The Rise of Bostonia

[LexusInfernus 908]

Hello everyone, and welcome to history in the making! This journal will tell the tale of the rise of Bostonia and the Bostonian Republic.

Now this is my first City Journal and I cant use photoshop even if my life depended on it, so I doubt there are gonna be fancy banners and such. But hey, who knows, it might still be fun

Anyways, lets start our tale.

Bostonia was discovered in 1900 ST by settlers fleeing from the second Teutonic war that devastated much of the Old Continent. After one month at sea the Settlers finally arrived in the Bostonian bay and made land at what is now called Baymouth.

There they quickly started two small settlements, Baymouth

and New Irwell.

The settlements attracted the attention of more people tired of the constant warfare on the Old Continent and more colonists began arriving in the Baymouth area, with which the need for other means of economic activity other then farming became necessary. This lead to the first industrial zone.

And after 6 years, Bostonia had grown significantly!

I hope you enjoyed my very first City Journal entry, and next time we visit Clifford Bay.

[LexusInfernus 908]

Alright then, today we take a look at Clifford Bay.

Clifford Bay is named after its mayor, Marc Clifford, who is also the one who initially pushed the idea that Baymouth and New Irwell werent growing fast enough and that expansion was necessary. Clifford got what he wanted and was given leave to settle the Inner bay area north of Baymouth and New Irwell. One year after the first settlers from the Old Continent had begun construction on Baymouth and New Irwell, the first brick of Clifford Bay was set.

Clifford's argument that the initial settlements couldnt grow fast enough was proven correct as Clifford Bay itself also grew extremely fast, attracting new settlers who couldnt find a home in Baymouth or New Irwell. In fact, it grew so fast that a secondary settlement just north of Clifford Bay had to be set up as well, called New Bridge, probably because a bridge was build to cross the river. Eh, who ever said that settlers are the most original when it comes to names right?

This is Clifford Bay after 6 years.

And New Bridge

Despite the best efforts to keep up with housing demand, this little village sprung up around the farmers market. Though technically illegal, the mayor is a practical man and knows that it would only cause more problems if he tears down the place. Instead, he ensured that all houses are up to building safety standards, until a better solution can be found.

Further adding to the difficulty of expanding his town are the regulations set up by the newly created 'Bostonian Nature Committee' who pesters him with zoning permits that need to be approved by the committee. However, Clifford recently got his plans for more work and housing approved and the removal of forest has begun on the two future building sites.

Things are looking good for the residents of Clifford Bay, and indeed, the residents of Bostonia as a whole!

Next time, we look at how Bostonia has been forced to deal with new refugees/settlers from the Old continent.

[Liszak 48]

Really nice small town feeling you have here! And almost with no building BAT's. Superb! Oh and by the way...where did you get that rock texture instead of beach texture?

[Mithrik 562]

Nice work you've got here! Though you should turn off the grid when taking pictures. Just press the letter G.

Keep working on it!

[LexusInfernus 908]

Replies:

Liszak: Thanks! Im aimig this to be a sort of natural growth kind of CJ, so I think this will eventually turn into a big Metropolis kind of CJ. Also, that arent beaches, just rocky slopes. I use the ENN Rock Mod set 1 by Ennedi instead of the default Maxis brown rocks.

Mithrik: Thanks for the tip! Ive been playing it for so long now that I no longer really notice the grid

Update:

As the conflicts on the Old Continent intensified, more and more people fled overseas, to Bostonia. These refugees used all manners of transport to get out of the war, most commonly freight ships, where they would pay the captain and the crew of ship a great deal of money to secure a place in the hold of the ship. Some captains made a fortune just shipping refugees from the Old Continent to Bostonia.

This particular captain had converted the containers in temporary hab containers, as to transport more people in one go.

However, once they arrived in Bostonia, they quickly found that they had a problem. While the Bostonian bay was deep enough for ships to pass through, the waters closer to the coast were not, and no coastal city had the money to run a dedicated harbor at that point, or the tools to deepen the waters closer to the coast so ships could get closer. So in order for the ships to unload the passengers, they often had to be put into life boats and been row to the coast, which proved to be a dangerous task, and extremely time consuming.

So the Bostonians searched for a solution, and in 1907 New Haven was founded.

For now, still a small town, but is growing rapidly due to the influx of new arrivals from the Old Continent. However, it has a passenger ferry, which sends passenger ships to newly arrived ships with refugees to pick them, so they no longer have to row towards the coast themselves.

This is of course more efficient, as well as much safer for the refugees who often had a cramped and uncomfortable journey, fleeing from war. This little harbor is also equipped with a small registration station, which helps refugees with questions and can tell them where to go, as well as giving them a starter loan so they can buy or build a new house either in New Haven or somewhere else in Bostonia. As more refugees pour in every day, New Havens refugee facilities are rapidly being expanded. No doubt we will see more of New Haven later.

Next time, we return to Baymouth and New Irwell!

[LexusInfernus 908]

Alright, its time for another update!

Today we return to Baymouth and New Irwell to see how they have grown and to take a closer look at some of the things going on there.

We start in New Irwell that has rapidly increased in size, with two major new areas added to it.

The first is a new small shopping district, which will serve as a hub for future urban expansions, and is located at the eastern approach from Baymouth.

The second area is mostly an expansion of existing residential areas located in the west side of the town. However, the expansion has been big enough that the mayor and the planning council are considering upgrading the street to a main road as to meet increasing traffic and avoid jams. The red line shows the proposed upgrade.

The only problem is that there is a house in the way and the residents might not like their being turned into a main road. Therefor the planning council has scheduled a meeting with the residents of the affected street. Analysts predict that the town may have to compensate for any financial loss due to decreasing land values.

Meanwhile in Baymouth some of the youth is getting unruly.

Clearly this increases the fire hazard and also looks bad in general. While some citizens call for the creation of a police force, many feel that the town is still to small to pay for such a force, and that this behavior is simply caused by the lack of facilities for children. As placing a playground is considerably cheaper then creating a police force, the mayor and the town council quickly joined in to support this view.

A few weeks later:

The creation of a Bostonian police force will have to wait for another time.

The Bostonian Nature Committee has declared that this pond and its direct surroundings are the habitat of a rare bird, and it is forbidden to remove any forest or build any houses close to the pond. Much to the chagrin of the mayor and a number of citizens, who had rather removed the pond as its also a source of mosquito's in the summer.

Finally, some of the richer Bostonians had pooled some of their wealth and created a private school for their children. Much to the delight of the teachers, who are glad that they are rid of the annoying parents that always complained that the school was not good enough for their rich brats.

Right next to the local public primary school, which has led to a fierce rivalry between the students of both schools.

Finally, a picture of the local undertaker. He lives next to the graveyard, and the memorial center/undertaker service are located right in front of the graveyard. Business is booming for the undertaker as many of the refugees fleeing from the old continent are weak and sick, and many do not survive the trip. He has requested that the graveyard area is expanded, as the graves are quickly filling up. The mayor is currently considering his request.

As a bonus, a shot of the region by 1911.

Next time, more towns are founded. We are gonna take a look at how they are doing.

[Benedict 3,119]

Nice work. And I haven't seen a TP crime event in a cj in a long long time!

[vivapanda 422]

I really like what you have here!

[Fox 1,444]

Love the look of the region .. very pretty and creative.

Please when you take pictures remember to turn the grid off .. using G in game, this also turns it back on.

The town looks good, although could do with some more custom content as the maxis stuff looks pretty outdated. Try ==Click Me== Must be a member of SC4Devotion to download.

Keep up the good work!

[LexusInfernus 908]

Just some replies for now, as Ive been pretty busy with uni the past week and didnt have that much spare time. Expect a proper update soon!

Replies:

Benedict: thanks! I really liked the TP'rs so I thought I put it in here

Vivapanda: thanks!

Fox: Thanks! But credit where its due, I use the Boston v2 map from the Stex found here

And I feel like slapping myself in the face now. For so long Ive been trying to find nice first stage alternatives to the maxis homes, but somehow it never occurred to me to search for 'homes' so I never found anything other than residential towers. So thanks for that Expect more custom content in the next update.

[LexusInfernus 908]

Alright, today we are going to take a look at the Derry Cliffs area, which is located east of Baymouth. The Derry Cliffs are named after the person who founded the first settlement in that area, Johannes Derry, a priest who led a group of people escaping the war on the Old Continent. It took him and his band of refugees almost half a year on board of a ship before they finally arrived in New Haven in 1912. By that time the survivors had grown so close that they requested to be allowed to set up a settlement for themselves, so they could remain close together. This request was granted in 1913, and they were assigned a piece of land which they could begin to settle. And in honor of his leadership, it was named after the man who, according to the survivors, made it all possible.

So, we go to the initial settlement, named Lancaster, after the area where Derry and his group where initially from.

Initially only less than 100 people started in Derry, but as Bostonia was still taking in more and more refugees, that number quickly grew, and soon it was decided to found a second settlement. Calling it Jeffries Valley, it quickly turned into a successful farming village.

Located nicely at the edge of the woods, the people here enjoy the relatively small size of their village, and the peace and quiet that comes with living so nicely in the woods....for now.

As it turns out, Derry Cliffs is one of the fastest growing areas in Bostonia. In 5 years, over 10.000 people have moved over to Derry Cliffs, making it their new home. The people suspect its because of the new car factory that decided to move to Derry Cliffs, bring many new job and other business opportunities to the region.

In fact, the car factory became so popular that a small settlement is growing right next to it. It has not been officially recognized yet by the local authorities as a separate village, but that is expected to happen soon.

On the way from Lancaster to Jeffries Valley we find the new home of Johannes Derry (the small corner house opposite of the church).

At first, the people wanted Johannes Derry to become the mayor of Derry Cliffs, but he made it clear that he was not interested in politics, instead prefering to preach the word of God, and help newcomers, often refugees as well, with settling in as much as possible.

Alright, this was Derry Cliffs for today, next time we go to one of the other newly settled areas.

Comments are always welcome

[Schulmanator 5,815]

It looks like you are making good progress. I look forward to seeing more of your work.

[LexusInfernus 908]

Replies

Schulmanator: Ah sorry that I edit this in, I kind of forgot about replying >_< Anyways, thanks!

Weeee, time for another update! Yaaayyyy

So Derry Cliffs wasnt the only new area that got settled in 1913. At the same time that the first settlers began construction on the first buildings of Lancaster, another group of settlers moved to the area directly north of Derry, and settled the area directly next to the river Bostonia, after which the whole region is named. And how originally, the colonist thus named the region Bostonia, just as they named the first settlement Bostonia. The scribe coming up with the names clearly wasnt the most creative. In any case, Bostonia has two settlements, Bostonia and Seagull point.

We begin with Bostonia, which is the northern settlement and not actually directly next to the river (as the name would suggest), but instead in a clearing in the middle of the forest that grows along side the river banks.

It is however growing rapidly and is expected to reach the river banks in not to much time.

This is the 'Virgin cliff' and is located off the main road towards Clifford Bay in the East. It got its name after a young but very pretty Bostonian jumped into the Bostonia and drowned after suffering from a severe depression caused by the traumatic events she experienced while she was still living on the Old Continent and on her way to Bostonia. Many of the younger sims from both Clifford Bay and Bostonia use it for long romantic walks next to the cliff among less innocent things. Many of the older Sims consider the name 'The Virgin Cliff' to be completely inappropriate because of this.

Next is Seagull Point, supposedly named after the many seagulls that lived there. It is true that indeed many seagulls can be found there, but whether that is because they were always there or because all the Industrial waste attracts them remains a cause of many debates.

Since Bostonia is a booming region as well, with just over 9000 citizens by the end of 1918 Seagull point had to expand and chose to expand along the main road connecting the industrial center and Bostonia. This led to the creation of Seagull Point-North in 1915.

The two shopping centers along the main road are going to replace the few older shops that used to stand there. It is rumored that one of the shops includes a Sandwich shop which will undoubtedly attract a lot of customers who pass it while commuting to their work or back home.

Alright, that was the update for today.

Next time, were going to take a look at whats happening Further away from the main settlement in Bostonia.

  Edited October 25, 2012 by LexusInfernus  

[LexusInfernus 908]

Alright, time for another update

So, today we are going to look what has been happening outside the main settlements around the Bostonian River/Bay. Because as it happens, a small settlement has sprung up in a bay in the north East of the Bostonian bay, and several smaller settlements have been set up along the way towards it. So, lets take a look!

The road starts in Clifford Bay where it goes straight to the north. After a while we reach Starfish Bay, and the first signs of human activity since Clifford Bay are seen here

While most of the farms in Baymouth and Clifford Bay are actually owned by the city and used as a way to secure food and as work project for citizens, these farms are actually owned by individual sims. Since there is also more space here, these farmers have also begun planting trees between the different farming plots, in order to prevent the wind from doing to much damage and preventing plots overtaking other plots. It is clear that these farmers are professionals compared to the city planners that created the initial farming plots in the rest of the region!

Moving on we reach the actual settlement of Starfish Bay. Its not much more than a small village, with most people working for the farmers or in the shops.

We cross the bridge and go further north.

Now we reach the area of Sherborough and Sherborough bay.

The area is officially uninhabited, although there is a lookout tower, used by bird spotters. A little further up, the road turns to the east and we go in the direction of Hampton.

Hampton is another little farming town, and here the farms are again also owned by individual citizens instead of the city. Here we also see the use of trees to demarcate the different farming plots.

The town itself is also not really more than a quite sleepy town, though that is likely to change in the future.

Further east we reach the area commonly referred to as the 'North Coast'.

There is a tiny spring here that leads to the coast, and a small bridge crosses it. From the North Coast area its only a short drive to our destination: the Keegan Bay area.

Again the first thing that we see are the farming plots. These one in particular are owned all by farmer Tomas Jones, who currently owns the biggest farm in all of Bostonia.

A little further down the road we finally reach Keegan Bay. Keegan Bay was founded by settlers in early 1908. These settlers however did not at first land in New Haven like most others but went straight to land, not waiting for the ferry to pick them up from their ships. Although they soon made contact with Bostonia, growth was slow due to the distance between the main settlement and Keegan Bay, as well as a lack of good roads. However, ever since the road was completed in 1915 growth has been steadily been increasing.

And finally a quick overview of the road we traveled today:

Please excuse my horrible paint skills

Alright, thats it for today. Next update coming after Im done installing some more plugins

  Edited October 29, 2012 by LexusInfernus  

[Schulmanator 5,815]

The development is coming along well.

[LexusInfernus 908]

Replies:

Schulmanator: Thanks! Roughly 97000 people in the entire region now

Look what arrived a few weeks ago More custom content is coming!

Update time!

Today we start in New Haven where something big is happening.

As more and more ships with refugees are arriving, its becoming clear that the ferry used to unload ships just doesnt have the capacity to effectively and timely deal with every new ship. Thus, the Bostonian regional council approved the plan for creating a small harbor. However, as the Bostonian coast is rather cliffy and hilly, making it hard to find a suitable location. In the end, New Haven seemed the most suitable, although some terraforming needs to be done first. Thus the work on leveling the ground in order to make place for a harbor began.

The area inside the red pocket is going to be terraformed so a harbor can be build. Construction on the harbor is expected to begin in two years from now (1919).

So, for now we are going to leave New Haven behind us, and look at something else entirely. INDUSTRY!

Since Bostonia is essentially an independent colony consisting of mostly refugees from the Old Continent, and having no real trade relations with any of the nations on the Old Continent, it means that the Bostonians have to manufacture almost everything themselves in order to enjoy the benefits of modernity. There are several thus several industrial centers set up, spread all over the Bostonian area. However, the majority of stuff is produced in the largest industrial center, which lies partly in Baymouth and partly in Clifford Bay.

This is the part in Clifford Bay. The large factory partly covered by smoke is a paper production factory and supplies all the paper in Bostonia. Most of the other factories are smaller workshops creating all kinds of appliances. Its estimated that roughly 80% of all the end products are produced in the factories in Clifford Bay.

This is the part that is located in Baymouth. Most of the factories here focus on processing raw materials and turning them into more basic components the factories in Clifford Bay then use to create their end products.

Some limited hi-tech industries have recently started in Baymouth creating more fine parts required in the more sophisticated products produced in Clifford Bay.

Meanwhile in Hampton, more sophisticated gas extraction methods have allowed for limited exploitation of a natural gas bubble located just off the coast.

Alright, that was the update for today.

Comments are always welcome

[Schulmanator 5,815]

It looks like development is coming along well...

[Bidoflazy 8]

Can I download the map anywhere?

  Edited November 15, 2012 by LinkinParkMan123  

[wingarrum 0]

Won't all that gas extraction cause some pollution?

[LexusInfernus 908]

Hello there, sorry for the lack of updates. I had to hand in some papers, so not as much time as I would have liked to work on Bostonia.

Replies:

Schulmanator: Thanks, it is coming along quite well

LinkinParkMan123: yes, yes you can. It is on the Stex.

wingarrum: A little yes, but in general gas extraction is quite a clean process. And using it as energy is certainly more cleaner than coal. However, the engineers at Bostonia are certainly aware that cleaner methods exist. That is why many of the areas in Bostonia also make liberal use of wind turbines. Though some people complain about them 'ruining the view'. And you need a lot of them to get a decent amount of energy.

Alright then, today we take a look at Baymouth/New Irwell and Clifford Bay, as quite a few things have changed.

In Baymouth the first high rise apartments have been build, in order to preserve space. Baymouth has only been growing and room to expand is getting limited. Already the city council had to rezone agricultural areas in order to make more space for newly arrived citizens.

And with the situation on the old continent still being dire, the inflow of refugees has not stopped.

Over here is the newly build business district. Business is booming and the old main street in Baymouth simply did not offer enough space for all the offices that needed to be build. In order to quickly satisfy the need of office space, the city planners decided on a cheap, easy to build standard office building, which is the one made out of brownish red bricks. However, citizens have complained on how ugly they look and the city council is now looking for more architects to add some variety to the office buildings.The city council is also also planning to build the city hall somewhere in this district, though no destination has been decided on as of yet.

This is the new New Irwell. Traffic increased to the point where the city council rebuild the old main street and turned it into an avenue. Increase in population has also led to the construction of a number of quickly build hab blocks. Architects are still looking into ways to increase the size of the hab blocks without making them to expensive for the average person.

Moving on to Clifford Bay

The biggest change however is the switch from government owned agricultural businesses to privately owned farms. Though it has been done before in a number of the outlying communities, farmland was still owned by the city itself in Baymouth and Clifford Bay. However, as journalists exposed the inefficiency on which these farms operated the public put pressure on the city council and the land was privatized. As you can see, this radically changed the face of the city, as farms started producing wheat and corn instead of just fruit and dirt. The city council was only able to sell the land when it promised not to touch the land for at least the next 50 years, thus forcing the city to develop in another direction.

Meanwhile, what started out as an unofficial, not entirely legal suburb of Clifford bay, has now become fully attached to the main part of Clifford Bay, connected by a new avenue.

Clifford Bay itself has also developed quite a bit.

With two high rise residentials, and several lower high rise residentials now dominating Clifford Bay's sky line.

Finally, Clifford Bay has turned itself into the regional trash disposal center. Although it was the only place with a landfill and a recycle center, it is now actively taking in the trash from neighboring cities. And this is all possible thanks to the brand new trash disposal center that has been build.

The center is so high tech and efficient that despite the increase in trash, it still managed to greatly reduce the trash dumped on the landfills.

Thanks for reading, comments and advice is appreciated!

[LexusInfernus 908]

what is this? Another update? So quick? Yes indeed, another update, this quick

Today we are going to revisit New Haven.

The harbor has been constructed and put into good use. Two ships are currently docked, and the dockworkers are hard at work to unload the second ship.

The capacity to unload new refugees has been greatly increased, and with the container terminal set up, some limited form of trade with certain cities on the OId Continent is now possible as well!

There is one problem however. While on the previous location, the long time it took for refugees to unload gave the authorities in New Haven plenty of time to process the newely arrived, the increased amount of people coming in these days is so much that the authorities are unable to keep up. This results in refugees having to live in those shipping containers sometimes up to three weeks before they can be processed and sent on their way. This naturally results in a lot of crime, and while the local police outpost does its best, they are understaffed and have trouble to keep the peace. The city council however, refuses to spend more money on a larger station for just the harbor area. Is this how the first organized crime syndicates find their way into Bostonia?

Here we see one of the newly build suburbs. Cheap housing and a good connection to services and jobs in the main part of Bostonia make it an excellent place for the newly arrived people from the Old Continent to start their new lives in Bostonia. After they are processed by the authorities of course.

However, for most new refugees who decide to stay in New Haven, there is no place in a fancy suburb, and they end up here.

Life certainly isnt as pretty there, and despite the city council's attempt to make the place a little more attractive by placing a playground on the corner, the liquor stores are still doing great business in this part of town.

So much business in fact, that the local clinc couldnt handle it anymore and a new hospital had to be build. The first one in Bostonia. The citizens of Bostonia have mixed feelings about it. At the one hand they are proud of the fact that their city has a state of the art hospital earlier than everyone else, at the other hand, they are a little ashamed of the fact that most of that state of the art care goes to combating alcohol poisoning.....

And here we see the city council's attempt at combating the alcohol problem. By adding more green to the city they hope to attract more businesses to the city who hopefully employ more of the now alcoholics, or at least replace the liquor stores with something else. It remains to be seen if this will actually work.

Thats it for now and feel free to comment.

[Schulmanator 5,815]

You have made a LOT of progress here. Nice work

[vivapanda 422]

Great to see the region grow so rapidly, both in quality and quantity!

[LexusInfernus 908]

Replies

Schulmanator: Indeed, I had been playing for very short periods. Never enough to really make a CJ entry out of it. But lots of small bits of progress make up for one big piece of progress I suppose

vivapanda: thanks! This is my first CJ and also the biggest region Ive ever made. I usually lost interest before my region even hit a 100.000 residents. Now Im almost at 190.000 already. Not a lot compared to a lot of CJ regions here, but Im breaking new ground here, so Im glad to hear my work and my cities are improving

Well, I got another update (papers are all handed in so I clearly had spare time this week). Today we take a look at the Crater Coast area.

The Crater Coast area is named after the crater that has been found very close to the coast (how original!). The only expert currently living in Bostonia believes the crater was caused by a small meteor about 5000 years ago. Either way, in the past 10 years a city has begun popping up next to it. Either way, the crater itself has proven to be an attraction for tourists and all other sorts of people, which has caused the rapid growth of Crater Coast itself.

The crater here seen at sunset. Some picknick tables and a small toilet have been set up for tourists who want to spend the day at the crater. People are allowed to swim in the lake that has formed in the crater, and many believe that the water has magical healing powers. The parking lot has obviously been set up to accommodate the tourists wanting to spend some time at the crater.

The crater is not the only reason why tourists are attracted to Crater Coast. Further landinward there are some stunningly beautiful forests that are excelent for people who love to go on walks. For now no official paths have been set up, allowing sims to hike through untamed wild forests.

Crater Coast is very much aware of the fact that one of its main attractions is its nature, and has therefor been very careful about polution.

Only clean wind energy, and absolutely no industry anywhere in the area.

Of course, an enterprising sim has set up a luxurious hotel resort for the richer tourists to enjoy their holiday in Crater coast with style. No doubt soon more will follow.

And no self tourist hotspot would be complete without a bustling shopping district. Although for now most shop sell your standard tourist junk (the local 'healing stone' and fake bits of meteorite business are doing very well indeed).

However, after much promoting by the Crater Coast Chamber of Commerce higher end stores and businesses have begun setting up in Crater Coast as well. .

This rapid expansion and the bright projected future has attracted many of the better paid sims, and many perceive Crater Coast now as the hottest place to be. Or at least, that is certainly what the real estate agents are telling everyone.

The increasing landprices and the bigger villas only seem to back up this idea. Certainly if you are a real estate agent

Anyways, that was the update, thanks for reading and comments are always appreciated

[Pepe The Great 228]

wow, absolutely loving it, are there any future updates? i can't wait to see this small town to become a cosmopolitan!

[LexusInfernus 908]

Replies

fdjw0808: yes there will be future updates. In fact, here is one right now

The following is taken from the Bostonian Enquirer, Bostonia's most respected news paper.

Scandal rocks Bostonia City Council

Three months ago this entrance to the River Rock mall was a scene of festivities as Bostonia's first super mall was opened by the Mayor and City Council chairman, Nathan Greene. Today, the River Rock mall and chairman Greene are at the center of a corruption scandal and the source of a local outrage. So, what happened?

One year ago, the City Council gave the green light to build the River Rock mall. It was expected that such a large mall would attract businesses from all over area to set up shop in Bostonia, thus giving a significant boost to the economy, as well as attracting more Sims to come and live in Bostonia. The City Council had funded a study into whether such a mall would really attract enough business to remain sustainable as well as in cost to the city. The rapport the City Council received stated in its conclusions that the costs to the city would be 'bearable' and that 'businesses would be lining up to rent a space in the new mall'. Based on the conclusions of this rapport the City Council voted in favor and a week later construction began.

Soon the first problems appeared. A part of the malls concrete foundation had not mixed properly and a part of the mall had to be torn down and rebuild in order to get it up to the safety standards, costing the city of Bostonia rivers of cash. 2 months later another part of the mall had to be bulldozed and rebuild after it turned out the water pipes throughout the building were leaking and had to be replaced, adding to the delays and costs of the projects. What should have been constructed in 6 months took 1 year to complete at double the original estimated costs.

Then finally during the grand opening of the mall, only half of the mall space had been rented out to businesses, effectively leaving half of the complex abandoned and closed off to the public. 2 months ago this paper made inquiries at City Hall asking when the rest of the mall would be opened to the public.

In a press conference at City Hall, chairman Greene stated the following "We are currently negotiating with a number of businesses about renting a place in the mall and we expect to have fully rented out the mall by the end of this month". He followed up by stating that "Renting out space in the mall has proven to be a bit slower than expected, I would like to point out that the areas surrounding the mall have been fully rented out and developed and are a great success."

However, it is now two months after the press conference and there is still no sign that more mall space has been rented, and the building looks abandoned and neglected. "It was supposed to be the pride of our city, but now it just looks shabby" says local resident Tammy Meyers. "I live across it and every time I open the curtains I have to look at that place. It wouldnt be so bad if they kept it neatly, but no one bothers with that part."

"Its weird how clearly you can see which part is rented out and which part isnt. Its like the building is cut in half, with a good part that functions as its supposed to, and a part that doesnt. Well, I kinda suppose that is the case here anyways." Says another resident who prefers to remain anonymous.

"It is bad for the entire neighborhood" says Police Chief Williams of the first and only Bostonian precinct. "Because it clearly looks like its empty, it attracts all kinds of unwanted elements. For now we mostly had to scare off drunken teenagers and some homeless people using it as shelter. But it is only a matter of time before it attracts junks and drug dealers. And then we can kiss the whole neighborhood goodbye" he adds. And indeed, statistics already show an increase in crime in the area around the mall, with 48 reported incidents, a 70% increase from last year.

However, the worst is yet to come. The Bostonian Enquirer recently received proof of corruption within the City Council. We received a rapport (for the full report, go to our website www.bostonianenquirer.bo/riverrock/report.pdf) which contradicts the conclusions of the rapport the city council used when they originally voted for the River Rock project. It bears the same author of the original rapport and in many cases appears to be the same as the original except in certain key areas, mostly when it comes to predicting the speed in which the mall space would be rented out. While the rapport the city council used claims that the city should be able to rent out 90% of the mall space within 90 days after construction has finished, the new rapport claims that it could take up to 5 years before 90% of the mall space would be rented out. It also mentions that such a mall would produce a lot of extra garbage and polution, which are neither mentioned in the city council rapport.

An anonymous source within the City Council claims that the rapport the Enquirer recently received is actually the original rapport, and that Chairman Greene changed it to make the River Rock Mall look more attractive to the rest of the City Council. After some digging the Enquirer found that Chairman Greene had been invited to a number of fancy dinners and golf matches with the chairman of the construction company who build the River Rock Mall. And bank statements show that chairman Greene has received large amounts of money from the same chairman, just before and after the vote on whether to go ahead with the construction of the River Rock Mall.

The Mayor has issued a "full investigation in the claims of Chairman Greene's corruption" and will make further comments on the situation in a press conference tonight.

However, some members of the city council already openly speculate about the fate of Chairman Greene. "It no longer matters if he is innocent or guilty, there is a clear conflict of interests here, and we have been lied to with this fake rapport, which he oversaw and bears responsibility for. He has to resign" said Florence Thomas, City Council member. "It seems unlikely that the chairman can weasel his way out of this one" says Tanya Roberts vice chairman of the City Council.

[vivapanda 422]

Great story!

[RepublicMaster 428]

Great stuff...ooh a scandal!

[Schulmanator 5,815]

Lol! You have a clever way to address the partial abandonment phenomenon. +1 for that! Reminds me of my hometown mall... The run down part anyway.