Modern city planning

[phillip1756]

hi my game is set in a modern city that has 4 areas, each with different neighbourhoods.
The South is a quite wealthy part of the city and has a beach at the far end. Central is Middle class. Northeast has a harbour and is not as wealthy as the central or South areas but not super poor either. Northwest is the poorest part of the city and has different slums and ghettos mostly. The North end of the city is pretty poor and impoverished but slightly less than the northwest. I need ideas for like buildings and different locations that should be in the different areas in the city and the types of people you could meet in them. Also need some ideas for the kind of neighborhoods and names for them.

 

[rey meustrus]

Have you tried playing a city simulation game like the old Sim City games or the relatively new Cities: Skylines? There's a surprising depth in getting a modern city to work which might help in figuring out what the influences are. And in the newer games, you can narrow in on individual citizens to see where they're going. I'd suggest you try to build your city in one of these games and see how regions might get impoverished or wealthy (it has a lot to do with land value and there is a certain momentum to a region's character as well), where any public services might be, how traffic might play a role, where the jobs are, what kinds of private buildings pop up where, how many buildings are abandoned, etc.

 

[phillip1756]

Where can I get the new one from with the impoverished places? Where do I download it?

 

[phillip1756]

Okay so I've had a look at that cities skyline game could you tell me more about it? Most city building games seem to just have one type of area that I've seen there's no really poor areas or really rich areas

 

[Ellie]

I could ramble on for pages about city planning, it depends how detailed you want to go!

And which era.

In the modern era, poor parts tend to be old parts, which means they were lain out a hundred years or so ago. So they'll be based around factories and employment, so you'll find a factory with a bunch of terraced houses around it every now and then, with infill. The richer places will either be: the inner city, or the outer suburbs. If the rich all moved to the outer suburbs, then the inner city is probably a bit of a slum.

In a historic setting though it's a different matter. Your poor people are your farmers, they'll live close to employment but that employment won't be in the city at all. Or they're slaves or servants of some kind, and so probably live in the rich areas, but in servants' quarters. Your artisans will live along main roads to get the trade. The extremely rich (which will happen in historic places) will live in manors, and those manors will not be clumped together, they probably won't be in the city at all in fact. That manor will probably have a moat, servants, its own chapel, etc.

 

[phillip1756]

I could ramble on for pages about city planning, it depends how detailed you want to go!

And which era.

In the modern era, poor parts tend to be old parts, which means they were lain out a hundred years or so ago. So they'll be based around factories and employment, so you'll find a factory with a bunch of terraced houses around it every now and then, with infill. The richer places will either be: the inner city, or the outer suburbs. If the rich all moved to the outer suburbs, then the inner city is probably a bit of a slum.

In a historic setting though it's a different matter. Your poor people are your farmers, they'll live close to employment but that employment won't be in the city at all. Or they're slaves or servants of some kind, and so probably live in the rich areas, but in servants' quarters. Your artisans will live along main roads to get the trade. The extremely rich (which will happen in historic places) will live in manors, and those manors will not be clumped together, they probably won't be in the city at all in fact. That manor will probably have a moat, servants, its own chapel, etc.

Yeah it's a modern city but like what's a basic list of places to have in the neighbourhoods of these areas like I'm gonna have the city hall in the central area

 

[rey meustrus]

It can be hard in city building games to really get a sense of the neighborhoods. You have to look at the statistics. Poor neighborhoods are the ones with low land values, which are tied to low education and crime problems. They have problems with abandoned buildings and poor access to services. Admittedly you won't get all the problems in a city-building game because as the dictator of the city you are not putting all the money elsewhere for some other project and giving up on impoverished areas because that's not where votes really get you elected. Maybe that's why city sims tend towards raising land values everywhere and end up producing huge tax profits instead of the kind of constant budget shortfalls real cities are faced with.</politicalstatement>