Problem with abandoned buildings

[andix 33]

Hello erverybody,

 

after a year i play SC4 again (and now for the first time with NAM 31.2).

My city has 500 000 inhabitants (i have only a small heavy industry city adjacent to this city in the whole region) and i have the problem that a big portion of the rich residents leave their homes because their commute time is too long. They build new homes all over the city and become abandonend too.

I have much public transport with subways and buses in all 12x6-blocks + monorail. 3/4 of all traffic is pedestrians, subway, monorail, bus. So on the streets is enough space for the cars of the rich residents. Consequence is a mean commute time in the city of 6 minutes and the traffic bar of the mayor panel is nearly complete green! In the traffic data view all streets are nearly complete green, too.

The major residential area is between commercial area and hitec-industry so the distance between home and job (espacially office jobs) is short. The rich resident buildings can be adjacent to commercial areas and they become abandoned. There are enough jobs for all residents (200 000 commercial+120 000 industry).

Never saw such a problem in my former citys. Can someone help?

Screenshot of the city:

 

[Prophet42 1,503]

This is a common problem.  Most likely you have an imbalance between the number of R$$$ sims and the number of $$$ jobs available.  There are a few solutions you could try:

 

1) Raise taxes on the R$$$.  This will lower demand and decrease the number of R$$$ in the city.

2) Try to encourage more CO$$$ and CS$$$ to develop in the city to provide more jobs for the R$$$.

3) Apply the I-HT bug fix to increase the number of I-HT jobs available for the R$$$

 

On option 3, sorry I don't have a link to the I-HT job fix MOD.  Search the STEX and you should find it.  It will require that you modify one of the SC4 DAT files, I think (it's been awhile since I've done it myself).

[andix 33]

Thanks for the answer.

But can there be really an imbalance? I have ca. 65 000 R$$$ sims and ca. 120 000 $$$-jobs.

I found the I-HT bug fix, sounds complicated. I know that normally I-HT offers no jobs for R$$$, but this was in my former citys no problem i think.

[Indiana Joe 1,752]

Keep in mind that even C$$$ buildings provide mostly C$ and C$$ jobs.  Only a small percentage of the jobs are true $$$.  You can see a complete breakdown of the percentages in this chart.

 

Your population needs to remain balanced.  You can only support about a 10-15% $$$ residential population.

[A Nonny Moose 8,263]

And, unless you are running CAM, the ratio of Sims to Jobs should be around 2:1.

 

Your residential pod should be on the far side of your commercial zone and not next to the industrial zone.  You need to force the commuters through the commercial zone to make the traffic busy in the commercial zone.

[andix 33]

Keep in mind that even C$$$ buildings provide mostly C$ and C$$ jobs.  Only a small percentage of the jobs are true $$$.  You can see a complete breakdown of the percentages in this chart.

 

Your population needs to remain balanced.  You can only support about a 10-15% $$$ residential population.

I have calculated the number of R$$$ jobs in the city (and a few in the industry-city adjacent) with the chart: 30500 jobs, this equals to 61000 Sims. There are 7000 virtuel jobs from I-HT which cannot be taken from the R$$$, this equals to 14000 R$$$-Sims. I have 65000 R$$$-Sims in total. So i have 18000 more R$$$-Sims then jobs. I counted roughly the number of R$$$-Sims who stay in their buildings because of short commute times: Only 27000 Sims. So nearly 40000 R$$$-Sims leave their buildings (and build new buildings) because of long commute times all the time. This doesn't figure in my opinion.

My guess is that there is something wrong with the NAM. Here is a screenshot from a former development stage of the city with a building which has a LONG commute time. The streets and the subway to the destinations are not congested. This looks crazy. There are no other buildings with long commute times, because they become imediately abandoned.

And, unless you are running CAM, the ratio of Sims to Jobs should be around 2:1.

 

Your residential pod should be on the far side of your commercial zone and not next to the industrial zone.  You need to force the commuters through the commercial zone to make the traffic busy in the commercial zone.

Yes, thats the reason why i build the commercial zone between the heavy-industry city (adjacent) and the main residential zone.The I-HT zone in the west came later.