SimCity: When does one upgrade the zoning to dense?

[vovan]

OK, so I have a city of about 50K people. And there are some more or less high-rise buildings. They are all located on medium density zoning. (See the attachment.) Question: is it time to upgrade the zoning yet? I mean, I did so for a couple of blocks, but they didn't change in the slightest. And after all, if that does not give anything now, I would rather spend my cash on something else. Like more education, or another solar plant for electricity for export, or something.

EDIT: Yeah... Forgot to say that this is for simcity 4.

[cinch]

Hmmm, I'm nowhere near the ultimate authority on this, but in my game, by 50k, I could put Dense Residential and it would almost surely change. Heck, I even zoned a bunch of Dense Residential in a 20k city (of course, it's a "Commuter City" in a small square, so it's kinda necessary, but still...).

That is, as long as there was still a demand for housing general.

I think this probably won't help you at all, but hey... I tried.

[yin26]

The first step, of course, is to look at your RCI ratings to see if there is any need for higher density. What will generate that need are things such as low crime, high education, low pollution, lower tax rates, etc.

[Grumbold]

Yes it'll only pop if the RCI shows very strong demand and your dense zone is located in an area which has high enough land value and desirablility factors to make the cost of building tall pay for itself. Sims would rather spread out than up most of the time.

[Adagio]

Haven't got that far yet, but I've read on the official board, there's a lot of people talking (complaining) about the extreme requirements for high density buildings...

[vovan]

Ah, yes, you are correct, of course. I forgot about the detailed RCI demand graph... Yes, that would come in useful when trying to determine what kind of density the sims require. The problem now is only that there is strong demand for low-level residency, yet whenever I zone more R areas, only wealthy sims move in... Time to lower those taxes. *sigh*

[General Ludd]

I thought the RCI graph only showed the wealth level, not the density level.

[yin26]

If you've got plenty of wealthy folks built up in your city, it might be time to rethink your city's future. That is, if rich folk are flocking to any new R zones, you must already have lots of good jobs and environment for them. Given that, I'd create low-end jobs in another region and begin to phase out dirty industries entirely (and the low-wealth folks who would work there).

However, if you really want low-wealth residents, you'll likely to have to zone dirty industry more than your left over space might allow.

[yin26]

Osweld:

It also indicates the kind of industry desired, which can serve as a very good clue for zoning. Vice-versa by looking at the wealth of the residents desired.

[Grumbold]

If you really want lots of low-wealth housing, put high density housing sites right next to an industrial zone. You can be sure the moneybags will stay well away

[vovan]

Thanks, yin! Indeed, how could I forget the thousands of dirty industry jobs left over in the neighboring city? My original intent was for that city to be pure industry, and at the time I had a lot of poor sims in my bedroom communities. That worked quite well, and the industrial city has about 20k industry jobs, and was making over 10k a month. Now, I have totally forgotten about that, and was wondering why oh why there was such a large demand for the housing for the poor. It all makes sense now. I will go back to that city and either gradually replace the low-end industry with high-tech, or build housing for the poor - they won't care for pollution, and lack of services any way.

[Sava]

Upgrade from low to medium once you've covered the entire map. Do it slowly to allow for growth. Start in the middle and work outwards. Once your city is all Med, then repeat with High Density. I guess it depends on the type of city you have and the amount of demand. If stuff doesn't change right away, try upgrading the commercial and industrial zones that the sims go to. This increased demand will eventually cause the residential to upgrade.

[Grumbold]

I've had no problems starting everything as medium but heavy density is starting to cause grief juggling schools and hospitals with overlapping radii to keep supply and demand in balance.

[Sava]

It's a waste of money early on because everything starts as light density no matter what. When you get to 10k people, your zones only have a 1% chance of becoming bigger than low density. The other problem is that if you concentrate too many people too soon, they will cause traffic problems because they all take the same routes to work, etc.

Even Maxis spells this out clearly in the strategy guide. Build out first... then up.

[General Ludd]

You can get medium density growth with ~3 thousand population.