AndyAndyAndy

Use the large elementary school. Or if you don't have rush hour, put more than one elementary school next to each other and max the funding out. Then go get rush hour. Also, there are many hi-capacity schools available for download on the STEX.

P.S. (sorry for double-post) Yeah, I forgot to mention! The I-D and I-M taxes are at 15%. I left I-HT at 9%, and that's all that is building all around.

Thanks! Yeah, it's not exactly realistic, but I never really could integrate the I with the R and C very well. I forgot to mention I was leaving a large plot open to the left of the ped mall where I plan to place a large arena, possible HSBC Arena, from the STEX. (heh, of course, stolen from the city of Buffalo) Stay tuned!

Hello everyone, this is a great community. This is (obviously) my first CJ, and pretty much the first city I started with all my "tools", those being the NAM and various other lots and tools I didn't have. Anyway, this city is plainly entitled "Cambridge / Back Bay", representing the region it occupies in real life (Boston, Mass.). This place is home to Boston University, MIT, The Prudential Center, Copley Square, The Old South Church, and Fenway Park. I decided that in this city, I would attempt to plan out a huge section of the city before anything was built. I usually do this, but only for a few blocks or so around the main expansion. I figured that at the least, the city would do fine, since it is connected to the right by a huge city that is doing great. Roads I started out by placing avenues, streets, and roads in a pattern that allowed for 6x6 development squares. I did this over and over, until I realized that I spent over §10,000 just for construction. Transit I then used bus stations and subway stations in opposite angles to the center of each 4-block by 4-block intersection, providing uniform mass transit. Zoning I wanted to plan an equal amount of residential and industrial zoning, so I used each 4-block by 4-block square created to act as one piece in an "L" shaped zone. I flipped the zone over and switched to industrial, which left me a perfect square with an empty center. I filled in the center 4 blocks with commercial, but left part or the entirety of one of those blocks empty, for the future placement of large elementary schools. Utilities I used (for the sake of having a kind-of stable budget to begin with), the Electric Power Plant Transformer (cost §50/mo) and two water pumps that I placed in the upper corner of the city. Fire, Police, Hospitals Along the central avenue - that devided the city into halves - I placed 3 hospitals , 1 police station, and 2 large fire stations. (I used the "cgh very large fire station" from the STEX, and the "new police station" from the STEX... Their coverage zones are larger, but I could have just used more than 1 and 2 normal stations just the same). Sure, their zones overlapped each other, but this would come in useful when the residential zones max out and fill the hospital. I also left space along this avenue for a large high school (which, with cranked up bus funding, covers 95% of the city so far.) The coastline At this point, I'm running out of money faster than I thought. I develop only 75% of the coastline that the city actually connects to what I already built. This is probably my favorite part of city-building: the commercial zones. I used the sea wall pack I found on the STEX, but I'm still horrible at it, so I ended up using most of the money left over trying to even out the coast and get the right pieces in to look good. Here's where I used "weaknesspays" to get about §10,000 to cover up my §-eating mistakes. I attached a ferry terminal and some waterfront commercial zones, and that was about it. ===This is what I was left with after about 1.5 hours of work=== ....a zoomed-in shot: The downtown area: So, I hit the >>> button and kinda bit my lip, and......... The first signs of development, were, suprisingly, on the far side of town, not near the borders. Though, all areas were starting, it was suprisingly slow. After a year (in game haha): And so things finally balanced out financially, and I realized that they weren't even close to what was going to happen. It was at this point: ...that everything balanced out. Soon after, I began earning over §5,000 in profits per month. I stopped playing when I regained my entire starting amount of cash. Well, this is the first chapter in what appears to be a successful experiment. Thanks so much for looking, this took me quite some time to make and write about! If you have questions, I'll be more than happy to field them! Andy