I've got a bit of a problem, and I was wondering if anybody had any advice.
I've got a city running on a large tile, and it was a veritable paradise just a couple days ago. The population was slowly, but steadily rising from around 30,000. My population was educated, and I was starting to load up on the manufactoring and high tech jobs. I zoned my first medium density areas, and they quickly took off. Then the problems began. My population skyrocketed, and my streets became absolutely clogged. I had around $500,000, so I decided to invest in a massive transportation overhaul.
Not long after that, however, I needed to expand into a big chunk of empty land, to meet both industrial and residential demand. This took me all the way down to $200,000. A few years later, the new neighborhood has become so congested, that I need to do another overhaul. After tons and tons of work, I realize I have just $10,000 left.
Here's the big problem. I have an income of about $12,000 a month, with expenses around $11,000. My schools and hospitals are at the minimum for what the demand is, and my sanitation department is underfunded by $2,000. To make matters worse, I need new fire coverage very badly in the industrial neighborhood. I've been worn down to around $3,000 in my coffers, and I try to let some money build up. However, every time I do, something comes up that needs investment. A new power plant. More police funding. My profit goes down to barely $100. Then, finally, the investment pays off, and I my profit grows to about $1,000 again. Then, the same problems start, and my profit drops to $100 with my coffers nearly empty.
I have nearly 60,000 people, and very high commercial demand. The problem is, I simply don't have the money to spend on denser zones or expansion. All my funds are eaten up by the essential spending, and this is all with a severely underfunded sanitation department. I'm treading water here, and I don't really see anyway out of this. My taxes are relatively low, and the minute I raise them to give me a comfortable profit, my middle class residents begin to pour out of my city and businesses begin to shut down. Some parks would really help keep that demand up, but I just don't have the funds to build any.
I'm wondering the problem is that with the low taxes, I spurred premature growth. (I've funded these tax cuts by setting dirty industry taxes at 20%. I didn't care about the demand for them, and the funds from their overtaxation have allowed me to keep the taxes super low for my middle class.) The demand is just too low when the taxes are reasonable, and it seems the small tax payments are the only thing keeping my city from turning into one giant slum. If I were to raise them to get out of this financial crisis, my economy would collapse, as it is built on manufactoring and the middle class. Anybody have any ideas?
