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Welcome Back to my City Journal, "Touring the World"! All Cities shown are inspired by reality, but may have subtle differences with their real-life counterparts. These differences may be due to game constraints... or... just because. For this entry, we'll be returning to the US West Coast! Starting from the north, we return to the Portland, Oregon metropolitan area! Downtown Portland is known for its 200 ft by 200 ft blocks - originally designed to maximize corner units and thus developer profit - today, an unintended side effect has been that the blocks are short, walk-able and pedestrian friendly. This photo shows the area around Broadway and Main Street, including two very interesting buildings, 1000 Broadway (the building with the white dome) and the Portland Building (top right corner), which houses the City of Portland's various bureaucracies guarded by the statue "Portlandia" who stares down at every citizen of Portland who dares enter the building to file a Planning Department permit for their backyard fence remodel or whatever else they need local government for. Another shot of downtown Portland, this one along Burnside Avenue. Included in this photo is the City's (and the State of Oregon's) second tallest building, the US Bancorp Tower, also known locally as "Big Pink". It stands at 43 stories tall. On the 30th floor is one of those fancy restaurants with great views but overpriced food and drinks. Also in the photo is the MAX Light Rail, which serves not only the city of Portland but also surrounding suburbs and the Portland Airport. At the bottom left is the Chinatown Gate, located on 4th Avenue, it provides a cultural icon and entryway into Portland's Old Town/Chinatown neighborhood. In August and September of 2020, vast forest fires raged throughout the western United States. The Portland area wasn't spared. Due to the fires, air quality in the Portland area plummeted to over 450+ AQI (air quality index). At that time, the air quality in Portland was the worst recorded globally. The photo below shows the St. John's Bridge, a suspension bridge located approximately 5 miles north of downtown Portland and crossing the Willamette River shrouded in a thick orange haze. This photo was taken September 15, 2020. Just 10 to 15 miles west of Downtown Portland is Washington County a mix of suburban housing tracts and rural farmland. One of the striking things about the Portland area is how fast you can go from an urban center with skyscrapers to vast open farmland. Much of this farmland is protected by Oregon's strict land use regulations and the Portland area's "Urban Growth Boundary". The photo below shows the rural and privately-owned Twin Oaks Airport in Hillsboro, Oregon, approximately 12 miles south-west of downtown Portland. Eugene, Oregon is located 105 miles south of Portland along Interstate 5. It is the second largest city in Oregon with a population of about 150,000. It is also home to the University of Oregon and the 2020 Pac-12 (football) Champion Ducks. The Ducks play their home games at Autzen Stadium, pictured below, which is located just north of the University of Oregon's main campus area. Travelling further south on Interstate 5, you will find yourself in California and its capitol city, Sacramento. While we won't visit Sacramento itself during this entry (we will in a future entry), lets swing by really quickly to Roseville, California, which is a suburban bedroom community located directly east of Sacramento in Placer County. Roseville's development is typical of inland California, featuring endless tract homes and neighborhoods, churches, parks/open spaces and big box retail. Many people moved into this area in recent decades to escape higher housing prices in cities along coastal California. There is no lack of land in the Roseville area and this housing is much more affordable when compared to the Bay Area or Los Angeles area. A typical home in the neighborhood below sized between 2000 and 4000 square feet could range from $300,000 to $600,000, a steal considering a similar home would easily be over $2,000,000 in the Bay Area. To the west, Oakland, California. Oakland is one of three major cities surrounding San Francisco Bay. It's population is approximately 480,000. It is also home to the second largest container and shipping port in the western United States. Each day thousands of containers are loaded and unloaded. Many consumer products manufactured in Asia and elsewhere and destined for customers in the United States pass through here. From the Port of Oakland, these products are either loaded onto semi-trucks for delivery within the Bay Area region or within California, or, loaded onto freight trains where they head east. In recent decades, downtown Oakland has seen a bit of a revival. Due to the lack of build-able land in the Bay Area, housing prices are exorbitant and always in short supply. Oakland has always been seen as a more affordable alternative when compared to San Francisco while still providing some of the same urban amenities and lifestyle. Taking advantage of this, developers have built "luxury" condos and apartments throughout Downtown Oakland in recent years. Of course, a 800 square foot one bedroom unit on a lower floor will still set you back $850,000+ if purchasing, or at least $3,500 a month in rent. Oakland is home to Major League Baseball's Oakland Athletics (A's). The A's play at Oakland Coliseum, an outdated facility surrounded by a huge parking lot. There are ongoing discussions about building a new ballpark for the A's at a waterfront location closer to downtown Oakland. The Coliseum was formerly home to the NFL's Oakland Raiders before they relocated to Las Vegas, Nevada. The Coliseum is also located next to the arena formerly known as Oracle Arena. Oracle Arena was home to the NBA's Golden State Warriors prior to their move to new facilities in San Francisco. The Warriors won several NBA championships in this building. Both the Coliseum and the Arena area are served by the Coliseum BART station (BART = Bay Area Rapid Transit) and pictured top right. From here, commuters can catch BART trains to San Francisco, San Jose, the Oakland Airport, Berkeley or other suburban destinations throughout the Bay Area. The freeway pictured at the bottom is Interstate 880 which connects Oakland and San Jose to the south. Rush hour traffic on this freeway is an absolute nightmare due to the amount of commuters and truck traffic coming to/from the Port of Oakland. West of Oakland and across the Bay Bridge is San Francisco, California. One of America's most recognized cities, San Francisco is home to Golden Gate Park, pictured below. Contrary to the name, the park is not located directly adjacent to the Golden Gate Bridge, but rather, a few miles south. Similar to Central Park in New York, it provides respite from the urban hustle and bustle. It is also home to the De Young Museum, the California Academy of Sciences (which features an aquarium, a bio-dome and one of the largest green roofs in the country), and the Golden Gate Park Japanese Gardens which are pictured below. Next, we return to Los Angeles. In the hills above downtown LA and adjacent to Elysian Park is Dodger Stadium, home to the 2020 MLB Champion LA Dodgers! Although the ballpark is similar in age to the Oakland Coliseum previously seen, Dodger Stadium retains much of its "retro-charm" and has preserved outfield views of the surrounding hillsides. Finally, we visit Downtown Los Angeles, home to the tallest building on the US West Coast (by spire), Wilshire Grand, on a rare rainy day in LA. Thanks for visiting! You can also follow my CJ's and other content on Instagram.
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- thecitiescenter
- touring the world
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Oakland - Highway network extended on the North side
rewright posted a City Journal entry in Clay River Valley
The completion of the Beltline Dr extension and connecting roads, opens up almost a thousand acres of land for the city's expansion. including additions to the technical school. Thanks for the visit - Dick -
Oakland - Some close ups and a few other shots
rewright posted a City Journal entry in Clay River Valley
Here are some close ups and a few other shots around Oakland. -
Valley Center - Oakland's first large scale redevelopment project Multi level shopping with roof top health club, parking, and office tower. Thanks for the visit - Dick
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Tribune Tower was the home of the Oakland Tribune newspaper. It was built in 1906, and the tower was added in 1924 when the newspaper made the building its headquarters. On this day a decade ago I uploaded my first BAT with my Jasoncw username. I'd like to thank everyone I've gotten to know over the years. 2x2 growable and ploppable CO§§§ lots. MaxisNite and DarkNite versions included. DarkNite requires the Day and Nite Modd. Installation Instructions: Download either the DarkNite (DN) or MaxisNite (MN) version. If you're unsure, choose the MN version. Unzip the .zip and move its contents to Documents/SimCity4/Plugins. SC4Lot files are descriptively titled. Remove the lot versions which you do not want. Do not remove any .SC4Model files. -
Once again, just remember to click on photos to enlarge. Hey Y'all. Back with another update. Today we're gonna take a look at "The Town" aka Oakland, CA. The jewel of the East Bay. Here we can see downtown and Lake Merritt, the heart and soul of Oaktown and where Oaklanders go to play. The Bay Bridge brings people into Oakland, and terminates in industrial West Oakland. There are a lot of superfund sites here and it is very polluted. The BART comes up above ground in West Oakland, the black community that lives here historically lacked the political voice to get the rail line put underground, so above it went, doing a lot of damage to local businesses. Here we have a shot of the West Oakland BART station. The neighborhood has a lot of historic Victorian homes, many of which are run-down and have become a haven for the area's punk rockers and artists. Jack London once lived in this neighborhood and in the 1940's the neighborhood became known as the "Harlem of the West" with an influx of African Americans looking for shipbuilding jobs during world war 2. The Temescal District in North Oakland is home to the Town's hipster population. Historically, it was an Italian-American community and more recently, Ethiopians and Koreans have been moving in as well. It is known for it's mom and pop shops and friendly, village-like character. Emeryville is a small, formerly industrial city next to Oakland that has been redeveloped into a pro-business bubble in the notoriously anti big-business Bay Area. Old factories are being converted into offices, or just being torn down and replaced with condominiums. Downtown Oakland. Oscar Grant Plaza in front of City Hall was the site of the Occupy protests that ended in a controversial violent eviction. Montclair is the wealthiest area of Oakland. Up in the hills, it houses mutlimillion dollar mansions. In 1991, big portions of the area were burnt down in the Oakland Hills firestorm, but have since been rebuilt. Fruitvale in East Oakland is home to the City's Latino population. It also was the site of the 2009 murder of Oscar Grant by BART police, which led to protests and riots across the city. Deep East Oakland is notorious for its late night sideshows. Where people go dumb and hyphy while doing wild tricks in their cars in intersections. Often, things get a little too wild and end in violence. Former mayor Jerry Brown tried to crack down on sideshows, but the Town likes to do what it do, and the movement continues. Sequoyah in the East Oakland hills is home to Oakland's black professionals. Overlooking the poverty of the Deep East's flatlands, it is proof that Oakland is a dynamic city of contrasts.
