jiangkaiwen's City Journal-Simtopia

Umm... When you said "there are no industrial areas by the water", there's a whole industrial district right next to it in the picture below. I'm not criticizing, it's just funny. It seems the industrial area is causing massive air and water pollution in your city. You might want to put trees and parks around your industrial district to decrease the pollution.

But, gritty city CJ's are very successful, as well. Search "Selbring County" or "Tenements and Rust" in the city journals to see good gritty city CJ's.

Good luck with this CJ!

There is amazing amount of spectacular custom content on the STEX, I see a bit in your city, but it isn't plentiful. I'm not saying that you need to go download 500 buildings and parks or anything, but the qualities of a good CJ:

-Replies to Viewers
-Decent amount of custom content/Entertaining Storyline
-Custom content is well displayed and fits in with its surrounding areas
-Uniqueness, make your CJ one of the few of its kind. Here are some great open categories;

American Wild West
Australian Outback
Alaska
South African Countries
Antartica
Austria
San Diego Metro Area
West Virginia
Boston


As you can see, you have plenty of environments to choose from, and your not just limited to the ecosystem Maxis has given you

You should also get
1. A Water Mod
2. A Terrain Mod
3. A Rock Mod
4. A Beach Mod
5. A Slope Mod

And these highly reccomended downloads:

Network Addon Mod, Street Addon Mod, Real Highway Mod, Colossus Addon Mod

Make sure you also find a good Mayor Mode Ploppable Tree Pack as well. I reccomend Simfox's, they look great in all areas.

Good Luck. Remember, this CJ is yours and feel free to do whatever you like, I simply made some suggestions.