davidhogan

gotta love the DLS - please, keep them coming! Dave

Now that I'm thinking about it, there's even more reasons I use so many open green spaces: They look good on the transit map They look good on the satellite map They raise land values They make me work harder to balance the budget They eat up pollution They don't mess up hillsides, and they make the hillside look more lush, like San Diego's hillsides really do. And generally I treat them as reserved land that I won't bulldoze through to add zones - sometimes roads/civic buildings, but I try to avoid it cause... Well, I like parks. I'm thinking of trying some cut and cover projects for I-15, like the real one has through the recently build 40th Street Alignment. (I-15 ended at I-8, then became CA-15, which was a freeway called Ward Blvd connected to 40th street, which at the south end picked up CA-15 again as Wabash (it was at one time Wabash Blvd, but that was too much apparantly, so it became Wabash.) Wabash ran down to the I-5 end of the current CA-15. Because of left interchanges at CA-94, CA-15 is still not interstate past I-8 though. So there's the San Diego Roadgeek bit of info for the week. Dave

I-5 Reconstruction in Del Mar Heights So you've driven through Del Mar Heights recently and wondered what's with all the construction? Maybe you got detoured off I-5 and had to use local roads in the middle of the night? Well, with the completion of Del Mar Heights Country Club & Estates Del Mar's surface streets were becoming a nightmare to enter I-5. To compensate, a large part of I-5 is being elevated, with new roads running below and several new ramps being constructed. The costs for this are being offset by some small biotech firms that have moved into town, as well as the condos near the golf course. The open green spaces, as seen above, are not done only for cosmetic reasons, but also so I don't forget something is a park and zone in it. (Residents lost the old Coleman Memorial Park to industry in to one such tragic incident.) Dave

as a thank you to everyone who's commented: Leucadia (It's North of Encinitas) One of two new areas built today. It's bascially all urban sprawl, segmented by avenues to create a bunch of sectors. Here's one. Here's the other new neighborhood built today. Thought you might like to see some new construction, thanks again for the comments everyone. Dave

There's not too much of an update here, just some infill through Miramar/Mira Mesa, and Mission Valley along I-15 from I-8 to I-5. Oh, and some in north county. And a little in Ocean Beach. And Mission Beach. Well, it doesn't feel like I got that much done. Dave

Encinitas Re-visited The northern half of Encinitas, a very prude bedroom community that somehow has a Hooter's on the main avenue through the northern half of town. (They just shut down a bar/restaurant named Showgirls this week IRL because of NIMBY issues.) Encinitas is also, in real life, a town that incorporated about 1980 just to make sure the region's freeway network couldn't be completed. Again, NIMBY. And the southern part of town, including a park featuring the new Encintas Central Library. Encinitas has become the commercial center for the North County so far, leading to the significant amounts of rowhouses and apartments shown above. Dave

Miramar/San Diego International Airport Celebrates Completion of Cargo Facilities! Shown above is the mixed commercial/industrial parks that are located north of the passenger terminal, west of the runway. This entire park is fed by the one avenue shown, which passes under the airport (quite a construction project in itself) and up to Miramar Rd in the Miramar section of the city. It's currently being called Bussiness Park Blvd, but the city council hasn't actually approved that name yet. Between CA-52 and the airport on the south side there's a good amount of mixed use zoning. Other than the airplanes flying over though, residents for the most part like the conveniences of nearby jobs, stores (including Wegman's!), and community services. Medium density is planned for within valley near CA-52, since the building's height will still be below the level of the runways. As a sidenote, the airport I built here was actually somewhat inspired by on proposal for MCAS Miramar, the only problem was the diagonal runways. So it's basically just on the same area (which now is next to a landfill) as where the real Miramar International may someday go. If only it was this easy to build an airport in real life... Dave

holy ****. sorry, that was the most family friendly exclamation that explains how nice the zoned areas look. if you get a chance, do you think you could link to a big region census map? (if you host it on imageshack, and post it as a link, it can be up to 1 MB.) dave

you're giving me too many ideas, i don't have time to copy them all! dave

San Diego County Page 4 http://img101.exs.cx/img101/3592/page4-sm.jpg width=600 border=0>

if i can find a military airfield pack like Joerg's commercial airport pack, definitely i'll do camp pendleton. MCAS miramar in my SD has been replaced by a commercial airport, but the industrial areas to the north are staying in place. i've kept the stock SC4 Army base near I-15 as about the weakest tribute to our nation's military ever, but it was the best i could do. for those unfamiliar, the base relocation and closure programs will probably close the real MCAS miramar by 2030 and move all operations to Camp Pendleton, near Oceanside, to free up the MCAS miramar land for a new airport san diego despirately needs, as well as due to encroaching housing/businesses making the likelihood of a military accident over populated areas more and more likely. and for a little background, MCAS (Marine Corps Air Station) Miramar used to be NAS (Naval Air Station) Miramar, which was where the real Top Gun school was. In the 1990's the Navy moved out, and Marine helicopters as well as fixed wing operations moved in. as for the naval sub base on point loma, i'm going to try to do something. dave

you have one of the nicest looking road networks i've seen anyone build in SC4. i'm always looking forward to more updates, sorry i hadn't posted here before. dave

How To Make San Diego Style Suburbs (and Stay Interested While Building a Metropolis) In suburbia, two things are key: parks, and low-density. Say it with me class, Low density housing is your friend. This isn't the best example of athletic fields, since this is a more dense area, but most schools have a ball park, football field, soccer field, something. Not all, but most. The Simtropolis Exchange has a lot of great BAT creations. Espescially those by SimGoober are great for adding a suburban feel. (Not to slight anyone, but c'mon, he's the King of Suburban BAT.) There's a ton of other great authors too, and you can really get a nice suburban feel with some Wegman's, In-N-Out's, McD's, WalMarts, plaza complexes, etc. Sometimes a big onramp can encourage more Sims to use them. I try to build Streets to Collector Roads to Avenues to Freeways as the general traffic pattern. It's not always direct, but Sims will find the route if you use an improved pathfinding mod. (It's really necessary, the default pathfinding is so bad.) If you have no idea what a pathfinding mod is, do a search, they've been discussed plenty on ST. Learn to use the NAM and it will add a lot more variety. Those freeway ramps serve the industrial neighborhood to the south in two ways - it allows commuters to get to them from both directions, but spreads them out causing less congestion than if it was both directions exiting to just one road. Again, Parks + Low Density + StEx = Suburbia. It'll add a lot of variety, and make for a nice sattelite view also. Dead end streets happen in real life - make them happen in your SimCities also. These houses are built in a valley, the park-covered hill wouldn't be suitable terrain for construction, so the streets just end into a 1x1 house. I think it looks good. Get the golf packs from the StEx, and use them to make an eightteen hole course. It takes time, but it looks great in the end. Normally I'd build paths to and from each hole, but that's a project I've left for later and just filled in with Open Green Spaces for now. Sometimes you want some medium density in Suburbia. Find an area with low traffic, low pollution, excess educational coverage, and no place to build out, and zone so it can build up. Combined with Cobb's works on the StEx, you can get buildings like that in your cities. In commercial areas, do the opposite when you zone up. Find areas that have traffic problems, and zone up. That or build a large job center that's ploppable like the Ritz Carlton above. I don't normally plop much, but this just fit too well in the with the other hotels that had grown in the area. Last, but not least, is zone big, big, big commercial areas. 4x4 and 6x6 should be common in suburban areas, but you'll need some BAT works to make them look good. All 10 of these pictures are from Fashion Valley, a suburban neighborhood in midcity that I've worked for about 130 sim years before it has that much growth - and it's still only 60,000 people. Dave

One Point Five Million! (Oh yeah!) San Diego County is proud to have reached another population milestone. Much recent growth has been in the Miramar and Mira Mesa areas, shown above. The new international airport and local tram services has also helped industrial growth through the area, along with the new CA-52 from just west of the airport to it's current end past I-15. It's planned to be extended through Santee as growth begins there, and possibly out to El Cajon. Miramar has a bit more housing than real life, but hey, the traffic simulation seems to require it to get decent commercial growth. Central Miramar High and West Canyon High have a real rivalry - there's only plans to build an athletic center at one of them. Neither school has been awarded the funding yet, but West Canyon is the current favourite. A quick picture of the newly erected statue in tribute to Marlon Brando across Miramar Rd from San Diego County's first OfficeMax. There'll be another update soon. Dave

CA-52 Built from Convoy St to I-15 What does that sign say at the new interchange? Airport? Yes, that's right - the Miramar San Diego International Airport is nearing completion. Flights are already moving in and out, but until the FedEx hub and surrounding industrial areas are complete it will only be running about about one-quarter capacity. This is expected to reduce congestion at Lindbergh Field (near downtown) and the North Island Regional Airport located, of all places, on North Island. The future regional plan includes a small commuter airport on the McLellan property south of the future CA-78 freeway serving North County, Gillespie Field once El Cajon is built out, Brown Field once the industrial parks planned near the border are completed, and Montgomery Field between I-805 and I-15. Just north of the I-15/CA-163 merge is the Southeast Miramar Athletic Facilities at Langley High School. These parks were built to help the residents forget they live in a predominantly industrial area. Fortunately the good education system throughout the county has paid off, and led to almost entirely high tech developement. The biotech and computer firms keeps forcing the dirtier businesses out of town, although some have survived mostly because of the low-income housing near the military facilities. Dave

Granton! I feel like I'm home again! Thanks for the updates, they rock! dave

hours??? try months. dave

it's good to see digby again, i'm waiting for more. dave

very cool city layout, looks great dude! dave

I labelled some of the good stuff in this first night shot of downtown. The North Bay Beaches were added, cause, well, I wanted beaches downtown. (There's really no beaches anywhere near there, but whatever. This is my San Diego.) The sports park and police station were mostly named in case you wanted to figure out my street naming convention. (Hint: I-5 exits to 1st, 5th, and 10th Aves downtown, and G St = Broadway.) Scripps High was named for Ellen Scripps, a real life philanthropist in San Diego County. The real Scripps Aquiarium in La Jolla, as well as Scripps Ranch, are named for her family. America's Finest Trauma Center comes from San Diego's humble city slogan: America's Finest City. It's even on the police cars here. (No joke.) Dave

Barrio Logan/Northeast Coronado Breaks 100,000 Condos condos everywhere, and even a small beach. Coronado keeps growing up, espescially since the growth of the industrial areas north of the North Island Airport. (I'm now realizing I should post some pictures of that soon.) The growth of a new residential tower on Coronado Ave/CA-282. This was just one of several highrises constructed to house the 25,000 new residents. The new DoubleTree Hotel has excellent access to one of the finest beaches in San Diego County, as well as a ferry to Downtown. The tourists love it. A farther out shot from the Northeast with the Coronado Bridge. Dave

San Diego County Regional Road Network http://img80.exs.cx/img80/962/sd-20041007sm.jpg width=600 border=0> The roads and freeways, as of today. CA-252 and CA-209 are new additions since the last post. (The picture is a link to a bigger one, about 1 MB.) Dave

The Little City On the Bay Keeps Growing San Diego County announced its population broke 1.25 million residents last night. With further expansion of the subway downtown roughly 20,000 new housing units have been constructed in the past 3 years. (This shot is at the south end of CA-163, where it turns into 10th Ave. The 9th Ave subway stations can be seen on the right.) N Harbor Dr near I-5 looks little like the small shops that were located here just 100 years before. San Diego County Community College Downtown still has it's same location, as seen here. The end of First Ave at the Convention Center, near San Diego's City Hall (still one of my favourite BAT creations), and the historic Rancho San Diego Hotel. Traffic is dense in downtown, but not congested except in the southwest corner on Market St and I-5. The 163 is starting to congest north of the junction with I-308. The new county road map is coming soon. Dave

The City Keeps Growing Just a quick screenshot of the first Cold Stone Creamery that grew up in San Diego. (This is East Golden Hill, just a little south of CA-94 if you're in the neighborhood.) Edited to thank everyone for the comments, and mention that future freeway growth will be based on the 1950's freeway plans for San Diego. Check out http://www.westcoastroads.com/california/sandiego.html for more info on some of the deleted routes that I'll plan on building sometime soon. The real CA-171 = I-308 in my San Diego, renumbered cause, well, i don't like 171. Dave