Sim City (4) Succession Session!

Mayor Quintillus expected the worse when entering the mayoral mansion, and sure enough, as soon as he entered the financial advisor pounced on him.



Sure enough, the numbers looked kinda bad...





Fortunately, the Mayor knew what water pumps were near the volcano, and pretty soon found what appeared to be the source of the problem.



That's an awful lot of unused water! After sending a crew below the surface, the Mayor found that although the pump itself was fine, the pipes leading away from that pump, even as short of a distance as the next pump over, were broken.



So the city's largest water pump had been sitting there doing nothing for the past year and a half. Quintillus reckoned that adding a few pipes in that area ought to solve the problem, and put the city's budget back on the track to bouancy.

But despite that, the Mayor realized that Fort Consternation would be bleeding cash for the forseeable future. So he put together a chart of expenses. 35% of spending to health/education, and another 35% to utilities. With revenue only meeting 82% of expenses, something would have to be cut there. Digging deeper...



The biggest line item in the budget was power supply. Clearly, this was important. But the Mayor did some math. The fusion power plant was costing $10,000/month, or $120,000 per year. Whereas coal could generate slightly more power at a cost of $30,000 per year, plus an upfront investment of $100,000. In a little more than a year, the city would be saving money if they switched to coal. The only issue was that the city was too poor to do so now.

But that didn't mean the mayor couldn't start. And start he did - five coal plants were commissioned, including the much-loved Volcano Memorial Power, and the fusion plant's budget slashed. As long as it didn't result in blackouts, this would save about 4000 simoleons per month.



The Mayor also made the usual cuts-to-size for education and healthcare, and made the decision to get rid of the large airstrip in favor of the main airport, saving $1000 per month by doing so. All in all, this led to budget cuts of just over 10% of the budget, and combined rescinding some of industry's tax breaks, cut the defecit to about 6000 simoleons per month.

By April, utilities were available to everyone again, and the defecit was down to $4500/month, but the city only had about $7000 in its coffers. People weren't moving out anymore, but no one was moving back quite yet, either.

So the Mayor looked for pennies to pinch. Uncle Peck's Friendly Correction Facility was underutilized, so its budget was cut. Fire coverage was "consolidated" in low-risk areas. Commuter shuttles were scrapped as traffic was not deemed too bad, and a toll booth added. And most drastically, at a slight upfront cost, the city's recycling program was discontinued. And with that, the city was back in the black!



The Mayor knew the city would need more garbage capacity at some point, but for now the landfills could handle the excess.

The financial picture continued to improve, and by May the mayor was no longer seen checking phone booths for loose change. $1933 was in the coffers, with profits of 3000 projected for the month. Not everyone was pleased, though. A strike happened at MoreEpicThanYou Memorial Fire Station, one of the "consolidated" ones. The Mayor was confused, as he thought laying off the entire staff meant they wouldn't be there anymore. Apparently they'd kept working instead so that they could strike. Nothing was done about it.

By September, the city was in a fairly good situation. People were moving in to Fort Consternation in droves, and the population exceeded 315,000. The city's revival seemed to have attracted the working class, perhaps encouraged by the ability to move into a usually-thriving city at surprisingly low costs following the water crisis. Thus, with a lower middle-class population, the city's income was still lower than before by $10,000 a month or so. But the fiscal turnaround was promising.



Come to think of it, the graph of the city's funds resembled a volcano! Sadly the picture chart of this was lost due to the film being passed through an airport scanner.

Coalification continued in the fall, and by December, the fusion plant was closed, with seven new coal plants running at 99% capacity with maximal funding replacing it. This allowed the expenses to sink below 70,000 simoleons per month for the first time in more than a decade, a 22.1% cut from what had been inherited. The 15,000/month defecit was now a 14,000/month surplus, and almost 75,000 people had moved into the city.

All the better, there were still four years to go!

A fire broke out the day after St. Patrick's Day, blamed on hooliganism. The Mayor was pleased to find it was in an area that had never had fire coverage, and thus his "consolidation" could not be blamed.

In the spring, the Mayor began the first city works project of his term - a hill reclamation!



Long contemplated, the plan was now finally seen through! Though it had cost a fair amount to buy out the industry, and the Mayor didn't have great expectations for it surviving given his likely successor, a scenic hill was reclaimed!

Some of you may be thinking, "But Mayor, what about all the jobs!" Turns out, so were some of the citizens. Fortunately, the Mayor hadn't completely forgotten about that, and moreso, had realized that one of the areas without many industrial jobs nearby happened to be the southside. And thus, a new industrial area was zoned.



What could be more exciting than working so close to a volcano? Hardly anything!

Almost as an afterthought, the Mayor decided to zone some farms near the volcano. If volcanic soil was good enough for San Marzano tomatoes growing by Mount Vesuvius, it ought to be good enough for Fort Consternation tomatoes, too!



In summer, the city had enough money to complete the project of destruction the mayor had began earlier - with the relocation of the Hollywood sign!



Now it could be properly seen on the side of a hill for miles around! People from across the city flocked to the Central Park area to take photographs.

A few weeks later, the Mayor was casually walking the city's only library to pick up a novel for some beach reading. Upon entering, he noticed two elementary-school-age students with calculus and nuclear physics books. He noted how happy he was to see such educated youngsters to their mother. But she replied, "Oh, the can't really understand the math or physics, but these are the easiest books to understand that are still on the shelves." Perplexed, the Mayor walked in, and sure enough, the shelves were almost empty. Row after row of shelves with two or three books on them. Inquiring about it from a librarian, the mayor learned that 95% of the library's books were checked out, with an average waiting time on reservations at 4 months.



Although city booksellers weren't complaining, the Mayor immediately increased the budget for the library, and began planning for a more extensive library network, rather than one relatively small branch for a city of 300,000.

Not long afterwards, the Mayor was at dinner, and overheard someone at another table grumbling about the lack of power at the Hollywood sign. Confused, the Mayor pulled up the city power charts the next day. Sure enough, there was a big "NO POWER" label by the Hollywood sign. Calling the utilities advisor over, the Mayor asked, "So what's this I'm hearing about the Hollywood sign lacking power?"

"Well, it's true, man. You head up there, and things are battery power only. No source of juice whatsoever."

"Yeah, but it's a big wooden sign with a few metal supports. There's no need for electricity."

"But what if my cell phone runs out of power just when I'm about to take a picture of the 'Y'?"

"By the same logic I should run power lines all around the volcano."

"Well... err... you may be right about that. But the Hollywood sign was illuminated in the '30s and '40s!"

"So what do you want me to do, throw a windmill up beside it and change the letters to Hollywind?"

"That'd work pretty well!" said the advisor, all too excitedly. The Mayor, however, was not convinced. Maybe some power lines would come, but a giant windmill right next to the Hollywood sign was not happening.

By year's end, four new libraries were built. Two weren't used at all, the one on the southside was a moderate success, and the one by Central Park was so popular that it had more books checked out than it had overall.

A sixth library got the situation under control, and by March bibliophiles were petitioning for a grand central library.



The Mayor agreed this would be an excellent idea, as soon as a proper location was decided upon.

That spring, the Mayor zoned some new residential areas near the airport (though only medium-rise in the closest vicinity!). The population growth had more or less stopped, and a lack of places to live appeared to be why. Soon, however, higher density building would be necessary. Due to that as well as reports that most of the new residents were driving (though a fair number took the train, too), the Mayor improved the subway system in the commercial area along the highway.





In the fall, the Mayor upgraded the avenue south of the airport - originally the farm avenue - to a highway.



Soon, this highway would extend into the Southside. Higher densities were planned there, and the Mayor realized that improved transportation in the area - roads as well as public transport - would be necessary.

In December, that expansion happened, and the Southside had a highway!



Well, sort of. More like there was a highway in the south side. Highways are always extremely expensive, and as it happened, the treasury had $19 left after the construction of the first street going under the highway. There was no money to build on-ramps. So people in the Southside had no way to get on the highway, and only one way to get under it. This was described as "less than ideal", but would be fixed once more money came into the coffers.

By spring the city had enough money to add on and off ramps in the southside. Thereafter, areas of the Southside began to be rezoned for high-density residential development.

Education in the area was also revamped. MoreEpicThanYou Memorial High School was notoriously overcrowded, and the teachers were almost always on strike, so, although spared in the initial highway construction, it was now bulldozed, and a new large high school built down the block (much to the dismay of students). MoreEpicThanYou Memorial Museum was built at the site of the old high school, being chartered to document the history of the southside as its transformation began.

Year 84 after the city's founding featured a great many fires, particularly in the area on the other side of the hill from the Hollywood sign, now known as Hollywood Hills. There were no fewer than four significant fires that year, brining the total for the term to at least 6, which was rather embarrassing even in Fort Consternation. The Mayor eventually realized the area's fire station had been bulldozed when the hill was saved, and thus built a new one.



Late in that year, the new Main Library was opened near Central Park, at the site of a building that had been abandoned for several years due to a lack of water.



Most of the last year was focused on small tasks, including city-funded demolitions of buildings that had long since been abandoned due to insufficient water. One of these was even redeveloped into a drive-in theater - right beside one of the city's first skyscrapers, Quintillus Inc.!



Recycling centers were also rebuilt, as though garbage piling up yet, the landfills would fill up eventually. The landfill near the army base was also expanded slightly, ensuring the next mayor wouldn't have a stinky problem to deal with right away.

The year ended with the city's coffers replenished, and the city in a generally good state. Even though only one high-rise had been built in the Southside so far, the city had still grown considerably. The city's residents were also regaining their economic prowess.




The financials looked good; the city's expenses were still thousands of simoleons below what they were at the start of the term, and revenues were near what they were before the volcano incident.

And the mayor liked to boast of his environmental records as well. What's this, you ask? Isn't this the same mayor who just replaced clean power with coal? Why yes, in fact, it is. Turns out it's possible to satisfy both the environmentalists and the coal lobby at the same time.





The hill reclamation project had more than offset the coal plants' pollution. Even better, water pollution was at the lowest point it had ever been:



Still, the successor would have challenges. Education and health funding was probably a little bit too meagre given the city's recent growth. And the advisors were always furious about something.



Fort Consternation

Population: 364,221 (+94,364; +35.0%)
Funds: $143,888 (+66,458)
Mayor Rating: 11/12
Surplus is 15,650 per month

The city is attached to this post (mediafire was failing to upload it for some reason).