Cities and Skylines

4. BUILT ENVIRONMENT:

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• My goal is to grow my city and bring it closer to the water for easier access to that resource. I want my population to be happy with the opportunities for work and have easy access to living areas.
• One of my strengths in the design and build part of the simulation is that I have been able to make my population happy. I respond quickly to their needs by providing more housing, sufficient industrial space, and clean energy sources. a weakness of the built environment is that natural resources are not as accessible. I have to constantly make sure pipes are good, and the power reaches my population. An opportunity of mine is making the streets and exit to the highway more accessible and clearly defined. My freeway exit is strangely built and the vehicles are not utilizing it the way I would’ve liked for them to. My biggest threat to making my city the best it can be is the power and water access. I have, in so many instances, been without power and water because of too much use and not enough resource.
•  I have a big issue off wanting my city to be at its max capacity in terms of residents, businesses, and utilities. I want to see my city grow now not slowly.  If my power is out, my water and sewage is out. I’ve learned that keeping track of those two utilities helps in keeping the budget under control and slowly being able to expand. Once I have earned enough money and have the resources to expand my city, I will.

5. HOUSING:

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• My goal is to be able to provide as much housing away from the industrial quarter as much as possible. I want my residents to be able to work nearby where they live but not have to be exposed to pollution and noise from the industrial buildings. I also want my residents to be able to walk to some shops near where they live and not have to rely heavily on a vehicle for transportation.
• One strength in the housing in my city is that the housing is separated form the industrial and there is plenty of residential areas for people to live in. Its not concentrated in one section of the city but all throughout. A weakness is that the more my city grows, the more I need to build. Its difficult to maintain utilities, make the residents happy and create more housing, all within staying in budget. An opportunity for my city in regards to housing is to take advantage of the current layout I have. Instead of trying to push and building as fast as I can, I should make use with what i have and not blow my budget. One threat would be that I could build more residential areas and not enough commercial or industrial area to support the people living in the city. This would cause my city to go into debt and force people to move away.
• By not over building too many residential houses, I can create a balance between the different zones.

6. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT:

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• My goal is to build a thriving commercial district so that it can benefit my city and make more money than it takes to maintain it.
• The strength in the current economic development in my city is that there are areas that are primarily meant for shopping but there are also scattered commercial buildings throughout. My population does not rely solely on the industrial district and residents can work throughout the city instead of a few designated spaces. A weakness of the economic development is that I’m stuck at a point where it costs more money to maintain my city than it earns. An opportunity would be to figure out a way to make money and invest in the commercial buildings while not going into debt and losing money. A threat of investing too much in the commercial buildings are that the residents could lose districts that were meant for residential buildings.
• Finding a happy balance between commercial, residential, and industrial will help in not over investing and creating traffic and congestion in a given space.

7. TRANSPORTATION:

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• My goal is to include public transportation in my city. I have not been able to include busses or routes for public transportation but that is my goal.
• One strength in my city is the accessibility for vehicle transportation. You can go from one part of the city to the other with no difficulties. The weakness is that i do not have public transportation. My city is designed for people with cars. Those we do not have access to a car are limited to working near where they live. An opportunity would be to make my city more accessible and encourage to use public transportation or even bike routes. One threat to the current status of the transportation in my city  is that traffic can become a big issue. with the number of residential units in my city, parking and traffic can quickly become a major concern
• I will invest in making my city less congested by adding a bus line or somehow add a bike route.

8. COMMUNITY SERVICES AND UTILITIES:

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• My goal is to be able to provide utilities services without outages or shutdowns.
• One strength in utilities that I have in my city are that water and sewer are available without any issues. My weakness in being able to provide for utilities is the issues I have with the electricity. In an effort to build more commercial, residential, and industrial buildings, I lose sight of the amount of energy used and as a result, my city suffers. An opportunity would be to invest in coal as an option for an energy source. A threat of investing in coal is that it is expensive and the environmental issues it causes can negatively impact the population and force them to move away or make them sick.
• By placing the coal processing plant downstream and downwind can move the pollution away from the city .

9. PARKS AND RECREATION:

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• I want my city to have as much green space as possible to give a break from constant buildings and commercial space. I want to provide an outdoor setting for people to enjoy nice days or even when needed a break from the indoors. As someone who has been working from home, schooling from home, and taking care of dogs, I enjoy the chance to go to a nice green space so I wanted to keep that in mind and be able to include that in my city.
• One strength of the current parks I have are that they provide outdoor space for people and dogs. Not ever resident has the luxury of a back yard so I wanted to make sure that there was a space that people can go to for exercise, for their dogs, and children. One weakness of the current parks and recreation space is that it is mainly located on the back of my city and not all throughout. If someone wants to go to the park and they live far away from the park, they would need to drive. An opportunity would be to build more parks. Parks can be a great use of land. One threat of these parks is that my residents could ask for more use of it like more shopping rather than a park.
• Making good use of land and making sure that people have the opportunity to take advantage of the outdoor space will make my residents happy. Instead of using land for industrial space, I can use if for green space.

10. NATURAL ENVIRONMENT:

• I want to purchase more land for my city that contains natural resources so that I don’t have to worry as much about what I can provide to my residents.
• One strength of the natural environment I have are that I am able to provide to my population what they need. One weakness is that there is only so much so long that I can give my residence what they need. To prevent a diminishing supply, I need to search and invest in more resources and space. An opportunity to take advantage of the natural environment is to purchase more land that will benefit more residents. One threat is that by looking for more resources, I will have to build more industrial buildings to process the resources. If my land has coal, it has to be processed for energy. Coal can produce more pollution and negatively impact my population.
• One action that i can take to take advantage of the natural environment is to use the resource in an efficient way. Instead of using it to the max potential, process it and store it in case it needs to be used.

11. FUTURE LAND USE PLAN:

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• My plans for future land use is to create more education buildings like a high school and college so that my population could be more educated. I also would like to expand my city and create more public spaces like parks so that my residents can enjoy the outdoors.
• A strength in investing in education for the future land use is so that I could be able to build office spaces instead of industrial spaces to create too much pollution. The weakness in investing in more educational spaces are that there wont be immediate advantages. It will take time to see more residents educated. An opportunity in the future land use is that it has new natural resources that can benefit the residents. One threat in investing in education would be to put a hold on investing on the natural resources that the new land provides.
• I can invest in the the natural resources that the land provides so that the money it provides can help pay for the new educational buildings.

12. IMPLEMENTATION:

• I will achieve all of these actions by making sure that I invest carefully and not break the bank. By keeping my budget in mind, i can slowly expand my city creating more areas of residential living, accessible commercial buildings, and carefully placed industrial buildings. Making sure that I work on finding happy mediums will help in designing a successful city.

SIMULATION VERSUS REALITY:

This simulation exercise really helps on making people aware of how each decision in planning can affect the future. If you plan on building an industrial space near a residential zone, what are the ramifications and how does it affect the residents. It has really help me be more aware of the city I live in and what goes into making it functional. I think what Professor Burton said about balancing what the people want and what the planner thinks is best for the city was so important to this simulation and obviously true to the reality in planning. Another thing that professor Burton stated was that there are factors that can negatively impact the development of a city and can derail the progression of its developments. As stated in the Contemporary Urban Planning by John Levy, Sanitation, poverty and employment are all factors that can change the direction of city planning, all of which were really displayed in the simulation. If the population does not have a place to work, they are unhappy and will look for another place to live. If their water is shut off, or their sewer pipes are not functioning, the city will not strive. I believe that the simulation has really opened my eyes on how close to reality its problems and developments are.