Mass jobless/abandonment/new build cycle in CAM 2.5 region: help!

[andrewbrown 1]

Hi there all! I recently re-downloaded SimCity 4 and am playing a new region using CAM 2.5. I'm currently having an issue I'd like help with, which is that there is a massive jobless/abandonment/new build cycle, alongside virtually limitless residential demand. I've read the CAM manual, tried to understand the Census Repository, and any other number of resources. I tried to attach a screenshot of my census repository stats, but there were sadly error messages stopping me. Some observations, some possibly unrelated:

1. There is no current regional commercial or industrial demand, despite maximum residential demand (72,000).
2. This seems to affect all three R$ levels.
3. I don't seem to be hitting any demand caps, in this or any other city tile.
4. I have tiles where I-D and I-M are taxed at regular rates directly connecting to the tiles where they're discouraged.
5. Very few industrial buildings show worker commute trips in route query, only Freight Truck/Train. This seems to affect all industries, but especially I-HT. (Could be an NAM traffic simulator thing?)
6. I haven't really built any Agriculture.


Some things I've done to try and fix the issue, with no success:
1. Eradicated R$$$ from the non-downtown tiles to try and change the regional ratios of residential income.
2. Built an adjoining tile of all R$ with new I-D. It also gets jobless zots.
3. Detached the "circular" neighbor transportation connections to try and stop the endless commuter cycle (power and water remain).
4. Evened out taxes in every tile.

One line item in the census repository that confuses me is R$$$: in the downtown square, it has 117k pop, 55k drives, and 37k demand. What on earth does the huge difference in the pop/drive numbers mean, and why would demand still be so high if R$$$ is...twice as populous as it can accommodate? How would I "fix" that when there's no demand for the kind of jobs R$$$ would fill?
Is this some version of the I-HT Industry bug? Does the lack of Agriculture eventually just torpedo your city? Do I just need to build way more housing of every kind and hope that balances things and despite the fact that joblessness is still a huge issue? Do I need to build more areas with less residential amenities so richer sims won't try to move in and immediately not have jobs? Is this because I have assets that aren't CAM-patible and I need to go back through and delete any that aren't?

Thank you for any direction you might have. I've tried everything I can think of, and I'm at my wit's end here. Has anyone else had this issue?

[TheMurderousCricket 5,153]

What are the education quotients of your population? You mention industry throughout your post but I'm more interested to learn whether you have any commercial areas present?

7 hours ago, andrewbrown said:

5. Very few industrial buildings show worker commute trips in route query, only Freight Truck/Train. This seems to affect all industries, but especially I-HT.

Industry is simply not the preferred kind of job to some types of Sims. If you have smart population, that would explain why you see abandonment and joblessness (there are simply no suitable jobs) and no workers in your industrial areas (nobody is interested in such unambitious activities).

7 hours ago, andrewbrown said:

(Could be an NAM traffic simulator thing?)

No, I would really doubt it. And this would be a normal behavior in a city that switched to a commercial economy.

7 hours ago, andrewbrown said:

2. Built an adjoining tile of all R$ with new I-D. It also gets jobless zots.

Are you really sure they want to work there...? I know this is a tempting assumption but, believe it or not, smart R$ residents thrive in CS$, CO$$ and CO$$$ jobs!

7 hours ago, andrewbrown said:

Do I just need to build way more housing of every kind and hope that balances things and despite the fact that joblessness is still a huge issue?

Try to keep in mind that you should not use demand just because it's there! Which is especially true of CO buildings.

In a situation in which you already have an elevated joblessness, how on Earth (to mirror your own words ) is this supposed to help?! To paraphrase the old mass transit saying - "If I build a house a job will be found" is not a correct assumption...

[andrewbrown 1]

Thank you for your response! I really appreciate it. I was an idiot and tried to upload a PNG and not a JPG. Here's the repository info.

As you can see, I have a ton of commercial employment in the region, but there doesn't seem to be demand to create the jobs that the sims are looking for. Upon further observation in my adjoining city tile, this affects R$$ more than anyone else.

There are actually way more jobs available (468k + 318k) than region workforce (653k). So why would there be any joblessness issues? This affects the downtown tile with a lot of workforce (seen here) as well as the adjoining tile, both of which claim it's due to "commute time," despite ample jobs with fast connections in the same tile. I tend to put commercial zoning along the grid of major avenues even outside the downtown.

The EQ was hovering around 150-160 with full access to all forms of education, but it's since fallen to about 130-140, I imagine because of the constant cycle with uneducated sims all around.

And thank you for pointing out about the residential demand! I felt the same way about how ridiculous it would be to try and meet that residential demand with these problems, but there doesn't seem to be any balancing act with more employment demand to fill this need, hence my post asking for help.

[Cdominguez1900 2]

Perhaps they just want to be farmers?