Pepster

The idea of the suburbs per se exists since the roman times, when the real urban concept took off, and large cities were finally amased thanks to a strong production and trade economy that requiered a lot of labour. actually the suburbs differ a lot acording the countries, cultures, and most important, available land. the mexican case is an example, Guadalajara and Monterrey (2th and 3rd largest cities) have plenty of land to expand, and as result unifamiliar homes have sprung up and they are mostly low density cities compared to mexico city. the case of mexico city is quite different, as the city itself have a shortage of usable land for urbanization. the city is in a "geographical bowl" this makes housing very expensive, to give and example the social housing can be 30% more expensive in the State of Mexico than in elsewhere the country, and for fancy flats in desirable places, the figure real unreal figures compared to those with same characteristics, but in other large mexican city. even so, there is a huge housing boom in mexico city to build up small, gated and cheap houses several kilometers from the city centre or financial districts. The case of the boom of suburbia in America have much to do with the so called "white fly" something easily found in wikipedia, this have caused the boom of the "edge cities" and the decay of several downtowns. otherwise Europe have proved that downtowns can be exciting places (and expensive to live), full of history, activities, close of the jobs, and near main public transport system. im somewhat against ultra low density suburbs, cause they are a waste of land, resources and expensive to fulfill them with such things like running water, increase commuting times, and are hard to integrate them in to the main city activities (this apply more for the farest suburbs). London have proved that can be very feasible and profitable to have a bustling city centre and that urban redevelopment really pays off to cite an example that. there is a comment that maybe right, that suburbs give more secure and quiet place to be and a lawn in front of your front door... but honestly.... not anyone is looking for that i rather a flat near a place where the real action (and transportation) is, also... even in mexico city (also in a BIG condo craze, not just booming unifamiliar houses in the suburbs), there are a lot of new flats, with buildings with Sky Garden, cool for a flat that cost $80,000 dollars for 2 bedrooms and 2 baths, (while luxury lofts with just one bedroom and view to a huge park cost twice that figure, lol

when is this project about to be finished (i mean the conectors for SC4), im very much in to the idea of "sink" several parts of highways and also i rather to build a tunnel than a bridge when it comes to conect 2 shores...

btw, change the bridges, they are way to thin, they need more lanes

i Propose some redevelopment in critical areas, like increase the green areas (do this conciously, not randomly), generate more shopping areas near parks and also increase the public transportation, if your bugget its too tight or don't use cheat, u can also try the next. generate a new city next to this one, but make some sort of plan, if the new city its to hold the less desirable jobs like manufacturing and Dirty industries, or if its gonna be a residential and shopping area, making the central city more like a large CBD (cetral business district), whatever, still u have to increase the transport net and options, and yup, cut off some taxes, in the areas of high rise residential tower promote the use of diverse transport options plus think to link it to the jobs centres, whatever try to make a nice redevelopment, because the city really needs a reshape.

Milano

Mexico City Vs Guadalajara Vs Monterrey. Mexico City its the Global image and business centre of mexico (but also a heavy paper as HQ centre for international companies operating in Latinamerica). Guadalajara (4 million hab) have a very low rise, very liveable city, but wages are lower than Mexico City or Monterrey, while living its relative cheap (and beer amazingly cheap and widespread), but it holds the Mexican Sillicon Valley (design and production centre for electronic goods and pieces). Monterrey (3 million hab) very linked to US, the third largest mexican city, but the second in economic output, with a very industrial tradition, very centered in heavy industry. as the 3 cities are faw between them, theres a lot or rivalries, in many fields, but the 3 are have their very economic function and structure.

Im sowhat dissappointed that we are missing an impressive city in the world, and the third largest financial centre and the world largest city (according to Emporis http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/ci/?id=100297 ), Tokyo its the place were 33 million habitants live (metro area), and also boast some of the most impressive urban proyects, that came from the 80's Boom and property prices bonanza. What ever i been trying to build up a map of Tokyo (quite large indeed), but i cant find a proper map to make the adaptation, some help or even if some one its develope one, would be nice if share it for everyone, also Osaka is being forget it, and of course my home city, Mexico City. in emporis everyone can also find ideas for new skycrapers or imitate those of the world greater cities, in the case of mexico city, the Torre Mayor, Pemex Tower, Altus Tower, Latinoamericana Tower and Arcos Tower are very simcitiable towers... Anyone Opinion?...

Well... i have questions for those masters of SC4, which is the maximun size for a Region (in km and square km) second, is the a chance to make a 3x3 map size (even if i think that the colours don't allow it, maybe a mod could do the magic) Third, is there a chance to make a MOD to allow the creation of boundaries (creation of boroughs, districts or counties, or even state limits). or in that case make irregular maps (not square shaped only), this idea i got it from this City Journal, as he made divisions for the city districts ( https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/view.asp?topicID=60929 ), there it is, hope an answer

after all, all depends on desirability and land prices, i live in mexico city and here in Santa Fe, there is a Boom in construction mainly to build great skyscrapers for residential, towers of 20 and 30 floors, with lakes, etc... and Santa Fe is a suburban area and bussines centre next to some highways and hills, indeed in Santa Fe is the Tallest Mexican Residential Only Tower... with 183 meters and over 50 stories. also mexico city it's expanding towards the rest of the State of M

hey here there is a kinshasa map lol... actually i made it from a satellite image... check it here https://www.simtropolis.com/stex/index.cfm?mode=files&filetype=Map&Str=kinsasha%20africa

well about the 3x3 map i mean hmmmm well in simcity there's 1x1 maps 2x2 maps and 4x4 maps (the small, medium and large) i was thinking that would be nice if there is a 3x3, the benefits of a large map, but with out much lag. maybe a mod could do the magic and about the top region size i was mostly curious, not planning yet to build a mega-large region, lol

what about Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow, Edimburg and accurate (50 x 50 km) Greater London map to make a cool UK map pack, lol

did anyone said, Milan, Italy? (italian metropolis with 4.5 million habitants and the tallest italian skyscraper)

Accurate maps of Shanghai and Beijing would be could, as the previous Shanghai weren't too accurate....

About urban sprawl, its probably something natural in the cities, very much its in the mind of the citizens to live in a nice house in a calm neighbohood, with friendly people, but to work in a large city and have all the benefits (in wages i mean ). I live in mexico city, many foreigns don't aware of it, but in recent years the city have changed, the migration have stopped (except the international, as the chinese, taiwanese but specially koreans come in to the city and make them their home), the population growth its rather low, just 0.5% each year, less than half the national figure, but city its probably expanding in terms of land at its fastest pace, and why is that?. people from inner city its moving to the suburbs, even the wealthy people are moving to the suburban areas, like Santa Fe or Tecamachalco, the middle class moving to old settled suburbs, and the less fortunate or people from very far from the city to places like the social housing promoting by the goverment. this also has next to a heavy transport policy, from elevated trains, suburban trains (much like Tokyo), and building many more highways and elevated ones around the city (so the freight truck avoid go into the city), much money its spend on the increase of public and private transport (highways, freeways and expressways in and out the city), but we must think, that is the sprawl result of this kind of policies (like expanding the transport heavily) or if the expanding transport its to help the people of the sprawling suburbs. Whatever i also want to point the unusual case of US, by one side have a massive share of the population living in suburbs, and in other hand the lack of public transport, in europe isnt the case, Germans tend more to live in cities than suburbs (land prices higher, and less land available as the country its tiny compared to the 82 million germans), also much public transport helped to reduce energy consumption, and car usage, specially useful in cities with small roads and much of the cities with historical buildings. whatever also a efficient public transport can help to spur the sprawling suburbs, like the case of Tokyo and its massive sprawl (the largest of the world in any sense)... PepO: Still on open disscusion

Don't you think, that a bad city isn't just one with declining population, but also with out eye candy appeal, a square city, with a boring grid, and kinda boring, lacking of parks, and even for the sims no mather how digital are they, consider the city boring and with out diversions and such things like landmarks to increase the land value and desirability, lol... i think that maybe even today i have some cities like that, but after a time i try to upgrade the entertaiment, build parks and reduce pollution, also limiting population when traffic goes bad (i have one suburb on the map of boston, and with 100,000 people, the NAM and in a mid sized city its having heavy traffic elsewhere, even in the freeway system, i have residential halver and even so, the population its way too high, also traffic and still half of the map space its free, so im starting a green proyect, to build a large park). so i thing a bad city should be broadly rated by several factors, not just economic and demografic ones, after all declining population in a central city, con be compensated by surging sprawling suburbs, and that turns the city in to a suburbanization phase, more than a economic decline. P.Polari

im just curious about were did u get that elevated highway, its behind the image of the warship, in the long strip of images, and the highway its surrounded by european kind buildings...