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From Schmotenton to New Portland - the rise (and possible fall) of Bran Castle

Started by siemanthepieman, August 05, 2016, 10:21:29 PM

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siemanthepieman

UPDATE 17 – BRAN CASTLE OLD TOWN
Bran Castle Old Town was built outside the original castle walls, but within the extended walls that were erected in about 1936.

This update is of the Old Town circa 1986.

17.1  - The Old Town is renowned for its fine cobblestone groundwork and although the commercial buildings are seemingly getting forever newer and forever taller, its skyline remains dominated by Bran Cathedral, especially at night.


17.2 – The Deputy Mayor's house is tucked away up the back of the suburb and is a very nice pile of bricks.


17.3 - Not surprisingly, it is outdone by the Mayor's house, which draws large crowds on the weekends when it participates in the region's Open Garden Scheme.  People are fascinated by the large eucalypts and the beautiful beds of wildflowers. The sheds up the back keep the Mayor's classic car collection safe from those who would like to obtain such a collection without actually paying for it!


17.4 – Of course, the crowds also stop to look at the impressive Mayor's statue just across the road from the Mayor's house. Indeed, the Mayor, vain as he is, can often been seen over there admiring his own fantastic image case in impressive stone.


17.5 – The Old Town is nowadays a curious mix of the old and new. Some say, under their breath of course, that the old money that sits on the Council is easily swayed in planning and development decisions with the passage of a few bucks under the board room table.


17.6 -


17.7 – Some pockets are a bit more cohesive than others. Here you can see the Grand Medina in Bran Castle (bottom right) and its sister hotel, the Grand Medina Old Town (upper right) in close proximity to one other. Yes the names are decidedly boring and also very confusing. If the chain had a dollar for every time a guest rocked up to the wrong hotel ...


17.8 – This old apartment block in the middle of town was built before Old Town even existed. When it was built, it was very cheap housing - a nice building, sure, but outside the original castle walls and not in the middle of anything. Now it is prime real estate right in the middle of town (the Mayor's statue and house is just to the right of shot and the main commercial block just to the bottom). Those who bought in early are now sitting on a nice little nest egg and can obtain good finance against their equity for things like Competition Blue Dodge Vipers with speed stripes to go with the V10 under the hood.


17.9 - The main commercial block


17.10 - An overview at night to finish off


BRAN CASTLE OLD TOWN BY FACTS AND FIGURES (circa 1986):

Mayor: David McQueen
Deputy Mayor: David Brown
Number of Councillors: 8
Population: 278
Median Age: 39
Average Household Income: $107,000
Average Education Level: Bachelor level tertiary education (partially complete, still enrolled)
Jobs: 1400
Council Jobs: 85
Primary Industry/Tax Division: Office Services, Hospitality/Tourism
Notable Features: The Cathedral, Kirin Corner, Mayor McQueen's garden.

Shield/Crest:
Motto: cum fide a malo pro-tegimur

Nanami

Interesting cobblestoned town! I mean its really cobblestone everywhere, both street and the sidewalk.

siemanthepieman

UPDATE 18 – CALLISTEMON

Callistemon was Bran Castle's first truly wealthy suburb.  Early on, it was comprised entirely within the castle walls. Eventually, it came to include a pocket of homes beyond the castle walls as well.

18.1 – Here it is in about 1970. You can see the part of the suburb inside the castle walls to the lower left and the part outside the castle walls is to the upper right. The industrial area to the lower right falls outside the suburb entirely.


Those of you who have been following along might recognise the part of the suburb inside the castle walls from Update 7 and also recognise the part outside of the castle walls as having been started by that enterprising group of builders in Update 12 who built the downtown who settled a small little community half way between the downtown area and Bran Castle itself. It wasn't too long before that little group of worker's huts snaked back around on both sides and joined up with the rest of Callistemon.

18.2 – Of course, in such a suburb the Mayor and Deputy Mayor enjoy a pretty nice home. You can see them both here to the middle left. The Mayor's house is surrounded by a formal hedge with fields of white daisies, while the Deputy Mayor has the exact same house (!) just on a smaller allotment and surrounded by a low stone wall instead.


18.3 – A closer look at the Mayor's house.


18.4 – The small commercial centre of Callistemon developed quickly. Originally a neat but rather clumsy arrangement of pretty generic looking offices  ...


18.5 – Some rather nice town planning some more interesting developments, including a quaint little church with a substantial rear garden, a very well regarded little elementary school and a much more cohesive scheme of sidewalks and paving amongst the shops and offices.


18.6 – A closer look at the school.


18.7 – And a closer look at the church. A substantial monument was built at an important cross-roads to honour 'The Forgotten Explorer'.  Sometime during the 60's King Schmo II discovered that he was not actually the first person to sight the bay that become New Portland and that Dietrich 'Hugo' Rich had actually spent 100 days riding through the wilderness of the Greater Isle of Schmo and actually reported back to King Schmo I this area of untold promise. Of course, the King did not pay due attention to Dietrich's reports of his travels, much to his son's delight now.


18.8 – By 1975, the commercial area was nicely developed, with a fairly cohesive 'look'.


18.9 -


18.10 – For no particular reason, the King was rather fond of this nice little corner leading out to the highway.


18.11 – By 1987, the back part of Callistemon had been overtaken by the mega-rich. The Port had been open for a number of years and many well-heeled trade merchants, particularly the Dutch, took a shine to the region. They settled in and, before long, Callistemon was home to the region's first mega-mansions.


We'll come back to have a closer look at this part of the suburb in a future update.

CALLISTEMON BY FACTS AND FIGURES (circa 1986):

Mayor: Marlboro Dietenhofenn
Deputy Mayor: Paul Smith
Number of Councillors: 16
Population: 385
Median Age: 23 (yep, lots of rich parents means even more rich kids)
Average Household Income: $312,000.00
Average Education Level: VET/Business College or equivalent (plenty of sharp business minds here, but not too many PhDs)
Jobs: 970
Council Jobs: 45
Primary Industry/Tax Division: High Wealth Residential
Notable Features: Bran Castle's richest suburb, The Forgotten Horseman Memorial

Shield/Crest:
Motto:  Concordia Integritas Industria

Nanami

Another interesting update! although I find it funny where the road mostly full with buses.

siemanthepieman

REPLIES

Wow. 45 days approaches rapidly some times! Black Forest didn't develop quite as much as hoped for this update, but alas, work and family come first.

Nanami: As always, thank you for your comment. The bus routes are in their infancy in the region and Callistemon is in the middle of the only route. It's popular! So popular it's a wonder none of the school children have been killed crossing the road outside the school yet.

UPDATE 19 - BLACK FOREST

Black Forest is a small suburb just outside the castle walls, on the opposite side of the hill to Callistemon. It started as a small group of what were basically shacks against the river (seen across the bottom of picture 19.1, those on the north side of the river and to the left of shot were the start of the suburb, those on the south shore are actually on crown land and not part of Black Forest at all) and nothing much happened with the suburb for a number of years. Back then, it wasn't really a suburb and didn't have a name.

In more recent times, two significant developments occurred.

In 1962, a terminus train station was built and the suburb quickly expanded from about 120 residents to about 980 that same year. The station was nestled amongst the thick forest in the area to give arriving passengers a 'sense of place' as they pulled in to the station and it was the forest from which the name of the suburb was eventually derived.

Then in the late 70's another 'boom' hit when a new hospital was built. The medico's all built nice new houses close by and things like parks and schools and shops got a nice little boost as a result of the extra employment and money around the place.

By the start of the 80's it was nice little suburb, well serviced but still holding on to its close knit small community roots.

19.1 - An overview from early on, about 1967/68


19.2 - The station that really got it all started in 1962. Curiously, despite it being perfectly placed for the purpose, there was no bus service either into Bran Castle or to the holiday locations close by along the river. It was a terminus in the true sense of the word. Perhaps the Mayor will fix it now that it has been pointed out! The Mayor, by the way lives in the row house at the bottom of the shot, with his domestic and garden staff to the left and his deputy to the right.


19.3 - Of course, the junction just outside the castle walls was seized by a few smart local businesswomen to take advantage of the passing traffic.


19.4 - One little pocket of the neighbourhood was built during an era when Asian architecture was really in vogue.


19.5 - The hospital, sandwiched between a petrol station and a record store. Many nice homes were built close by by the doctors who worked there and a lovely park was constructed just across the road.


19.6 - And to finish, another overview as we leave off with Black Forest circa 1979 or thereabouts.


Facts and figures to follow.

siemanthepieman

UPDATE 20 - BURBANK
Initially, Burbank was nothing more than a few enterprising young chaps who were cheeky enough to 'set up stumps' on the otherwise unused land outside the walls of Old Town and build a few modest little houses for themselves. In 1951 the suburb actually became a suburb when the mothers of the children of the men who worked in Newport started demanding a high school at which their youngsters could be properly educated beyond Year 7. It was a boom time for the region and the constituents wishes were the King's commands.

20.1 – This shot shows the bulk of the suburb as it existed in 1954 when the school was first opened. Amazingly, the first serious incident involving a student straying on to the dirt road running between the school buildings and the playing fields didn't happen until some 8 years later in 1962.



20.2 – There was a few commercial offices and a little diner close to the school, but otherwise nothing but houses really ...



20.3 –
... from the roundabout just outside Old Town to the east ...



20.4 - ... right up to the rails to the west.



20.5 – As the suburb grew, the councillors at least had the presence of mind to keep a large expanse of land vacant for a large bushland park in the middle.



20.6 – They did, however, let most of the agricultural land get overcome by development. Amongst many others, the Mayor took up in a Spanish styled mansion in the northern parts of the suburb where there used to be a bit farming take place. Eventually, grumpy old Farmer Joe (with his beloved strip of farmland running alongside the railway) was the only farmer left in the whole suburb.



20.7 -



20.8 – It wasn't long until the suburb extended all the way to the railway line abutting Cowandilla in the east ...



20.9 - ... and started curving right back around to Bran Castle (out of shot to the left).



20.10 – As it grew, the Council had money to start building some niceties such as sound walls along the railway and playgrounds for the many young families who moved in.



20.11 – Some larger commercial zones developed ...



20.12 – with new schools and medical clinics to boot.



20.13 – The Council even relaxed its zoning policies. First it let in medium level residential development and  then ...



20.14 ... whilst not without its problems ...



20.15 – full scale high rise commercial development.



20.16 – Of course there were perks that went with the additional tax dollars, like ponds and walking trails in the park for the residents.



20.17 – And unforeseen riches for the little petrol station owners who got in while land was still cheap and the suburb undeveloped.



20.18 - By the 1980s, the suburb was (mostly) a sight to behold. Thanks to the kit homes that were used for 99% of new home construction at the time and the neat orderly rows of houses, there is something very Edward Scissorhands about the suburb. In fact, many people say that this is the where the film's creator, Tim Burton, grew up.



20.19 – Of course, all rapid growth brings a few problems and Burbank was no exception. This seedy little strip consisting of a cheap motel, a couple of 'gentleman's' clubs and laundromat and some low rent offices popped up just as one leaves the suburb for Cowandilla. Don't even ask what goes on in the well-trodden patch out the back!



BURBANK BY FACTS AND FIGURES (circa 1986):

Mayor: William (Bill) Burton
Deputy Mayor: Kim Boggs
Number of Councillors: 16
Population: 4,827
Average Age:27
Average Household Income: $98,000.00
Mode Education Level: High School or equivalent
Jobs: 5,657
Council Jobs: 248
Primary Industry/Tax Division: Education and Insurance
Notable Features: High School students - untucked shirts, short tartan skirts and poorly tied ties. Lots of holding hands up the back of the buses. Bad music, played loud in oversized headphones.

Shield/Crest: Subject to outcome of a school design competition (results under review on allegations of vote stacking and fixing).
Motto:  Educationem campester in medium de speramus

kelis

These residential zones are really well done. keep up the good work.
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siemanthepieman

REPLIES

kelis -
Thank you. There are many more to come. Hopefully not too repetitive.

UPDATE 21 - MIDGARD

Midguard is actually slightly a slightly older suburb than Burbank. Although there were many houses that pre-dated the train station, it wasn't 'christened' as the subrurb of Midguard until 1947 when the station opened to the public.

To its inhabitants in particular, it is the true heart of Bran Castle – it has the main station for the workers who flock (or should that be 'trudge'?) to and from Newport each day and it received the high voltage power the Newport feeds to the city and transforms it to the 240v that the workers need to boil their kettles to make their coffees to actually get out the front door and off to work each day.

Midguard and its inhabitants were a pretty straightforward proposition. Loads of workers and their families living in modest homes, a few little shops (it was in desperate need of a small shopping centre with a supermarket) and a handsome train station to ferry the workers to work each day.

21.1


21.2 – Along with the 8.37am from Midguard, the 5.08pm from Newport (seen here arriving at Midguard at 5.19pm) was the most popular (and longest) train between Bran Castle and Newport each day.


21.3 – The Mayor loved nothing more than sitting out front admiring the power lines.


21.4 – Of course, as soon as Burbank got sound walls and playgrounds, Midguard wanted the same. Midguard got a library too. Take that Burbank!

kbieniu7

Well, those suburbs are actually a little bit scary for me. All houses packed up and nothing but dirt roads around them :D However, going back few updates, I like to see some more historical-looking buildings, as well as more modern commercial zones (fortunately with asphalt roads!) in New Portland  :)
Thank you for visiting Kolbrów, and for being for last ten years!

siemanthepieman

kbieniu7 - Thanks, but there are plenty more packed suburbs and dirt roads to come.

UPDATE 22 – CAMBRIA
Cambria is one of smallest suburbs, if not the smallest suburb, in New Portland. It consists of two fairly distinct clusters of homes – one group just out the back of Bran Castle Central Train Station and the other abutted right up against the shire line adjoining Port's Corner (not shown to the left of picture). Although long inhabited, it wasn't recognised as a suburb until 1952 when the commercial establishments set up shop opposite the train station's rear car park.

22.1


22.2 – The businesses in Cambria do very well thanks to their proximity to the train station, but there are less than a handful of them - three small retail outlets (two convenience stores, one computer/home technology store), two commercial service offices and a nice enough motel directly across from the station carpark. The residents are a clucky lot who won't allow much more commerce than that in their lovely little neck of the woods.


22.3 – The north west section of the suburb is the pick for families, with a nice little school within walking distance from pretty much all homes.


22.4 – The suburb is small but prosperous and the Mayor isn't short of a dollar. Nevertheless he has only modest digs, albeit on a nice sized plot. Rumour has it the Mayor is a bit of a lothario. And that is on pretty good authority as the pines across the rear of the yard don't provide anywhere near as much privacy for the various (and numerous) hot tub visitors as the Mayor thinks!


CAMBRIA BY FACTS AND FIGURES (circa 1986):

Mayor:  Steven W. Gottschalk
Deputy Mayor: Currently vacant
Number of Councillors: 7 (Normally 8, but Deputy Mayor vacant)
Population: 423
Average Age: 52
Average Household Income: $63,000.00
Mode Education Level: Year 10
Jobs: 64
Council Jobs: 1 (station car park ticket collector)
Primary Industry/Tax Division: Retired
Notable Features: Not much, just a nice little quiet neighbourhood.

Shield/Crest: None
Motto:  De currus parcum tesseras enim rely

siemanthepieman

UPDATE 23 - PORT'S CORNER
Port's Corner is one of the few suburbs in New Portland to have part of its boundary align perfectly with the boundary of the Shire within which it is situated (see left of picture below, which is where Port's Corner meets Cambria in the Shire of Portsview). It is another small suburb, which sprung up around the terminus station built in 1963 when the King decided the little strip of land between the lee side of the hill and the train line was another nice little spot just ripe for development.

23.1


23.2 – There was a large IT Polytechnic across from the station and lots of cheap housing throughout the suburb. The rest of the shops around the station catered to a student crowd, it was well serviced by public transport and the suburb was quickly rather full to bursting with IT geeks-in-training.


23.3 – As with all educational institutions, there were good students and those that lacked 'application' to the learning tasks at hand. Inevitably, those who lacked educational rigor ended up without work, drinking and smoking and failing to pay rent because all their 'hard-earned' was spent on partying (at least when the good students failed to pay rent it was because of the price of their textbooks). This meant they didn't look after their houses and their landlords certainly weren't putting any of the non-existent rent money into repairs. These students seemed to migrate to the edge of the suburb where the rent was cheaper and the long walk to school didn't bother them because they never went. In the end, there was a couple of small pockets of houses inhabited by Polytechnic dropouts which became the blight of the suburb. Even the civic services generally wouldn't bother to attend in the case of emergency. No one knows what came of this poor little house. Certainly, the fire department never came to find out and none its neighbours were there (at least not sober or interested enough) to find out.


23.4 – That little fire actually spread far enough that it opened up a nice little vacancy big enough for a small primary school. The area was soon filled with a few nicer homes, big enough and nice enough to accommodate a family (rather than a group of unruly students!) and they spread primarily along the road running next to the train line back to the station and near the primary school itself. There was a neat little tunnel connection to the neighbouring suburb of Hawthorn too.


PORT'S CORNER BY FACTS AND FIGURES (circa 1986):
Still to come.

Mayor: Digby Palau
Deputy Mayor: Esther Nett
Number of Councillors: 8
Population: 1,856
Average Age: 23
Average Household Income: $48,000.00
Mode Education Level: Diploma
Jobs: 95
Council Jobs: 16
Primary Industry/Tax Division: Tertiary Education
Notable Features: Cheap rent, cheap beer, cheap IT support, noise (trains and students).

Shield/Crest:
Motto: Speramus per tech

siemanthepieman

UPDATE 24 – MALVERN
Malvern followed around from Port's Corner and joined it to the Adelaide CBD. It was well serviced for educational purposes by the Watson Memorial R-12 School and was the region's first real park suburb.

24.1


24.2 - A beautiful walking trail ran around between the houses and the school ...


24.3 - ... and under the power lines and across the railway and into Peko Walsend.


MALVERN BY FACTS AND FIGURES (circa 1986):

Mayor: Thomas Whistler
Deputy Mayor: Seth Ferry
Number of Councillors: 16
Population: 2,586
Average Age: 47
Average Household Income: $94,000.00
Mode Education Level: MBA or equivalent (they're all upper middle management in CBD offices)
Jobs: 46 (they all work in the CBD)
Council Jobs: 4
Primary Industry/Tax Division: Residential
Notable Features: Adelaide Loop North Station access, riverfront homes, hillside homes, walking trails and scenery.

Shield/Crest:
Motto: Ad urbum imus

kelis

Fantastic job as always, your touch to create those residential areas is from another planet, even with those dirty road they looks very good  &apls
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brick_mortimer

These suburbs do look good.
I like the organic look and I'm curious to see how they will evolve
Busier than a one legged man in an ass kicking contest
Me no coffee function without so good

siemanthepieman

REPLIES:

kelis: Thank you. Those dirt roads are a trademark of the region, part the stingy King not wanting to splash out the dollars for bitumen and part the King wanting to make sure precious resources (the region is a part of just a fairly small island remember and the trade routes and deals are still being put in place at this stage) are not wasted on bitumising roads where dirt will do. Don't worry though, there is an underswell of dissatisfaction amongst the residents who won't put up with the teeth chattering road quality  around the suburbs forever.

brick_mortimer: Thank you. I am hoping to put out a few more updates in slightly quicker succession than I have been, so you may not have to wait too long to see how the region evolves. And rest assured, we will be back to visit some of these suburbs to check on development down the track. But we haven't even looked at the developing farm lands are rural areas yet and there are still about 15 suburbs, 7 industrial parks and a state forest to have a look at.

UPDATE 25: PEKO WALLSEND
As noted in update 13, Peko Wallsend was one of the real success stories of King Schmo's innovative expansion-by-terminus-station projects. The station was built in 1967 and rapid development followed. It was actually the first mid-rise developed area in the region.

25.1 - Argument raged amongst the locals as to whether the suburb was most famous for its early mid-rise development around the station, the riverfront development looking across the river or its fantastic lake.


25.2 - The lake was certainly the nicest place for a walk on a hot day.


25.3 - The popularity of the suburb and the especially the lake meant that mid-rising housing started to fill in behind the single dwelling houses that looked over the lake.


25.4 -


25.5 - Of course, the 'town centre' was to mid-rise business development what the lake was to residential - a magnet. It didn't take too long for the south side to fill out.


25.6 - A nice big school campus was built to the north and Peko Wallsend Juniors quickly became a force to be reckoned with in the local soccer leagues.


25.7 - Low rise development ...


25.8 - ... was always at risk ...


25.9 - ... of higher density redevelopment


25.10 - And a panorama of the riverfront homes to close out our tour of Peko Wallsend.


PEKO WALLSEND BY FACTS AND FIGURES (circa 1986):

Mayor: Erne Peter Baume
Deputy Mayor: Clyde Holding
Number of Councillors: 24
Population: 4,879
Average Age: 37
Average Household Income: $76,450.00
Mode Education Level: Secondary
Jobs: 1,724
Council Jobs: 78
Primary Industry/Tax Division: General Commerce (primarily retail, insurance, banking)
Notable Features: French's Lake, riverfront drive and houses, town centre parks and plaza, Aligator River (and the riverside walking trails).

Shield/Crest:
Motto: defendat, et ad elóquium meum

vinlabsc3k

It's an interesting MD, :thumbsup: but why don't you use the WRCs on SAM
and the roundabouts with asymmetric intersection? ()what()
You build the intersections too close to each other, this is just my opinion and
if you continue as is, when you will develop more, the streets will be a mess of traffic. :(
My creation at CityBuilders.



SimCity 5 is here with the NAM Creations!!

siemanthepieman

REPLIES:

vinlabsc3k:
Thank you. I only recently discovered the WRC's on SAM and am yet to come across the roundabouts with asymmetric intersections - or maybe I have, I am not quite sure what one would look like to be honest. Anyway, keep an eye out in future updates. I have also just started to realise the mess of traffic that my street layout has created. This update will be a prime example. Oh well, we live and learn. No harm in having a reason to upgrade some streets to roads and some roads to highways and rethinking the transport network. If the game was easy it would get boring right?

UPDATE 26: DONNINGTON

Those of you with great memories or who have been paying very close attention will recognise Donnington as one of the success stories of the King's terminus expansion projects (update pictures 13.1 and 13.5). You'll also recall that it was due to snake back along the train line that serviced it, all the way around to the suburb of Hawthorn. Well the snaking back around to Hawthorn took a while.

26.1 For the first 12 years or so the suburb didn't change or grow much. It popped up pretty much overnight in the 60's with the injection of cash and other incentives provided by the King on the commissioning of the station itself but it was then slow to expand back around to Hawthorn.


26.2 The suburb sat like this for many years. It was a nice suburb, but so were many others and the small council had trouble attracting new residents and businesses after the initial rush.


26.3 Eventually the Mayor and founding councillors (there were 8 on the inaugural council) convinced the King to enter a joint revitalisation venture, spearheaded by the following initiatives: improved civic services, including a new fire station in the heart of the township; a market hall with modern car parking facilities immediately across the road (which teemed with visitors, both local and from afar, each weekend); and ...


26.4 a significant revegetation and biodiversity project which saw the fairly sparse scrub converted to a much denser woodland with a large variety of wildlife. Beautiful walking trails were also promised, but still hadn't eventuated by the 80's. Other initiatives included building stronger connections with neighbouring suburbs, new churches and libraries, a commitment to fully funded education (the average age was quite high and the Mayor wanted to attract the 'family dollar' by getting young families to move in) and additional 12 month tax breaks for new businesses in certain designated areas. It worked. In a period of about 10 years the suburb expanded all the back around to Hawthorn, with a connecting road officially opened in 1982.


26.5 The only problem was it expanded beyond the capacities of its dirt streets. Of course, the council said it needed Crown Funding in order to afford an upgrade and, of course, the King could care less ... until ...


26.6 ... people stopped going to work and started moving out and ...


26.7 ... paying less tax!


26.8 Then it didn't take long for a shiny new blacktop, complemented with a decent bus service, to pop up ...


26.9 ... and snake it's way back to the centre of town. Further road and bus (and sometimes even train) connections to the two closest industrial parks were promised, but were seemingly very slow to eventuate.


DONNINGTON BY FACTS AND FIGURES (circa 1986):

Mayor: Richard Abberbury
Deputy Mayor: Thomas Chaucer
Number of Councillors: 24
Population: 3,026
Average Age: 47
Average Household Income: $86,080
Mode Education Level:  Post secondary vocational certificate
Jobs: 530
Council Jobs: 60
Primary Industry/Tax Division: Retail
Notable Features: Donnington Station, Market Hall, Town Square, access to Woodlands

Shield/Crest:
Motto: Omnis sequi lepores meam cuniculum

kbieniu7

Hi! Haven't been there for a while next period, but I'm happy to see that there are some kind of skyscrapers and plazas grown on the royal land  ;)

I really like how you made a football pitch from the picture 25.6. Simple but very nice and fitting!  :)

Quote
Those dirt roads are a trademark of the region, part the stingy King not wanting to splash out the dollars for bitumen and part the King wanting to make sure precious resources (the region is a part of just a fairly small island remember and the trade routes and deals are still being put in place at this stage) are not wasted on bitumising roads where dirt will do. Don't worry though, there is an underswell of dissatisfaction amongst the residents who won't put up with the teeth chattering road quality  around the suburbs forever.

I'm just hoping that those residents living by more used dirt roads don't need any kind of anti-dust masks :-X
Thank you for visiting Kolbrów, and for being for last ten years!

siemanthepieman

INTERMEZZO - A BREAK BUT NOT A BREAK

I was going to give my MD a short break while I was on a short break (well, 5 weeks actually) in the UK and Europe with my family. I can't post a picture update, but I also can't just let my MD languish for 45 days without a post - so what to do?

I decided on a poll update or a reader input update, which I hope still counts for 45 day purposes.

Now, the next update once I get home will be another fledgling neighbourhood because I've already started it but after that, I'd like to know what everyone would prefer to see next from my MD:

1 - introductions to more suburbs? My initial plan was to show the beginnings of all of the suburbs of Bran Castle before venturing to other areas. I estimate we are about 3/4 of the way through so far. Does anyone want more of the same (they are actually starting to get more varied now) or are we bored with suburbs?

2 - one of Bran Castle's industrial estates?

3 - leave the metro area to tour the agricultural regions?

4 - revisit one of the suburbs in an earlier update to see how it has developed further?

5 - development of the huge park adjacent Donnington?

I'm open to other suggestions/input as well.

Oh, and rest assured there will be some big 'park & ride' bus termini coming to my region courtesy of what I've seen (and ridden on) in Oxford since I've been here these last few days.

siemanthepieman

Well, seeing as no one has requested that my MD goes in particular direction, I'll carry on as originally intended - with a circuit of all the region's suburbs before looking at what else the region holds.

This is update is more of a teaser than an full update, to introduce a small suburb next to one of Bran Castle's industrial estates and celebrate (commiserate?) my return from holidays. Lots of inspiration for new development/suburbs/the region from my trip.

UPDATE 27 - HAWTHORN
Hawthorn is another one of those suburbs where no one is quite sure exactly when it came into being. It grew quite organically, following the establishment of the Midtown Industrial Park in the early 60's. It was populated largely by workers who determined the best way to avoid a lengthy commute to work was to build a house as close to the workplace as possible. By the mid 70's it was recognised a suburb in its own right.

27.1 - This is the suburb circa 1985. Rapid expansion, including commercial services, schools and the like, as well as strong links with neighbouring suburbs ensued, but that is for a later update.


HAWTHORN BY FACTS AND FIGURES (circa 1985):

Mayor: Glen Speer
Deputy Mayor: Davenport Elder
Number of Councillors: 8
Population: 913
Average Age: 42
Average Household Income: $46,780.00
Mode Education Level: Year 11
Jobs: 0
Council Jobs: 0
Primary Industry/Tax Division: Residential rates collection
Notable Features: None (yet)

Shield/Crest: Nihil Nisi Labor