San Diego County (Re-settled)

[davidhogan 1]

heh, lake erie is a lot browner, and murkier, than the pacific ocean...  cleaner, less rocks, and the surf makes it look a lot nicer out here than the Hamburg Town Beach i went to growing up.

 

yeah, the water texture is a little weird, and i am thinking about changing it, but then i need to load and re-save every single map with water in it...  we'll see. 

 

and if i do that for realism, i'd probably need to add a homeless mod or something to simulate all the beach bums that live out here. 

 

dave

[+Guest]

Yeah, the Pacific Ocean rocks compared to the Atlantic.....on my trip to LA we went to Venice Beach one day, and the beach was sooooo awesome....it wasn't rocky AT ALL!

[davidhogan 1]

Unfortunately most beaches in Southern California aren't all that natural - most require millions of dollars of maintenance a year to keep them covered in sand because of erosion.  Venice Beach is by far one of the better beaches in the US though, I can't think of many places I'd rather go for a real beach vacation.

 

And now, the update.

 

 

Park Blvd Becomes CA-308

 

 

The City of San Diego was recently fed up with waiting for state and federal funds to alleviate some of the northbound traffic on I-5 trying to get into downtown from Coronado - so city officials decided to upgrade Park Blvd south of Broadway to I-5 up to freeway grade.  The picture above was taken immediately after Construction Phase 1, when Park Blvd continued north of Logan Heights.

 

 

In the Golden Hill neighborhood this was the first phase of construction, before the hospital and airport tram were re-located.  3 shopping centers were also required to be destroyed after Stage 2.  It was at this point CalTrans responded to our requests for help with this project, and assigned us the road number CA-308.  We'll get to why it's 308 later.

 

 

A different angle, upon completion of the south end of CA-308, The South Park Freeway.  The ramps to Market St may be restored because of the size of the cloverleaf, and to encourage more use of CA-94 into downtown.

 

Overall, even though there is still significant congestion building south and east of downtown, this project so far is a smashing success.  Over 18,000 cars pass through the I-5/CA-94 interchange just east, but I-5 at least is flowing freely now.

 

 

So why did CalTrans give it the designation CA-308?  Mostly because I asked them to.  San Diego is hoping that it will become an Interstate 8 Spur route down to I-5, effectively allowing CA-163 to serve traffic from North County with less congestion.  Chances are CA-308 will intersect also with I-805 and I-15, both of which the county recently was notified it receive funding for.  Construction is expected to start as soon as the population starts to grow out to the areas they are planned to serve.

 

Questions?  Comments?  Suggestions on the routing of the northern end of CA-308?

 

Dave

[+Guest]

Run it northeast for a little more, then pretty much just plain each. And construct a highway parallel to I-8 out past I-5 or so......it's build up a lot there, I-8 must have a lot of traffic!

[davidhogan 1]

Northern Urbanization Zone

Carmel Valley / Mira Mesa / Sorrento Valley areas growing

 

 

CA-163 has now been turned over to Interstate 15, shown in the bottom of the image.  I-15 continues north past Miramar Way/Kearney Villa Road/Black Mountain Rd (similar alignment to the real streets, I think).   It currently ends at Interstate 8, but is planned to continue south to I-5 at a later time.

 

I-805 through Sorrento Valley has been started, to enable freight to exit Sorrento Valley.  Getting to jobs there from downtown requires navigating local roads still, but the Mira Mesa Blvd and Vista Sorrento Parkway exits have been completed.

 

 

The current roads, as constructed.  This area is the one I live in, so it's actually staying pretty close to the real roads/avenues.  (From I-805 on Mira Mesa Blvd they are built as Camino Santa Fe, Camino Ruiz, Black Mountain Rd, and Westview Parkway.  I know I have I-15 a little west of where it should be, but that's because of how the maps got cut.  (Mira Mesa Blvd doesn't follow it's exact path either, i'll probably compensate by completing Mercy Rd to Calle Christobal.)

 

 

Just for reference, this is how this area is really built.  Kearny Villa Rd is a 4 lane ground highway IRL, formerly US-395, which is why the 163/15 merge is so far north on my map.  Also in the past year Camino Santa Fe was completed to Miramar Rd, not shown on this map.  Keep in mind, I'm not looking at any maps building this, I only put this here so I'm not confusing people as easily. 

 

Dave

 

Also CA-308 will be constructed soon, anyone but iamrobk have thoughts on the routing?  (If anyone says nothing now, then complains afterwards you'll be doing things JUST like the real San Diego's residents.) 

[skeeterfly 0]

This is looking great! I'm from LA and I've been down to San Diego a few times. I had a couple of questions. Where did you get the Navy ships from? That Aircraft Carrier is AWESOME! Also, how do you get the state & interstate highway symbols???

[davidhogan 1]

Date:8/10/2004 4:34:51 PM
Author:skeeterfly

This is looking great! I'm from LA and I've been down to San Diego a few times. I had a couple of questions. Where did you get the Navy ships from? That Aircraft Carrier is AWESOME! Also, how do you get the state & interstate highway symbols???

quote>

The freeway symbols are all made with ShieldsUp! and put into the images with Photoshop.  The Aircraft Carrier is from Pegasus Productions , as are most of the naval lots and the beaches.  I think he'll have the files on his site sometime soon.

And now, an update.

Linda Vista

This is a small planned community that sprouted up recently along CA-163, north of Mission Valley, just south of where I-805 intersects CA-163.

There's a small industrial park just north of CA-163, but mostly it's just low density housing.

Dave

[subedei 3]

Looks awsome David. keep up the good work.

 

 

Subedei

[davidhogan 1]

Mira Mesa Continues to Grow

 

 

There's been growth near downtown, but we're waiting for confirmation of a freeway name before I showcase that.  For now, that's the North County Urbanization Area, as shown a few updates ago.  It's been growing rapidly as well, and as shown the county's population is now over 650,000 people.

 

 

The neighborhood above has no commercial or industrial zones yet - all 7000+ residents commute to neighboring Northwest Mira Mesa (east) or Carroll Canyon (south) to get to work.  This has led the residents of NW Mira Mesa and Carroll Canyon to be rather upset, but there's no alternate routes to work until Camino Santa Fe is completed to CA-56 across Carmel Valley, but even then CA-56 is still in it's concept stages and won't be completed until the North City areas grow out more to the north and east.

 

 

Heading south we find Carroll Canyon; a mix of industrial, commerical, and residential in the East Hills.  Mira Mesa Blvd (shown) and Carroll Canyon Rd are the only two East/West connectors open to traffic from I-805 to I-15 until CA-52 is completed, or Miramar Rd is opened to traffic.  (It's shown on the maps, but until developers finish work along it it's only open to local traffic.  In other words I have no population yet in some areas it passes through.) 

 

 

I'm realizing I made a big mistake labelling that picture.  It's actually Mira Mesa Blvd. @ Camino Ruiz, but it's already made and uploaded so I'm not going to worry.  I know it, you now know it.  I think we're okay.  The point of the picture is to show some of the traffic frustrations residents are feeling.

 

 

At rush hour Mira Mesa is nearly gridlocked - at least on Black Mountain Rd and Mira Mesa Blvd.  I did not intend to re-create this in the game - I've built Mira Mesa much differently than the real thing, yet those are two of the most congested roads in the city in real life. (Both had FFF ratings in 2003, meaning total gridlock at peak hours.)  In SC4, they're both still bright red.  I might need to add busses someday soon.  (Commute times are still quite reasonable though.)

 

Questions?  Comments?  Ideas?

 

Dave

[davidhogan 1]

San Diego County Breaks 750K Population Barrier!

 

 

San Diego County is now three quarters of the way to a million people.  The construction of the new CA-308A freeway (which has only two exits, CA-163  and CA-308) has decreased traffic significantly on Broadway into the Golden Hill neighborhood. 

 

Other significant gains against traffic congestion have been made by extending the subway network into areas of Golden Hill along Market Street and near East San Diego University along the eastern edge of Balboa Park.

 

To the south the subway now runs to the industrial parks of Barrio Logan, which itself has seen a few high-rise apartments built.

 

Coronado Island also has received a downtown subway loop, funded mostly by an increase in density across the whole city.  Plans to add another line in Coronado are developing quickly.  This subway system in turn feeds the new ferryboat system, which is planned to expand operations to Harbor Island soon.

 

 

Downtown has continued to experience growth as well, with over 200,000 residents in the 2km x 2km square officially labelled downtown.  (Keep in mind over half the land is the San Diego Bay or Balboa Park.)

 

Don't worry though - San Diego isn't going to become an all-skyscraper city.  The sprawl is still happening to the east, and along the I-15 corridor, and all along the coast as well.  Region shots soon.

 

Dave

[andrew george 0]

This looks great David! Congratulations on reaching 750k!!!

 

A

[rubberduck 3]

Great Job, Never been to San Diego, but it looks great!

[davidhogan 1]

Thanks for the comments, I just found a little program called Region Census that let me get this shot of SDC:

 

http://img5.exs.cx/img5/518/bigregion-pre.jpg width=357 border=0>

 

That's a link to a bigger copy of the picture, about 650KB, so it'll take a while on dial-up.  (You've been warned.)

Dave

[eppisgood 6]

That is an awesome region screenshot.  I'm going to have to search for that program.

[+Guest]

Hey cool. Your using my map. Thanks!

[Sabretooth78 808]

I've been using Region Census for my CJ as well.  It's a pretty neat program, I also like being able to dump the region data into Excel to figure out population rankings, etc.

 

Nice looking region, btw!

 

-Chris

[davidhogan 1]

Clairemont Expressway / CA-296 Opens To Traffic!

 

 

This shot, taken just 4 years ago, showed the already re-located police station, and the freeway segment that had been already constructed east of the Bay Terrace community.  This was an interesting freeway construction project, because the only opposition came from businesses facing Clairemont Dr.  The avenue was at about 100% of capacity causing long delays for commuters trying to get between I-5 and I-805.

 

 

Real estate developers moved in quickly to build up the entire length of CA-296 almost as quickly as it was completed.  The tunnel passing under eastern Bay Terrace was constructed in order to keep the freeway from entirely cutting the community in half.

 

 

Upon completion of the new freeway CalTrans agreed to give it the number CA-296 and take on maintenance of it.  To the locals, it's still called the Clairemont Expressway.

 

Dave

 

[andrew george 0]

Good work Dave!!

 

A

[davidhogan 1]

Regional Road Map

 

http://img25.exs.cx/img25/1047/region-roads-pre.jpg width=600 border=0>

[davidhogan 1]

Community of Bird Rock Welcomes Millionth San Diegan

 

 

The new community of Bird Rock (between La Jolla and Pacific Beach) helped push San Diego County over the 1 million residents mark.  This park-filled community is the junction of Foothill Blvd, Mission Blvd, and La Jolla Blvd, as shown in the left side of the above picture.

 

 

A mixture of condos, single family houses, and small shops makes up most of Bird Rock.  This area along Mission Blvd is a great area to take Aunt Trudy when she shows up for a vacation in San Diego, but not at 5 pm on a Friday.  The traffic is the only complaint most residents have though, and with the beach-front real estate, most don't mind it that much.

 

Dave

[Dan DeVille 0]

Congratulations on hitting the million mark. Now, how did you make that junction?

[davidhogan 1]

The three-way avenue junction is part of the newest version of the Network Addon Mod.  It's in Mods -> The Essentials, and there's an 80 page thread about it too.  It's the reason I have so many half-interchanges too. 

 

Dave

[davidhogan 1]

Wow!  20 days since my last update...  Really, I've just been busy, so not playing SC4 as much as I'd like, and it's almost all been really spread out.

 

Recent construction includes:

 

Portions of most areas between Pacific Beach and CA-56 west of I-5.

Portions of I-15 corridor near CA-56 (Rancho Penasquitos and Poway areas south to Miramar Ranch.)

West and East stubs of CA-56 (just like real life for over 10 years.)

Areas of Carlsbad

Small segments of I-8 corridor West of CA-15

 

Pictures soon, but there's really not much to show other than low density houses and roads carved into hills.

 

Dave

[Superstar 69]

This is one of the best rreal life based Cj's, I see hard work and detail, great job

[subedei 3]

This a good re-creation of San Deigo. Cant wait for some more updates.

 

 

 

Subedei

[davidhogan 1]

Mount Soledad Regional Park Named

 

 

The expansive open space has been purchased and taken over by the city of San Diego to protect it against any further development.  The park stretches from close to Mount Soledad Blvd, down to Pacific Beach, east past I-5, and north past La Jolla Parkway (the West end of CA-52.)

 

Areas along the PB Foothills and in La Jolla are being reserved also to create a Shore to Soledad park, continuous open space all the way from the beaches of La Jolla to Mount Soledad Regional Park.

 

All current development within the borders of the park has been allowed to stay, but no new construction will be allowed except in the antenna array as needed.

 

 

There's about 15,000 people living on the hill right now, but the city council has repeatedly stated they will not add more burden on the strained traffic network of Pacific Beach/La Jolla by increasing residential density any higher.  (There was a new legistlative action that rezoned much of Mount Soledad Blvd, shown above, from low to medium density commercial shortly after the picture was taken.)

 

 

This area was the last part of Mount Soledad to be developed.  You can see that the zoning planned to make this area a more walkable community, with shops (and jobs) offered off the main blvds back into the neighborhood.  The Tops shown above is one of the most successful in San Diego County.

 

 

There's been talk of elevating parts of CA-52 to allow animal undercrossings.  This photo shows why.

 

Dave

[SkyTearer 10]

WHOA all this talk about Atlantic Beaches being rockey, i've lived in FL my whole life, going surfing at the beach practically ever weekend and have never in my life seen a rock (well actually a piece of coral) over 6 or so inches. BTW great CJ

[flanig407 0]

Date: 9/30/2004 10:25:52 PM
Author: SkyTearer

WHOA all this talk about Atlantic Beaches being rockey, i've lived in FL my whole life, going surfing at the beach practically ever weekend and have never in my life seen a rock (well actually a piece of coral) over 6 or so inches. BTW great CJ

quote>


I've lived in FL for the past 11 years. Our beaches are no where near the type of beaches in Cali, and vice versa. Heh, I've never really seen a rock at the beach either. I've been to Daytona Beach, New Smyrna Beach, Miami Beach, Clearwater Beach and the beach in Naples, FL. I'd have to say the gulfcoast beaches are Florida's finest. Would you agree?

[SkyTearer 10]

Very much so for lazy vacation beaches, not for surfing though, atlantic is amazing, we've been getting 7-8 foot perfect glassy barrels coming in the last week, and we do get truely amazing waves sometimes up here in Ponte Vedra Beach and Jacksonville Beach. And did you know the #1 rated beach is continental US is in Florida, i forgot what city though

[davidhogan 1]

as good as i've heard florida's beaches are, every surfer i've ever met has said you can't do much better than San Diego without heading to hawaii.  there's a place in La Jolla that's, well, just amazing.  i don't think SC4's terrain could recreate the cliffs you need to hike down to get to it, but it's worth it. 

 

i've seen a few surf magazines mention everywhere from San Clemente (northern edge of SD county IRL), to Sunset Cliffs are the best places to surf, but i'd have to pick La Jolla myself.  if only other drivers there could learn how to handle a stop sign. 

 

Dave