StuporMundi

Hello fellow SC4 fanatics, Long-time reader but first-time poster here. Have been playing SimCity 4 on and off for about ten years and I'm recently getting back into it for real. One thing I really enjoy is focussing on realistic city and region dynamics - the nitty gritty if you will, instead of living out my urban fantasies. Lately I have been dealing professionally with socio-economic housing dynamics and one thing really always bugged me: Growable buildings in SC4 may, depending on many factors, "dilapidate" or go down in wealth level. This is realistic and something we see in the real world - particularly in waves. Over the last couple of decades, however, we see - influenced by trends such as housing shortages and re-urbanism - the reverse happening: buildings going "up" rather than down in wealth level, i.e. the building being used by people of a "higher wealth level" than the people for whom the building was originally intended. I myself live in a building that people of similar means 100 years ago when it was erected could never have afforded and I turn cannot possibly afford a more middle class dwelling from that point in history. Without arguing too much about definitions, let's call this gentrification. Part of the "story" or progression of SC4, if you will, is about cities progressing from a primarily rural economy to an industrial one to one based on high-tech industry and the commercial sector. In a way this mirrors our real world and arguably the lives of your sims get better over time. I would love to be able to "revitalise" neighbourhoods in that way and play around with that changing population dynamics within the city - particularly in combination with the No-kickout mod. I guess it's just a particular interest of mine. So without further ado - since so many of you are proficient at modding the game - would it be possible to reverse these dynamics for buildings and have them go up in wealth? It seems like by changing building properties it may be done, but I have no clue how. Any thoughts? Thanks!