Where are we today?

Motorways in the Inner City (and some Parks, too)

I woke up bleary this morning, which is never a good sign. I hate Wednesdays, which doesn't make things any better.

Senatoria's inner city motorways are, for a city of our size, quite extensive. The city actually has three orbital routes:

The Inner (which consists of a number of freeways with a number of names, which is an historical artefact of the fact they were built as planks in a larger system)

The Middle, which again has a number of names,

and the Outer Senatoria Orbital Motorway System, which only has three different names along its length despite its' astonishing size (we referred to this in the last update as the M57).

Today, we'll see a lot (though not all) of the Inner Orbital.

Motorways on the Northern edge of the CBD; The M3 and M31 (which flirts with the CBD's Western Edge.

We've already seen another part of the M3; It featured in my intial message. The CBD's motorways form quite the labyrinth around the CBD, flirting with its southern edge also.

One area I want to show you before we move on to the other motorways is City Island:

As you can see, the island is bookended by two landmarks. The one on the northern end of the island (top of the first image above) is City Hall. Yes, this is the building I referred to in the first update. City "Island" is a bit of a misnomer these days as works in the 60s (when much of Senatoria's inner city motorways were first constructed). It got its name mainly because of the fact it plays host to City Hall.

In the second image above this text you can also see Island Stadium. It was rebuilt much more recently than the 60s (in the late 90's in fact), but the name has stuck. I believe it has a sponsorship, so that's not its official name, but people always call the place either Island or City Stadium.

The construction of the M33 was a controversial chapter in the city's history. It severed the what was then the city's largest contiguous parklands. Tempers at the time flared on both sides of the arguments. Planners explained that the link was an essential leg of the Eastern Motorway, which now links Senatoria to Oesthaven, one of Senatoria's larger ports on its eastern shores. Without it, it was argued, traffic would snarl along the city streets.

Not a favourable thing when trying to promote your nation.

You can also see one of the city's smaller convention centres above (about centre). It's usually used for live music performances rather than conventions (thanks to its location; the park and Eastern CBD area ensure a good buffer against noise complaints from inner city residents).

NEWSBREAK

We interrupt this broadcast to announce that Seha has officially announced the North East Infrastructure Program. "It's hoped that this project will enable the city of Senatoria to better handle its freight needs." He added, "the NEIP is stage one of a much larger plan to segregate freight movements from passenger rail movements, to the benefit of both. The project isn't yet in its final form, and further details will be available through the usual avenues. We urge you to comment if you have any suggestions or objections to the project."

And so it went on. It's very odd for the President to announce such a project... Normally this sort of stuff is handled by the Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Planning, not the President. Very peculiar.

"The President will now take your questions."

From the SPAN (Senatoria Political Analysis Network): "Is it true that this is all a vote-buying exercise to try and push through the referendum? We've heard this from more than just a few sources. They seemed to be very uncomfortable with the power shift involved."

Seha: "This is absolute nonsense. I don't know if you should trust your sources."

SPAN reporter: "I trust my sources, Seha."

The look on Seha's face at this moment was telling. He knew who was responsible. And from the look in his eyes, they were going to pay for this... The rest of the questions were bland, no need to report them here.

Today was a short day at work for me, and on my way home, I decided to stop in Northside Park. I love its' fountain; it's one of the city's finest:

Apparently the management at that Marriott hotel was horrible.

Before I go, here's a shot of South City Plaza at night:

NEXT TIME: We'll see more of the South City area...

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OOC: folks, that's probably the last night shot you'll see for a while. It's noticeable, but not glaringly so above: I've lost BAT nightlights. And yes, the BAT patch has been applied to the game post re-install (I had a computer problem since last update).

In good news however, I now have an additional 4GB of memory.