- INTRODUCTION: What is the name of your city and why is it special?
The name of my city is “The Uprising City”. This name was chosen in beliefs of having a growing and developed city. I do have many hopes of having a well-developed city that will benefit the residents and the community. As this game is a simulation, I aspire that it will help me connect more to the reality of city planning and provide me with examples of challenges that I would be facing if it was in reality.
- BACKGROUND: How has your city evolved since you first started building it?
The growth of my city has been inconsistent and challenging. For unfortunate events, It has been very hard for me to keep up with the game which resulted in difficulty with the evolvement of my city. My city went through bankruptcy and I had to restart the game. Although, I restarted the game, I still did not do well and had to start all over. Bankruptcy has occurred because of the lack of money as well as the residents’ reactions towards how uncoordinated my city was. I have had struggles of setting my tax rate up as I was concerned about how the residents would react which resulted in bankruptcy. I also had struggles with building the water and electricity to grow my city. However, I am putting extra time and effort towards my city and it is slowly growing and developing. There are more evolvement happening in my city as I learn from past mistakes of growing my city.
- POPULATION:
What are the demographic characteristics of your city, and how has it changed over time? What direction is it heading?
As previously mentioned, I have had many struggles improving my city and re-building it up and that has affected the population of my city a lot. Currently, my city is small, however, it has gained some population. I went through bankruptcy and many challenges including personal ones that did not support the growth of my city. Currently, my population is at 371 as whole, including 77 children, 35 teens, 36 young, 215 adults, and 8 seniors. As we can see, most of the population are adults which is understandable of a beginner city. My population is growing slowly but surely. I have learned from my mistakes in past cities and mistakes and I am in hope that my city will grow nicely overtime and efforts.
- BUILT ENVIRONMENT:
- An important goal for my built environment is to provide it with good access of electricity and water. Doing so, I would provide my residents with their basic needs and make them feel comfortable and happy. I would also like for my environment to be surrounded with parks, educational systems, banks, entertainment places, etc. Providing my built environment will make my residents happy and that is one of the main points in building.
- One strength in my city is that I have been following the bars at the bottom and following the needs of the city. For instance, I provide the city with more residentials spaces that are needed by the residents. A weakness that my city has been facing is the poor population that is a result of the lack of bult environment like residential places and other communities and environments. An opportunity that I would further like working on is my flow of traffic and transportation. I would like to provide my city with more roads and highways that will be accessible to my residents. One threat that my city is facing so far is electricity accessibility. As my city grows, there is more demand for electricity and the lines that connect electricity together can be far from some houses that makes hard to access to some house.
- Actions that I will take in order to address these issues is to watch YouTube videos about the game, practice playing the game more and learn from my mistakes. I am a good observer so I would pay more attention to the game and how some actions affect the outcome of my city and use better planning strategies in the future.
- HOUSING:
- A goal for my built in housing is to provide my residents with all their needs of basic and physical needs up to societal needs. I hope to provide my residents with enough housing and building where they live and feel safe as well as not building their houses directly by roads. By doing so, I eliminate the noises and pollution that my residents might go through.
- Good housings are made to make the owners (residents) feel safe. One strength upon the residential housing are that they are growing and providing more safe spaces in the community. One weakness that can affect the housing of my city is not having enough residential spaces as shown in the game on the bars at the bottom which indicated the need of more housing. Not having enough houses can occur in losing residents and less income coming in which can cause bankruptcy in the long run. An opportunity that I can provide my city with is surround my city with more commercial and entertainment places around housing where residents have more access to a social life. Electricity and water are both threats to my cities as they can be challenging to reach to the residents.
- Watching more YouTube videos, building more houses, and better my electricity and water accessibility will help address these issues.
- ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT:
- My goal for the environment is to build more residential and commercial districts. When building more commercial districts, there will be more shops, restaurants, theaters, centers, etc. By doing so, economy will increase and there will be more money.
- One strength that I have received lately is the increase of money and income once I started having more residents and residential areas in my city. One weakness in my city is the lack of commercial areas in my city. An opportunity is that by having more residents and increasing the tax level to a reasonable one might be very beneficial in increasing the income to my city which help me provide my residents with better communities. A threat that might be faced is the
increase of taxes, and if I do not observe it closely, it may lead to residents leaving as they cannot afford my city anymore. - Some actions that I can take to develop the economy of my city is observe my income, my usage of money and stay under a budget.
- TRANSPORTATION:
- An important goal that I want to provide for transportation is building more roads. I would also like to build roundabouts and more highway access in order to make it easier for the residents to transport and lessen the amount of traffic.
- One strength of transportation is that I have provided my city with roads that lead to the main streets and are close to residential areas. A weakness is that my city needs more transportation access and roads. Building roundabouts and more roads can be a huge opportunity. A threat to my city that I need to be careful about is the pollution that can occur because of traffic that will affect the well-being of my residents.
- An action that I can take to help my city with transportation is building more roads, but observe how they are built. I would also build the roads in a way that will not affect the residential spaces negatively.
- COMMUNITY SERVICES AND UTILITIES:
- A goal for utilities and community services is to build more and provide for my residents. I would like for these services not to go under fires or any other circumstances and be open and working.
- I do not have much services as I had to restart my city recently. However, a strength that I had before was the fixation of water and electricity being provided there. A weakness would be the mistakes made into creating a transportation system. An opportunity for my current game is to build more services and buildings. A threat would be a struggle of water and electricity that might cause trouble.
- To address such issues, I would build more community services and utilities and watch out for water, electricity and resident needs.
- PARKS AND RECREATION:
- A goal for parks and recreation is to build more and make them closer to residential communities and places where kids, families, and young adults are.
- One strength would be the placement of these parks and recreation closely to schools and residential areas. A weakness would be the lack of these communities in my city and a threat would be the usage of these spaces depending on my residents and what if they were not willing to use such places.
- Actions I can take to address such issues are to build more parks and recreations and make sure they are close to residential areas.
( have not built, no picture available)
- NATURAL ENVIRONMENT:
- I would love for my city to have a large natural environment as that would make my city looks attractive and healthier is terms of pollution.
- A strength that my city has is that it has some green areas in it. A weakness is that they are needs more natural environment growth. An opportunity would be growing a lot of green and natural spaces as it can be very beneficial. A threat to my city would be where the natural environment is built and how would it handle pollution.
- Actions that will be taken to address these issues are observing my city closely and taking the necessary actions for a better environment.
(where it will be built)
- FUTURE LAND USE PLAN:
- I would like to build hospitals, educational systems, libraries, clinics, businesses, companies, etc.
- By building such communities, the residents will be pleased and have more opportunities. Looking at my resident charts, a lot of them are uneducated. Providing my residents with great opportunities will help them a lot through their education and job opportunities. Weakness might be the reaction of the residents to these new opportunities and how might they like them. In that sense, a threat is caused by losing so much money. On the other hand, people might use such utilities and that can be beneficial in the sense of growing economically.
- Actions that will be taken to address these issues are to grow my city more and try providing my residents with such opportunities but also listening to their needs.
- IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY:
In order for me to implement these strategies, I have to be an observant. I have to observe my city and be careful on what I am adding and removing from my city. I also have to look out for my economy and money and set a reasonable budget that will prevent me from going bankrupt.
SIMULATION VERSUS REALITY:
The purpose of city skylines being a simulation is to demonstrate to the student/ player on how city planning can feel like as a planner in reality. In the textbook and by the professor, planning is described differently than what the simulation is. They describe planning as the reality. For instance, they mention how cities are built depending on the residents needs but also on balance on what the planner thinks is best for the city. In that sense, the simulation can relate to reality however it can be different. To further explain that, in the simulation, there is no direct contact with the resident and the planner as there would be in real life where the planner would hear the issues of the residents more accurately. Furthermore, in the planning industry there is justice towards all people and helping them no matter what race or background they are, which that cannot be achieved in a game.