Some elites have settled in Widening, and they’re doing quite well. Given the fact that, due to several oil extraction fields near their neighborhood, pollution is quite heavy, their overall satisfaction is remarkably good with 70%. Of course their appreciation of the environment is very bad with 21%, but low taxes, lots of services and smooth traffic flow make them quite happy about their stay in the city. The first picture of this update shows a big elite mansion.

Medium density high tech factories are the only businesses in Widening that employ elites, just one per factory, so at the moment there are not that many elites in the city. They constitute only 4% of the entire population. In a way that is a good thing, since it’s going to be a long time before the medium density elite housing will be unlocked, so using lots of these villas, if they came in large numbers, would take up a lot of space. So I suppose I’ll let this new group grow slowly as I also establish only high tech factories when needed, just to avoid shortages. The next picture shows a medium density high tech factory in the front, and a good looking medium density shop to the left of it.

The next picture shows Widening’s first landmark, the Brandenburg Gate, located in the middle of the elite neighborhood. The Gate improved elite satisfaction by about 1%, as it works just like a very expensive park with its maintenance cost of 10,000 per turn. I don’t see any other benefit coming from this landmark.

Widening’s trade balance is getting worse. Two updates ago it was at about -20,000, now it is at about -60,000. I had been postponing closing new trade contracts until it was really necessary, so now I have to make new deals very regularly, as I have already maxed out all shortages. This is impairing the number of new services I can offer, especially since these get more and more expensive. Adding to this the fact that I foresee that Widening’s trade capacity will soon fall short of what needs to be traded to get the current strategy going, I foresee that at some point the city will again have to produce some things that are now being bought, like electricity, or maybe even some manufacturing industry. For these reasons only one new service has been added since the previous update, a paintball facility, shown in the front in the next picture.

Overall satisfaction is quite stable. The new paintball facility and the landmark improved it a bit; a small expansion of the fuel industry provided a small setback. The main problem is of course the pollution of the environment, with the satisfaction of all people lower than 45%. Services are becoming a real challenge as well, especially leisure. With an average score of about 71% on leisure there certainly is room for improvement. The elite value overall services at an average of 69%, the executives at 79%, the qualified workers at 92% and the unqualified workers at 95%. It is peculiar how being rich makes people unhappy in the CitiesXL universe. It seems being poor pays off in terms of happiness. The next picture shows some happy people in Widening talking to each other.

The high tech industries now have risen to become the most profitable businesses in the city. As a sector the offices can of course not be beaten, since Widening focuses on this. Still the city runs with no unemployment, except the occasionally temporarily unemployed, just until a new business has been established. Also most of the time there are no job vacancies. The composition of the populace is stable, except that the introduction of the elites has diminished the shares of the unqualified and the qualified workers a bit. The final picture of today’s update shows a marketplace in the executives neighborhood by night. The Christmas decorations will probably soon be gone, so enjoy. The next update will be when Widening reaches 200,000 inhabitants. There will probably be some exceptional buildings in it.