The name of my city is Beckville. I chose Beckville because Beck is a family name and I thought that naming my city using a family connection would be a fun way to make my city feel personal to me.
When I first started building my city, as many others did, I started with a very small area of residential zone and a small low density commercial zone. I also started with a few units zoned for industry to make sure there were enough jobs for residents. After running water and electricity, I let residents move in and build homes and get jobs in the commercial and industrial zones. Once my small grid had filled up, I built more roads and expanded the city outwards. This is when I began to build elementary schools and made sure that police and fire were connected to the citizens. Compared to the early building, I’ve also added much more industry to create jobs.
The population of Beckville is 7,439 residents. Most of the city’s population is adults (37%), followed by young adults (21%). The smallest demographic by age is children (8%). There are 5,634 jobs available in Beckville and 3% of residents are unemployed. Beckville is growing relatively fast; there are 4.6 times more births per week than deaths.
One goal for the built environment is to improve the attractiveness of my city. Currently, my city attractiveness is 5%. A strength of the built environment now in the city is a high traffic flow of 81%. A weakness is that the rotary at the city’s connection to the highway is backed up. This location is the most congested in the city. An opportunity to boost the aesthetic of my city is to add more outdoor features such as benches, landscaping, fountains, and to build courtyard areas for communities to be together. A threat to the built environment is the emissions released by the growing industry zone in the north of the city. One action that I can take to address these issues is to modify the rotary and create more points of access to the highway. Another action would be to use more multi-lane roads between high density areas.
One goal for housing is to offer different types of housing to accommodate and attract different families and individuals; to make this happen, a more specific goal is to develop high-density housing. A strength of housing now is that all units are supplied with plenty of electricity and water. One weakness of housing is that there is not currently any high-density housing. An opportunity I have to develop high-density housing is to create an office zone along the river north of my city. As the city has just reached 7,000 residents, I can incorporate office districts, which will attract more professionals to the housing. A threat to this development is not having enough jobs in the area to attract people to live in high-density housing. An action that I can take is to build a university which will attract young adults and eventually fill the housing. Another action I can take is to develop commercial zones to further provide employment and attractions for residents.
One goal for economic development is to establish a thriving high-density commercial area which will attract those looking for employment and tourists. A strength of economic development is low unemployment and a high number of available jobs. A weakness of the economy is that the city is not yet collecting taxes on high-density housing or office zones. Some opportunities that I have to enhance economic development are to zone a high-density commercial area as well as installing more public transportation. A threat to economic development is not creating enough jobs to attract residents, which in turn, will lead to collecting less tax revenue. An action that I can take is to route a bus system. I can also build infrastructure connecting the concentration of residents now to the areas in which I would like to zone for commercial and business.
One goal for transportation is to offer reliable public transportation to residents through bus lines, as well as to keep the city walkable and accommodating to bicyclers. A strength of having a bus system is collecting fares which fund the system and add to the city’s revenue. One weakness of transportation is not having a bus line yet. An opportunity to develop a bus system would arise once I develop the business district in the north of the city. Once there is a large demand for jobs and high-density housing, workers can utilize the busses to get to work. A threat of having a car-centric city is that low-income individuals will have a harder time obtaining and keeping a job since they may not be able to afford a car, therefore having no other transit option. An action that I will take to develop a bus line is to increase the area for business and high-density housing to create a demand for public transportation.
One goal for community services and utilities is to ensure residents have enough access to public services like police, fire, trash pick up, and education. A strength of public services now is efficient landfill sites and garbage management. A weakness of the city is high fire hazard. An opportunity to improve public service availability is to construct a fire station and several more fire houses. A threat to this plan is the chance of not collecting enough taxes to fund more public services. An action that I can take to improve this area is to construct more fire stations throughout the city (especially near the industrial area). I can also place police stations on well accessed roads to ensure that they can reach citizens quickly.
One goal for parks and recreation is to provide residents with plenty of green space throughout the city and, specifically, to develop a series of parks around the waterfront of the body of water that I have in the south of my city. A strength of parks and recreation now is that there is a large concentration of children in one particular area in the city, so playgrounds and parks are well utilized. A weakness is there are still low entertainment levels in most of the residential area. An opportunity to develop more parks is along the small lake. I also could develop low-density commercial areas around the parks to draw more users. One threat to this plan is that much of the efficient areas for wind turbine placement are along the water. Residents might not enjoy a park near turbines. One action I can take to make this goal happen is to set aside land on the waterfront for no turbines and reserve the land for park space. I will not build the parks until I have developed the area surrounding the parks so the parks are in walking distance. Another action that I can take is to leave more areas not zoned for residents when I construct neighborhoods, so I can add park space.
One goal for the natural environment is to operate the city fully on green energy (wind turbines, hydro-power, and solar energy). A strength of the natural environment is that the city, so far, is fully dependent on green energy. Residents are not as at risk for environment related health issues due to lower emissions. Also, I do consider having low emissions to be a victory in itself. A weakness of the natural environment is the emissions coming from the city’s industrial zone. An opportunity to implement more green energy in the future is to build a dam and install a hydro-power plant once I have a population of 9,500. This seems possible since there is a river to the north of my city. A threat to this plan is that since green energy has a lower yield of power compared to energy from raw materials, if I do not manage the growth of my city well, I may find myself desperately in need of more power and financially able only to use a more polluting option. One action that I will take to ensure green energy in the future is to maximize the potential output of wind turbines by only placing them in areas that will generate 8 MW of power. Another action is to try to create more employment through other jobs, not just from industry.
One goal for my future land use plan is to develop a downtown area with high-density commercial, office, and high-density housing zones. A strength of future land use is to use the land suitable for forestry on the edges of the city. A weakness of this plan is that the best forestry area is not far from existing residential areas now. One opportunity to make this development is to start to construct infrastructure connecting the north region to the center, and gradually expand the city outwards. An action I will take to address this is to create office zones along the river and near the highway.
To implement the goals above, I will need to build more infrastructure to expand the city and zone the areas accordingly. I need to create high-density urban areas with suburbs on the outskirts. Also, I’ll have to add services and utilities to all of the areas as they grow.
Cities: Skylines is a good way for planning students to begin to unpack the process of planning. One large disconnect between the simulation and real life is the existence of the pause button. Real planners can not put time on hold to address issues as they arise; further, construction, reconstruction, or demolition happen instantly in the simulation, while those processes actually take weeks to years. Also, there is little citizen participation in the simulation (besides incoming Tweets, which are all reactions to plans already implemented, not forward-thinking insights on what plans to create). Contemporary Urban Planning outlines basic goals of planning which I found to be consistent with my goals for the city: health, safety, provision of services, environmental protection, and redistributive goals (to name a few). The book also details a planning process, parts of which I used and parts I did not use. I did not conduct a research phase, mostly because there were no previous trends to analyze. The beginning of the simulated city is essentially trial and error. Further, I did not have a phase of clarifying community goals and objectives. The writing outlines this phase as stemming from conversation among planners, the city, and citizens. I clarified the goals to myself only, as I am the sole planner in the simulated city. As for the final three phases, I did seem to have periods for plan formulation, plan implementation, and review and revision. One point that Professor Burton mentioned was that it is important to find the balance between what the people want and what the planner thinks is best. In the simulation, the planner can do basically whatever they want to (or are financially capable of doing); there is no way to community plan.
References
Levy, J. M. (2017). Contemporary Urban Planning (11th ed.). Routledge.