Houston,
You images caught my attention and so as I read through the blog VERY fast ( I was really just looking for renders) I noticed towards the end you are having some issues with mental ray and getting lights for night to show correctly. I use mr exclusively for architectural visualization for my work and consider my self to be a pro with it. I could work with you if you would like to in order to solve issues you may still be having. I can give you contact info for reaching me outside of simtropolis too.
Tom