Sim City (4) Succession Session!

Upon entering office, Quintillus found there was once again a budget problem. While New Eden was turning a profit of 5000 simoleons per month with its 3500 people, Fort Consternation was losing 3000 simoleons per month with its 390,000 people. The good news was, this was a less bad defecit than at the start of Quintillus's previous term.

Nevertheless, the Mayor started out by making some spreadsheets. He saw that expenses had increased by 26.5% in just 15 years, including his previous term. And the biggest area of increase? Education. Of the overall budget of 1337 thousands of simoleons per year, 256 (19%) of that was spent on education, excluding busses, up from 141 (12%) fifteen years earlier. Power supply, public safety, and beautification all had essentially the same budgets as previously.

But that didn't mean Quintillus would exempt those areas from cuts. The Mayor began addressing it aggressively, starting by once more closing the Boom Boom Explosion Fusion Power Plant. Though fusion was clean, the Mayor would have coal if it meant the difference between poverty and bankruptcy and the abundant life. And thus, the fusion power supply in Fort Consternation ended once more, saving $88,000 per year.



With there no longer being a deficit, it was time to start a great project! And this was the Fort Consternation Sea Reclamation Project. Says who there was no where left to expand in Fort Consternation? There was, the problem was just that a lot of that land was underwater!

But never fear, Thorgalaeg, the beaches were not the target! Rather, Quintillus sought to expand the eastern shore. And, with $25,000 down the drain (some said literally), the New Fort Consternation Eastern Shore was unveiled.



Though a small expansion into the sea, it was nevertheless fresh land.

The late winter brought heavy budgetary adjustments. The mayor cut excess funding for education and health, and also rose taxes to 11% across the board. Though steep, the Mayor didn't plan to keep the rates there permanently - just long enough to raise significant dough to fund city projects. And raise dough, it would - $38,000 per month.



This quickly rebuilt the treasury, and by spring of '95, it was time for the re-reclamation of Hollywood Hills.



Including over $1000 of palm trees, the project was not cheap. And it didn't help secure jobs for Fort Consternation's residents. But the Mayor had other plans for how to get jobs. And he wanted a pretty Hollywood sign!

The first part of the job-replacement plan was to court the military-industrial complex near the army base. Some new high-density industrial zones were built, a bit of housing and shopping areas put in, and, to convince the military of the benefit, a subway added for the convenience of the recruits.



Step two was the Great Hill Declamation Project, one that even METY might approve of. The plan was less haphazard than most of his, however, as it began with flattening the top of part of a hill.



Now that there was a nice flat area, industry would be added. Part of the hill remained scenic, for the benefits of those living in the beach area and those who could see it from Central Park. But the newly-flat area would soon be teeming with new industry.

All zoned, the area looked as follows:



With its own police and fire service, some parklands and plazas, and good subway and rail connections, the Mayor hoped industry would find it a nice area. Clever road engineering had also permitted a road to be built to it from the Beachlands, and although the capacity wasn't ideal, the simple fact that the road existed was a testament to the local roadbuilders.

The rest of the year was spent touring the city, and identifying traffic issues. Unfortunately, it seemed the city government's traffic-routing software was beginning to have issues with a city as big as Fort Consternation. Green routes were showing up all over the place, even where there weren't roads, in a dizzying array. Sadly, capturing a picture of this failed.

Still, the Transportation Dude was earning his wages. He spotted a brilliantly congested intersection in the Beachlands:



4000 people per day on a road that doesn't even have a painted center line! What a commuting nightmare! That area was quickly upgraded to a one-way road, since no one was taking it the other direction in the evening anyway.

To start his second year, Quintillus added to the city's highway system. The goal was to link the southern and northern highways together. The demand for this was quite low in the west, as there was very little traffic between the Beachlands and Southtown, and what did exist usually took the train. So instead the mayor decided to build a highway in the east, between the Swagful Farms area and the heart of Fort Consternation.

The problem was, the Farmer's Market was right in the middle of the ideal path for the highway. Though a sensible location when it was founded, as the city grew, it came to be right smack between two important avenues. However, without many farms left, the Mayor wasn't going to destroy the farmer's market. Instead, a whole neighborhood was taken out to make room for the highway.



Students at Swagful Farms Elementary and High schools celebrated, as they got several months off while their schools were rebuilt. But rebuilt they were, and with this new link, the Quintillus Intracity Highway System was, at least for the time being, complete. While possible expansion, including to New Eden, may happen in the future, the core system was now in place.

And thus, it was a bittersweet time. Sweet, because not only were the highways complete, but the city had its first railroad that went over a highway. Bitter, because the old avenue that had led from the first industrial area to the first and second residential areas no longer reached the second one. It had been rerouted, and though you could still take just avenues and highways to get there, times had changed.



The following summer, with the coffers overflowing once more, the Mayor developed the New East Shore. The hope was that it would become a rival to the Beachlands and Central Park in attracting wealthy Sims. And, as such, it had to include a beach!



Unfortunately, due to the high taxes, the only demand was for low-wealth commercial buildings, and the ritzy seafront was soon occupied by flea markets. Thus,the Mayor lowered taxes back to 9% in the fall of his second year. But the people seemed to expect that they'd be fleeced if they moved in, and as a result on one did. So the mayor lowered taxes to 8.5% instead, hoping that would be enough of a lure.

In the meantime, another transportation nightmare was spotted:



Have you ever seen such a mess of traffic lights? Neither had the Mayor. It seemed two avenues had come together rather awkwardly, and to fix this the roads in the area were redesgned.

It took awhile, but eventually people began moving back to Fort Consternation. By the start of his 4th year, Fort Consternation's population was back where it had been. Perusing the city, he saw an unusual site:



A power line to nowhere on the fritz? How odd!

September of 2098 saw 418,000 people living in Fort Consternation, but it wasn't clear that the city could sustain that many people. Though the new industrial zones had developed, unemployment was becoming rampant. The heart of the city was a good example of this.



The next year-and-a-quarter were a seesaw of people leaving and coming back. The Mayor was getting the picture that Fort Consternation was near the limit of its ability to provide jobs, and as such he increased zoning densities in commercial and industrial areas, and zoned new areas (particularly industrial) in some gaps. And it was actually the case that there were more industrial jobs by this point than when his term had started - but perhaps not enough more to sustain another 25,000 people.

Fort Consternation did have its benefits, though. One of these was that every year or two, a spaceship would take off from the spaceport, providing an excellent spectacle for everyone in the city. One such launch was captured by the Mayor in this picture:



At the end of the term, Fort Consternation had stabilized at about 414,000 people. The new industrial areas were successful, and the new highway had considerable traffic. The East Shore had started out as a slum zone - apparently no one with money wanted to move to Fort Consternation, regardless of pretty beaches. But by the end of the Mayor's term, three medium-wealth high-rises were being built in the area, just weeks from completion. If only they'd been completed a month earlier, the population would have been about 10,000 higher!



And thus, the Mayor handed over the reigns. Fort Consternation still had good days in front of it!



Fort Consternation

Population: 414,510 (+31,700; +8.3%)
Funds: $530,689 (+454,930) (You're welcome!)
Mayor Rating: 12/12 (+0.5)

My apologies for removing some of the original neighborhoods, but they were becoming abandoned quickly. Also I did a first run through, using pretty much the same steps and my population rose to 456k, for some reason that did not happen here. Just thought id mention that, I didn't save that run through however.

And I'll just work on Fort Concentration for this turn, I figure I might as well keep it fair in terms of the rotation. I don't want to complicate it

Also there is a trick with the Wast to incinerator plant, you can lower the funding to the bottom and it'll work at optimal capacity. A YouTube'er called Dwyrin used this trick.