Eureka! --- Planning For The Future

[louisville327 0]

Welcome

[louisville327 0]

Introduction

Welcome to the city of Eureka, a fast-growing harbor town on the verge of a major population boom. As the years pass, this journal will track the urban growth and development of the city focusing on the individual districts within as well as the region as a whole. Eureka is the sister city of nearby Bend, which it shares a region with. Bend may seem familiar if you've followed Adventures In New Urbanism , my first city journal.

This journal will follow a slightly different format, more focused on the city itself, rather than the adventures of a single protaganist---though he will no doubt make some appearances.


The format will consist of three types of entries:

1) Region and district overviews with maps and statistics, including detailed explanations of growth and city planning strategies.

2) A more contemporary version of the traditional city newspaper

3) The urban planning misadventures of our favorite protaganist from New Urbanism, told in the first-person, of course. Unlike my past journal, he will not play such a dominant role in the story, but he won't be left out, either.


Also, regarding format, this journal will rely heavily on Photoshop as a presentation tool, so expect lots of graphics, maps, charts and diagrams as well as standard in-game screenshots.

The purpose of this journal is to track the expansion of a major metropolitan area as it grows from a quiet bay town into a bustling, crowded harbor metropolis. Eureka is in the early days of a major influx of immigrants from neighboring regions. This journal will explain the challenges and changes the city faces---hopefully in a very entertaining way, of course---with a heavy focus on urban planning.



Table Of Contents

This entry will serve as a table of contents for the journal, and it will be continuously updated to help new and returning visitors find their way around. Navigating a sizeable city journal can be quite a chore, so maybe this will help.

Page 1:
Welcome
Introduction and Table of Contents
City Overview
Response To Reader Comments
District Overview: Downtown Eureka

Page 2:
Today's Hot Topic
District Overview: Eastport
Another View Of Eastport
Today's Hot Topic (2)

Page 3:
Response To Reader Comments (2)
District Overview: Reynolds Point
Today's Hot Topic (3)
District Overview: Flat Field
Today's Hot Topic (4)

Page 4:
District Overview: Eureka Point
Today's Hot Topic (5) THE CRASH!!
The Crash's Wake: An Interview (with Eureka mayor Richard Hiro)

Page 5:
District Update: Downtown Expansion
Response To Reader Comments (3)
Eureka Mass Transit
Today's Hot Topic (6)
District Growth Profile: Boonen

Page 6:
Today's Hot Topic (7)
The Campaign Trail
Today's Hot Topic (8 )

Page 7:
Election Day! Part One
Election Day! Part Two
Response To Reader Comments (4)
Today's Hot Topic (9)

Page 8:
A Surprise In The Mail

Page 9:
Suburban Development
Today's Hot Topic (10)

Page 10:
Up, Up and Away!
Response To Reader Comments (5)
City Overview: Year 214

Page 11:
Response To Reader Comments (6)
Region Overview

Page 12:
Today's Hot Topic (11)


Again, welcome to Eureka, and feel free to comment heavily.

----------------------------------------
A Note On Cheats, BATS and mods:This journal will feature a HUGE number of BATS downloaded from the STEX over the past two years and correctly crediting them would be an impossible task. If you see something you created in the pages of this journal, just know that my thanks is eternal and due credit is implied. As for cheats, let's just say money is never an object with the cities I build. And as for mods, I will of course be using the NAM, the Industry Quadrupler, various terrain and tree mods, and The Realistic Civic Mod . Now you know.

[louisville327 0]

City Overview


Eureka was founded more than 200 years ago at the confluence of the Beargrass and Bourque Rivers, overlooking Eureka Bay. Due to its prime location, the town soon became a major trading port. With the combination of heavy river traffic, especially on the wider Bourque River, and overseas travelers entering the Bay, Eureka developed quickly, gaining population and importance in the regional economy.

While most residential and commercial development was located on the Western side of the Bay, along a narrow penninsula and on a flat plain at the foot of the Bourque Hills, the industrial growth centered around Eastport, the main shipping port on the Eastern bank of the Bay (clever name, right?).

Eastport not only served Eureka in which it was built, but also Eureka's northeastern sister-city, Bend. Bend experienced much faster growth than Eureka. Located on the heavily-traveled Audubon River further inland on the other side of the Eureka Hills, Bend became a major transportation and communications hub for cross-regional trade. Eureka benefitted from her proximity to Bend, but didn't prosper equally.

For many years Eureka grew at a slow rate, remaining a relatively small (though bustling) harbor town while Bend exploded to over a million people.


(An aerial view tutorial can be found here .)

But Eureka's days of playing second-fiddle to her sister city were about to come to an end. As overseas immigration exploded when several foreign nations suffered major economic depressions, Eureka found itself as the main receiving point for thousands of economic refugees, searching for a better life in a new land and ready to settle in the first place they landed. Eureka was that place. It must be said that the majority of these refugees were not in fact poor as might be assumed, but rather smart enough to get out of their native countries before they lost everything. They weren't paupers. Most were self-reliant and well-educated, and ready to open new business enterprises in their adopted home of Eureka.

As this journal begins, the influx of foreign immigration is just starting, and Eureka is on the cusp of major urban expansion---both outward AND upward.

Current Region Photo of Eureka:

(click for larger image)


Eureka is divided into 25 separate districts of varying sizes, with populations as great as 65,000 and as small as 500. The total population of Eureka is as follows (all districts combined):

Residents: 307,532
Commerical Jobs: 139,695
Industrial Jobs: 129,083

The industrial jobs are mostly shipping-related, due to Eureka's geographical location as a harbor town. Most commercial jobs are provided by locally-owned stores and service firms, since no major corporations of note currently maintain operations in Eureka. ( The previously-posted city brochure cites numerous Capital 500 companies located in Eureka, but that's a few years down the line from where we are now). Bend is the real commercial player in the region at this point.

While the centrally-located district of downtown Eureka serves as the default Central Business District, most development to this point (including within downtown) has been low- to mid-density. There are no skyscrapers in Eureka, and few buildings over ten stories tall anywhere within the city.


Current Zone Map of Eureka:



In the coming weeks we will tour some of the more important districts of Eureka and closely examine the changes about to take place as the population booms. Eurekans know something BIG is about to happen in their little harbor town, and we'll follow along as it occurs.

[Sim_Air 2]

It looks really good. Very realistic

But try to update once, not in three topics, please...

 

Good luck and keep the good work

 

        Your Sincerely, Sim_Air

[Fabiocb 1]

wowow

great, this is very promissing, I like the story and the planning seems to be awesome.

 

[sendarrow 3]

Wait a minute!This looks FANTASTIC! Great job! I really like the welcome (the brochure) and the font that you used for the name of the city, what is its name? I think I have had use that font before. I will keep an eye (or both) eyes on this CJ!

[jasperdeman.nl 1]

Hey, the new cityjournal of louisville327 everyone, come fast!

Great, I like it already! As a real Donatto Fan i see you used 'his' region, wich obviously is a very interesting region indeed!

The map looks supergreat, (still have to find out how to do that though).

 

Can't wait for future updates!

[Dannato 4]

So here it is... and oh my God, this looks so sweet.

 

Great appealing start with the professional looking banner and the leaflet.

Seeing how much perfectionism you put in the graphics and presentation (even links in the text!) this is going to take a lot of work. Great job so far.

Obviously, some things look oddly familiar here  ... I almost feel at home already. 

I look forward to seeing how you'll manage the development in this scenic harbour town.

 

[GMT 389]

hey!
thats amazingly cool.
how did u get the cool region shots (especially the birds eye shot)?

[imhurt66 0]

This is great!!! I love the way the region looks and the way you had the paissence(dont no if i spelled that wrong)to make all of the districts.Usally all I do is make one box a whole city.But I guess i need to learn how to make districts.

[Weird 0]

Excellent start! The brochures and graphics are great, and the region looks wonderful as well!

Keep up the good work!

[knarfmo 0]

Nice work as always, Louisville 327.

One question: how did you get the region-wide zoning map? Did you paste together individual zoning maps or do you have some program or mod that does this for you?

I'm looking forward to more of Eureka!

[Kwakelaar 92]

This is such a beautiful presentation and a great beginning for your new journal.
The city of Eureka looks wonderful,I just love it when journalers plan their city according to the geographical features on the map, and Eureka looks very realistic indeed when seen from above.

[louisville327 0]

As For Your Qs

Thanks to everyone who has posted comments so far! It's nice to see people take notice of something I've spent WAAAAAAAY too many hours preparing. Somewhere around this place I had a real life, but I can't find it anymore...

Anyway, to respond to your comments...

Sim_Air: Thanks, but as you'll notice, each separate post has a separate topic, and in order to ease future navigation, separate posts are the way to go. It seems weird now, but down the road it will make sense.

Fabiocb: Thanks!

sendarrow: Harlow Solid Italic, and I appreciate your kind words. Hope to see you back here!

jasperdeman.nl: Thanks as always for your support. You've been boosting my ego since the Adventures days, and I always appreciate it---from one real Dannato fan to another!

Dannato: The Godfather decided to make an appearance! As for the city's setting, I think you'll agree that the Zurich region is one of the coolest available, and provides a TON of city-building options. Turry was a big inspiration of course, but I hope to take the region in a slightly different direction---if only to avoid plagiarism charges! Thanks for your approval, by the way---it means a lot.

GMT: Thanks! As for the birds-eye shot, refer to Dannato's post here for a step-by-step guide.

imhurt66: Thank you kindly! As for patience, I have lots of it---but my therapist calls it obsessive compulsive disorder. I have to go wash my hands again...

Weird: Much appreciated!

knarfmo: I wish I had a program that automatically created mosaics like that, but alas I had to do it myself. It's quite a tedious process, but I have it set up in Photoshop where I can simply plop in new zone maps as the various districts grow in the future. The initial creation is a pain but the eventual updates are far simpler. Thanks for the support!

Kwakelaar: I think so too. Thanks so much!

[i-cube 1]

simply...B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L

really nice maps..inever had such a huge city dunno why,but when I achieve cca 500 000+ pplin region,i simply start a new one

[da_sim_dude 5]

WoW sooo cool.Can't wait to see more of your soon to be best CJ!!

[uncrazycooper13 0]

Wow this looks AWESOME!!! I can't wait to see how this develops! Its gonna be sweet! I'm so glad you're back Louisville!

-uncrazycooper

[Superchan 23]

looks great, how did you do the airel view/birds-eye view.

[RadioheadFan 1]

Dude, great work here so far! Judging from what we've seen in Adventures, this can only get better and better. Keep up the excellent work!

Jamie

[____----____ 37]

the arial map is nasty

 

Alek

[choco1 4]

Wow, stunning start. Thats an absolutely beautiful region and fantastic pictures of your cities. I love the brochure, it is fantastically designed and looks great. The airial shot looks very realistic, as does the region shot. I greatly look forward to more!

[Zeddic 3]

Oh yeah! Another great CJ coming from you, louisville! I've got to admit that I lurked your previous one actively, but never replied... Anyway, I know what your work looks like: awesome. If this is going to be made with new urbanism, too (which I think you will), it's going to be like a jewel in middle of CJs because of its originality... And I really like that 'aerial' shot; it looks so real!

/Zed

[a8o 1]

Great! I loved Adventures in New Urbanism. Hope the same level of graphic design mixed with great storytelling will bring your usual standard of excellent city contruction to life!

[louisville327 0]

District Overview: Downtown Eureka


We turn our attention first to the center of it all: Downtown Eureka. Downtown is what the original village of Eureka is now called, having expanded far outward over the past 200 years.





The history of Eureka is one punctuated by major growth spurts, especially in a twenty-year period starting just 35 years after the village was founded.





The original village was indeed quite small, but typical of other fishing posts located along the coast of the region. Small farms spread out from the village, providing food and agricultural products that the fish could not.

As the years passed and regional trade increased, the village began to grow into a city.





In just a few short years, more residents and more trade meant more money coming into Eureka, which meant more investment and greater expansion.







In just over a decade, Eureka had doubled in size and population. Growth would continue in spurts all the way to the present day, where an even more dramatic expansion was set to begin.





Today, Downtown differs little from its many suburbs except that it is much older. In general, though, economic and residential development maintains a consistent density and style throughout the entire city, so nothing immediately differentiates Downtown from its surroundings.





What does give Downtown some notoriety is the large canal running through it, from the Beargrass River in the East to Eureka Bay to the West. The canal was built as a flood-control device, but over the years the water levels of both the Bay and the Beargrass have dropped, making the canal largely decorative. With the exception of very heavy rainy periods, the canal now plays a transportation role.

To the South of the canal is the main concentration of industry in Downtown Eureka, where some 10,000 residents are employed by various manufacturing, chemical and bio-tech firms. Along the canal were built a series of docks to serve the shipping needs of inland industries. Those docks still exist today.





The canal allows barge traffic to access either the Beargrass River or Eureka Bay, promoting industrial growth and success. Those barges enter and exit the canal through a series of multi-level locks.





Turning our attention back to the North, Downtown Eureka is punctuated by a small skyline of mid-rise towers, providing office space to local companies and luxury housing to rich Eurekans.









Though not much to look at, the skyline does provide glorious views of the Bay from the top floors, for those lucky enough to be granted access. There are no public viewing decks on any of the buildings, so only employees and residents of the towers (a fairly exclusive group) are allowed on top---much to the chagrin of local residents not among the lucky few.

But the skyline is not the only attraction the district has to offer. Downtown Eureka features some of the oldest detached homes in the region, ranging from massive Victorian mansions to modest brick two-stories to quaint bungalows. The low-density neighborhoods are generally considered the most beautiful in all the city.











Downtown is also home to a small number of historic row houses, built after the initial expansion of the district. At the time the narrow city limits were a restriction to further outward development, so developers were forced to increase the density by developing upward. The result of their work remains beautiful and popular today.





Built among those historic row houses and detached homes is the grandest single residence in all of Eureka---the Mayor's Mansion. Currently occupied by Eureka's 33rd Mayor, Richard Hiro, the Mayor's Mansion is 6500 square feet of classic luxury, surrounded by a lush green lawn, fountains and gardens.







Mayor Hiro can often be seen working in the gardens or playing with his three children on the grand lawn. He is liked and respected by most Eurekans, and passers-by often wave to him over the outer walls of the lot. Every once in a while a political opponent or a young wippersnapper looking for trouble will toss and egg or two over the fence, but generally the Mayor's Mansion is a calm, beautiful place.

Which brings us to the most calm, beautiful place in all of Downtown, Eureka Central Park.





Located just West of the central business district of Downtown, Eureka Central Park provides a refuge from the urban world in which Eurekans live. Designed by master park-builder Patrick Law Homestead, the park is dominated by a grand fountain set within a pond and surrounded by brick walking paths.





The park is one of the most popular destinations for Eurekans on all sorts of business: lunch breaks, dates, artistic retreats, yoga classes, martial arts training, pensive and leisurely walks, you name it. A developer once tried to buy the park and build condominiums in its place, but he was quickly run out of town.

One final landmark of note: the Eureka Farmer's Market. Located ironically on Market Street, the twice-weekly gathering of farmers and produce-buyers remains extremely popular with Downtowners and even residents of neighboring districts.





Downtown is one of the finest districts in all of Eureka. The historic charm, combined with unique features like the canal and Eureka Central Park, produce a historic yet timeless central focus for the entire city. Downtown anchors Eureka, physically, architecturally and historically. It truly is the center of Eurekan life.

[Dannato 4]

Very good overview, portraying each city district like this is very helpful to get to know the city well and understand the development plans which I'm sure will follow.

 

The canal between the bay and the Beargrass River (or is that Bourque River?) was a good idea, and you've found a good explanation (dropping water levels) for the rather steep shores and river banks on this map.

(And 2 good blogs is a lot for a population of 23,000!)

 

 

 

[uncrazycooper13 0]

thats pretty darn nice! Although the single family housing looks a little bit more spread out but I don't know why that is. Its probably because all I've been using lately is rowhomes but that fountain in the park is amazing and the mayors mansion is really nice! I can't wait to see the surrounding districts and the nearing population boom!

-uncrazycooper

[DarkLoki 0]

Great to see you started another cj! It will really be interesting to see how this city will develop.

[meinhosen 11]

Now this a promising new CJ.  I like the look of it, even if you haven't even shown us any of the really good stuff yet...

And I know, too, that this is going to have your usual quality stamped all over it.  Great start!

[louisville327 0]

I just want to take this moment to once again thank everyone who has left a comment---especially comments full of praise and support. I appreciate it!

And look for a lot more posts during the coming week!

[Nexis 1]

this is a great cj, with Digby twist.