Entries 2-10
Extract of the proposal presented to the Honourable Lord Mayor Geoff Lincoln of the Middleflats City Council, Boston City, dated 11/07/1967:
[beginning of document not included]
...Childers Rail and Hotdog Additives is pleased to present the current Daegon Rail Link proposal, which will connect the existing Curry River line [running from Boston City Central Harbour from WestGate Station (3) to Curry River Connect via Compton Station (7)] with the proposed Daegon Eastbank Station (12) via four proposed stations on the Daegon Rail Link.
The four stations are as follows:
#8 - Franklin Industrial Park Exchange
#9 - New Pimpshire Industrial Park Exchange
#10 - RiverForestLakeBreezeHill Estate Station
#11 - Daegon Central Industrial Complex Exchange
#12 - Daegon Eastbank Station
The full product disclosure is written in rediculously small type on the last 843 pages of this proposal, please ensure you read it carefully - we have included a cracked loupe to assist you in this task. We kindly request that the loupe is returned in good working order within the next twenty minutes.
The total cost of this project is estimated to be exactly $25.30 less than our competitors quote which you were good enough to provide us with in exchange for a free ride on the Pimpkenbar Express, however please be advised that when you are sufficiently committed to the project and we are nearing completion of the first stage that costs will increase approximately 500% or we will be forced to declare bankruptcy and leave you with the mess.
We trust that this proposal meets your satisfaction, and look forward to your incredibly over-inflated upfront 100% deposit being made into our bank accounts, the details of which are provided below in large red letters, and which we have also SMS'd, emailed, and sky-written above your office, all of which are being billed to you of course.
[rest of document not included]
This proposal is currently under scrutiny and will be ammended or approved in the immediate future.
The aerial photography plans are provided below for public viewing and comment.
The sprawling west shores of Greenlip Lake, spanning the two shires of Clarke's Valley (to the south) and Manchester Lake (to the north) is quickly becoming an attractive place to settle, moving from a sleeping grazier's township to a small industrial orbit to the west of Boston Central. It is the west-most point where sims can settle near water, and one of the few natural bodies of freshwater anywhere in the entire region.
The citizens of Clarke's Valley side of this community (the only side with any industrial strength at this time, and by far the most organised council) approached the local waterworks utility, which until that time focussed mainly on snow-cone production for the local exhibition once a year (not very profitable).
Tiddalik's Waterworks was pleased to provide a contract to erect a large water tower on the west banks of Greenlip Lake, and fund the building of the piplelines that would distribute town water to the local community, including the newly released industrial zone which was expected to be the hub of growth for the next ten years.
Now you can have a cup of water come out of your own taps in Clarke's Valley (which includes the suburbs of Crikville and Jelly Cup Bay). Yes that's right, Clarke's Valley only. At Donaster Street, on the northern edge of Clarke's Valley City Limits, the drink stops. Houses to the north of that in Larson (in Manchester Lake Shire Council) are welcome to drink from water tanks, the gutter, or their toilet... (which is filled from water tanks or the gutter using plastic cups).
Manchester Lake Shire Council and Clarke's Valley Shire Council have been unable to reach an agreement about the cost of building a network of pipes into the north shores of Greenlip Lake, let alone how much to charge for the water, and so northern shore residents must go without.
Clarke's Valley Council was quoted in the local paper as saying "Guess the West Side's the Best Side", which didn't help reach a diplomatic solution at all.
Stock up on plastic cups guys, this turf war isn't going to end any time soon.
Meanwhile the rest of the region barrels onwards.
Portsmouth Island.
One of the very eastern most islands in Boston Bay that currently has residents, and one which all shipping passes to and from the Port of Boston.
Until recently it has been little more than wilderness, but with the state government lotting it off and selling it to investers, people are moving in fast to snap up such a unique piece of real estate.
The only problem is that there is absolutely no access whatsoever to the mainland except with resident sim's own water craft.
So while this land is a wonderful opportunity to build a home away from home, it is not a very succesful community as far as permanent living goes. It has little chance to develop without access to the mainland, and will remain nothing more than a struggling infant community.
What Portsmouth Island really needs is ferry access, but the city simply isn't going to invest in such an expensive piece of infrastructure for such a tiny community, and such a tiny community isn't going to grow without SOME kind of ferry access.
Submissions are being drafted to Portsmouth District Council for small piers, pontoons, jetties and other means of access to the ferries, but with as low build and maintenance cost as possible.
Because while the cries of the sims on Portsmouth Island become more insistent, the sims scattered across the other 32 islands are joining the chorus. Something MUST be done, and must be done NOW.
A few submissions have filtered to the top of the list and are being considered for development.
Skate Park comes under fire, located on the west banks of the Kholi Creek inlet, Boston North Central.
The centre of the debate is how to prevent the local skate-park from being a gathering-point for bored teens looking for trouble.
At one end of the debate are parents and citizens stating that the skatepark doesn't generate crime, it is simply a rally point for those already inclined to vandalism and the like, and is a very important recreational facility for their community... after all not every teen is a bad apple.
At the other end of the debate are local residents that are tired of having their environment graffiti'd, their homes stoned, and their cars broken into.
Council was at its wits end - afterall surely there are far more important issues to deal with than one skatepark and five or six disgruntled residents.
Council has pro-actively tackled this issue, and rather than take down the skate-park they decided to install a police kiosk to patrol the area.
This not only keeps the local residents happy, but keeps the parents and citizens happy too, knowing that their teens are hanging out in a much safer environment.
Guardburger And Sons Ltd's design for a basic aluminium ferry pontoon was selected as the best submission for pontoon designs, and went into manufacturing in late November, 1968.
The first such pontoon was Ol' Djohaal's Pontoon, built to service the pressing complaints of the Portsmouth Island community.
The results of this pontoon were almost instantaneous.
Suddenly people had a quick, cheap, reliable means to travel to and from the island using Boston's ferry service.
People not only got jobs on the mainland, but mainlanders quickly took up the opportunity to buy land in the now booming community of Portsmouth Island.
Land prices skyrocketted, and development went ahead full steam.
Felix Point's own Pontoon, slightly north west of Portsmouth, quickly became the launching point to get to and from Portsmouth Island, and as a result the community in that area also saw a significant increase in development.
So great was the development and so inexpensive was the infrastructure that District Councils all over Boston contracted Guardburger and Sons Ltd to install pontoons in their own communities, and by April 1969 Guardburger had no less than 8 pontoons built around the region, with another 16 being drafted. All in remote regions where roads were either too expensive or not possible at all.
The benefits to Boston at large have been enormous, and has made the development of the region's numerous small islands not only possible but extremely attractive to developers.
If only Aluminium didn't need to be imported it would make the production of these pontoons much faster...
For helping with the production of this pontoon I would like to thank Djohaal for BAT help (especially with LOD suggestions) and Mr Kahki Shorts for his help with invisible texturing.
Time to take the trash out of the picture.
Boston's central west (once nice farms that were quite content to bury their tyres and solvent paints in holes on their own land so it could seep into ground water) was now a sprawling suburbia where sims had the disgusting habit of putting trash in cans out the front of their houses on the street.
So naturally the city had to cart it away and put it in land-fill, and as the population grew, so did the rate of trash.
Three large landfills later in only 17 years time, and the District Council had gotten fed up.
People were throwing out perfectly good teddie bears, televisions, even bottles of medication that wasn't even past its use-by date! Rediculous waste. Plenty of other sims could use this stuff, so it was time to do something about it.
The District Council slapped a Recycling Plant into the Fenton Downs Waste Disposal site, and now sims can buy back their own trash at rediculously high prices and feel all warm and fuzzy that they didn't fill a great big hole with stuff that would have broken down in time. About 5000 - 8000 years time. Oh big deal, it's biodegrading isn't it?! Just SLOWLY.
Now the amount of waste that goes into landfill is greatly reduced, AND people can indulge in that bizarre trait of paying good money for things that are totally 100% useless. Seriously who wants a rock with eyes glued onto it? Or a mirror that's got so many stickers around the edges that you can barely see yourself in it? Come ON people.
Boston is expanding.
Rapidly.
Industry is booming, sims are flocking to the region in droves, and the city is fast becoming a thriving industrial sector.
But importing goods is expensive, especially if you can source them locally.
The SimNation State Government put out the call - prospectors would be given percentages of any significant mineral deposit that could be extracted profitably.
The response was enormous. Sims from all over simnation scoared the countryside and the city suburbs alike. Geologists were in record demand as entire businesses were founded in an attempt to cash in on the SimNation State Government's offer.
As a result many natural deposits were found and logged. Some were small, some required further investigation with proper surveying techniques to determine their lode, and some were complete hoaxes. But some. Well some were enormous and very exciting.
A host of minerals were found in the local area, and the rights to the land they were on was immediately snapped up by Boston City Council. One or two farmers disputed the claim, but the strata title clearly states that a property owner only owns the title to 2 meters below the surface of their land. Everything below that belongs to the State. Shotgun sales had a brief spike but fortunately there were no incidents.
Boston City Council is now auctioning off the mining rights to some of these deposits.
In particular the Bauxite and Iron Ore deposits to the south and the Silica deposits to the east... of which industry can make immediate use of without having to invest in too much new technology.
Plans for a quarry are being submitted to council, and it looks as though the healthy cheque being given to the government is guaranteeing the green-light.
Yesterday I received a postcard which had been posted some four months ago from Tom (gotta love the postal service).
It reads:
Dear Hector,
I wanted to show you the hospital I went to as a result of my riding accident.
The postcard is still out of date - Mett Point Hospital had only been built for about six months or so. Everything is so white! I felt like Buck Rogers! Except sore.
I marked the area the hospital now sits in with a red marker - sorry it smudged.
I included a photograph of the wing I stayed in - one of the nurses was kind enough to oblige. I think she should probably stick to being a nurse.
On inspecting the postcard in more detail I could indeed see that the area the hospital now occupied used to be some smaller buildings - probably some shops or townhouses or something, as well as the old David Jones outlet that had that fire not so long ago.
Its quite a different skyline now I guess. Feels good to know there's real quality healthcare available if something goes wrong. There's no way those little urban GP's could have stitched Tom's legs back on and done that tripple brain bypass after his accident.
The Daegon Rail Link was completed in late March, 1973, linking Boston Central to the western suburbs, and terminating at the Daegon Central Industrial Complex.
The only station that was not laid from the initial proposal was the Daegon Eastbank Station.
With such a cheap and reliable method of mass transit to and from the heart of Boston, business flowed rapidly into Daegon, with sims and development following close behind.
In just one year, Deagon changed drastically from a small sleepy town into a busy developped suburban sprawl, with the growth in industry requiring not one but two new Natural Gas Power Plants operating at maximum capacity.
JUST AFTER DAEGON RAIL LINK COMPLETED, March 1973
JUST OVER ONE YEAR LATER, July 1974
The growth in this region has been rapid, but it has also been dirty and poorly planned, which is causing the local council (which is still very small and disorganised) some real headaches.
Something's gotta give.
© all content and images CSGdesign unless previously copyright to another party. 2010.
3 Comments
Recommended Comments
Sign In or register to comment...
To comment in reply, you must be a community member
Sign In
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In NowCreate an Account
Sign up to join our friendly community. It's easy!
Register a New Account