Sim City (4) Succession Session!

He hadn't even walked into the door of the Mayor's House when the local Transportation Dude stopped him in his tracks, going on about airports or some such nonsense.




Well, okay. We'll see what we can do. But can I at least take a spin around the city first?



Apparently not...

Once the Mayor finally did get a chance to tour the city, he was more or less pleased with what he saw. Fort Consternation was a lot different than 20 years ago. The old low-wealth residential areas had gentrified, and were now almost exclusively wealthy. Industry had migrated... more than once. MoreEpicThanYou Memorial Hill had gone through trials and tribulations, and despite Peck of Arabia's efforts, still didn't look as good as the other hills. About the only things that were the same were the original power plant and the farms. Mayor Quintillus was quite happy, and a bit surprised, that the farms had survived four successors' terms.

The effects of Peck of Arabia's terms were visible. The bank vaults were once more healthy, after a prolonged slump.



Education and life expectancy had suffered, however. The residents of Fort Consternation were richer, less educated, and not living as long as they had been five years ago.





Peck's railroad program had been stunningly successful. More people now took the train to work than drove cars.



The Mayor was especially surprised that people seemed to be willing to walk farther to catch the train than in other cities he was familiar with. He was also puzzled that some train stations had a capacity of 2000, and others of 24,000, with no apparent reason for the difference. In some cases the higher capacity was indeed needed - including at some stations with the lower capacity. The only other confusing part with rail was that freight traffic was nearly nonexistant, despite ample stations by industry.

The first task of the Mayor was familiar - adding water mains. The new industrial sector was half without water, which likely explained its undeveloped areas. Simultaneously, the Mayor raised taxes on dirty industry to 12%, while cutting taxes on manufacturing and the non-existant high-tech sector to 8%. This would also raise an additional 450 simoleons per month in revenue.



The Mayor also noticed that their was excess landfill capacity. As landfill was expensive, he de-zoned about 10% of the landfill. He reckoned the savings would justify the cost to re-zone it later. However, this didn't seem to help. Within two months, pickup and delivery costs had increased by over 1000 simoleons/month . Fortunately those costs didn't stay that high.

Despite the higher taxes, there was a boom of dirty industry with the new water provided, and that necessitated a new Water Pump. The Mayor was tempted to build a high-capacity one, but couldn't justify the cost for 200,000 cubic feet of capacity when the city's usage was less than half that. So a new pump was built instead. The Mayor was pleased that MoreEpicThanYou Memorial Water was still providing adequate cleansing capacity.

Fire funding was also increased - it was time to end the firefighters' strikes.

So with the basics underway, it was time for expansion. Mayor Quintillus had a place in mind for this.



See that nice area with the snooty country club? I guess it's kinda in the country now. But that isn't going to be the case forever. A country club really ought to be in the country! This is going to be where the city is!

So, some bulldozing was commenced.

Err... was going to be commenced until the 18,000 simoleon pricetag for bulldozing the country club was seen. This was none too pleasing. Not wanting to be seen as wasting money bulldozing the country club, the Mayor increased taxes on the wealthy to 10.4%, thereby recouping the 18,000 simoleons within the administration's tenure. Residential demand was high enough he figured it wouldn't affect population too much.





Voila! No more snooty country club! The House of Worship escaped as it was reckoned that it could be worked in to the new development, rather than bulldozed for §3500.

And then the Mayor spent several weeks in the local blueprint office. When he was finished, he had a plan for a whole neighborhood - to be called Central Park.



It was hoped that this would be a center for city-dwellers, just as the beachfront area had been for beach lovers. The House of Worship fit in nicely, too - a nice bonus, since the development had ended up being quite expensive. Some of the industry that had been removed from the west was re-zoned in the original industrial area as designed by Peck of Arabia, to increase toll booth revenues once more.

A couple months later, a Disease Research Center was offered.



The Mayor thought this would be a good idea, but decided to wait until later in his term to build it, after the coffers had more thoroughly recovered from the new area of town. A new statue was also offered, which flattered the Mayor, but at a cost of 22,000 Simoleons it was not exactly cheap.

Most of the rest of the first year was spent in consternation, trying to figure out why no one would build in the area, aside from the first few tenements. Just as the Mayor was about to throw in the towel on the development, that fall some commercial buildings came. And by spring of the second year, some more housing was coming. It seems the 10,000 people in the first few tenements simply caused a glut of workers; reinvigorating the old industrial zone appeared to be helping. A new school and clinic serving the area surely weren't hurting, either.

In May of 2032, the Mayor was petitioned to build a Solar Plant by environmentally conscious Sims.



At a cost of 30,000, it would be a huge drain on the city's coffers, and there was still (barely) enough power, so the Mayor decided to put it on hold. But he was pleased by all the opportunities coming up.

Soon thereafter, the Mayor zoned a new industrial port along the western seashore, following some complaints of commute time from Central Park dwellers. Before long, industry was popping up.



The Mayor hoped that with new tax rates - 7.0% for high-tech and 14.0% for dirty - that much of the industry would not be heavily polluting.

And it worked. High-tech, non-polluting industry flocked to the new area. In turn, residential development soared. By the end of the year, Fort Consternation had 80,000 people.



And they wanted a zoo!



Sadly, the mayor was using all the cash to create jobs - 3000-person tenements demanded a lot of those. But he'd try to get one before the gorilla grip forced him to.

Not only job, but also traffic, was beginning to slow growth. Even the new avenues couldn't meet the demands. Buildings were being abandoned due to the situation. The Mayor was adding more bus stops, but that wasn't proving to be enough. And subways were expensive!

Midway through his third year, the Mayor built a high school for the new area, as well as the city's first college, near the high-tech industrial area.



It was hoped this might eventually alleviate the traffic from all the poorly educated Sims in the high-density zone going to work in the dirty industry.

In fall of the third year, a major league stadium was offered, but the cost was §78,000. That was not happening!

To start off the fourth year, the Mayor enacted a number of ordinances. A smoke alarm ordinance was made to help avoid a repeat of the fires of Peck's last term. Education was invested in with a pro-reading program, and junior sports were brought to town to give the youth something to do (other than play Sim City) after school. And a CPR training class was implemented. The Mayor even got a contract to have a CPR song air on the radio!


Link to video.

Finally, a Clean Air Act was implemented. The Mayor did not consider himself a friend of dirty industry!

By mid-summer, it appeared nearly all zones were built up. So, the mayor rearranged some railroads, and built some new residential and high-tech zones.



August 2033 saw the first fire of the mayor's current term.



It was quickly quelled, with little lasting damage. Whew! Glad those firefighters weren't on strike!

Housing and commercial demand was still robust in the fall, so the mayor decided to build an exclusive, upper-elevation community.



Complete with a lighthouse and their own power supply! Not to be too ritzy, they were still on the city's main water system. But it was hoped that rich Sims would flock to the isolated community. And the views... oh, the views!

The Mayor's last year began with the construction of Beach Crusade Memorial High, in Thorgalaeg's neighborhood.



We had to be sure there was No Sim Left Behind!

The Sims obviously agreed; a few weeks later a petition for a private school was made. The Mayor agreed, and St. Francis High was opened near Central Park.



In the spring, another fire broke out in the same area as the one the year before. It was put out, but the Mayor subsequently build a small fire station in the area - this was becoming rather ridiculous.

Utilities were becoming a problem again, and this time, the Mayor bit the bullet and bought a Large Water Pump.



No more water problems here!

However, the mayor realized that this new pump was expensive. As a result, all water towers and all but two of the old water pumps were de-commissioned in favor of this new, more efficient design. The water supplies were then so clean that the treatment plant was likely unnecessary... but the mayor decided to leave the fate of MoreEpicThanYou Water to its namesake.

Also on the docket was the overcrowding at Fort Consternation Medical Center. It simply didn't have enough physical space for its patients, no matter what funding was.



A new Medical Center was established near Central Park to accomodate for this, and by the end of the year both would be operating efficiently.

Finally, the power plants were operating at over 95% capacity, even with maximal funding. At this rate, the next mayor would enter office only to have complaints of brownouts in February. So, a new power plant was called for. Three options were seriously considered. Coal, obviously, was cheap. Solar had been asked for, but was really expensive. So, as a compromise, an oil plant was built.



Quintillus Memorial Power would provide electricity for many years, all while being in the slightly-less-polluting spirit that the mayor was promoting. This also allowed the coal plants to go back to normal power production levels.

November saw a petition for a new house of worship. So the Mayor opened a new church by the farms he had helped build his previous term.



As the Mayor left office, Fort Consternation had changed yet again. The population's rapid increase had only accelerated, and high-tech industry was now contributing in a meaningful way. The city was rapidly becoming known in Sim Nation.

But there were still challenges. The transit system, working so well before, was now overloaded, particularly on the avenues. The next mayor would have to decide how to tackle this if the city were to keep growing.



Jobs seemed to be in insufficient supply, particularly commercial ones, but land available for development was becoming precious. And education levels had actually dropped in the past five years. This was attributed in no small part to most of the 40,000 new residents being uneducated - education was highly divided amongst neighborhood lines.



The Mayor was happy though. First a legacy of farming, now a legacy of making Fort Consternation a large, high-tech city. Now he just had to hope it didn't all get bulldozed!



Fort Consternation

Population: 94,971 (+41,966)
Funds: §79,978 (-§37,535) (probably a good thing I didn't build the major league stadium!)
Mayor Approval: 9/12