Introduction
============
Foreword
--------
Enter Micropolis and take control. Be the undisputed ruler of a sophisticated real-time City Simulation. Become the master of existing cities such as San Francisco, Tokyo, and Rio de Janeiro, or create your own dream city (or nightmare slum) from the ground up.

Whether you take over an existing city or build your own, you are the Mayor and City Planner with complete authority.

Your city is populated by Sims -- Simulated Citizens. Like their human counterparts, they build houses, condos, churches, stores and factories. And, also like humans, they complain about things like taxes, mayors, taxes, city planners, and taxes. If they get unhappy, they move out; you collect fewer taxes, the city deteriorates.

The next few sections will explain the overall concept of Micropolis and give information that will help you win Scenarios and design and build better cities.

About System Simulations
------------------------
Micropolis is the first of a new type of entertainment/educational software, called System Simulations. We provide you with a set of Rules and Tools that describe, create and control a system. In the case of Micropolis the system is a city.

The challenge of playing a System Simulation game is to figure out how the system works and take control of it. As master of the system, you are free to use the Tools to create and control an unlimited number of systems (in this case, cities) within the framework and limits provided by the Rules.

Rules
-----
In Micropolis, the Rules to learn are based on city planning and management, including:

Human Factors: Residential space and amenities, availability of jobs, and quality of life.

Economic Factors: Land value, industrial and commercial space, unemployment, internal and external markets, electric power, taxation, and funding for city services.

Survival Factors: Strategies for dealing with disasters, crime, and pollution.

Political Factors: Public opinion, zoning, and keeping residents and businesses satisfied with your city and your performance.

Tools
-----
The Tools provide you with the ability to plan, lay out, zone, build, bulldoze, re-zone, and manage a city.

    Plan: Mapping systems give physical and demographic overviews of the entire city.

    Layout: Design living and working areas, road and transit systems, and recreational areas.

    Zone: Set zoning boundaries for parks, residential, commercial and industrial areas.

    Build: Place roads, rails, airports, seaports, fire and police stations, sports stadiums, and power plants.

    Bulldoze: Clear forests for city growth, build landfill along waterways, clear and re-zone developed areas.

    Manage: Using the mapping and graphing systems, gather up-to-date information on traffic density, population trends, power grid status, pollution, crime, land value, police and fire department efficiency, and cash flow. Set the tax rate and funding levels for city services.

But the most important Tool of all is the Simulator itself. Test your plans and ideas as you watch the city grow or shrink through the immigration and emigration of industrious Simulated Citizens. Sims will move in and build homes, hospitals, churches, stores and factories in the zones you provide, or move out in search of jobs or a better life elsewhere. The success of the city is based on the quality of the city you design and manage.

Simulator Reaction Time
-----------------------
The simulator is a very complex multi-tasking piece of software. It is constantly performing many checks, calculations, and updates, as well as keeping watch on the mouse and keyboard to respond to your demands. When you load in a city, give the simulator some time to compile its data and update the maps, graphs, population levels, etc. Some of the other times when the simulator lags behind you are when powering zones and updating the city services map after installing police and fire stations.

The Goals of Micropolis
-----------------------
There are many goals to be pursued and reached in Micropolis.

Scenarios
---------
Each of the eight included scenarios is actually a game in itself, with an unlimited number of ways to win -- or lose.

Each Scenario is a city which is either the victim of horrible planning or about to be the victim of a natural disaster. After you load in a Scenario, you will have a limited amount of time to correct or repair the problems. If you are successful, you will be given the key to the city. If not, you may be ridden out of town on a rail.

If one strategy doesn't work, try another. There are a million stories in each city, and you write them.

Your Dream City
---------------
Perhaps the main goal of Micropolis is for you to design, manage and maintain the city of your dreams.

Your ideal place to live may be a bustling megalopolis, lots of people, lots of cars, tall buildings: high-energy, high density living. Or it may be a small rural community, or a linked group of small communities providing slow-paced country living.

As long as your city can provide places for people to live, work, shop and play, it will attract residents. And as long as traffic, pollution, overcrowding, crime or taxes don't drive them away, your city will live.

Getting Started
===============
Micropolis Requirements
-----------------------
Micropolis requires an Intel processor running the Linux operating system, with the X11 window system installed, a 16 bit deep color graphics display, a kernel with the shared memory option enabled, and at least 32 megabytes of memory.

Micropolis Features
===================
On-Line Help
------------
You can get help on the Micropolis user interface, by pointing the mouse
at anything mysterious, holding down shift, and clicking the left button.
The Help window will pop up, giving instructions and useful hints on how
to use the controls.

Multiple Views
--------------
You can open up any number of animated city maps and editors at once.

Pie Menus
---------
Micropolis features pop up "pie menus" for quickly selecting city editing tools.
Pie menus are radial menus with their choices in different directions,
and they're very fast and efficient to use.
Since you change editing tools quite often while building a city,
you can save much time and effort by using the pie menu shortcuts
instead of the moving back and forth to the tool pallet.

Tutorial -- A Walk Through Your City
====================================
Starting Up
-----------
To start up Micropolis, go to the Micropolis directory and run the shell script named "Micropolis". The computer will chug for a while as HyperLook and Micropolis are loaded. You'll know things are going well when you see the Introduction Screen.

The Introduction Screen
-----------------------
Once Micropolis is loaded, the Introduction Screen will go away and be replaced by a Welcome Notice, and a Startup Window with a bunch of buttons for cities and scenarios.

The Welcome Notice
==================
The Startup Window
------------------
In case you wonder about any of the buttons or graphics, you can get help on anything by pointing at it and pressing the "Help" key. So try pressing "Help" over the weird little grill in the upper right corner of the Startup Window. This brings up the HyperLook Help stack. Click on "Done" to dismiss it.

The Help Stack
==============
Generating a New City
---------------------
Now click the left mouse button on the "New City" button. The Welcome Notice will turn into a control panel for setting up a New City, and the Startup Screen will turn into a Terrain Generator with a map and some buttons.

The New City Panel
==================
The Terrain Generator
---------------------
City Name
---------
You can set the name of your city by clicking the left button on the "City Name" text field, and typing the name. The delete key erases the last character, and Control-U erases to the beginning of the line. You can double or triple click on the name to select it, and it will be deleted when you type a new name.

Game Level
----------
The three exclusive settings let you select the Game Level. Choose "Easy" for now, by clicking the left mouse button. If you're just starting out, you can certainly use the extra money!
Generate New Terrain

If you're not satisfied with the terrain map you see, just press "Generate New Terrain", and you will get a new map. You can do this as many times as you like, until you get a nice map.

Randomly Generated Terrain Maps
===============================
Use This Map
------------
When you are happy with the terrain map, press the "Use This Map" button, and the game will begin!

The Edit Window
---------------
You're now playing Micropolis! The Edit Window, which is the main window used for controlling Micropolis, will be displayed:

The Edit Window
---------------
The Edit Window is where you will do the actual building and zoning. In the middle of the Edit Window is a detailed map showing part of the terrain. Around the edges are controls and fields displaying information about the city.

Along the top edge of the window is the City Name, where the name of your city or the scenario you selected is displayed. Clicking on it brings the window to the front.

In the upper left corner is a picture of the City Simulator. If you click on that, the Introduction Screen will be displayed to show the credits, version, and copyrights. Click on the Introduction Screen to dismiss it.

On the left edge, below the City Simulator, is a Close Box. Clicking the left button on the Close Box closes the Edit Window into a small icon, a miniature version of the window. Thanks to the way HyperLook is designed, when a window is iconified, it continues to animate. You can double click on an icon to open it back up to a full sized window.

There is a row of Menu Buttons below the title, to the right of the Close Box. Pressing the right mouse button down over any of these buttons pops up a menu, from which you can select using the right mouse button. Clicking the left mouse button over a Menu Button selects the menu's default item, without displaying the menu. The default menu item has a black ring or rectangle around it. You can set the default by pressing the Control key when the menu is up.

There are three fields below the Menu Buttons, that display your Current Funds (in dollars), the Current Date (the year and month), and important Messages (one at a time). Clicking on them just brings the window to the front.

Along the left edge of the window are two columns of colorful Tool Icons, used for choosing the city editing mode. Click the mouse over an icon to select an editing tool. The currently selected tool is highlighted in yellow. The Tool Cost field along the bottom edge of the window tells you the name of the selected tool, and how many dollars it costs to use.

You can use the selected tool by pressing the left mouse button over the map in the middle of the Edit Window. Also, you can pop up a Pie Menu to quickly switch between editing tools, by clicking the right mouse button over the map. You can easily scroll the map by pressing the middle mouse button down over the map and dragging the view around.

The Demand Indicator shows the demand levels for Residential (green), Commercial (blue), and Industrial zones (yellow), and can be helpful in planning your city.

The Zoom Control changes the magnification of the map. You can zoom in or out to make the graphics larger or smaller, or press the Zoom Reset button to zoom back to normal. The animation is fastest at the normal size.

All of the Micropolis windows have Drag Edges with which you can move the window around, and Resize Corners to change the size of the window. Some windows cannot be resized, so the resize corners just move them around. To use them, press the left mouse button down over the corner or edge, and move the outline to where you want it. The window will move or resize to that location, when you release the button.

The main portion of the map is land. Your available land is made up of three types of terrain. The brown areas are Clear Land, the green areas are forests and Trees, and the blue areas are Water. You can build only on Clear Land. You can clear forest and extend coastlines with your bulldozer. You can run roads, rails, and power lines straight across the Water.

The Map Window
==============
The other window that's shown when you start the game is the Map Window, which displays an overview of your entire city map:

The Map Window
--------------
You can see different demographic views of the city, chosen by the icons on the left. The type of map is shown along the top edge of the window, to the right of the Close Box.

There is a yellow rectangle in the Map Window that shows the location of the detailed city view. (There may be more than one yellow rectangles, if multiple views are visible.) Press the mouse button down over the yellow rectangle, and drag it around the map, to scroll the view.

Building a City
---------------
To begin a city, we need: places for Sims to live, places for Sims to work, and power.

You can only build on Clear Land, so use the Bulldozer to clear away some trees. Click the left mouse button on the Bulldozer Icon. Move the cursor over to land. It now points to a small square, outlining the area that will be bulldozed when you click the left button. The Trees under your pointer are now Clear Land. Now, hold the left button down and drag the pointer across the Trees. Mass destruction. Clear a large area of land to prepare for building.

Click the Residential Icon, then move back to your terrain. Your cursor will now point to a large square outline. This outline indicates how much clear space you will need to create a Residential Zone -- a place for Sims to live. Clicking the left mouse button in Clear Land will "zone" that area. The "R" in the zone center indicates that it is a Residential Zone. The flashing lightning symbol means that the zone has no power. Place a few more Residential Zones next to the first one.

Several New Residential Zones
-----------------------------
Now decide where to position a Power Plant in your city. Point to the Power Plant Icon, and press and hold the left mouse button. A menu will appear, giving you the option of choosing a Coal or Nuclear plant. For now, release the button over "Coal". The outline for a Power Plant is even larger than for a Residential Zone. Place the Power Plant in some open space near your Residential Zones. If your Power Plant is not directly adjacent to a Residential Zone, you'll need to run a Power Line from your Power Plant to the Residential Zones.

To do this, click the left mouse button over the Power Line Icon. By pointing your cursor and pressing the button, lay Power Lines from your Power Plant to your Residential Zones. Adjacent Power Line sections will automatically connect to each other. Road and Rail lines connect in the same manner.

In a moment, the flashing symbols in the Residential Zones will disappear, indicating that your zones have been powered. Any zones that are adjacent to a powered zone do not need separate Power Lines run to them. Soon you will see small houses start to appear. The Sims have started to move in!

Here Comes the Neighborhood!
----------------------------
Once there are a few Residential Zones, where Sims can live, you need to make it possible for your new residents to find jobs. They can't all work at the power plant!

Residential, Commercial, and Industrial Zones
---------------------------------------------
Now you're ready for Commercial and Industrial areas; places for Sims to work, shop, and transact business. Select the Commercial Icon and place a few Commercial Zones near your Residential ones. Then select the Industrial Icon and place some Industrial Zones. Connect all necessary Power Lines.

Notice that as you select different Tool Icons, the icon's description and its associated cost will be displayed in the Tool Cost field near the lower left corner of the Edit Window. The Current Funds field near the top of the window displays your total funds available.

Now click the left button on the Road Icon and add Roads from your Residential housing to the Commercial and Industrial areas to allow the Sims to commute to work. Road sections connect themselves like Power Line sections. Once you have Roads, traffic will be generated.

Roads with Traffic
------------------
Now move the cursor to the Menu Button labelled "Windows", and press the right mouse button down. The Windows Menu will pop up below the cursor. Drag the cursor to the menu item labelled "Budget", and release the right button. This brings up the Budget Window, which lets you set the level of funding for your fire, police, and transportation departments.

The Budget Window
-----------------
Click the left mouse button on the up and down arrows, or drag the sliders to change the funding levels. You can also adjust the current tax rate. If you have no police or fire departments, you can't fund them. You cannot fund more than 100%. Since your city is so new, you can't do much here now, but come back later. Click the left mouse button on the "Go With These Figures" button to make the window go away when you're done. If the hour glass runs out, the window will go away automatically. You can click on the hourglass to keep that from happening.

Now look at the Map Window. You can get an idea of the size of your city, and how much room you have left. Try the different map views by clicking the left mouse button on the icons along the left edge of the Map Window. You will need this information to build and adjust conditions in your city. For example, you can pinpoint the areas with the highest crime to determine locations for new police stations.

The Map Window
--------------
Additional information can be gained through the available Graphs.
Unlike the Maps, which only show the current state of your city, the
Graphs give you a record of the past so you can gauge trends and
cycles. You can display the Graph Window by selecting the item
labelled "Graph" from the Window Menu.

The Graph Window
----------------
You can toggle the various graph displays on and off, and switch
between 10 year and 120 year graphs, by clicking on the icons at the
left of the Graph Window.

Another way to gather information about your city is by using the
Query Tool. To use this, select the Tool Icon with the magnifying
glass and question mark, or hold down the "Q" key, then press the left
mouse button over the map in the Edit Window. You will be shown a
window filled with information about the zone under the cursor.

The Zone Status Window
----------------------
Now, let's Save the city to disk. Use the File Menu to select "Save
City as...". You'll see the Save File dialog. Near the top of the
window is a text field labelled "File:". You can select a directory by
typing its name into the text field, or by double clicking in the
scrolling list. Then you can type in a name for your city, ending with
the ".city" extension, and press return. Your city will be saved to
disk, so you can load it later to get back to where you are now.

Save File Dialog
----------------
To load a city, use the File Menu and select the item labelled "Load
City...". The Open File dialog looks and works almost like the Save
File dialog. It will start out in a directory named "Cities", which
contains some interesting cities included with Micropolis. You can load
and play any of them, or navigate to the directory where you saved
your city, and load that again.

Open File Dialog
----------------
This is all the basic information you need to run Micropolis, but we
suggest reading on. The User Reference section explains in detail how
to use each program function. Inside Micropolis explains the inner
workings of the simulator, and gives some brief hints and tips for
using it. There is also an essay on The History of Cities and City
Planning, and a Bibliography for serious City Planners.

Have Fun Playing Micropolis!

User Reference Guide: Controlling Micropolis
============================================
Getting Help
------------
If you wonder about a control or graphic in Micropolis, you can point at it with the cursor, hold down shift and click the left button, to bring up a helpwindow describing it.

Using the Mouse
---------------
In Micropolis, you will primarily use the left mouse button to edit the city. The main function of the right mouse button is to select from pie menus. The middle button is used to scroll the view in the Edit Window.

Clicking a mouse button means to press and release it without moving. Dragging means to press and hold the button, move the mouse, then release the button.

Pie Menus
---------
Pie menus are designed to be very fast and efficient to use. You can pop up a pie menu by pressing and holding the right button, then select from it by moving in the direction of the item you want, then releasing the button.

Once you are familiar with the directions, you can use pie menus very quickly by smoothly pressing the right button down, moving in the direction you want, and releasing. If you do this without stopping, the pie menu will not even display on the screen -- you will just hear the name of the item spoken, to remind you of the selection. The more you use pie menus, the easier they are to use. See how fast you can get!

Micropolis Chooser Window
-------------------------
This window lets you select which city to simulate. You can see what the selected city looks like in the map window. Give your city a name by typing it into the Name text field.

Click on "New City" to generate a random map to start a city from scratch. Click on "Load City" to load a saved city from disk.

You can go back and forth between your previously selected cities with the "Previous Map" and "Next Map" buttons.

Click on any of the Scenario buttons to play any of the eight scenarios. When you click on any of those buttons, the city is displayed in the Micropolis Map Window.

The Scenarios provide both real and hypothetical problems for you to deal with in seven famous (and one not-so-famous) cities. They present various levels of difficulty. Some problems are in the form of disasters which will occur some time after you start. Other problems are more long-term, such as crime.

Your task is to deal with the problem at hand as well as possible under the circumstances. After a certain amount of time the city residents will rate your performance in a special election. If you do very well you may be given the key to the city. However, if you do poorly, they just might run you out of town.

    Dullsville, USA 1900 -- Boredom

Things haven't changed much around here in the last hundred years and the residents are beginning to get bored. They think Dullsville could be the next great city with the right leader. It is your job to attract new growth and development, turning Dullsville into a Metropolis by the 21st century.

    Difficulty: Easy
    Time Limit: 30 years
    Win Condition: Metropolis

    San Francisco, CA 1906 -- 8.0 Earthquake

Damage from the earthquake was minor compared to that of the ensuing fires, which took days to control. 1500 people died. Controlling the fires should be your initial concern here. Afterwards, clearing the remaining rubble will allow the city to start rebuilding.

    Difficulty: Very difficult
    Time Limit: 5 years
    Win Condition: Metropolis

    Hamburg, Germany 1944 -- Fire

Allied fire-bombing of German cities in WWII caused tremendous damage
and loss of life. People living in the inner cities were at greatest
risk. You must control the firestorms during the bombing and then
rebuild the city after the war.

    Difficulty: Very difficult
    Time Limit: 5 years
    Win Condition: Metropolis

    Bern, Switzerland 1965 -- Traffic

The roads here are becoming more congested every day, and the
residents are upset. They demand that you do something about it. Some
have suggested a mass transit system as the answer, but this would
require major rezoning in the downtown area.

    Difficulty: Easy
    Time Limit: 10 years
    Win Condition: Low Average Traffic Density

    Tokyo, Japan 1957 -- Monster Attack

A large reptilian creature has been spotted heading for Tokyo bay. It
seems to be attracted to the heavy levels of industrial pollution
there. Try to control the fires, then rebuild the industrial center.

    Difficulty: Moderately difficult
    Time Limit: 5 years
    Win Condition: City Score above 500

    Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 2047 -- Flood

In the mid-21st century, the greenhouse effect raised global
temperatures 6 degrees F. Polar ice caps melted and raised sea levels
worldwide. Coastal areas were devastated by flood and erosion.
Unfortunately, some of the largest cities in the world are located on
the coast.

    Difficulty: Moderately difficult
    Time Limit: 10 years
    Win Condition: City Score above 500

    Boston, MA 2010 -- Nuclear Meltdown

A major meltdown is about to occur at one of the new downtown nuclear
reactors. The area in the vicinity of the reactor will be severely
contaminated by radiation, forcing you to restructure the city around
it.

    Difficulty: Very difficult
    Time Limit: 5 years
    Win Condition: City Score above 500

    Detroit, MI 1972 -- Crime

By 1970, competition from overseas and other economic factors pushed
the once "automobile capital of the world" into recession. Plummeting
land values and unemployment then increased crime in the inner-city to
chronic levels. You have just been elected after promising to reduce
crime and rebuild the industrial base of the city.

    Difficulty: Moderately difficult
    Time Limit: 10 years
    Win Condition: Low Average Crime Density

You can select the Game Level from the radio buttons (Easy / Medium / Hard).
Once a city is started, you cannot change the Game Level;
it remains at your initial setting for the life of the city.
The current Game Level is displayed in the evaluation window.

This level -- Easy, Medium, or Hard -- adjusts the simulation to your
current abilities by altering several factors. A harder setting will
increase the chance of disasters, make residents more intolerant of
taxation, cause maintenance costs to grow, etc.

Once you have decided which city you want to play, press "Use This Map" and Micropolis will come to life!

Micropolis Controls Window
--------------------------
This window contains the main controls to Micropolis, status displays, and a scrolling text message log.
At the top is a row of menus that are enabled when the game is playing.
Beneath that is a status display panel showing the date and the current funds on the left.
In the middle is a graph and bar display of the Residential, Commercial and Industrial rates and demands.
On the right is an icon of the Micropolis simulation machine,
with a red screen when paused and green screen when running.
The bottom half of the window is occupied by a scrolling text window,
that Micropolis uses to display important messages.


    Menu Bar

    Micropolis Menu

    About...
    Display fascinating and vital information about Micropolis.

    Save City
    Write the city to a file.

    Save City As...
    Save the city with a new file name.

    Choose City!
    Generate a new city, select a scenario or load a pre-existing city.

    Quit Playing!
    Exit Micropolis and go back to the real world.

    Options Menu

    Auto Budget
    Keeps your budget at the same level (or fully funded)
    without asking for approval every year.
    If there isn't enough money to meet the budget,
    then funds will be allocated first to the Transit system,
    then to the Fire Department, then to the Police.
    If your city runs out of money,
    the budget window comes up at the end of
    the year anyway, and Auto Budget is turned off.

    Auto Bulldozer
    Allows you to place zones, roadways, etc.,
    directly on top of trees, shoreline, power lines, and rubble,
    without manually bulldozing first.
    You will be charged the same amount as for manual bulldozing.

    Disasters
    Enables or disables random disasters.
    If disasters are disabled, you can still select them manually
    from the Disasters Menu.

    Sound
    Toggles the city sounds on and off.
    Preserves the sanity and good will of those who have to work in the same room.

    Animation
    Toggles tile animations on and off.

    Disasters Menu
    The Disasters Menu allows you to set natural (and unnatural) disasters
    loose on your city. Use these disasters to test your ability to deal
    with emergencies in your city or just to release some aggression. More
    information on disasters, their causes, and dealing with them is
    presented later.

Disasters will randomly occur as you play Micropolis. At higher game
levels the disasters will happen more often. Most disasters can be
activated from the Disasters Menu. Random disasters can be eliminated
by turing off the Disasters setting of the Options Menu.

    Shipwreck:
    Shipwrecks can occur once you have an operating
    seaport. They can cause fires where the ship crashes into a shore or
    bridge. Shipwrecks are not available on the Disasters Menu.

    Monster
    Sets a monster loose on your city.

Monster Attacks are provoked by high levels of
pollution. A monster destroys everything in its path, starts fires,
and causes planes, helicopters, trains, and ships to crash.

    Fire
    Starts a fire somewhere on the map.

Fires can start anywhere in the city. Fires spread fairly
rapidly through forests and buildings, somewhat slower over roadways.
Fire will not cross water or clear land.

The effectiveness of the fire department (which can be viewed in the
Map Window) is based on how close it is to the fire, its funding
level, and its transit access. Fires inside this effective radius will
be extinguished automatically. If you have no operational fire
departments in the area you can try to control the fire yourself.
Since fire will not spread across clear terrain, you can build fire
breaks with the bulldozer. Just surround the fire with clear areas and
it will stop spreading and eventually burn itself out. You cannot
directly bulldoze a fire.

    Flood
    Causes a flood to occur near the water.

Floods gradually spread and
destroy buildings and utilities. After a while the flood waters
recede, leaving behind cleared terrain.

    Meltdown
    If there's a nuclear power plant, this spills Irn-Bru
    in the control room, causing a meltdown.

Meltdowns are only possible if you are using a nuclear
power plant. If a meltdown occurs, your nuclear plant will explode
into flames. The surrounding area will be unusable for the remainder
of the simulation due to radioactive contamination.

    Tornado
    Causes a tornado to appear somewhere on the map.

Tornados can occur anywhere on the map at any time. Very
fast and unpredictable, they can appear and disappear at a moment's
notice. Tornados destroy everything in their path, and can cause
planes, helicopters, trains, and ships to crash.

    Earthquake
    Causes a MAJOR earthquake.

Earthquakes are the most devastating disaster. This is
a Major earthquake -- between 8.0 and 9.0 on the Richter Scale. It
will destroy buildings and start fires. The initial damage will vary
with the severity of the earthquake, and the eventual fire damage
depends on your fire-control efforts.

When an Earthquake occurs, the Edit Window will shake for a while.
When it stops you will have to take charge and control the scattered
fires. Use the bulldozer to contain the largest fires first and work
your way down to the smaller ones.

    Clipper
    The Clipper disaster violates the privacy of your simulated citizens,
    and encrypts the city so only the NSA can decode it.

Do not use this unless you work for the National Security Agency,
and routinely subvert the Constitution of the United States
by spying on American citizens with the Echelon Surveillance System.

    Time Menu

    Pause
    Stops the passage of time entirely.

    Slow
    Months pass by slowly.

    Medium
    Months pass by normally.

    Fast
    Months pass by fast.

    Priority Menu

    Flat Out!
    Micropolis runs really fast, hogging the CPU.

    Zoom Zoom
    Micropolis runs pretty fast, but leaves some time for other programs.

    Buzz Buzz
    Micropolis runs fairly quickly.

    Putter Putter
    Micropolis runs slower.

    Snore Snore
    Micropolis runs very slowly.

    Windows Menu

    Budget
    Open the Budget Window.
    The simulation is paused as long as the budget window is open.

    Evaluation
    Open the Evaluation Window.

    Graph
    Open the Graph Window.

    Map
    Open the Map Window.

    Editor
    Open the Editor Window.

    Frob
    Open the Frob-O-Matic Window.

    Map Copy
    Open another copy of the Map Window.

    Editor Copy
    Open another copy of the Editor Window.

    Status Panel

    License Owner Name
    Date
    Funds
    Residential, Commercial, Industrial History Graph
    Residential, Commercial, Industrial Demand Chart
    The Demand Indicator shows the demand levels for Residential (green),
    Commercial (blue), and Industrial zones (yellow), and can be helpful
    in planning your city.
    Micropolis Simulator Icon
    Scrolling Text Message Window
    Text Input Field

Micropolis Edit Window
======================
This is where all actual zoning and building takes place.

Terrain
-------
There are three types of terrain in the Edit Window: Open Land, Trees,
and Water.

Open Land is where you can zone and build. It is shown as brown with
dark brown speckles.

Trees and Forests are shown as green, with dark green speckles. You
cannot zone or build on trees. You may bulldoze trees and forests to
turn them into clear land. While some bulldozing is necessary,
clearing away too much green area will result in lower property
values.

Water is shown as blue, with dark blue speckles. You cannot zone or
build on water. You must bulldoze coastlines to create landfills
before you can build or zone there.

Edit Window Gadgets
-------------------
The Edit Window is where you will do the actual building and zoning.
In the middle of the Edit Window is a detailed map showing part of the
terrain. Around the edges are controls and fields displaying
information about the city.

There is a row of Menu Buttons on the left below the title.
The Display menu lets you select how often the display is drawn.
The Options menu lets you turn on and off certain view specific features.

To the right of the menu buttons, important messages are displayed.
Below the menu bar is a tool pallet.
The palette displays the name and cost of the currently selected tool,
above an menu of colorful icons,
used for choosing the city editing mode.
Click the mouse over an icon to select an editing tool.
The currently selected tool is highlighted,
and its name and cost is displayed at the top of the panel,
and spoken.

You can use the selected tool by pressing the left mouse button over
the map in the middle of the Edit Window. Also, you can pop up a Pie
Menu to quickly switch between editing tools, by clicking the right
mouse button over the map.

You can easily scroll the map by pressing the middle mouse button down
over the map and dragging the view around.

Edit Window Icons
-----------------
You can select an icon from the Tool Icon pallet to use a city editing tool.
When an icon is selected, a rectangle will accompany the cursor
when it's over the map, to indicate the area the tool will effect.

    Query Tool (question mark)
    Shows the Zone Status Window,
    describing the population density, value, crime rate, pollution,
    and growth rate of the zone under the cursor.
    It doesn't cost anything to use.

    Bulldozer
    Clears trees and forests, creates landfill along the water,
    and levels developed, existing zones and clears rubble caused by disasters.
    The Auto Bulldoze option works on natural terrain, power
    lines and rubble, but not on zones, roads and rails.

It costs $1 for each square tile bulldozed. Knocking down a 3x3 zone
costs $9 since it's made up of nine tiles. You're automatically
charged $1 for each non-empty tile that you Auto Bulldoze.

    Road
    Connect developed areas.
    Intersections and turns are automatically created.
    Lay continuous roads by pressing the left mouse button and dragging your cursor.
    Be careful -- if you accidentally lay a road in the wrong place,
    you will have to pay for bulldozing and rebuilding.

Roads may not be placed over zoned areas. They may be placed over
trees, shrubbery, and shoreline only after bulldozing or activating
the Auto Bulldoze function from the Options Menu. Roads can cross over
power lines and rails only at right angles.

Holding down the Control key while laying roads will constrain them to
a straight line.

Laying roads across water creates a bridge. Bridges can only be built
in a straight line -- no curves, turns or intersections. Shorelines
must be bulldozed prior to building a bridge, unless the Auto Bulldoze
function from the Options Menu is active.

Roadways are maintained by the transit budget, and wear out if there
is a lack of funding. The amount of yearly funding requested by the
transportation department is $1 for each section of road, $4 for each
section of bridge.

It costs $10 to lay one section of road and $50 to lay one section of
bridge.

    Power Lines
    Carry power from power plants to zoned land and between
    zones. All developed land needs power to function. Power is conducted
    through adjacent zones. Unpowered zones display the flashing lightning
    bolt symbol. There is a delay between the time you connect power to a
    zone and when the flashing symbol disappears. The delay grows longer
    as the city grows larger.

Power lines cannot cross zoned land. They can be built over trees,
shrubbery, and shoreline only after bulldozing, or activating the Auto
Bulldoze function from the Options Menu.

Junctions and corners are automatically created. Lay continuous power
lines by pressing the left mouse button down and dragging your cursor.
Power lines across water must be horizontal or vertical -- no turn,
curves or intersections. Power lines consume some power due to
transmission inefficiencies.

Holding down the Control key while laying power lines will constrain
them to a straight line.

It costs $5 to lay one section of power line on land, $25 on water.

    Transit Lines
    Create a railway system for intra-city mass transit.
    Place tracks in heavy traffic areas to help alleviate congestion.

Intersections and turns are created automatically. Lay continuous
transit lines by pressing the left mouse button down and dragging with
your cursor. Tracks laid under rivers will appear as dashed lines.
These are underwater tunnels, and must be vertical or horizontal -- no
turns, curves or intersections.

Holding down the Control key while laying tracks will constrain them
to a straight line.

Transit lines are maintained by the transit budget. The level of
funding affects the efficiency of the system. The amount of yearly
funding requested by the transportation department is $4 for each
section of rail, and $10 for each section of tunnel.

It costs $20 per section of track laid on land,
$100 per section under water.

    Parks
    Can be placed on clear land. Parks, like forests and water,
    raise the land value of surrounding zones. Parks can be bulldozed as
    fire breaks or reserve space for later mass transit expansion.

Holding down the Control key while building parks will constrain them
to a straight line.

It costs $10 to zone one park.

    Residential Zones
    Where the Sims live, build houses, apartments
    and community facilitieslike hospitals and churches.

Most residential zones develop into one of four classes: lower,
middle, upper, and high. They can range in population density from
single-family homes to high-rise apartments and condominiums. Some
residential zones will automatically develop into churches and
hospitals.

Factors influencing residential value and growth are pollution,
traffic density, population density, surrounding terrain, roadway
access, parks and utilities.

It costs $100 to zone one plot of land as residential.

    Commercial Zones
    Used for many things, including retail stores,
    office buildings, parking garages and gas stations.

There are four values for commercial property, and five levels of
growth, from the small general store to tall skyscrapers. Factors
influencing the value and growth of commercial areas include internal
markets, pollution, traffic density, residential access, labor supply,
airports, crime rates, transit access and utilities.

It costs $100 to zone one plot of land as commercial.

    Industrial Zones
    For heavy manufacturing and industrial services.
    There are four levels of industrial growth, from small pumping
    stations and warehouses to large factories.

Factors influencing industrial growth are external markets, seaports,
transit access, residential access, labor supply and utilities.

It costs $100 to zone one plot of land as industrial.

    Police Departments
    Lower the crime rate in the surrounding area.
    This in turn raises property values. Place these in high-density crime
    areas, as defined by your Crime Rate Map. The efficiency of a station
    depends on the level of police department funding and transit access.

It costs $500 to build a police station. Full yearly maintenance of
each Police Station is $100.

    Fire Departments
    Make surrounding areas less susceptible to fires.
    When fires do occur, they are put out sooner and do less damage if a
    station is near. The effectiveness of fire containment depends on the
    level of fire department funding and transit access.

It costs $500 to build a fire station. Full yearly maintenance of each
fire station is $100.

    Stadiums
    Encourage residential growth, once a city has become fairly
    large. You may build a stadium in a smaller city without negative (or
    positive) effect. Stadiums indirectly generate a lot of revenue, but
    create a lot of traffic. Properly maintaining a stadium requires a
    good road and transit network.

It costs $3000 to build a stadium.

    Power Plants
    Can be Coal or Nuclear.
    The nuclear plant is more powerful but carries a slight risk of meltdown.
    The coal plant is less expensive, but less powerful and it pollutes.

All zoned land needs power to develop and grow. When developed land
loses power, it will degenerate to an undeveloped zone unless power is
restored. Connecting too many zones to a power plant causes brownouts.

Coal power plants cost $3000 to build, and supply enough energy for
about 50 zones. Nuclear power plants cost $5000 and supply electricity
for about 150 zones.

    Seaports
    Increase the potential for industrial growth. They have
    little effect in a small city, but contribute a lot to
    industrialization in a large city.

Seaports should be placed on a shoreline. The shoreline must be
bulldozed prior to zoning a Seaport, unless Auto Bulldoze is active.
Once the port is operational you may see ships in the water.

It costs $5000 to zone land for use as a seaport.

    Airports
    Increase the growth potential of your commercial markets.
    Once a city starts getting large, commercial growth will level off
    without an airport. Airports are large and expensive and should not be
    built unless your city can afford one. Position airports to keep
    flight paths over water whenever possible, lessening the impact of air
    disasters.

Once you build an airport you will see planes flying above your city
to and from the airport. There is also a traffic helicopter that
alerts you to heavy traffic areas.

It costs $10,000 to zone land for use as an airport.

Micropolis Budget Window
------------------------
When your first taxes are collected in a new city, and each year
after, the Budget Window will appear (unless you select the Auto
Budget option). You will be asked to set the funding levels for the
fire, police, and transportation departments, and to set the property
tax rate.

The Budget Window can be opened from the Windows Menu. When Auto
Budget is active, all the funding levels will remain at full funding,
or your last setting. If there is not enough money to completely fund
the budget, money will go first to the Transit Department, then the
Fire Department, then the Police Department.

You can raise and lower the tax rate and budget levels by
dragging the sliders corresponding to each category.
Press the button labeled "Continue With These Figures"
to make the Budget Window disappear.

When the Budget Window opens up,
a timer in the bottom button starts running.
When it runs out, the Budget Window automatically goes
with the currently selected figures and disappears.
You can click on the timer button to cancel it,
and the Budget Window will stay up for as long as you like.

Tax Rate
--------
The maximum tax rate you can set is 20%.

The minimum tax rate you can set is 0%.

The optimum tax rate for fast growth is between 5% and 7%.

To slow city growth without actually shrinking, set the tax rate to 8% or 9%.

Funding Levels
--------------
The amount of yearly funding requested for the fire and police
departments is $100 per station that you have placed. Until you
actually build fire or police stations, you cannot fund them. You
cannot allocate more than 100% of the requested funding for fire and
police departments -- Micropolis police officers and fire inspectors are
honest and will not accept your bribes.

Allocating less than the requested amount will decrease the effective
coverage of the police or fire stations.

The amount of yearly funding requested for the transportation
department is $1 for each section of road, $4 for each section of
bridge (roads over water), $4 for each section of rail, and $10 for
each section of tunnel (underwater rails). You cannot allocate more
than 100% of the requested funds.

Transportation maintenance funding slightly below 100% will cause
slow, minor deterioration of the transit system -- an occasional
pothole or bad track section. Funding between 90% and 75% will cause
noticeable damage -- many sections of road and rail will be unusable.
Funding below 75% will cause rapid deterioration of your transit
system.

Cash Flow
---------
The cash flow is calculated as follows:

CashFlow = TaxesCllected - TotalAllocatedFunds

It will be a negative number if your yearly maintenance costs are
greater than your yearly tax intake.

A major difference between Micropolis and a real city is that Micropolis
does not allow budget deficits. If you don't have the money, you can't
spend it. Try not to let your city run with a negative cash flow.

Micropolis Map Window
=====================
The Map Window shows the entire area of your city. It has a pallet of
icons down the left edge, for selecting between different map types.
The maps show demographic information to help you comprehend the state
of your city.

You can select between various views by pressing the left mouse button
over any of the icons. Some of the icons have submenus, that pop up
when you hold the button down, so you can select different aspects of
the view.

One or more yellow rectangular outlines overlay the map, showing the
location of the Edit Window and Surveyor Window views of the city. You
can drag the rectangles around the map to pan the other views. You can
also "throw" the view, by dragging with the left mouse button, and
releasing the button while moving the mouse. The view keeps on panning
and bounces off the edges of the map! Click on a moving rectangle to
make it sit still, or on the map to stop all the bouncing rectangles.
Use the middle button to avoid such behavior.

Using The Maps
--------------
The Map Window should be constantly referred to in all stages of city
planning, building and managing.

Before you build, use the map before beginning a new city to plan:

    Where you want your city center.

    Where you want the high-class waterfront residential areas.

    Where you will cross water with bridges, power lines and tunnels.

    Where to place power plants.

    Where to place large industrial sections away from the residential sections.

    The general layout of your city.

Printing the map and sketching in your plan with pencil or pen can
save a lot of bulldozing and re-zoning and rebuilding.

During city growth:

    Use the map to guide your city's growth around forest areas, to preserve the trees and improve property values.

    Use the Transportation Map along with the Traffic Density map to plan traffic control and expansion.

    Use the City Form Maps to make sure you have the proper ratio of residential to commercial to industrial zones.

    Use the Pollution Map to detect problem areas, and disperse the industrial zones and/or replace roads with rails.

    Printing out the map in various stages of development and doing some preliminary expansion planning with pencil can be useful. Printouts can also be used for city historical records.

During city maintenance:

    Use the Power Grid Map to locate zones that have lost power.

    Use the City Services Maps to evaluate the effective coverage of your police and fire departments.

    Use the Crime Rate Map to locate problem areas that need more police protection.

    Use the Pollution Map to locate problem areas.

    Use the Transportation and Traffic Density Maps to determine where to replace roads with rails.

    Use the Land Value Map to locate depressed areas for improvement or replacement.

    Use the City Form Maps to maintain the proper ratio of residential to commercial to industrial zones.

Micropolis Graph Window
-----------------------
The Graph Window gives you time-based graphs of various city data. It
can be opened through the Windows Menu.

Unlike the maps, which only show the current state of your city, the
Graphs give you a record of the past so you can gauge trends and
cycles.

You may view graphs for time periods of either the last 10 years or
the last 120 years by clicking on the "10 YRS." or "120 YRS." button.

    The Residential Population Graph shows the total population in residential zones.

    The Commercial Population Graph shows the total population in commercial zones.

    The Industrial Population Graph shows the total population in industrial zones.

    The Cash Flow Graph shows your city's cash flow: money collected in taxes minus money it took to maintain your city. The center of the Cash Flow Graph represents a cash flow of zero. Do not build more infrastructure (roads, rails, police departments, fire stations) than you can support with tax revenues.

    The Crime Rate Graph shows the overall crime rate of the entire city.

    The Pollution Graph shows the overall average pollution reading of the entire city.

Using the Graphs
----------------
The Graphs give information on many of the same factors as the maps,
but show the information over time. Graphs are for locating trends in
city life that won't be noticeable in a map. If you look at a map, for
example the Crime Rate Map, a very slight rise in the crime rate will
not be noticeable. But on the Crime Rate Graph, you would easily
locate the upward trend in crime because you will be viewing the
levels for a number of years at the same time.

Residential, commercial and industrial population growth and/or
decline can be tracked and displayed. If you notice a downward trend
in any of these, refer to the User Reference Card to locate potential
problems and solutions.

Use the Cash Flow Graph to track your city's efficiency as it grows.
If your maintenance costs are higher than your tax revenues, you will
have a negative cash flow.

The Crime Rate Graph can be displayed, revealing slight but consistent
upward or downward trends.

Use the Pollution Graph to catch rising levels of pollution before
they reach a problem level.

Micropolis Evaluation Window
----------------------------
The Evaluation Window gives you a performance rating. You can access
it through the Windows Menu.

Public Opinion is presented in poll form, rating your overall job as
Mayor and listing what the public regards as the city's most pressing
problems. You are advised to keep your residents happy or they might
migrate away, and you will be left with a "ghost town."

In general, if more than 55% of the populace thinks you are doing a
good job, then you can feel secure of keeping your job.

If 10% or less of the people think something is a problem, then it's
not too bad.

These are most of the problems that citizens complain about, and how
to correct them:

    Traffic -- Replace dense sections of roads with rails.

    Crime -- Add police stations and/or raise property values.

    Pollution -- Replace roads with rails, disperse industrial zones.

    Housing -- Zone more residences.

    Housing Costs -- Zone more residences in low property value areas.

    Fires -- Build more fire departments.

    Taxes -- Lower taxes (if you can). Or lie through your lips.

    Unemployment -- Zone more commercial and industrial areas.

Statistics on Population, Net Migration, and Assessed Value are
displayed, along with the city's Game Level and the Overall City
Score. This data is calculated once a year at budget time.

Population is the number of residents in your city.

The Net Migration statistic provides a rating of the desirability of
your city. If people are leaving in droves, then you know something is
rotten in Micropolis.

The Assessed Value is the combined value of all city-owned property:
roads, rails, power plants, police and fire stations, airports,
seaports, parks, etc. It does not include residential, commercial and
industrial zones.

The Categories are defined by population as follows:

    Village: 0 to 1,999

    Town: 2,000 to 9,999

    City: 10,000 to 49,999

    Capital: 50,000 to 99,999

    Metropolis: 100,000 to 499,999

    Megalopolis: 500,000 and above

Overall City Score is a composite score based on the following factors
(some positive, some negative):

    Major Factors: Crime, pollution, housing costs, taxes, traffic, unemployment, fire protection, unpowered zones, city growth rate.

    Minor Factors: Stadium needed (but not built), seaport needed (but not built), airport needed (but not built), road funding, police funding, fire department funding, and fires.

A large population is not necessarily a sign of a successful city.
Population size does not affect the overall city score, since low
population could indicate a new or growing city.

Since city growth rate does affect the overall city score, a city in
which growth has been intentionally stopped for environmental or
aesthetic reasons will have a slightly lower score.

Notice Window
-------------
The Notice Window is used to display important messages, and for
temporary control panels. When something important happens, it pops up
to the front.
Some times it displays a live view of events happening in the city,
that you can click on to scroll the editor window to the location of interest.
You can dismiss the Notice window by clicking the "Dismiss" button along the bottom edge.

Growing a City
--------------
While growing a city, refer often to the User Reference Card. It
provides a chart of City Dynamics; how all factors of city life and
growth are related.

The main points to keep in mind while growing a city are:


    Grow slowly. Watch your money.

    All zones must be powered to develop.

    Zones must be developed to generate tax money.

    Roads or rails must provide access to and from each zone for it to fully develop.

    There is a yearly maintenance cost for each section of road, rail, bridge and tunnel. This can add up. Don't build too many roads and rails and generate high maintenance costs before your city can generate enough tax revenues to support them.

    Extra power plants and redundant power lines are expensive, but can keep zones from losing power during a disaster or emergency and deteriorating.

    Rails can carry much more traffic than roads. While building and zoning an area that you predict will generate heavy traffic, install rails instead of roads in the early stages of development.

    If you get a lot of heavy traffic warnings, replace roads with rails. You can build an entirely roadless city, even if you're not a train spotter!

    Grouping zones together, four of five in a row touching each other, can eliminate a lot of power line segments.

    Airports, seaports and stadiums won't help a small city grow -- so save your money until the city gets larger. The Sims will tell you when they need these things.

    Place zones, roads, etc. carefully -- they cannot be moved, and you will have to pay to bulldoze them and rebuild.

    As a rule of thumb, the number of residential zones should be approximately equal to the sum of commercial and industrial zones. When your city is small, you will need more industrial zones than commercial, and when your city gets larger, you will need more commercial zones than industrial.

    Separate the residential areas from the industrial areas.

    Proximity to forests, parks, and water increases land value, which increases the taxes collected. Don't bulldoze any more forest than you must. Natural shoreline increases property values more than landfill shoreline.

    Keep in mind that proximity to downtown raises property values. The simulator defines the downtown areas as "the center of mass of the population density." It calculates the average geographical center of the population.

    A bigger, more populous city is not necessarily better. Having a self-supporting, profitable city with pleasant surroundings is better than a huge city that is always broke and has no forest or shoreline.

    Use the various maps and graphs to plan city growth, locate problems, and track your progress. Look for areas that need police and fire coverage as you go, so you don't have to go back and bulldoze developed zones to make room for police and fire stations.

    Save your city to disk before trying any major new policy so you can go back if your plan doesn't work.

    Print out your city in different stages of evolution to track and plan growth.

    Check the Evaluation Window often. The Sims will let you know how you are doing. Also the statistics can be useful; if your population is shrinking, don't go zoning new areas that may never develop. Look for problems in the existing zoned areas, and spend your time and money solving them.

    Save your city to disk often!!! 


Inside The Simulator
====================
How the Simulator Works and Strategies for Using It
---------------------------------------------------
Many factors influence the chance of your city's prospering or floundering: both internal factors (the structure and efficiency of your city) and external factors (the regional economy, disasters, etc.).

Zones
-----
Your city is divided up into three primary zones: residential, commercial and industrial. These zones symbolize the three basic pillars upon which a city is based: population, industry, and commerce. All three are necessary for your city to grow and thrive.

    Residential Zones are where the Sims live. Here they build houses, apartments and community facilities such as churches and schools. Sims are the work force for your city's commercial and industrial zones.

    Industrial Zones are used to site warehouses, factories, and other unsightly and polluting structures which have a negative impact on surrounding zones. One of the major goals of planning is to separate these "nuisances" from the areas where people live. In this simulation, industrial zones represent the "basic" production of your city. Things produced here are sold outside the city to an "external market," bringing money into the city for future growth.

    Commercial Zones represent the retail stores and services in your city, including gas stations, grocery stores, banks, and offices. Commercial areas are mainly dedicated to producing goods and services needed within your city. This is called "non-basic" production or production for the "internal market."

Population -- Residential
-------------------------
The major factors controlling residential population are birthrate, availability of jobs and housing, unemployment, and quality of life within the city.

Birthrate as used here, is actually a combination of the birthrate (positive) and the deathrate (negative). Within Micropolis there is always a positive birthrate.

Availability of jobs (the employment rate) is a ratio of the current commercial and industrial populations to the total residential population. As a rule of thumb, the number of commercial and industrial zones together should roughly equal the number of residential zones.

If there are more jobs in your city than residents, new settlers will be attracted. If the job market declines during a local recession, your people will migrate away in search of jobs.

Housing for your residents is built in the residential zones. These zones must be powered and connected to the places of employment by roads. The structures built in residential zones are influenced by land value and population density.

Quality of life is a measure of relative "attractiveness" assigned to different zone locations. It is affected by negative factors such as pollution and crime, and positive factors such as parks and accessibility.

External Market -- Industrial
-----------------------------
There are thousands of variables that influence your city. All these variables can be influenced by your actions with the exception of one.

The external market (the economic conditions that exist outside of your city) is controlled by the simulation -- there is nothing you can do to change it. In many ways, this external market is the original source of all city growth. Towns frequently begin as production centers (steel towns, refineries, etc.) that service a demand in the surrounding region. As time passes, the external market grows to reflect the regional growth going on around your city.

The industry in your city will attempt to grow as the external market grows. For this to happen there must be room for expansion (more industrial zones) and an adequate labor supply (more residential zones).

Internal Market -- Commercial
-----------------------------
The internal market is completely influenced by the conditions within your city. Internal production, created in the commercial zones, represents all the things which are purchased and consumed within the city. Food stores, gas stations, retail stores, financial services, medical care, etc. -- all depend on a nearby population to service. Within Micropolis, the size of the internal market determines the rate at which commercial zones will prosper. Commercial zones need enough zoned land to build on and an existent, sufficient work force to employ. The structures built in commercial zones are mainly influenced by land value and population density.

Commercial zones grow and develop to serve the expanding internal market. Commercial growth will usually be slow at first, when the population is small and needs very little. As your city grows, commercial growth will accelerate and the internal market will become a much larger consumer of your total city production. This accelerating effect, when the external/industrial production is overtaken by the accelerating internal/commercial sector, can turn a sleepy little town of 50,000 into a thriving capital of 200,000 in a few short years.

Tax Rate
--------
The tax rate you set controls the amount of income generated by your city. As taxes are collected each year (simulation time), the Budget Window will appear, giving you the fiscal details of your city and a chance to adjust rates. The simulation determines the amount of revenue collected by assessing each zone an amount based on its land value, current level of development and the current tax rate.

The tax rate has a global affect on your city's growth rate. If you set it low (0%-4%), growth will be brisk but the city income will be low. If you set it high (10%-20%), you will collect a lot in the short run but in the long run tax income will decrease along with the population. You must keep tax income high enough to invest in new development, but low enough not to scare off residents and businesses. A high tax rate is one way to control city growth, should you want to experiment with "growth control measures."

Budgeting
---------
City budgeting affects the way your city grows. City infrastructure cost is represented by three departments: police, fire, and transportation. You may set the funding levels separately for each. All three departments will request a certain level of funding each year. You may supply all or part of the requested funds, in the attempt to balance safety needs and budgetary concerns.

    Police Department: Police stations lower the crime rate around a territory. The effective radius of your police station is related to the amount of funding allocated to the police department. Police stations cost $100 per year to fund.

    Fire Department: Fire stations prevent and extinguish fires. The level of funding determines the effective radius of a fire station. Fire stations put out fires within this radius much sooner than outside it, and decrease the chance that they will start in the first place. Fire stations cost $100 per year to fund.

    Transportation Department:When you build roads and rail systems you are charged for construction and yearly maintenance. The larger your transportation network, the more it will cost for upkeep. If you decide not to or are unable to pay this maintenance cost, roads will slowly deteriorate and become unusable. The maintenance cost for each piece is: Road - $1, Bridge - $4, Rail - $4, Rail tunnel - $10.

Power
-----
Electrical power makes modern cities possible. Efficient and reliable power transmission to all zones is the goal of good "power management."

The entire power grid of your city is periodically checked in the simulation for links to power. If a zone is connected (by other zones or power lines) to a power plant, the zone is considered powered.

Zones must be powered for development to occur. Many things (such as fires, tornadoes, earthquakes and bulldozers) can knock down power lines and cause blackouts in parts of your city. Development will stop in unpowered zones, and if power is not quickly restored, the zone will decline back to its original state of emptiness.

Redundant power plants and power connections can make your power grid more reliable, but running more line adds construction costs.

Transportation -- Traffic
-------------------------
One of the most important elements of city structure is the transportation network. It moves Sims and good throughout your city. Roads typically occupy as much as 25%-40% of the land in urban areas. Traffic along these roads indicates which sections of your road system are used the most.

Traffic levels are simulated by a process known as "Trip Generation." Over time, each populated zone in the city will generate a number of trips, depending on the population. Each generated trip starts at the origin zone, travels down the road, and if a "proper destination" is reached, ends at the destination zone -- otherwise, the trip fails. Trip failure indicates inaccessibility of a zone and limits its growth.

The majority of generated trips represent people commuting to and from work. Additional traffic is generated by residents traveling to shopping, recreation, etc. When analyzing traffic, the simulator tests the following traffic routes:

Traffic Patterns

    From Residential
        To Commercial
        To Industrial

    From Commercial
        To Residential
        To Industrial

    From Industrial
        To Residential

When Sims drive away from an origin zone, they have a limited "trip range" in which to find a destination zone. Heavy traffic decreases the trip range. If the destination zone is too far away, the trip is unsuccessful. Repeated unsuccessful trips will cause the Sims to move out of the origin zone.

Each road has a limited capacity for traffic. When this capacity is exceeded traffic jams will form. Traffic jams drastically lower the capacity of a road, compounding the problem and frustrating drivers.

Traffic conditions fluctuate quickly. Avoid traffic problems by providing several routes for the traffic to take.

A road must be adjacent to a zone for the zone to be connected to the traffic pattern. Zones do not conduct traffic the way they conduct power.

Pollution
---------
Pollution levels are tracked in all areas of your city. This is a general "nuisance level" that includes air and water pollution, noise pollution, toxic wastes, etc. Pollution has a negative impact on the growth of residential areas.

The primary cause of pollution is industrialized zones. The level of pollution created by an industrial zone increases with its level of growth.

Traffic is another cause of pollution. There are limited means of combating the pollution level. Lowering traffic density, limiting industrial development, and separating the pollution from the residential areas will help.

Crime
-----
Crime rates are influenced by population density, local law enforcement, and land values. As population density increases in an area, the number of crimes committed increases. Crime will also increase in areas of low land value.

The most effective way to deal with high crime rates is to introduce a police station into the area. Based on its level of funding, the police station will reduce the rate of crime in its sphere of influence. A long-term approach to lowering crime is to raise the land value of the area. One way to do this is to demolish and rezone (urban renewal).

Land Value
----------
Land value is one of the most fundamental aspects of urban structure. The land value of an area affects how that area is used. In this simulation the land value of an area is based on terrain, accessibility, pollution, and distance to downtown.

The farther the residents have to go to work, the lower the land value where they live, due in part to transportation costs. The value of commercial zones depends greatly on accessibility by the populace.

Land value is also affected by surrounding terrain. If land is closer to water, trees, agricultural areas, or parks, its value will rise. Creative placement of zones within the terrain, with little bulldozing, can make good use of this natural advantage.

Land value and crime rate have a feedback effect on each other. Lower land values cause crime rates to rise. Higher crime rates cause land values to drop, and can cause "transition areas" near your central city to rapidly decline in value.

History Of Cities And City Planning
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By Cliff Ellis

Introduction
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The building of cities has a long and complex history. Although city planning as an organized profession has existed for less than a century, all cities display various degrees of forethought and conscious design in their layout and functioning.

Early humans led a nomadic existence, relying on hunting and gathering for sustenance. Between 8,000 and 10,000 years ago, systematic cultivation of plants and the domestication of animals allowed for more permanent settlements. During the fourth millennium B.C., the requirements for the "urban revolution" were finally met: the production of a surplus of storable food, a system of writing, a more complex social organization, and technological advances such as the plough, potter's wheel, loom, and metallurgy.

Cities exist for many reasons, and the diversity of urban forms can be traced to the complex functions that cities perform. Cities serve as centers of storage, trade, and manufacture. The agricultural surplus from the surrounding countryside is processed and distributed in cities. Cities also grew up around marketplaces, where goods from distant places could be exchanged for local products. Throughout history, cities have been founded at the intersections of transportation routes, or at points where goods must shift from one mode of transportation to another, as at river and ocean ports.

Religious elements have been crucial throughout urban history. Ancient peoples had sacred places, often associated with cemeteries or shrines, around which cities grew. Ancient cities usually had large temple precincts with monumental religious buildings. Many medieval cities were built near monasteries and cathedrals.

Cities often provide protection in a precarious world. During attacks, the rural populace could flee behind city walls, where defence forces assembled to repel the enemy. The wall served this purpose for millennia, until the invention of heavy artillery rendered walls useless in warfare. With the advent of modern aerial warfare, cities have become prime targets for destruction rather than safe havens.

Cities serve as centers of government. In particular, the emergence of the great nation-states of Europe between 1400 and 1800 led to the creation of new capital cities or the investing of existing cities with expanded governmental functions.

Washington, D.C., for example, displays the monumental buildings, radial street pattern, and large public spaces typical of capital cities.

Cities, with their concentration of talent, mixture of peoples, and economic surplus, have provided a fertile ground for the evolution of human culture: the arts, scientific research, and technical innovation. They serve as centers of communication, where new ideas and information are spread to the surrounding territory and to foreign lands.

Constraints on City Form
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Cities are physical artifacts inserted into a preexisting natural world, and natural constraints must be respected if a settlement is to survive and prosper. Cities must conform to the landscape in which they are located, although technologies have gradually been developed to reorganize the land to suit human purposes. Moderately sloping land provides the best urban site, but spectacular effects have been achieved on hilly sites such as San Francisco, Rio de Janeiro, and Athens.

Climate influences city form. For example, streets have been aligned to take advantage of cooling breezes, and arcades designed to shield pedestrians from sun and rain. The architecture of individual buildings often reflects adaptations to temperature, rainfall, snow, wind and other climatic characteristics.

Cities must have a healthy water supply, and locations along rivers and streams, or near underground watercourses, have always been favored. Many large modern cities have outgrown their local water supplies and rely upon distant water sources diverted by elaborate systems of pipes and canals.

City location and internal structure have been profoundly influenced by natural transportation routes. Cities have often been sited near natural harbors, on navigable rivers, or along land routes determined by regional topography.

Finally, cities have had to survive periodic natural disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes, tornados, and floods. The San Francisco earthquake of 1906 demonstrated how natural forces can undo decades of human labor in a very short time.

Elements of Urban Structure
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City planners must weave a complex, ever-changing array of elements into a working whole: that is the perennial challenge of city planning. The physical elements of the city can be divided into three categories: networks, buildings, and open spaces. Many alternative arrangements of these components have been tried throughout history, but no ideal city form has ever been agreed upon. Lively debates about the best way to arrange urban anatomies continue to rage, and show no signs of abating.

Networks
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Every modern city contains an amazing array of pathways to carry flows of people, goods, water, energy, and information. Transportation networks are the largest and most visible of these. Ancient cities relied on streets, most of them quite narrow by modern standards, to carry foot traffic and carts. The modern city contains a complex hierarchy of transportation channels, ranging from ten-lane freeways to sidewalks. In the United States, the bulk of trips are carried by the private automobile, with mass transit a distant second. American cities display the low-density sprawl characteristic of auto-centered urban development. In contrast, many European cities have the high densities necessary to support rail transit.

Modern cities rely on complex networks of utilities. When cities were small, obtaining pure water and disposing of wastes was not a major problem, but cities with large populations and high densities require expensive public infrastructure. During the nineteenth century, rapid urban growth and industrialization caused overcrowding, pollution, and disease in urban areas. After the connection between impure water and disease was established, American and European cities began to install adequate sewer and water systems. Since the late nineteenth century, cities have also been laced with wires and conduits carrying electricity, gas, and communications signals.

Buildings
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Buildings are the most visible elements of the city, the features that give each city its unique character. Residential structures occupy almost half of all urban land, with the building types ranging from scattered single-family homes to dense high-rise apartments. Commercial buildings are clustered downtown and at various subcenters, with skyscrapers packed into the central business district and low-rise structures prevailing elsewhere, although tall buildings are becoming more common in the suburbs. Industrial buildings come in many forms ranging from large factory complexes in industrial districts to small workshops.

City planners engage in a constant search for the proper arrangement of these different types of land use, paying particular attention to the compatibility of different activities, population densities, traffic generation, economic efficiency, social relationships, and the height and bulk of buildings.

Open Spaces
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Open space is sometimes treated as a leftover, but it contributes greatly to the quality of urban life. "Hard" spaces such as plazas, malls, and courtyards provide settings for public activities of all kinds. "Soft" spaces such as parks, gardens, lawns, and nature preserves provide essential relief from harsh urban conditions and serve as space for recreational activities. These "amenities" increasingly influence which cities will be perceived as desirable places to live.

Evolution of Urban Form
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The first true urban settlements appeared around 3,000 B.C. in ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Indus Valley. Ancient cities displayed both "organic" and "planned" types of urban form. These societies had elaborate religious, political, and military hierarchies. Precincts devoted to the activities of the elite were often highly planned and regular in form. In contrast, residential areas often grew by a slow process of accretion, producing complex, irregular patterns that we term "organic." Two typical features of the ancient city are the wall and the citadel: the wall for defense in regions periodically swept by conquering armies, and the citadel -- a large, elevated precinct within the city -- devoted to religious and state functions.

Greek cities did not follow a single pattern. Cities growing slowly from old villages often had an irregular, organic form, adapting gradually to the accidents of topography and history. Colonial cities, however, were planned prior to settlement using the grid system. The grid is easy to lay out, easy to comprehend, and divides urban land into uniform rectangular lots suitable for development.

The Romans engaged in extensive city-building activities as they consolidated their empire. Rome itself displayed the informal complexity created by centuries of organic growth, although particular temple and public districts were highly planned. In contrast, the Roman military and colonial towns were laid out in a variation of the grid. Many European cities, like London and Paris, sprang from these Roman origins.

We usually associate medieval cities with narrow winding streets converging on a market square with a cathedral and city hall. Many cities of this period display this pattern, the product of thousands of incremental additions to the urban fabric. However, new towns seeded throughout undeveloped regions of Europe were based upon the familiar grid. In either case, large encircling walls were built for defense against marauding armies; new walls enclosing more land were built as the city expanded and outgrew its former container.

During the Renaissance, architects began to systematically study the shaping of urban space, as though the city itself were a piece of architecture that could be given an aesthetically pleasing and functional order. Many of the great public spaces of Rome and other Italian cities date from this era. Parts of old cities were rebuilt to create elegant squares, long street vistas, and symmetrical building arrangements. Responding to advances in firearms during the fifteenth century, new city walls were designed with large earthworks to deflect artillery, and star-shaped points to provide defenders with sweeping lines of fire. Spanish colonial cities in the New World were built according to rules codified in the Laws of the Indies of 1573, specifying an orderly grid of streets with a central plaza, defensive wall, and uniform building style.

We associate the baroque city with the emergence of great nation-states between 1600 and 1750. Ambitious monarchs constructed new palaces, courts, and bureaucratic offices. The grand scale was sought in urban public spaces: long avenues, radial street networks, monumental squares, geometric parks and gardens. Versailles is a clear expression of this city-building model; Washington, D.C. is an example from the United States. Baroque principles of urban design were used by Baron Haussmann in his celebrated restructuring of Paris between 1853 and 1870. Haussmann carved broad new thoroughfares through the tangled web of old Parisian streets, linking major subcenters of the city with one another in a pattern which has served as a model for many other modernization plans.

Toward the latter half of the eighteenth century, particularly in America, the city as a setting for commerce assumed primacy. The buildings of the bourgeoisie expand along with their owners' prosperity: banks, office buildings, warehouses, hotels, and small factories. New towns founded during this period were conceived as commercial enterprises, and the neutral grid was the most effective means to divide land up into parcels for sale. The city became a checkerboard on which players speculated on shifting land values. No longer would religious, political, and cultural imperatives shape urban development; rather, the market would be allowed to determine the pattern of urban growth. New York, Philadelphia, and Boston around 1920 exemplify the commercial city of this era, with their bustling, mixed-use waterfront districts.

Transition to the Industrial City
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Cities have changed more since the Industrial Revolution than in all the previous centuries of their existence. New York had a population of about 313,000 in 1840 but had reached 4,767,000 in 1910. Chicago exploded from 4.000 to 2,185,000 during the same period. Millions of rural dwellers no longer needed on farms flocked to the cities, where new factories churned out products for the new markets made accessible by railroads and steamships. In the United States, millions of immigrants from Europe swelled the urban populations. Increasingly, urban economies were being woven more rightly into the national and international economies.

Technological innovations poured forth, many with profound impacts on urban form. Railroad tracks were driven into the heart of the city. Internal rail transportation systems greatly expanded the radius of urban settlement: horsecars beginning in the 1830s, cable cars in the 1870s, and electric trolleys in the 1880s. In the 1880s, the first central power plants began providing electrical power to urban areas. The rapid communication provided by the telegraph and the telephone allowed formerly concentrated urban activities to disperse across a wider field.

The industrial city still focused on the city center, which contained both the central business district, defined by large office buildings, and substantial numbers of factory and warehouse structures. Both trolleys and railroad systems converged on the center of the city, which boasted the premier entertainment and shopping establishments. The working class lived in crowded districts close to the city center, near their place of employment.

Early American factories were located outside of major cities along rivers which provided water power for machinery. After steam power became widely available in the 1930s, factories could be located within the city in proximity to port facilities, rail lines, and the urban labor force. Large manufacturing zones emerged within the major northeastern and midwestern cities such as Pittsburgh, Detroit, and Cleveland. But by the late nineteenth century, factory decentralization had already begun, as manufacturers sought larger parcels of land away from the congestion of the city. Gary, Indiana, for example, was founded in 1906 on the southern shore of Lake Michigan by the United States Steel Company.

The increasing crowding, pollution, and disease in the central city produced a growing desire to escape to a healthier environment in the suburbs. The upper classes had always been able to retreat to homes in the countryside. Beginning in the 1830s, commuter railroads enabled the upper middle class to commute in to the city center. Horsecar lines were built in many cities between the 1830s and 1880s, allowing the middle class to move out from the central cities into more spacious suburbs. Finally, during the 1890s electric trolleys and elevated rapid transit lines proliferated, providing cheap urban transportation for the majority of the population.

The central business district of the city underwent a radical transformation with the development of the skyscraper between 1870 and 1900. These tall buildings were not technically feasible until the invention of the elevator and steel-frame construction methods. Skyscrapers reflect the dynamics of the real estate market; the tall building extracts the maximum economic value from a limited parcel of land. These office buildings housed the growing numbers of white-collar employees in banking, finance, management, and business services, all manifestations of the shift from an economy of small firms to one of large corporations.

The Form of the Modern City in the Age of the Automobile
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The city of today may be divided into two parts:

    An inner zone, coextensive with the boundaries of the old industrial city.

    Suburban areas, dating from the 1920s, which have been designed for the automobile from the beginning.

The central business districts of American cities have become centers of information processing, finance, and administration rather than manufacturing. White-collar employees in these economic sectors commute in from the suburbs on a network of urban freeways built during the 1950s and 1960s; this "hub-and-wheel" freeway pattern can be observed on many city maps. New bridges have spanned rivers and bays, as in New York and San Francisco, linking together formerly separate cities into vast urbanized regions.

Waves of demolition and rebuilding have produced "Manhattanized" downtowns across the land. During the 1950s and 1960s, urban renewal programs cleared away large areas of the old city, releasing the land for new office buildings, convention centers, hotels, and sports complexes. Building surges have converted the downtowns of American cities into forests of tall office buildings. More recently, office functions not requiring a downtown location have been moved to huge office parks in the suburbs.

Surrounding the central business area lies a large band of old mixed-use and residential buildings which hose the urban poor. High crime, low income, deteriorating services, inadequate housing, and intractable social problems plague these neglected areas of urban America. The manufacturing jobs formerly available to inner city residents are no longer there, and resources have not been committed to replace them.

These inner city areas have been left behind by a massive migration to the suburbs, which began in the late nineteenth century but accelerated in the 1920s with the spread of the automobile. Freeway building after World War II opened up even larger areas of suburban land, which were quickly filled by people fleeing central city decline. Today, more people live in suburbs than in cities proper. Manufacturers have also moved their production facilities to suburban locations which have freeway and rail accessibility.

Indeed, we have reached a new stage of urbanization beyond the metropolis. Most major cities are no longer focused exclusively on the traditional downtown. New subcenters have arisen round the periphery, and these subcenters supply most of the daily needs of their adjacent populations. The old metropolis has become a multi-centered urban region. In turn, many of these urban regions have expanded to the point where they have coalesced into vast belts of urbanization -- what the geographer Jean Gottman termed "megalopolis." The prime example is the eastern seaboard of the United States from Boston to Washington. The planner C.A. Doxiadis has speculated that similar vast corridors of urbanization will appear throughout the world during the next century. Thus far, American planners have not had much success in imposing a rational form on this process. However, New Town and greenbelt programs in Britain and the Scandinavian countries have, to some extent, prevented formless sprawl from engulfing the countryside.

The Economics of Urban Areas
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Since the 1950s, city planners have increasingly paid attention to the economics of urban areas. When many American cities experienced fiscal crises during the 1970s, urban financial management assumed even greater importance. Today, planners routinely assess the economic consequences of all major changes in the form of the city.

Several basic concepts underlie urban and regional economic analysis. First, cities cannot grow if their residents simply provide services for one another. The city must create products which can be sold to an external purchaser, bringing in money which can be reinvested in new production facilities and raw materials. This "economic base" of production for external markets is crucial. Without it, the economic engine of the city grinds to a halt.

Once the economic base is established, an elaborate internal market can evolve. This market includes the production of goods and services for businesses and residents within the city. Obviously, a large part of the city's physical plant is devoted to facilities for internal transactions: retail stores of all kinds, restaurants, local professional services, and so on.

Modern cities are increasingly engaged in competition for economic resources such as industrial plants, corporate headquarters, high-technology firms, and government facilities. Cities try to lure investment with an array of features: low tax rates, improved transportation and utility infrastructure, cheap land, and skilled labor force. Amenities such as climate, proximity to recreation, parks, elegant architecture, and cultural activities influence the location decisions of businesses and individuals. Many older cities have difficulty surviving in this new economic game. Abandoned by traditional industries, they're now trying to create a new economic base involving growth sectors such as high technology.

Today, cities no longer compete in mere regional or national markets: the market is an international one. Multinational firms close plants in Chicago or Detroit and build replacements in Asia or Latin America. Foreign products dominate whole sectors of the American consumer goods market. Huge sums of money shift around the globe in instantaneous electronic transactions. Cities must struggle for survival in a volatile environment in which the rules are always changing. This makes city planning even more challenging than before.

Modern City Planning
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Modern city planning can be divided into two distinct but related types of planning. visionary city planning proposes radical changes in the form of the city, often in conjunction with sweeping changes in the social and economic order. Institutionalized city planning is lodged within the existing structures of government, and modifies urban growth processes in moderate, pragmatic ways. It is constrained by the prevailing alignment of political and economic forces within the city.

Visionary or Utopian City Planning
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People have imagined ideal cities for millennia. Plato's Republic was an ideal city, although lacking in the spatial detail of later schemes. Renaissance architects designed numerous geometric cities, and ever since architects have been the chief source of imaginative urban proposals. In the twentieth century, Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright, Paolo Soleri, and dozens of other architects have designed cities on paper. Although few have been realized in pure form, they have influenced the layout of many new towns and urban redevelopment projects.

In his "Contemporary City for Three Million People" of 1922 and "Radiant City" of 1935, Le Corbusier advocated a high-density urban alternative, with skyscraper office buildings and mid-rise apartments placed within park-like open spaces. Different land uses were located in separate districts, forming a rigid geometric pattern with a sophisticated system of superhighways and rail transit.

Frank Lloyd Wright envisioned a decentralized low-density city in keeping with his distaste for large cities and belief in frontier individualism. The Broadacre City plan of 1935 is a large grid of arterials spread across the countryside, with most of the internal space devoted to single-family homes on large lots. Areas are also carefully set aside for small farms, light industry, orchards, recreation areas, and other urban facilities. A network of superhighways knits the region together, so spatially dispersed facilities are actually very close in terms of travel time. In many ways, Wright's Broadacre City resembles American suburban and exurban developments of the post-WWII period.

Many other utopian plans could be catalogued, but the point is that planners and architects have generated a complex array of urban patterns from which to draw ideas and inspiration. Most city planners, however, do not work on a blank canvas; they can only make incremental changes to an urban scene already shaped by a complicated historical process.

Institutionalized City Planning
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The form of the city is determined primarily by thousands of private decisions to construct buildings, within a framework of public infrastructure and regulations administered by the city, state, and federal governments. City planning actions can have enormous impacts on land values. From the point of view of land economics, the city is an enormous playing field on which thousands of competitors struggle to capture value by constructing or trading land and buildings. The goal of city planning is to intervene in this game in order to protect widely shared public values such as health, safety, environmental quality, social equality, and aesthetics.

The roots of American city planning lie in an array of reform efforts of the late nineteenth century: the Parks movement, the City Beautiful movement, campaigns for housing regulations, the Progressive movement for government reform, and efforts to improve public health through the provision of sanitary sewers and clean water supplies. The First National Conference on City Planning occurred in 1909, the same year as Daniel Burnham's famous Plan of Chicago. That date may be used to mark the inauguration of the new profession. The early city planners actually came from diverse backgrounds such as architecture, landscape architecture, engineering, and law, but they shared a common desire to produce a more orderly urban pattern.

The zoning of land became, and still is, the most potent instrument available to American city planners for controlling urban development. Zoning is basically the dividing of the city into discrete areas within which only certain land uses and types of buildings can be constructed. The rationale is that certain activities of building types don't mix well; factories and homes, for example. Illogical mixtures create nuisances for the parties involved and lower land values. After several decades of gradual development, land-use zoning received legal approval from the Supreme Court in 1926.

Zoning isn't the same as planning: it is a legal tool for the implementation of plans. Zoning should be closely integrated with a Master Plan or Comprehensive Plan that spells out a logical path for the city's future in areas such as land use, transportation, parks and recreation, environmental quality, and public works construction. In the early days of zoning this was often neglected, but this lack of coordination between zoning and planning is less common now.

The other important elements of existing city planning are subdivision regulations and environmental regulations. Subdivision regulations require that land being subdivided for development be provided with adequate street, sewers, water, schools, utilities, and various design features. The goal is to prevent shabby, deficient developments that produce headaches for both their residents and the city. Since the late 1960s, environmental regulations have exerted a stronger influence on patterns of urban growth by restricting development in floodplains, on unstable slopes, on earthquake faults, or near sensitive natural areas. Businesses have been forced to reduce smoke emissions and the disposal of wastes has been more closely monitored. Overall, the pace of environmental degradation has been slowed, but certainly not stopped, and a dismaying backlog of environmental hazards remains to be cleaned up. City planners have plenty of work to do as we move into the twenty-first century.

Conclusion: Good City Form
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What is the good city? We are unlikely to arrive at an unequivocal answer; the diversity of human needs and tastes frustrates all attempts to provide recipes or instruction manuals for the building of cities. However, we can identify the crucial dimensions of city performance, and specify the many ways in which cities can achieve success along these dimensions.

A most useful guide in this enterprise is Kevin Lynch's A Theory of Good City Form (Cambridge, MA, MIT Press, 1981). Lynch offers five basic dimensions of city performance: vitality, sense, fit, access, and control. To these he adds two "meta-criteria," efficiency and justice.

For Lynch, a vital city successfully fulfils the biological needs of its inhabitants, and provides a safe environment for their activities. A sensible city is organized so that its residents can perceive and understand the city's form and function. A city with good fit provides the buildings, spaces, and networks required for its residents to pursue their projects successfully. An accessible city allows people of all ages and background to gain the activities, resources, services, and information that they need. A city with good control is arranged so that its citizens have a say in the management of the spaces in which they work and reside.

Finally, an efficient city achieves the goals listed above at the least cost, and balances the achievement of the goals with one another. They cannot all be maximized at the same time. And a just city distributes benefits among its citizens according to some fair standard. Clearly, these two meta-criteria raise difficult issues which will continue to spark debates for the foreseeable future.

These criteria tell aspiring city builders where to aim, while acknowledging the diverse ways of achieving good city form. Cities are endlessly fascinating because each is unique, the product of decades, centuries, or even millennia of historical evolution. As we walk through city streets, we walk through time, encountering the city-building legacy of past generations. Paris, Venice, Rome, New York, Chicago, San Francisco -- each has its glories and its failures. In theory, we should be able to learn the lessons of history and build cities that our descendants will admire and wish to preserve. That remains a constant challenge for all those who undertake the task of city planning.