Solminia- An industrial slum.- Part 1- Initial Development
Ok, so this is my first real entry in my city journal, and its gonna be following the development of Solminia, a low wealth, slum like city centred around dirty industry.
To begin with here's a picture of Solminia with only basic transportation infrastructure, prior to the development of the city.
Since I'm designing Solminia to be a slum like city, I am planning it rather differently to how I usually plan my cities. Solminia is to have minimal public transport (a small rail and bus system) , and be largely reliant on car travel for transportation.
Furthermore, I am going to be using for the most part the streets which are laid automatically as part of the games auto zone style feature (the ones you get if u don't hold down shift whilst zoning). Hopefully this will lead to increased traffic congestion due to the inefficient road layout created by this, further increasing the slum like feel of the city.
Anyway, below is a picture of the city with initial zoning, and infrastructure in place, prior to any development of zones;
As can be seen in the above image, the city is to be powered by a coal power plant, initially with a large industrial park to the north east of the city, and a housing area, with a few shops in the south east of the city. The city has two north south avenues, and one east west avenue. Initial public transport consists of a total of 4 commuter rail stations (2 in the housing area, and 2 in the industrial area), along with a limited bus system.
And now, here's a picture of the housing area with the limited development having occurred on the zones after a few months.
And now the industrial area with some development having occurred;
A few months later the Solminia City Water Authority was established with the construction of a water pump next to the main train station, and pipes being constructed providing fresh drinking water to all areas of the city.
The supply of drinking water lead to an explosion in construction in the city, with lower density structures being upgraded to medium density in both the housing and industrial districts of the city as shown below;
After a few more months, the cities residents began demanding the construction of a fire station, in particular due to the high fire hazard posed by the cities industries. Before long a city station was constructed close to the intersection of two of the cities avenues;
The city continued to grow and prosper, and before long the city council was approached by McDonalds, who wanted to set up one of their fast food outlets on one of the avenues in the city, both to catch local business, and to earn business from tourist traffic passing through the city on the avenues. A McDonalds outlet was granted permission to be developed on the east-west avenue close to the railway line and main station. A community radio station was also constructed next the the fast food outlet.
The construction of the fire station a few months earlier soon paid off with the city encountering its first ever fire in the industrial district, with the cities three fire engines responding, and quickly controlling the fire before it got out of hand; (on a side note, is it possible to remove the dispatch icon things when taking a screenshot?)
Meanwhile, garbage was becoming a large problem for Solminia, leading to the creation of the city dump, and recycling centre next to the coal power plant;
Citizens were also beginning to cry out for medical cover, given the city was still without a single hospital. The decision was soon made to expand the housing area further west, to meet up with the second avenue, and construct a hospital in this area as part of the development. The development also included another commuter rail station, in addition to the construction of a casino which would bring in more tax revenue to the city and help finance the project.
After completion of the housing expansion, a decision was also made to expand the cities industrial area south to meet up with the housing area, and at the same time to rezone all industrial areas to high density. The expansion of the industrial zone can be seen below;
The expansion of the industrial district put increased strain on the cities power network, leading to frequent brownouts. Thus the decision was made by the city council to construct a second coal fired power plant in order to keep up with power demand.
By now Solminia has a population of around 40,000 residents, and citizens were growing tired of having to wait for police to arrive from neighbouring cities in response to their requests for assistance. Furthermore, criminals were beginning to take advantage of the slow police response time, with crime particularly rife in the industrial areas, where robberies, hold up's and assaults were becoming all too common place, and beginning to effect industry profits. The decision was thus made to construct a police station in a central location of the city. After considering a number of locations, the council finally chose a site close to the fire station, on the main east-west avenue.
Shortly after the construction of the police station, it was decided that a City Hall was needed in order to give the council a proper place to meet and hold meetings.
The City Hall was soon constructed in the CBD, close to the police and fire stations.
A few months passed and before long the industrial sector was again crying out for expansion. The council decided to expand the industrial district further east, so that it would link up with the main railway line heading along the east of the map. The expansion featured an integrated freight and commuter railway station, just off the main line.
This further expansion of the industrial sector once again put strain on the cities power grid, which once more lead to the construction of another coal fired power station.
With the expanded industrial district creating more jobs in the city, the housing district was once again expanded, this time to the east in a similar way to the industrial expansion, with the construction of another commuter railway station in the new area.
It was not long after this expansion that the problem of high fire hazards in the industrial sector raised its ugly head again, with another fire. Luckily once again it was quickly extinguished by the cities fire brigade.
This lead to the council enacting a new law, requiring that all new buildings be fitted with smoke detectors in order to reduce the risk of fires.
Anyways, thats all till next time,
any comments would be appreciated, thanks, :-)
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