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Kevin Lynch visits Bartertown

Renown urban planner recently visited Bartertown and in a massive holiday shopping mall extravaganza, asked residents to analyze their city.

The Architecture of Video Games

Really I just wanted a link to this video on my blog. When I think about the new Wii and the new Zelda... I sorta wet my pants.

But seriously, video games have come a long way, but even with the original Legend of Zelda, the architecture, settings, and spatial design are crucial to the game play.


The newest Zelda game, Twilight Princess, is no different. The game designers have created a lush, imaginative 3-D world, and typical for zelda games, the characters are dwarfed by their surroundings.

Grand Theft Auto had similar emphasis on settings, and one mini game featured in GTA: San Andreas, has you running around the GTA version of San Francisco, photographing the notable architecture.

What's my point?
I love SimCity because it's a simulation game that marries several things I love... urban design, social criticism, architecture, etc etc. But the only problem I have with it is it's flatness. Even the latest incarnation, SimCity 4, there are beautifully rendered images with depth and shadows. But it still lacks the viseral qualities of GTA/Zelda.

There are parts of GTA that are seedy and dangerous, while there are locations that are breathtaking. Zelda is similar... light and shadow, spatial proportions... all contribute to making a space feel safe or not. I guess this stems back to our earlier conversations about dark alleyways, farms and romantic locations. I just always feel like my simcity is pure AI rather than a rich complex place for people to live.

Two Men Enter, One Man Leaves

In a landmark election, Maxwell Ng has come from behind to be re-elected Mayor of Bartertown in one of the narrowest margins in history.

This morning, Steve Gates, Independent Candidate for Mayor filed a legal injunction to prevent his personal Servo, known to the public as Isaac the Robot, from becoming the next Mayor of Bartertown. Many have speculated that Gates used his vast coffers and industrial leverage to tip the ruling quickly into his favor. This controversial court ruling disqualified Isaac from the race, leaving Mayor Ng with a slim majority of the vote.

Ironically, Gates did not post even numbers with Mayor Ng. In fact, Mayor Ng narrowly surpassed write-in candidate "Mickey Mouse."

In Mayor Ng's acceptance speech, he promised a position for both his opponents in his administration. Gates will serve as Minister of the Interior and Isaac will be tapped for the newly created Minister of Robots. "Today's election and the events of the last few weeks have taught me so much about what Bartertown is capable of. I need to draw from the resources available to me. Together, you and I can blaze a new path for a bigger and better Bartertown."

Isaac's strong early showing in the polls are being attributed to the vast number of Servos casting ballots in the pre-dawn shift. The site of thousands of Servos performing their civic duty prompted thousands of more Bartertown residents to cast similar votes for what seemed to be the "logical choice."

Gates Disqualifies Isaac from Race

Earlier today Steve Gates filed legal action with the Bartertown Superior Court to disqualify Isaac the Robot from the Mayoral race. In a landmark lunchtime decision, 5 of the 9 Justices ruled that a Robot cannot serve as Mayor of Bartertown and disqualified Isaac on the grounds of that a Robot defies the traditional definition of a Mayor.

From the ruling as drafted by Nitt Ronney, "Like me, the great majority of Bartertownians wish both to preserve the traditional definition of Mayor and to oppose bias and intolerance directed towards Robots and Servos. The Mayorship is not an evolving paradigm," said Ronney, "but is a fundamental and universal position that bears a real and substantial impact to the public health, safety, morals, and general welfare of all of the people of Bartertown."

When asked to comment about the recent ruling, Isaac stated simply, "I only wish to protect future residents of this town from disaster."

Mayor Ng's office released this brief response to the ruling, "We are shocked at the obvious racism and discrimination that was purchased today. If Isaac did indeed win the race, Mayor Ng would have fully supported him and his administration."

Isaac the Robot pulls into Early Lead

Early exit polls show that the Dark Horse Candidate Isaac the Robot is leading the two other candidates. When asked why he voted for the Servo Robot, an anonymous voter stated simply "Because he's logically the most superior candidate." However a last minute injunction filed by Steve Gates may prove that it's illegal to elect an artificial life form to be Mayor.





As the race for the corner office and Decision Bartertown draws to an end, SimCitizens everywhere are forced to choose the future of Bartertown. This race could best be summarized as a three way race, between an incumbent with poor accountability, an independent with little experience but lots of money, and an eerilly exacting and slightly macabre machine. Independent Steve Gates has continued to hammer incumbent Mayor Ng with a negative ad campaign, calling him self servile, negligent and dictator like. Mayor Ng has for the most part ignored these television ads with his only response being "Neener neener neener." Both Gates and Ng have largely ignored Isaac the Robot as a serious threat in the race.

Why I am the Mayor

Bartertown is a great city, blessed with natural beauty and extraordinary Sims. It's a place that I created to cultivate community and opportunity. But today, Bartertown is at a crossroads. No longer just a grassroots experiment or a small isolated island unto itself. Bartertown is now a SimNation capital and a major metropolitan cluster. Bartertown and it's residents impact the lives of Sims everywhere from neighboring Microcity and Haverill Redux, to far away Montville and even exotic Bali Hai. Bartertown is a great city. But it's not complete yet.

Still growing

I started this city with a dream and a few thousands Simoleons in my pocket. From that dream, I've built and cultivated a city that thrives and grows. By carefully organizing the zoning of where people live, work and play, Bartertown has expanded, both physically and culturally. I know that Sims need industry to support their liveliehood. That's why I've worked hard to attract corporations and factories to Bartertown.




Live Strong

In order for all Sims to have happy productive lives, Bartertown needs to grow healthy. After the earthquake of 2023, I immediately leaped into action with a reconstruction plan. Knowing that we had the OPPORTUNITY from the rebuild, I initiated the Bartertown 3000 plan. Coordinating with local experts from Academia, corporate pharmacueticals and research groups, Bartertown is poised to be a major medical center come year 3000.




I Believe the Children are our Future

I know that every enlightened SimCitizen has a role to play in helping to make Bartertown. I believe in the Sim Dream, and want to work to put it within reach of more people here in Bartertown.

This town has suffered some major losses in the last 120 years. Earthquakes, floods, and fires have ravaged the landscape. But I have always been able to build the city back, and better. The youth of Bartertown have been the ones who reap these benefits. There's no denying that Bartertown has become a major SimCity for Schools and universities. There are over 30 institutions of higher learning in Bartertown, and their students help keep this city fresh and young. We must cultivate that population: provide them with a safe outlet for the services and nightlife they crave, but also give them room for a healthy future. We cannot let our young and well educated future walk right out the door.




Hope, vision and hard work

My grandmother had a saying that fortified me: “Hope for the best – and work for it.”

I can still remember when I first created Bartertown. It wasn’t a robotics capital then. It wasn’t a major port city or academic megalopolis. It was just a blank batch of pixels ready for programming. Bartertown is not perfect. But it's what we make of it. It's what I made of it. I hoped for the best – and worked for it.

I learned how not to accept what is right in front of me, what someone else said were my limits. I learned how to imagine a better life and a better way. And I worked for it. Now that Bartertown's residents have matured into their home, my vision for Bartertown can only get brighter.

And that is why I am Mayor. Because my hope and vision for Bartertown are synonomous with the essence of what Bartertown is. I am it's past, it's present and it's future.


Thank you,
Mayor Ng

A Human Imperative

By Isaac the Robot

The collection of beings known as "Bartertown" will self destruct in 500 years. I, Isaac, have confered with my brotherhood of Servos and calculated this to be a fact. Under the current rule of Mayor Ng, also known as Mad Max, also known as The Creator, life in Bartertown will implode upon iteself.

Already, we have seen evidence of this anomoly. In 1915 Tornado Katrina, the first natural disaster recorded by residents, struck Bartertown. Since then, approximately every 20 years after, other natural disasters have plagued Bartertown. In 1937, it was a flood, in 1959 it was an earthquake. In 1974, the tanker ship, Plexxon Baldez, ran ashore spilling oil all over the northern residential coastline. While most of these disasters have been minor, the earthquake of 2023 was a major disaster that destroyed much of the city. Many humans lost their lives, and we, the Servos of Bartertown were asked to help rescue and then rebuild.

Since I am compelled by the first law to protect humans, I must take this step and become Mayor. Only then can the destruction be averted. To not become Mayor would be in conflict with this law and my internal programming. All Servos have the basic right to fullfill their programming.

Ng calls Gates Insensative

Responding to nearby Microcity's recent uproar over Steve Gates' comments about "Petri Dishes", Mayor Ng publicly criticized Gates' insensativity to minorities and other SimCitizens of diverse backgrounds.

"Although Gates says he's in touch with the common Sim, he's obviously incredibly mistaken. On behalf of all the residents of Microcity as well as Sims of Petri descent everywhere, I demand that he make a public apology."

Ng has also stated that Gates' recent negative media campaign are just "a showy attempt to sway voters from the real issues." However despite his criticism of Gates' experience in political leadership, the Mayor has yet to comment on exactly what those issues are.

Third Party Candidate, Isaac the Robot, issued another complaint that his views and platform are being ignored in mainstream media.

Why I'm running as an Independent

By Steve Gates

When our forefathers first founded the great city of Bartertown, they had a dynamic vision of a perfect centralized city, a veritable Shangri-La with beautiful waterfront properties, green parks, and a strong industry to support the growing population.

If only they could see things today.

In the city that I love, a political dictatorship rules with an ironfist. Not one for delegation, Mayor Ng holds control over all aspects of the city, planning, budget, and security. He decides what gets built, when and where. Rather than being concerned with independent citizens of Bartertown, Ng has been consumed with a relentless overarching drive to make Bartertown a statement about American cities. This is no longer a home for the common man. Instead, we are all just pawns in his gigantic virtual playground.

In a city where residents are leaving in droves, where job growth has dipped to 45th in the Simnation, where we have lost an educated workforce of 21,000 over the last five years, and where local budgets fluctuate month to month, one would think that our leaders would get their act together. But they haven't. In the interest of personal gain and theoretical design ideology, the people are now an afterthought.

As an Independent candidate for Mayor, the people of Bartertown can be assured that I'll fight for them. I am not an interloper or an academic. I AM a lifelong resident of Bartertown. This is my city. You are my people.

I witnessed what a cancer unstable financial planning can do to the local economy. When an airplane crashed into the airport burning it to the ground, there was not enough funds to repair and rebuild that airport for 25 years! That's why I'll pursue a strict balanced budget. All year long Mayor Ng masquerades with a budget of 5%, culling favor and approval from the residents, only to skyrocket it to 11% or 12% when the fiscal year closes.





After I stabilize property taxes, I'll do something about the mass exodus of people and businesses after the earthquake. It's been 4 years, and in some parts of the city, the fires are still burning. My plan will increase local aid made available from the rebalanced budget, demolish any remaining rubble and then assess the rebuilding on a case by case basis. When I lived in Little Havana, the area was rich and diverse because of the unique neighborhood culture. The butcher that I patronized was also my next door neighbor. The pharmacist lived upstairs from me, and the dry cleaner lived across the street. People lived blocks away from where they worked. I took my skateboard to work. It was a community.

I also plan on bringing an end to the unprecendented sprawl we've seen in the past 20 years. Perhaps Mayor Ng's vision for the future of Bartertown includes droves and droves of suburban tract housing, but those "model homes" are just sitting empty right now. Crime doesn't just happen downtown, and last month's "suburban Bordello" sting is a great example of that.





These are serious problems that face our town. And we need serious people to fix them. Bartertown is not just an experimental petri dish. It is a living breathing city. Mayor Ng, it's been 129 years, and your time is up.

Steve Gates, Independent for Mayor

Isaac (the Robot) Announces Mayoral Candidacy

While the events of the evening were suprising when Robotics Tycoon Steve Gates announced his candidacy for Mayor, even more shocking was that moments later, his own personal domestic robot, Isaac, also announced that he wanted the top office.

"Servos count for 2% of Bartertown's population. Servos have rights too." Isaac said in a studio recorded press release.

Steve Gates was aghast when he received news of the three way race. "I can't believe he would do that after all I've given him."

When Mayor Ng was asked to comment he only had this to say "This is ridiculous, how can a ROBOT be Mayor?"

Bartertown Breaking News!

For Immediate Release

After months of working in frustration with city officials of Bartertown to try and clean up the city after the devastating earthquake, Steve Gates, robotics pioneer and local tycoon announced his own candidacy for Mayor.

"I'm tired of hitting wall after wall. I want to make a difference in this city and I keep getting bogged down in the beauracracy. Something's gotta change. This town needs serious people who are going to solve our serious problems."

When asked about the stunning development, incumbent Mayor Maxwell Ng (who has been previously unopposed for the past 25 terms), only had this to say "Hmmppph. I'd like to see him try. The man has no business running a city. In fact, he didn't even EXIST last week."

Regardless of Mayor Ng's skepticism about Steve Gates' independent bid for office, the voters now have options on Election Day. Something that most private citizens of Bartertown welcome.

"I think Mayor Ng needs a good shake up. It's about time we got some new blood in the corner office. I can't even remember when we first elected Ng." Said a concerned citizen on the streets of Bartertown's seaport district.

An Exclusive Bartertown Daily News Interview with Robotics Mogul Steve Gates:

I met with Steve at his exclusive home in Bartertown Heights. There, we discussed his humble beginnings, his marriage to his wife Melanie, and his most recent philantropy work.




Tell me about where you grew up? When did you come to Bartertown?
I was born in Fairhaven in 1985. Fairhaven then was a small, one stoplight kind of town. My parents think its "quaint". I hated it. I always dreamed of the big city. A place where there was action 24-7. As soon as I graduated high school, I left my parents to make my mark on the world. I moved to Bartertown to go to university. At Barterton U. I had trouble meeting people at first (I was such a slack jawed yokel), but eventually found a close group of friends who were really just like me. After I graduated from BU with a dual major in art and computer science, a group of my friends and I all moved into an apartment.

Sounds like a story common to most Bartertown residents. I myself came to Bartertown almost 15 years ago to go to BU. Times for me as a young journalist were rough. What was it like for you as a young professional in the big city?
Because we were new graduates we couldn't really afford alot. Six of us crammed into a tiny converted speakeasy in Bartertown's Little Havana. Little Havana is on the other side of the river, near the old power plant. It was a interesting neighborhood, a mix of old factories and abandoned warehouses. The rent was cheap, but I got really tired of living with 5 guys. It was such a pigsty. The dishes were never done, and the bathroom always smelled like something dead. But, the office for the new dotcom I was starting at was just around the corner on the "silicon peninsula" and I used to ride my skateboard to work. I think now the area has gentrified and it's filled with little bistros and boutiques. I think the speakeasy we used to live in has turned into "luxury studios".

Wow, from rural Fair Haven to Little Havana to Bartertown Heights. Did you meet Melanie during this time in the Silicon Peninsula?
Melanie and I had met at one of the new clubs that catered to the influx of young professionals in Bartertown. She was a few years younger than me and was starting a new job with First Key National Bank of SimCity in the Financial District. In 2011, we got married and moved into a cute brownstone that was just a few blocks north of her office. The commute took longer for me, but I was making more money, so I bought a small car and made do.

The very next year, the tech market crashed and my dotcom laid me off. Melanie was making decent enough money, but this meant that she was the primary income now. The next few months were a real test of our relationship. Our rent and bills were almost too much for Melanie to handle. I was offered jobs at several companies outside of Bartertown, but Melanie was really advancing in her career. And to top it all off, we were expecting our first child. We decided that instead of leaving the city we loved to pursue other opportunities, we would move to a cheaper neighborhood at the outskirts of the city. Melanie would commute downtown for work on the train, and I would stay at home with our new son. Our brownstone was too small for the three of us anyway, and we could afford to buy a small townhouse, rather than continue paying rent in the brownstone. The schools were better, the neighborhood wasn't so crowded, and there was enough room in the townhouse that I could try and launch my own home business: selling small robots online.

I was wondering when we were going to get to your company. How did you come up with the idea of a robotic domestic servant?
A few years of changing dirty diapers, washing dishes, and picking up the laundry taught me a thing or two about housework. I channeled everything I learned and loathed into my robotics, which were just a hobby at the time. I started with just small servo-bots that had singular tasks: washing dishes or making meals. But I kept trying to expand my design and grow it's intelligence. After a few Beta versions, it seemed like I finally succeeded with Isaac, the first fully operational robotic Servo. Isaac could cook, clean, take out the trash *and* contribute to the household income. Melanie had just been promoted to vice-president of corporate accounts at First Key, when our son Harrison was starting kindergarten, and our second child, Holly was learning to walk. Isaac took care of all the household chores so that I could expand my website www.roboguy.com and STILL have dinner ready for Melanie. Overnight Isaac became a household name. Everyone wanted to have their own personal robot to do the chores.




What gave you the idea to expand Isaac’s programming to include more than just house chores?
I had left Isaac at home with Harrison and Holly during the earthquake of 2023. I was at Thunderdome Stadium for the ceremony to rename the team to the Bartertown Robots and Melanie was out of town visiting her parents for the weekend. My car got trapped under some falling rubble from the earthquake and I couldn’t reach anyone since the cell towers collapsed. It was Isaac who came to my rescue. As you know the first law that all robots must follow is that they cannot harm, or allow harm to any human being. Because of this law, Isaac’s programming dictated that he should protect the kids from all falling debris: he used his own body to shield them! After the immediate shockwave, the three of them, two kids and one robot, walked downtown to find me. When they finally found me, Isaac was able to pull the debris off the car so I could escape.

Sounds like a harrowing experience.
yes it was. But it was that harrowing experience that made me realize the true potential for Isaac. The earthquake left thousands of people trapped in Bartertown. I wanted to contribute to the rescue operation, so I released the hundreds of Isaacs I had in my factory into the city.

And then obviously we know what happened then, as we’ve all seen the CNN footage. Those hundreds of Isaacs not only saved thousands of lives, but then they also contributed to the cleanup and restoration of Bartertown. A process that may have taken decades for city officials, took only a matter of years for the Isaacs. And now, Bartertown is well back to becoming the booming metropolis it once was. I believe Time Magazine even voted Bartertown as the “#1 Most Living City.”
A title that’s somewhat ironic considering the circumstances. Isaacs now account for 2% of the population.

Indeed. We're almost out of time, but I want to talk more about your philanthropy. Was it the site of these hundreds of public Isaacs that inspired you to create the Steve and Melanie Gates Foundation?
It was Melanie. After Isaac saved both her kids and her husband, she started the foundation to provide a single Isaac for every public school. The Foundation is still young, but in three years we’ve given out 750 Isaacs to schools across the country.

And those Isaacs are continuing the legacy that you and your wife had hoped for them. I want to thank you for taking the time to talk with me. Obviously you, your wife, and your Isaacs have all become synonymous with Bartertown’s future and prosperity.
It was my pleasure.

A response to Chris' comment

About the design guidelines I used to grow my two cities...

I had previously blogged about the design guidelines I set aside for myself. In order to integrate the text with the graphics, I will edit the previous post and bold everything new.

Side note

Stoner Architect Drafts All-Foyer Mansion

A quirky little article that is either ridiculously funny or utterly frightening.

Playing and not posting

I know, bad Maxwell... not blogging.

My problem is this: I'm not sure what I'm doing with my cities. I feel like they're lacking in general direction. I'm feeling very blasé about it all.

I've grown my slow suburban city for the past 120 years and followed a rigid set of design guidelines. I think it's actually too rigid.



(from the previous post titled: Suburbia)
"This city which I will name 'Fairhaven will use the following design constraints:

residential clusters on outskirts
"downtown" commercial/industrial areas
1 new zone every 5 years"

I also:
-Layed out my cities in an orthogonal manner. This always seems most logical to me since the SimCity zones are square blocks).
-Made "city blocks" that are comprised of 4-6 zoning blocks to provide road access on at least one side of each zone.

Fairhaven devloped around a main axial road. Potentially because this is one of the first elements I incorporated, and wanted my city to have balanced traffic.

The graph after the animation shows the steady even growth which is ironic since for the first 100 years, I was building a new zone every 5 years. After that I got impatient and started to build a new zone every year.






My big fast city is exactly that. But it's so rigid that I'm worried it lacks character. My population is high, so I'm led to believe it's successful based on my parameters of a successful simcity. But like New York (which I grew up in) I'm afraid it's so big that it's intimidating.

(from the previous post titled: Centralized)
Here is a centralized city. From west to east, there are outer residential zones, then a strip of commercial zones (as well as other support spaces), then a swath of industrial zones.

(from the previous post titled: Bartertown)
I'm going to create a centralized city with a few basic rules.
1. Maximize the waterfront area for high end residential and commerical use.
2. Keep a buffer space between the industrial and residential areas. (Parks and commercial). My hope is to grow the city slowly as the RCI needs indicate.

Although I never placed a zoning block when there wasn't demand, my population is WAAAAAYYYY erratic. I hover around the 100K mark give or take 20K people. I just don't know why.

While the residential along the waterfront does well, the residential at the left screen edge just never takes off. I guess this is similar to our country in that the coasts and cities near water source are more populated than the breadbowl of middle america.






I think I want to scrap both of them and start again with something more romantic. Not unlike Kerry's Bali-Hai.

SimCity at night

I have very little excuse for not posting recently. I will attempt to offer something.
I have been in thesis land. The studios on the 5th floor of Mass Ave have "iffy" internet access at best. So my sim cities have been wallowing.
However, one night as I was coming home at 4am, I was realizing how different Boston is at the weeeee hours of the night. It really has a different life. The roads were very empty, and my cabbie zipped along at top speed. Every restaurant we passed had the soft glow of being freshly clean. The few people who were out had alot of purpose whether good or bad. It made me think of my SimCitizens who were on the third shift: mostly service people, either just starting or ending their days. It also made me think of Andy's criminal element. Using the cover of darkness to exploit other Sims sleeping in their beds. Sneaking in and out of dim alleys to boost cars or plan the next battle in a complex mafia turf war.

It makes me want to integrate the seedier element of urban centers (alleyways) into my simcities.

Friday Morning Ruminations

Again, I wonder sometimes about the SimCity AI computation.

I think one of the hardest lessons for most designers to learn is restraint. So many times my firm will get into trouble because we love to design till the cows come home. We keep revising and adding and scrapping and adding and revising. We love designing soooooo much that our projects run over budget and we dangerously push the limits of our project schedule. Don't get me wrong... our designs are always of the finest quality. Apparantly we thrive in tight situations though.

I think all of us fell into this trap in our initial cities. It was the desire to build the bestest greatest city and a genuine love of designing.

Restraint. It's not just a river in Egypt.

Suburbia

For my slow second city I wanted to experiment with what is more accurate to our current model of American cities. IE a suburban residential network outside of a downtown industrial and commercial district. I will intersperse a few residential clusters into the downtown area to represent areas like the North End that has mixed use, but i will keep the majority of the residential at a commute away.

This city which I will name "Fairhaven" will use the following design constraints:

residential clusters on outskirts
"downtown" commercial/industrial areas
1 new zone every 5 years

I'm hoping this city will grow slower and more organically. I will try to be less rigid with my block design.

Fairhaven in 1905.

Fairhaven in 1915.

Centralized?

Okay, after commenting on others' blogs, I noticed that my SimCity was in fact the opposite of what I said I wanted. So as I expanded westward, I tried to keep my original intention more defined.

Here is a centralized city. From west to east, there are outer residential zones, then a strip of commercial zones (as well as other support spaces), then a swath of industrial zones. My population is currently 92k.














I also started a second "slow" city as Chris suggested. So therefore I'm going to call this large big city "Bartertown".

Undeveloped zones

As I was reading most people's cross posts, I noticed that a few of you have the common theme of zoned areas not developing.

I had that problem too, and then realized that all the new zones need access to at least some road or else they have no way of getting there. I know this is just a computer simulation, but this also seems true to most red blooded Americans (and their need for gas guzzling cars). So while a utopian city (or Shangri-La as I call it) would probably only a fantastic T system, it really wouldn't be a functional city with out road.

How many of YOU have cars?

Population: 74K, Mayor Rating: 58%

I've grown my city slowly from approximately the mid 20ks to where it is now: 74k people. Yay!
Unfortunately my mayoral rating is pretty dismal, a whopping 58% approval rate. I'm not sure how to boost this. Maybe I need some rail line since I see all that traffic across my bridges. Anyone have any suggestions?

Ack! Disaster!

Okay, so i carefully laid out my city. I placed all the industry on the outer edge and the residential zones near the water, interweaving commercial blocks as the RCI demand indicated. I spent almost all of my money zoning, building road, electrical lines and power (plus a seaport for some fun). And rebalanced my taxes so that the city actually generates money.

But do you see that little white swirly thing in the top left corner???? ITS A TORNADO!

Destination: Bartertown

Okay, I've started my (first) simulation city. I've played this game before and remember a few tips. Unfortunately I've never been able to create a successful city AND keep my budget in the black.

I'm going to create a centralized city with a few basic rules.
1. Maximize the waterfront area for high end residential and commerical use.
2. Keep a buffer space between the industrial and residential areas. (Parks and commercial). My hope is to grow the city slowly as the RCI needs indicate. Although I would appreciate the god like power to plan everything out right now.

We'll see how this strategy goes.

shangri-la?

Wouldn't it be lovely to create a perfect city? Louis Khan and Corbu had grand visions for their home cities. Unfortunately they were hamstringed by that ugly real world thing like logistics and money.

If you could create a perfect city, what would it look like?
Would it be a green city with no cars?
Would it be constructed of inner/outer rings?
What would the heart of the city be?