Valle de la Abundancia, California

Note: This here is my first contribution to the Simtropolis Forums. I have been a lurker for a long time and I got the idea for this Journal from some others like Silijoki and from the idea of alternate history. It is written from perspectives that will be laden with politics of the leftist kind; this is to (what I believe does) add a sort of authenticity to the entry. Likewise this will be a sort of teaser to put the initial idea out and see how people respond. I would love to get feedback and response on this so I could improve both as a writer and how to design my SimCities and would appreciate it greatly. Thank you!

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"Sometimes, everyone wonders about 'what if X changed and Y did or didn't happen.' If one misstep or coincidence could change the world as we know it irreversibly and forever. It's an attitude that most possess. It is said that history often turns on the smallest of events, in a perverse butterfly effect. It has certainly held true, whether it be the shot of an assassin that would leave 14 million people dead, a weather phenomenon that radar mistook for a nuclear missile, and the clicks of a keyboard that would ultimately strike at the very core of America.¨

~ Excerpt from "A Brief History of the American Continental Wars, Volume 1: 2011 - 2015" by Susanna K. Porter, Professor Emeritus of Contemporary History and Head of the History Department at the Autonomous University of California - San Leopoldo (AUCSL) (Printed by the San Leopoldo Syndicated Press on June 6th, 2029)

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Summary Report on Social Conditions and Transport Infrastructure in the City of San Leopoldo

Commissioned by the Supreme Council of the People's Government of the State of Alta California

Carried out by Dr. Julia Simmons, Civil Engineering Inspector Lorenzo Farias, Dr. Gene Aldermann and Prof. Anna Sandoval

  San Leopoldo is a city unlike any other on the West Coast of North America. It was first founded by Father Junipero Serra when he traveled briefly through a fertile valley in the center of Alta California. It was christened Valle de la Abundancia - the Valley of Abundance. Here Serra established the San Leopoldo Mission and a neighboring village of the same name, the 22nd Mission on the Camino Real that today cuts through the region. While the City has an interesting history to speak of, our aim as the authors here is to survey modern San Leopoldo and its development five years on from the end of the Continental War. 

  The city today is called home by close to 300,000 people and bordered to the north by the large farming and industrial communities of Kolacky and Calico Ridge. It is home to the Headquarters of the modern United Nations Organization (UNO), which overlooks the Canal District and the home of an International Airport as well as the site of a future Olympic Summer Games event to be held in 2032. The Canal is currently still in development but has been expanded from its original 1870 blueprint to cover two city blocks and a modernization of the New Canal is underway before 2032.

  The infrastructure is constantly expanded to move larger numbers of people at more efficient times, although traffic jams are frustratingly becoming more difficult to handle in some areas of the Downtown District.

  Overall, the infrastructure and social conditions within the community seem to be well and alive, and the credentialed experts commissioned by the State recommend that the Supreme Council of the People's Government of the State of Alta California continue to improve conditions for the residents of San Leopoldo and all incoming visitors in the near future via the investment of more funds into transportation improvements, better street design, and increased connectivity to neighboring communities such as Kolacky, Calico Ridge, Cerro Bonito and Aldston.