shedlow Station in the south-eastern ward of Lakefield:

The Challenge is to bulldoze a minimal amount of buildings possible, as they would take dacades to grow again unter the current economic conditions. Credits -- The lot used, Bahnhof Zurich Stadelhofen Station by JEC, is 8 x 6 tile large.

New Shedlow Station:

Plopped on flat terrain the lot looks kind of weird. The lot looks better when plopped at the foot of a hill, like Calatrava's original building. To do that though, I would have to terraform the area behind the station, and sacrifice all the buildings within the light yellow area. The buildings are

[subedei 3]

This is a very impressive CJ and region you have. Keep up the great work and hope to see some updates soon.

 

 

Subedei

[Dannato 4]

Thanks, Subedei. Unfortunately, I can't seem to update very often. Lack of time is one reason but probably I'm just going about it too carefully, and therefore too slowly.

Network Update
I've been working on mass transit on several maps, not just Central Turry. Aldstead, Buchanan, Swansey, and Willis Haven are now connected to Central Turry by underground or elevated rail; Hottington and Lower Tollsbury still only have rail connections to date. Here's a quick and dirty map of Central Turry's subway/elevated rail network. New lines, new neighbour connections and new stations are in yellow.

Most new lines are in the wealthier east, where residential buildings are more prone to delapidation (supposedly due to commute time).

BTW, the transport authority and the city council are still arguing about the names for the new stations, so for now they're just yellow dots. Also, they need to find a new map design allowing to show a larger area and a denser network, which is difficult to squeeze in 800x600 px.

[Edited 10.10.04, transit usage added:]

Transit usage:

https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/files/TMTSusage.jpg>

 

Admittedly, some lines are hardly used, but overall, usage is okay.

 

Here's the Transit Budget:

 

[dscampbell 181]

Dannato, can I just say that I am very impressed with the very realistic way you go about the planning of the projects in your city.
It looks very realistic! I hope to see many updates of this CJ. It is great! One of my favourite!

[utora 0]

Ah! Finally an update! I've read the last 2, and I'd like to comment on your economic situation: the dilapidation of R$$$ sections and the lack of growth. You've already hinted at the possible cause of this. I think balance between R$, R$$ and R$$$ in your city has been disturbed. Of course, nobody wants the ugly R$ areas in his city, but I think they're absolutely necessary for a stable economic situation. Maybe you need to develop some large areas of low wealth residential, commerce and dirty industry in the city. Make sure those areas have low education, because otherwise they'll develop into R$$$ and you don't want that. Another cause might be commute times that are too long. It's a very annoying limitation of the game that residential ares need to be close to C and I. Do you have the Network Addon Mod installed?

The update is (again) stunning! Don't care about developing/ updating too slow. It better be slow and good than fast and rubbish I'd say! Keep up!

[frogface 354]

great region
nice usage of kings cross too , it fits in quite well with the city . i was passing thru zurich a few weeks back, shame i didn' see the cool station. anyway keep going with the updates

[dscampbell 181]

Danato, when will you update again. I want to see more of your city improvements. The look great!

[Dannato 4]

Central Turry reaches 300,000

 

At long last the benchmark has been reached. I doubt there will be any significant increase in population on this map, as the space left will not be used for new residential zones. My aim is keep population above 300,000 while continuing to work on the city.

Thank you all for the comments.

Utora, you're right about the disturbed wealth structure. I like to scatter parks, plazas and the like just about everywhere, and have a very high education level  (200!), so land values are high everywhere. Indeed I had to swallow my pride and bulldoze the delapidated R

[Dannato 4]

South Central: Convention Hall Removal

The convention centre (I call Convention Hall) was built South Central because its nimby effect wouldn't reach residential areas there, and of course, to boost commercial develompent along the South Central waterfront. However, high-wealth businesses keep on shunning the area. Prime real estate supply is just too high. So the Convention Hall will be destroyed and moved.

 

Apart from some ploppable buildings, Some quite dense buildings actually grew, but I'm still not happy with Cox Family Court, the small Retail stores and Crumby Arms - yuck...

 

The new location of the convention centre is Utodown. A middle class residential district close to (clean) industrial zones, bordering the Turry Common.

 

The music industry also has moved Utodown. Credits for EMI Records go to Bandito; for Nokikana Mobile Phones to Prepo.

 

Technical note - You'll notice how I make increasing use of ploppable buildings. For historic buildings -- such the Paris, Old German, and the Madrid Wall-to-Wall sets -- I reduced both park effects and monthly cost with the Plugin Manager. For 1x2 historic-looking buildings, I usually gave a park effect of only 10, radius 20, and lowered the cost to

[andrew george 0]

Very nice station - very different!

 

A

[MrCinatit 30]

wow, dannato, i'm looking at this jouranal and wondering how in the heck i have managed to miss this one! spectacular - professional use of graphics, great city building techniques, a beatiful city layout, great planning, great story...what else can i say?

just, keep up the great work.

[dscampbell 181]

Danato, I realy love this city, it's realism, no grig! It's just perfect! It looks very much like a proper modern european city
I hope we'll see more updates again, I really want to see more of your city! Also, I hope you will continue with your story a bit, since I was really enjoying that

[Ded 30]

Once again you impress me with the realism of this city.

The thought you've put into it is apparant, and the outcome is a realistic european city.


Looks Wonderful,
Le Ded has Spoken

[mayormommy 8]

Darn it, I've been wanting to comment on this journal for a long time and five or six other people always beat me to it.  The amount of care and detail you've put into this city really shows.

[Dannato 4]

You're all being too generous, guys and girls. Thank you so much.

As for the storyline: Ever since my I took over mayor Dannato's job -- in fact his body --, I've just been feeling so constructive, I've almost become a workoholic. All I can think about is my job as a mayor is how to change the face of the City of Turry. My wife -- what's her name again, Letitia -- keeps complaining about me getting home later every night. We haven't been out together for months! -- Why do you only keep talking about your job?! -- It won't be long before she starts questioning me about where I've been and suspecting there must be another woman and childish stuff like this... And as I try to avoid such discussions, I work even later -- it's a vicious circle. I guess pretty soon I should take some time out to focus on my private life a bit more -- and maybe tell you more about my personal story. But hey, I've been mayor for just a few weeks. It's still so new and exciting to me. Let me just complete some jobs before I take up my story again.

Ashley White Redevelopment

There's a picture of Ashley White when I arrived on page 2. I'll just repost that pic:

Today, new landmarks, some commercial ploppables and two major plazas were built, dirty industry bulldozed. Ashley White Industrial is now predeminantly manufacuring with some high-tech and some commerce. The minor league stadium had to make way for a new industrial zone and will not be replaced on the central Turry map.

I had my advisor analyse energy and garbage needs and the respetive neighbour deals. He found found the CSX LSU Waste Tech plant and 8 recycling centres should suffice to produce all of central Turry's waste. So the Waste-to-Energy plants were bulldozed, the two oil power plants by a hydrogen power plant. Pollution dropped significantly, new buildings popped up all over the area:

 

Ashley White now even offers some entertainment facilities: a modern cinema complex with two office towers has been built on between the Williams Square and the motorway. (Top left picture is where me ole mate Pete Mallory used to live back on page 2):

A few blocks further south, new Hartleyvale Square was built, and thanks to new high-tech industries and offices the Courtyard Hotel has chosen this inexpensive location for a new business hotel. Helvetia Automation has grown as well, but somehow the emtrance hall is overlapping the plopped plaza -- little bug I should report to SimGoober, I guess.

BTW - Credits to SimGoober for Helvetia Automation; Cinedom (cinema complex) by Bandito, Kilinco Inc. (the small beige office buildings) by Ryanr

[dscampbell 181]

Great to see an update again! I like the before and after pics, Also I like the planning pictures with the lines and stuff. Hope to see more of that. I really learn a lot from those

Good thing on the story too, that's jujst the little tid bit to keep it going on and in the mind! Good luck!!

[Dannato 4]

Project -- Battery Park Beautification & Renewal

A minor beautification and renewal project: Battery Park is located in West Central, on the west bank of the River Seaule, just a few block south of West Central Station.

The National Military Police Corps owns this block where once barracks used to stand. The city prison you see is a former military prison; it was turned over to the City of Turry when the military dictatorship of Generalissimo Dante Domenico Dannato ended, some 60 years ago. (The general was Dannato's great grand uncle. The National Military Police Corps is one of the last organzations to survive the ending of the dictatorship era.)

 

Recently, the Military Police has been given a more important role again, under the pretext of securing Helvany against increased terrorist threat, among other things. This is why the National Government over in the White Palace has finally overruled city and state officials, who had successfully opposed the project for decades, and the Military Police Headquarters will now be allowed to be built. However, some compromises had to be made to appease the populace, the city council and more importantly, mayor Dannato.

The excercising yard and the adjacent park are fenced in, but the gates will remain open for public access between 10 am and 7 pm except for special occasions. West Central fire station, the historic Battery Park Cemetary and the city jail remain here, a new squad car garage for the Turry Metropolitan Police Services was added, thus increasing public safety throughout Central Turry.

Credits - My National Miltary Police HQ is Hamburger Bahnhof by Erdmoebel. I tried to change it to a police-type building with the plug-in manager, but I couldn't do it. Unfortunately it acts as a museum, pretty useles in a city with an education rate of almost 200, but a great building never the less. Nascrussa plaza by Cerulean. Squad car garage is Sherrif's Substation by Marrast.

[ChicAgo333 2]

this journal is awesome

[utora 0]

I like the Ashley White Industrial map a lot! it's also cool to see the old pic and compare the two, it's certainly an improvement (although I kinda love dirty industry). Your latest renewal project is very impressive too: Battery Park (Hamburger Bahnhof is a lovely BAT). On your last pic I can see two rowhouse-like buildings, right in front of the city jail: what are those? and the building next to them, the pale brown one with the round corner, where did you get that? It could be that I just dont recognize them

[Dannato 4]

Thanks Utora. 

Forgot to mention these in my credits, sorry: The rowhomes you mean are probably the Mediterranean Rowhomes by Frogface. Released quite a long while ago on the STEX, growables. 

The beige building is some standard Maxis commercial building, a shopping centre of sorts, don't rememeber its name.

Ashley White is actually on the central Turry map, as all the pics on this page - my titles are a bit inconsistent and confusing.

[andrew george 0]

I can imagine you receiving court summonses from the relatives of all those dead people's graves you just shifted! Love regeneration, good work!

 

A

[Dannato 4]

Date:9/19/2004 3:49:27 PM
Author:andrew george

I can imagine you receiving court summonses from the relatives of all those dead people's graves you just shifted! Love regeneration, good work!

 

A

quote>

... sometimes I cheat a little on realism... But anybody who dares to sue mayor Dannato will end up right there in that cemetary -- sooner than expected.

[ryleeys 1]

Is your prison having violence issues?

Is that why it's next to the cemetary?

[Dannato 4]

Violence? In a Turry prison? No way, we're a decent country, we're a... democracy! 

**lies & doesn't even blush**

[Dannato 4]

Project -- Eastside Revitalisation

 

After the redevelopment of Ashley White, more medium and high-wealth sims can now live closer to the industrial areas to the West. This has already caused some delapidation on the Eastside, which is farther away from where most of the jobs are.  A yucky view:

 

 

Neil Fairbanks, that pain in the neck, is asking for more low-wealth commercial zones. But I hate those shabby Bob's grease pits and Pump & Scoot Gas sheds. I want the east to be clean, wealthy, appealing. At all costs! To give a strong signal how serious I am about this, I hereby announce that the Mayor's House and the State Court (we have no counties in this country) will be moved to the Eastside.

 

 

I also pushed through a project for a new business district in the ward of New Market, including a large urban shopping centre by a Japanese architect whose name I can neither pronounce nor rembember, plus, a Days Inn Hotel and one not excessively high office building -- the Tucson Tower -- by SimGoober <-- credits, that was. Here's a larger view of the new buildings on the Eastside:

 

 

I hope the ridiculous low-wealth commercial shanties will go away one day. It's just not the style I want in Turry.

 

 

A hole in the skyline

 

The Centre has also seen some changes. As high-wealth office supply is so much higher than demand, I took the liberty of bulldozing most of the CO-

[mayormommy 8]

Nice update - I think capital areas look so much better with height restrictions. Too bad we don't have an ordinance for that. And I can sympathesize with your efforts to chase off Bob's Grease Pit.

[dscampbell 181]

Just when I thought this couldn't look any more realistic, you prove me wrong, AGAIN! the toutch of old buildings makes this city look even more european, and the map prooves this, just look at that, I have maps like that!! they exist, they are REAL!!! very good!

[dscampbell 181]

PS. HEY!!!! you stole that map out of my mapbook!!! GIVE IT BACK!!!

[utora 0]

Impressive update Dannato! Like your mix of old-styles in the historical part of Turry; as for the nuthouse, there's one in KapersBaai, New Holland (It has a beautiful overview on the town and it's harbour, so you might take your wife to it to relax a couple of days....)

How did you create that map? With mspaint? Must have taken you a lot of time!

Great update!