Jamaica Bay: Maritime Dreams and SimCity 4 Commercial Wealth Generation
From the City Journal "Jamaica Bay, East New York: SimCity 4 tips and tricks (NAM36)"
Jamaica Bay: Maritime Dreams and SimCity 4 Commercial Wealth Generation
A how to guide, with vital tips for developing a city for high-wealth residential R$$$ and commercial C$$$, capitalising on intercity commuter through-traffic and ferry tourist traffic, for intermediate level SimCity 4 players, along with a few tips on hidden SimCity 4 economic gameplay features for advanced players. Most of these tips play off the direct relationship between commercial wealth and adjacent traffic, in the 2-tile radius of each commercial lot.
One simple way to think of it is this — your residential zones hate traffic, but your commercial zones love it!
As it happens, it works that way in real-life, too!
Most of the other tips relate to demand CAPS, essential to building large residential and commercial populations. I've also thrown in a few cosmetic considerations, along the way, as it relates to my Jamaica Bay city tile, based on the real-life location by the same name in New York.
SPOILER WARNING: SimCity 4 strategic financial gameplay tips ahead.
East New York is my brand new latest region, so Jamaica Bay, even in it's infancy, will solve unemployment issues in it's neighbouring city tile, Breezy Point, New York. However, I cannot resist first heading into Google Maps, to observe the features of the real-life Jamaica Bay, and to decide which features to incorporate into my city. Here it is, from 3D Google Satellite view.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Jamaica+Bay/@40.5586564,-73.9119515,3888a,35y,29.25h,38.96t/data=...!4d-73.8713099 Here's the observed real-life features of Jamaica Bay, New York, and what I'm going to do with each one: Major East-West Highway – Real Highways (RHW), here I come! Notice there's two large highway interchanges, one on the east and the other in the west. This is gonna be my first Real Highway in the East New York region, but with many, many more to come! Although the Real Highway does not allow RCI access, it still provides traffic-based boost to commercial C$$ and C$$$ lots zoned adjacent to the highway, you just need a parallel avenue on the other side of the 2x3 or 3x4 commercial lots for RCI access. Shop-fronts can even be avenue facing, with only their backdoor adjacent to the highway to collect intercity commercial through-traffic benefits. That's very much like real-life urban commercial zoning, when you think about it, and SimCity 4 financial gameplay makes this through-highway a rich source of income and commercial jobs. If this were a massive 4 tile highway with 4 or more lanes in each carriageway, I'd think twice about zoning adjacent commercial, but this regional highway will only feed highways for a tourist town on the east, and one thriving megapolis on the west, so the highway will be only 2 tiles wide with 2 lanes in each carriageway.
Small International Airport (35x15)– YES, of course!!! As a city tile with an economic backbone of medium C$$ and high-wealth C$$$ commerce, an airport is absolutely essential to uplift commercial CAPS. In fact, why stop at just one airport! Airports don't actually have that high a monthly cost, if you manage them in the Transportation Department of the Monthly Expenses budget, so I usually like to plop airports at about sim year 10 in the game. Airports are also a major civic employer, so you can use them to prime your arterial avenues with sim traffic, for building up your initial low-wealth commercial C$ 2x3 growables along those avenues.
Marina (1x6) – YES, I love the hang-gliders they bring, and these are also a tool for lifting medium wealth R$$ and high wealth R$$$ residential CAPS, and they even provide 12 to 334 civic jobs, making them ideal for priming small local commercial zones with local traffic, for developing low and medium wealth 1x2 and 1x3 lots. Again, why stop at just one Marina! I'll literally dot them all over the map on this particular city tile, but not until my city is already raking in the tourist dollars. At §90/month maintenance cost for each one, Marinas are the most expensive 1x6 plop in the game!
Country Club (12x12) – There's a long strip of golf course near the western cloverleaf highway interchange, so I probably will plop my Country Club there. The Country Club lifts CAPS on high-wealth R$$$ residential by 8000 population, so it fits my strategy for this city tile. I use the Modern Police Station, by Mattb325 downloadable plop for a more highly effective local police force to counter the organised crime bug that plagues big plops like the Country Club, Airport and University.
Naval facilities – This is a definite NO. I haven't downloaded any navy plops, and probably won't, as it's not really my style. The SimCity 4 vanilla Army Base delivers the most potent uplift of manufacturing (I-M) CAPS in the game, but the Army Base also has a very wide police corruption effect (over 64 tiles radius), and police corruption = crime. High crime levels are one of the big busters of high-wealth commercial C$$$ growth, so that runs directly counter to my strategy for this city tile. Furthermore, I'll only have a sparse scattering of manufacturing lots across the city tile, to provide a few low-wealth jobs for new sims moving in. Sims moving into the city generally have low education (EQ) at first.
Ecology Village Campsite – This is a MAYBE. I'll try to work this in as a kind of nature themed central park for my city tile. We'll see.
Historic Air Restoration Project – This is a MAYBE. It's kinda like a museum, I guess, but museums are the most under-powered of all the education facilities, and watching their individual budgets irritates me, so I generally don't use them. Museums are not even that useful for the civic jobs they provide, because museum staff are flat unwilling to do a long commute, easily resulting in the museum being staffed by the ubiquitous oompa-loompas, unless the museum is plopped right next to a residential area.
Bushwalks in the North Forty Natural Area (photo below), which is near the large cloverleaf highway interchange in the west of the city tile. Bushwalks are a purely cosmetic feature, but will round out the realism of this Jamaica Bay city tile really well. On a practical note, I'll avoid police radius coverage of that zone on the map, so that I don't feel tempted to develop the area. Wildlife Reserves don't need police protection, as long as there's no ploppable or growable lots in the area ... so no Park or Plaza plops! I'm thinking to use RRP Draggable Paths ChrisAdamas3997 (not tested yet) which appears on the Trees menu, so that no police presence is required!
EDIT 6th March 2020: I also get the impression that Pedmalls can be plopped outside of police protection, because they belong to the roads type, rather than the park type, but I haven't confirmed that yet. Certainly SAM-1 and other Street Addon Mod features are perfect for use outside police protection.
Photo from the North Forty Natural Area.
Circular streets in Mill Basin, at the top-left north-eastern corner of the map; that's a MAYBE from me. That street layout looks super challenging, but I might attempt some sort of simulacrum of the real thing using fractionally angled curves, maybe. We'll see. Here's some additional SimCity 4 features that will come in real handy for a high wealth C$$$ and R$$$ city tile like this one: University (12x10) – While I probably won't need the high-tech (I-HT) CAPS uplift, a University plop increases EQ city-wide, which is super important for high-wealth commercial C$$$. Those company executives appreciate having a local satellite institution for completing their MBA. It also has a moderate uplift on residential CAPS of all wealth levels. Furthermore, the University plop contains many civic jobs, which help initiate low wealth C$ commercial traffic flows along arterial avenues. This is very similar to the Airport and Police plops, that way. The only mass transit my Airport, Police and University plops will get is Bus Stops, to maximise early game road traffic volumes. See below for the link to my post describing how incredibly useful the humble Maxis Bus Stop is.
Ferries – These are ploppable Neighbour Connections, and therefore one of the most powerful drivers of road traffic, and it's associated commercial growth, in the game. This is complex, so I talk about C$$ and C$$$ capitalising on commuter and tourist ferry traffic in this separate Simtropolis post, Jamaica Bay: Neighbour Connection Strategy with a C$$$ Tourism Focus. Lots and lots of Ferry plops planned for this Jamaica Bay city tile, each one surrounded by a modest layer of high potential commercial lots, not residential! Never zone residential right up close to a ferry (or any other neighbour connection), as your sim residents are entirely willing to take the first ferry right out of your city, and your city's commercial sector will be poorer for lack of economic participation, each and every time. While my first city tile in the region, Breezy Point, is a tourist town with a manufacturing (I-M) economic backbone, I'm planning for Jamaica Bay to become a tourism powerhouse, with a C$$ and C$$$ commercial economic backbone, based on tourism and through-traffic, with very little industry at all.
Private Schools (4x2 and 4x3)– This is much the same as the University, on a slightly smaller scale. Unlike the University, the Private Schools come with a great YIMBY Park Effect on local residential zones. Private Schools are also enhancing to education levels (EQ), and they come with civic jobs, helping to initiate and increase C$ commercial traffic along my arterial avenues. Best of all, the price is right; they are completely FREE! There is a bug that affects Maxis vanilla Private Schools, decreasing city EQ if the school is in high population zones and becomes overloaded with too many students, so I might download a custom Private School plop to fix that, perhaps one of these two custom plops: (not tested yet)
https://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/17566-private-schools-with-sliders/
https://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/26424-bigger-private-schools/
Churches (3x3) – These are basically like FREE Parks, with potent residential YIMBY effect on a wide radius. Can't argue with that! No road access required for churches or parks, curiously enough. Churches also provide a mild uplift to medium wealth R$$ residential CAPS.
Farmer's Market (3x3) – Though there won't be any agriculture (I-A) in this city tile, I'll put in a few small seas of Community Garden plops to simulate farms without the pollution ... and to deliver wide radius YIMBY residential effects. The Farmer's Market needs no road access, and has very nice YIMBY Park and Landmark Effects to benefit wealth of both residential and commercial nearby, but most importantly, it has very potent uplift on medium-wealth R$$ residential CAPS, to the tune of 150 thousand R$$ residents! I need a decent number of medium-wealth R$$ residents to supply local road traffic and employees for my C$$ and C$$$ commercial towers. Without any real agriculture (I-A) zoning, I'll have to use the Ctrl+X you don't deserve it vanilla cheat (no download required) to get the Farmer's Market ... and no, I don't even feel guilty about that!
Stock Exchange (4x3) – Great YIMBY Landmark Effect for nearby commercial growables, but the main reason I want this plop is for the 125 thousand uplift on high-wealth R$$$ residential CAPS!!!
Convention Centre (9x6) – This one needs road access, but has only moderate level civic jobs which are only seasonal, too. This is supposed to have 100 thousand uplift on commercial C$$ and C$$$ CAPS, but with a NIMBY residential effect in it's 22 tile radius. My tests to date haven't actually confirmed this commercial CAPS relief in-game, but my city tile strategy relies too much on C$$ and C$$$ growth to neglect including this one. I'll find a spot for this one somewhere well away from my residential zones, maybe even at the location of the Historic Air Restoration Project!
Other useful plops with moderate CAPS uplift include Radio Station (2x2) and Television Studio (3x3), for which no road access is required, plus the Resort Hotel (4x4), and Disease Research Lab (6x5), which both need road access and have civic jobs. Admittedly, my Jamaica Bay city tile will be MUCH BUSIER than the real-life location in New York! You might think this city tile is a great place for the Cruise Ship Port, but that plop is not much more than expensive eye-candy. A Medium Park Green provides better YIMBY value at a fraction of the cost. It's civic jobs are only seasonal, better handled by placing more Marinas, and it delivers no CAPS relief at all! As I mentioned above, I very highly recommend this other post of mine, The mysterious powers of the SimCity 4 Bus Stop, for better understanding the usefulness of the humble Maxis Bus Stop, which is another vital tactical element of my commercial growth gameplay The humble Bus Stop has a high-rise YIMBY effect in a very small radius, for all wealth levels, and is exceedingly useful as a highway bus transition piece. ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
The mysterious powers of the SimCity 4 Bus Stop (21st September 2019) Most SimCity 4 players have no idea, that the humble vanilla Maxis Bus Stop (Ctrl+Shift+R) has super powers ...
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Jamaica+Bay/@40.5586564,-73.9119515,3888a,35y,29.25h,38.96t/data=...!4d-73.8713099 Here's the observed real-life features of Jamaica Bay, New York, and what I'm going to do with each one: Major East-West Highway – Real Highways (RHW), here I come! Notice there's two large highway interchanges, one on the east and the other in the west. This is gonna be my first Real Highway in the East New York region, but with many, many more to come! Although the Real Highway does not allow RCI access, it still provides traffic-based boost to commercial C$$ and C$$$ lots zoned adjacent to the highway, you just need a parallel avenue on the other side of the 2x3 or 3x4 commercial lots for RCI access. Shop-fronts can even be avenue facing, with only their backdoor adjacent to the highway to collect intercity commercial through-traffic benefits. That's very much like real-life urban commercial zoning, when you think about it, and SimCity 4 financial gameplay makes this through-highway a rich source of income and commercial jobs. If this were a massive 4 tile highway with 4 or more lanes in each carriageway, I'd think twice about zoning adjacent commercial, but this regional highway will only feed highways for a tourist town on the east, and one thriving megapolis on the west, so the highway will be only 2 tiles wide with 2 lanes in each carriageway.
Small International Airport (35x15)– YES, of course!!! As a city tile with an economic backbone of medium C$$ and high-wealth C$$$ commerce, an airport is absolutely essential to uplift commercial CAPS. In fact, why stop at just one airport! Airports don't actually have that high a monthly cost, if you manage them in the Transportation Department of the Monthly Expenses budget, so I usually like to plop airports at about sim year 10 in the game. Airports are also a major civic employer, so you can use them to prime your arterial avenues with sim traffic, for building up your initial low-wealth commercial C$ 2x3 growables along those avenues.
Marina (1x6) – YES, I love the hang-gliders they bring, and these are also a tool for lifting medium wealth R$$ and high wealth R$$$ residential CAPS, and they even provide 12 to 334 civic jobs, making them ideal for priming small local commercial zones with local traffic, for developing low and medium wealth 1x2 and 1x3 lots. Again, why stop at just one Marina! I'll literally dot them all over the map on this particular city tile, but not until my city is already raking in the tourist dollars. At §90/month maintenance cost for each one, Marinas are the most expensive 1x6 plop in the game!
Country Club (12x12) – There's a long strip of golf course near the western cloverleaf highway interchange, so I probably will plop my Country Club there. The Country Club lifts CAPS on high-wealth R$$$ residential by 8000 population, so it fits my strategy for this city tile. I use the Modern Police Station, by Mattb325 downloadable plop for a more highly effective local police force to counter the organised crime bug that plagues big plops like the Country Club, Airport and University.
Naval facilities – This is a definite NO. I haven't downloaded any navy plops, and probably won't, as it's not really my style. The SimCity 4 vanilla Army Base delivers the most potent uplift of manufacturing (I-M) CAPS in the game, but the Army Base also has a very wide police corruption effect (over 64 tiles radius), and police corruption = crime. High crime levels are one of the big busters of high-wealth commercial C$$$ growth, so that runs directly counter to my strategy for this city tile. Furthermore, I'll only have a sparse scattering of manufacturing lots across the city tile, to provide a few low-wealth jobs for new sims moving in. Sims moving into the city generally have low education (EQ) at first.
Ecology Village Campsite – This is a MAYBE. I'll try to work this in as a kind of nature themed central park for my city tile. We'll see.
Historic Air Restoration Project – This is a MAYBE. It's kinda like a museum, I guess, but museums are the most under-powered of all the education facilities, and watching their individual budgets irritates me, so I generally don't use them. Museums are not even that useful for the civic jobs they provide, because museum staff are flat unwilling to do a long commute, easily resulting in the museum being staffed by the ubiquitous oompa-loompas, unless the museum is plopped right next to a residential area.
Bushwalks in the North Forty Natural Area (photo below), which is near the large cloverleaf highway interchange in the west of the city tile. Bushwalks are a purely cosmetic feature, but will round out the realism of this Jamaica Bay city tile really well. On a practical note, I'll avoid police radius coverage of that zone on the map, so that I don't feel tempted to develop the area. Wildlife Reserves don't need police protection, as long as there's no ploppable or growable lots in the area ... so no Park or Plaza plops! I'm thinking to use RRP Draggable Paths ChrisAdamas3997 (not tested yet) which appears on the Trees menu, so that no police presence is required!
EDIT 6th March 2020: I also get the impression that Pedmalls can be plopped outside of police protection, because they belong to the roads type, rather than the park type, but I haven't confirmed that yet. Certainly SAM-1 and other Street Addon Mod features are perfect for use outside police protection.
Photo from the North Forty Natural Area.
Circular streets in Mill Basin, at the top-left north-eastern corner of the map; that's a MAYBE from me. That street layout looks super challenging, but I might attempt some sort of simulacrum of the real thing using fractionally angled curves, maybe. We'll see. Here's some additional SimCity 4 features that will come in real handy for a high wealth C$$$ and R$$$ city tile like this one: University (12x10) – While I probably won't need the high-tech (I-HT) CAPS uplift, a University plop increases EQ city-wide, which is super important for high-wealth commercial C$$$. Those company executives appreciate having a local satellite institution for completing their MBA. It also has a moderate uplift on residential CAPS of all wealth levels. Furthermore, the University plop contains many civic jobs, which help initiate low wealth C$ commercial traffic flows along arterial avenues. This is very similar to the Airport and Police plops, that way. The only mass transit my Airport, Police and University plops will get is Bus Stops, to maximise early game road traffic volumes. See below for the link to my post describing how incredibly useful the humble Maxis Bus Stop is.
Ferries – These are ploppable Neighbour Connections, and therefore one of the most powerful drivers of road traffic, and it's associated commercial growth, in the game. This is complex, so I talk about C$$ and C$$$ capitalising on commuter and tourist ferry traffic in this separate Simtropolis post, Jamaica Bay: Neighbour Connection Strategy with a C$$$ Tourism Focus. Lots and lots of Ferry plops planned for this Jamaica Bay city tile, each one surrounded by a modest layer of high potential commercial lots, not residential! Never zone residential right up close to a ferry (or any other neighbour connection), as your sim residents are entirely willing to take the first ferry right out of your city, and your city's commercial sector will be poorer for lack of economic participation, each and every time. While my first city tile in the region, Breezy Point, is a tourist town with a manufacturing (I-M) economic backbone, I'm planning for Jamaica Bay to become a tourism powerhouse, with a C$$ and C$$$ commercial economic backbone, based on tourism and through-traffic, with very little industry at all.
Private Schools (4x2 and 4x3)– This is much the same as the University, on a slightly smaller scale. Unlike the University, the Private Schools come with a great YIMBY Park Effect on local residential zones. Private Schools are also enhancing to education levels (EQ), and they come with civic jobs, helping to initiate and increase C$ commercial traffic along my arterial avenues. Best of all, the price is right; they are completely FREE! There is a bug that affects Maxis vanilla Private Schools, decreasing city EQ if the school is in high population zones and becomes overloaded with too many students, so I might download a custom Private School plop to fix that, perhaps one of these two custom plops: (not tested yet)
https://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/17566-private-schools-with-sliders/
https://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/26424-bigger-private-schools/
Churches (3x3) – These are basically like FREE Parks, with potent residential YIMBY effect on a wide radius. Can't argue with that! No road access required for churches or parks, curiously enough. Churches also provide a mild uplift to medium wealth R$$ residential CAPS.
Farmer's Market (3x3) – Though there won't be any agriculture (I-A) in this city tile, I'll put in a few small seas of Community Garden plops to simulate farms without the pollution ... and to deliver wide radius YIMBY residential effects. The Farmer's Market needs no road access, and has very nice YIMBY Park and Landmark Effects to benefit wealth of both residential and commercial nearby, but most importantly, it has very potent uplift on medium-wealth R$$ residential CAPS, to the tune of 150 thousand R$$ residents! I need a decent number of medium-wealth R$$ residents to supply local road traffic and employees for my C$$ and C$$$ commercial towers. Without any real agriculture (I-A) zoning, I'll have to use the Ctrl+X you don't deserve it vanilla cheat (no download required) to get the Farmer's Market ... and no, I don't even feel guilty about that!
Stock Exchange (4x3) – Great YIMBY Landmark Effect for nearby commercial growables, but the main reason I want this plop is for the 125 thousand uplift on high-wealth R$$$ residential CAPS!!!
Convention Centre (9x6) – This one needs road access, but has only moderate level civic jobs which are only seasonal, too. This is supposed to have 100 thousand uplift on commercial C$$ and C$$$ CAPS, but with a NIMBY residential effect in it's 22 tile radius. My tests to date haven't actually confirmed this commercial CAPS relief in-game, but my city tile strategy relies too much on C$$ and C$$$ growth to neglect including this one. I'll find a spot for this one somewhere well away from my residential zones, maybe even at the location of the Historic Air Restoration Project!
Other useful plops with moderate CAPS uplift include Radio Station (2x2) and Television Studio (3x3), for which no road access is required, plus the Resort Hotel (4x4), and Disease Research Lab (6x5), which both need road access and have civic jobs. Admittedly, my Jamaica Bay city tile will be MUCH BUSIER than the real-life location in New York! You might think this city tile is a great place for the Cruise Ship Port, but that plop is not much more than expensive eye-candy. A Medium Park Green provides better YIMBY value at a fraction of the cost. It's civic jobs are only seasonal, better handled by placing more Marinas, and it delivers no CAPS relief at all! As I mentioned above, I very highly recommend this other post of mine, The mysterious powers of the SimCity 4 Bus Stop, for better understanding the usefulness of the humble Maxis Bus Stop, which is another vital tactical element of my commercial growth gameplay The humble Bus Stop has a high-rise YIMBY effect in a very small radius, for all wealth levels, and is exceedingly useful as a highway bus transition piece. ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
The mysterious powers of the SimCity 4 Bus Stop (21st September 2019) Most SimCity 4 players have no idea, that the humble vanilla Maxis Bus Stop (Ctrl+Shift+R) has super powers ...
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
