ixnayonthetimmay

Of all the things the Federal Government does that people get upset over, filling out a Census form should be at the bottom of the list. Yes, even below national parks. Seriously, if you're going to just hate governance for governance's sake, move to Somalia for a year and then talk about how you liked the totally unregulated, government-free conditions there. Just fill out the form correctly and send it in! There'll be plenty that the government does in the future that we can legitimately be angry about...

My first time seeing this CJ, and I am impressed. It's nice to see a gritty, grungy downtown in a sea of pristine, well manicured suburbs!

Very nice work! I look forward to seeing some of the up and close details (Yonge Street anyone?) You had mentioned in your first post that there were some things you weren't sure of when it comes to making a CJ. All I can say is that there are not too many hard and fast rules to making one; a CJ is essentially your own expression and showcase of your sim-work. Some people go into in-depth detail with their journals while others just plop the screenshots. There are plenty of resources on creating a CJ in the Simtropolis forums; just search to your heart's delight. And you can always just browse other peoples' journals to see what they're doing. The only real unyielding rule I know of is that images can't be bigger than 800x600 pixels. Other than that, the sky's the limit for your CJ. Good luck!

_marsh_, Thanks for looking! I see your name a lot on this CJ comments section, so thanks for coming back as well!

Grant County had been blessed eons ago by walls of ice packed miles high. The movement and erosion of the ice pack during the Ice Age left pock marks throughout the landscape. As a result, lakes, streams, rivers and ponds dot and dash the area. This makes Grant County a great place for recreation and allowed it to become the rickety rowboat and tranquil photography capital of the world! Below is a map of Grant County taking into consideration only the natural features of the landscape. There's exists a larger, actually readable version of that map. Just click here! Fresh water resources had never really been a big issue for citizens of SimNation. It seems a local government could just plop a water pump and "wet" their collective appetites. And the many lakes in Grant County made this easy water just that much more accessible. So pooh-pooh on all those people who made a conscious decision to live in a desert! Suburban towns would spring up in areas by the lakes, providing residents a bit of nature and beauty. Shown below is the Town of Shorewood, the first of such suburbs located north of Centropolis in aptly-named Lake Township And below is Bloomville, showing how smaller lakes and ponds would disappear into residential neighborhoods. Not all of the lakes in Grant County are natural. Rivers and streams would be diverted or impounded to suit the needs of localities nearby. Here, the high-walled Foster Creek was dammed up to build the first hydroelectric plant in Grant County. The resulting reservior, Foster Lake, became an attraction of its own and a town sprang up on its shores. Other towns would also take advantage of the recreation opportunities provided by the lakes. Centennial Park sprang up as a resort town for vacationers and the lake was the main impetus for this development. Shown below are the amenities built for those seeking nature and green, open space. 'Tis all for now! Thanks as always for looking.

I've played several regions, but have thus far only worked on one CJ on this site. My style is mixed, but more heavily weighted to the "played" style you mentioned. I feel that playing the game within the bounds of the simulator is a more engaging experience and why I originally liked SimCity games many moons ago. While a well-modded SC4 has many good tools for controlling individual sandbox-like features, it's ultimately the pressing of play that allows me to capture a better sense of developmental realism in the CJ. But since the simulator still has it's shortcomings, the lightly-used but effective scheme of "model" playing helps greatly!

Good use of custom lots (especially in earlier posts) and very good urban sprawl look (if that is the look you're going for). Is your CJ supposed to be inspired by any real-life Pittsburghs we might know about? My only suggestion would be to add some trees to fill in the empty areas. You can still access the God-mode tools even after the city is founded by pressing Shift-Ctrl-Alt and clicking the Terraform tools button. This will give you the big tree planter tool that won't cost anything to use. The empty, undeveloped areas look kind of barren without the fauna there. Keep up the good work!

Greetings all! I am still here and, despite Real Life getting in the way, still attempting to give this journal some update love whenever possible. I present to you here another City Highlight! In the last post, we looked at how the core city of Grant County, Centropolis, had matured to a burgeoning metropolitan core, ready to spread out over the landscape like a B-movie blob. Here we now look at Oakridge Park, a town whose proximity to Downtown Centropolis proved to be a test case for this urban sprawl that proceeded to occur in Grant County at the dawn of a new century. This brief post looks at the small town right before that growth occurred in earnest, highlighting the contrast between rural and suburban interests that would be a fixture for decades to come. The above map shows how Oakridge Park, positioned closest to Centropolis, was poised to be the first town to come under the influence of the emerging urban core. But at Stage 4 it remained still a fairly small farm town. Along the steep banks of the Blue River northeast of Downtown, new housing developments crept up alongside the existing farmland. The residents though did manage to keep some of the untouched, wild essence of their environment. Here is a roundabout abutting a wooded area next to a charming park. Much of the wooded banks of the Blue River in Oakridge Park would be kept undeveloped, eventually becoming the town's namesake. (In 1931 in a 6-to-1 vote, residents approved changing the name to Oakridge Park from Stinkburg). Even with increasing growth, density remained very light in many areas. Increasing property values and taxes hadn't yet crushed the hopes of residents seeking wide open spaces. Not yet, anyways... New growth during this time would trend towards the central business district, as shown here. The original part of town, with its grid layout, is shown toward the northeast (the top of the above photo). And newer development occuring southwest of the old town, pointing toward Centropolis (the bottom of the photo). This is a pattern repeated in the other satellite towns in Grant County as they too would follow a pattern of suburbanization. Until next time!

The height of the Gilded Age and turn-of-the-century optimism had not yet been interrupted by the darkness of the Great War. And at this time the reforms of the City Beautiful movement were sweeping the nation, including Centropolis. This update will, instead of looking at the region as a whole, will focus instead on the City of Centropolis, finally taking a closer look the Center City of Grant County. By 1910, the landscape of Grant County was still dominated by agriculture. But the urban seeds planted earlier had sprouted and were now growing strongly. The crux of this growth was located in Centropolis, the county seat, and proved to be into the future. This shot above shows Cerulean Park at the time it was built; Cerulean Park is located at the geographic center of Center Township and serves as the origin of the Centropolis and Grant County address grid. Centropolis was chosen as the site for the State Fair in 1911. Shown above are the fairgrounds and charming neighborhoods surrounding the fairgrounds. Centropolis was built on the banks of the Blue River which runs the length of Grant County from east to west. Shown above in detail and below in vertical panorama is the new Blue River Development Project. Land was reclaimed along the banks by constructing walls and pedestrian walkways. The walls also allowed for a measure of river tide and flood control. Below: Blue-collar rowhouses and tenements in Centropolis. The grandest crowning achievement for Centropolis in this time was the opening of their new city hall building. After deciding to consolidate the scattered city offices into one building, Centropolis built a Beaux-Arts masterpiece inspired by the new city hall in San Francisco. On the west face of the city hall building, a charming plaza was built using all the best materials other peoples' money could buy. Grant County then moved the county offices into more modest offices nearby, consolidating local governance in one area. Governance! Governance!... With new hope in this Age, Centropolis also entered a new era of power and lighting. The first electric plant in this side of the State was opened up in Centropolis at this time. Shown below is the contrast between day and night. Lastly, here is an animation showing the growth of Centropolis from Stage 1 to Stage 4, showing growth from a small town along a river ford to the booming urban center it was at the turn of the 20th century. Thanks as always for visiting!

_marsh_, thanks as always for the feedback! And I am glad I was able to please you, Schulmanator, with a serendipitous reference to your hometown! I am not sure to which town you refer, but cities in Minnesota in particular have been quite helpful for giving me placenames.

Very nice! A Simpsons reference is like a Star Wars reference - guaranteed to elicit a positive response! Not to be too self-promoting, but if you want to recreate Springfield, I recommend also downloading the Springfield Town Hall lot I made! https://www.simtropolis.com/stex/details.cfm?id=21555

Trying to recreate a real city in SimCity is like trying to paint American Gothic with watercolors from a kid's art set, an already used and hardened paintbrush and only one small glass of water. However, that's not to say you can't recreate a very good approximation. One method I use to achieve accuracy in locations is to take screenshots of cities or regions, make the maps top-down (like this map) and overlay a grid on it in Photoshop. This is really helpful for me, especially when I am planning future transport networks. Unfortunately, scales in SC aren't accurately kept or even consistently made through different lots and networks. That plus the limitations of the network grid means any city you try to recreate will only ever be at best an approximation. One helpful piece of information is that, compared to "real life," one small city tile is about one kilometer square (I think it's actually a little more; 1.02 km or something like that). So a side to a small city tile is 1 km, a medium 2 km and a large 4 km. Good luck and, if successful, I am eager to see your results in a CJ!

Wow! I have a vote! Keep it as a historical landmark and deem it a pedestrian bridge! The healthy crowd walking to the Farmer's Market will appreciate the rustic throwback from the olden days to get them in the fresh food spirit! P.S., good CJ!

Is that the SC2K Plymouth Arcology I see? Wherever did you obtain that?!? Very good work; your journal is quite a believable futuristic city!

tahill79, thanks! I'm glad you like my little 'ol CJ. If you have any suggestions/recommendations, don't hesitate to let me know.

panthersimcity4, thanks as always for the positive feedback! And don't thank me for the old photo: thank Wikimedia Commons!

My apologies in advance for what is really a slim and uninspired update. I blame the hustle, bustle and laziness that is entailed in the holiday season. So, um, yeah! Nestled in the north of Grant County, hidden off the beaten path lies a tiny, spit-in-the-bucket settlement called Northfield. Barely meeting the legal requirements for an incorporated town, Northfield is what we smug city-dwellers might refer to as a "one horse town." But since their horse had to historically be shared between the Marshal and the shopkeep, they proudly refer to themselves even today as a "half-horse town." This is mathemetically inconsistent, but don't tell that to the proud folk of Northfield, where the lack of a schoolhouse is made up for by their abundance of gumption. Just what exactly is gumption, anyways? Above: Locator map of Northfield in Grant County. And it doesn't change much from this for a long time... Hard work and a simple way mark life in Northfield. Don't go there for flashiness, fun or that newfangled "electricity." Go there for toil and then the grave. But they don't even have a graveyard. Shown Above: A recent addition to the rural properties in Northfield: Fences! And just look how congested the streets aren't! It's not all back-breaking labor in Northfield. On Friday evenings, one can come down to the Post Office/Sheriff's Office/Barber Shop for lively banter and gossip! Find out which possibly famous person nearly stopped here, learn about how Farmer Gray wasted his subsidy check and discover what mischief the Rogers twins have gotten into! And find out if maybe (just maybe) the Northfield-St. John co-op six-man football team might make State this year!! Dirigible-Aero-photo of Northfield. If you look close enough, you might even see the mayor waving!

After the big growth of big industry in Grant County (see Stage 3 Update for background), a bustling town did emerge in the southeast, rising fast at once to rival the county seat of Centropolis in population and influence. Overly dependent on the amusingly-named automobile industry, the flaring growth of the City of Taylerville would soon be dimmed. However the spark that caused this town to burst in growth almost overnight would make a great story to tell, if only I were a better storyteller. But since I am not, I hope that a few pictures will suffice. So here now is the City of Taylerville, during the Third Stage of development of Grant County. If I may be so bold as to thoroughly demolish the fourth wall here, I based the layout and design of Taylerville off of the real-life, actually existing city of Mesa, Arizona, where I currently live. The broad avenues, concentration of public buildings and Plat-of-Zion-esque grid for the core of Mesa provided a basis for the Sim-life City of Taylerville. For a sprawled-out, overgrown suburb of a sprawled-out, land-wasting metro area such as Phoenix, old town Mesa does have a bit of a tightly-knit, small town charm to it, payday loan places and llanteras aside... Excerpt taken from a Taylerville promotional pamphlet: "Welcome to Taylerville! Home of the Slap-Happy Motor Car Company! Taylerville is a town on the growth and rise, home to friendly people, a friendly business and industrial climate, and friendly bands of rabid carnivores. " "Hop on the Union Specific's Up by Northeast Line and take the Taylerville spur and you're headed in the right direction. Convenient rail access will ensure that whatever errands you need to run, you will be able to make you early morning trip and return in time for your luncheon and a game of croquet with the wee'uns." "Affordable housing is abundant. And Taylerville is a forward-looking town, devising the first purpose-planned network to accomodate the motor-car or 'horseless carriage' on the streets and throughways. Long waits, crowded roads and bad smells will no longer be an issue in the world of automobiles, I do declare!" "Everyone and his Aunt Gertrude is seeking job opportunities at the first auto-motor car plant in the state, located right here in our town. And one's sense of civic pride is not lost as the centerpiece of town is the charming, colonial-revival City Hall, located a short walking distance from the library, police depot and downtown market." "So come to Taylerville and plant your roots!" The end. As always, thanks for looking!

It's definitely filled out since the first update. I like the lots you used for Fullwood Park To answer your question about custom airports, there are several modds available. Just search the STEX if you're looking for anything specific, but here are some very good "essentials" to look for on the STEX: RMIP-2 SAE (Vols. 1 thru 4) - Has lots of custom runway, taxiway and apron puzzle pieces RH Airport Pack - Various airport service lots and buildings ACB-VLT Terminals and Jets - Good for building custom terminal buildings, concourses and gates as well as different planes (I would have linked directly, but as of this typing, the search function was down for some kind of maintenance. Just search those terms when it's back up and you should find what you need.) Because there are so very many puzzle pieces, it will vastly stretch out your Airport menu in the game. Working with these lots will require some patience, but amazing and realistic airports can be done with them. Good luck with your CJ!

Nice use of custom content! And the colors are bright and vibrant. Good journal!