- Gonna look at my messages.
Make sure I'm not missing anything.
Oh, #This, #City, #Sucks. Period.
Alright. That's some raw feedback.
(upbeat music)
- [Michael] My name is Michael.
I'm a city planner in Culver City, California.
Today, I'm going to try and build my perfect city.
City planning ranges from very specific industry nuances,
like transportation, and/or infrastructure,
to much more broader land use patterns,
identifying where residential and commercial,
and industrial should be placed.
We handle a lot of day to day activities,
from one day we can be approving somebody's fence permit,
that their building in their backyard,
to a room addition, to a large scale 800-residential
development project with commercial and mixed-use
on the ground floor, and everything in between.
(woosh) (upbeat music)
- First thing I'm gonna do is layout my land uses,
and then sort out the orientation
of where they're gonna be at.
We'll stick with some industry of some sort in this area,
since it's right off the freeway there.
Quick and easy access for people coming to work in town.
Some nice river here,
so we'll probably do some sort of commercial downtown,
maybe some residential and commercial
on the waterfront here.
We'll probably throw some high-end residential
up in the hillsides here.
You will wanna be concerned about protecting some viewsheds,
so it will probably be low density.
And maybe we'll get some other high density
residential in this area. And throughout all this,
we gotta make sure we're making or leaving room
for public safety and police and fire services,
and hospitals. I'm probably gonna default to roads
with bicycle lanes, supporting medium traffic city-wide.
I'll throw a roundabout in here,
and get some good traffic flow.
We're gonna trek up the hillside here.
Roads tend to curve a little bit.
We'll do what we can to stay away from the grid pattern,
'cause that's a little boring design.
We'll create a couple cul-de-sac's here.
Get the good neighborhood feel.
This area will be a little secluded,
probably a little pricier homes.
Okay. So that kinda looks like a natural
residential area there.
Now let's change gears here to the industrial area,
where you're probably gonna wanna see
more of a gridlock system.
Now the benefit of being a planner
is making sure all the right parties are at the table.
That would include traffic engineers,
and various consultants to help you determine
what goes where and the capacity of the road.
Do a nice boulevard across town.
Treeline boulevard from around there.
Probably frequently traveled to get direct access
to the freeway. Maybe we can build another bridge
in that access point from both sides of the city here.
A little bit of a curve here to give it some character.
I'm trying to preserve the sense of privacy
and entitlement that one might have in moral heights here.
There's only one access road.
From a safety perspective,
you might want a couple more access points.
We had these recent fires in northern California.
One of the lessons learned there,
is the access points to and from the more rural,
rural areas, and some, maybe we do
wanna get another access point in there.
This thing saying we need a trash dump.
Oh, wow. Floating garbage collector.
That's a residential area.
We don't want people staring at trash in residential areas.
Let's put it on the other side of the freeway here,
right next to our neighboring city.
So, if we get any complaints, we can tell them
to call their elected officials and ask them.
I'm gonna put the water pipes in.
So, water pipes tend to run under the right of way,
if so that if any public agency needs to get to them,
all you have to do is tear up the road.
What do my messages say?
Oh, I guess this is how you figure out
whether you're doing a good job.
This is Chirper: "keep an eye on what your citizens
are talking about". Oh, perfect. Just like real life.
"Green energy! What an excellent choice".
Well, thank you for that reinforcement.
"Friendly reminder. It's still not okay
to throw trash in the water,
even though we have a collector".
Oh, so they're punishing me for trying to keep
the water clean. They're saying that doesn't mean
you can throw things in the water. Well that's logical.
So, I'm gonna go into zoning some of the areas.
Let's see on here. We got Low Density Residential Zone:
attracts families with children,
and it will evolve into fancy villas.
That sounds like hillside development. So there we are.
Now we got some of them being built here already.
So, let's zoom in,
and we can kinda see already,
some of these single-family homes,
who are all telling me they're without power and water.
I think I might have to fix that,
before I get some angry tweets here.
So, let's finish zoning more residents in this area.
So then let's do the industrial area.
Industrial Zone provides jobs for citizens,
and produces goods for local businesses.
Uses a lot of water. Produces a lot of pollution.
And it gives me some advice.
"Please place Industrial Zones at a safe distance
from any residential areas."
So, if you lack common sense, it tells you.
The other option is an Office Zone.
So actually, it probably makes sense to mix
Industrial and Office, and a little bit of High Density
Commercial in this area.
On this main boulevard entering the city,
we've placed High Density Commercial,
and I'm gonna mix that up with Low Density Commercial,
which is typically the boutique type of services.
Sort of a little bit of Industrial,
like Heavy Industrial in some of these blocks.
And then, let's do a mixture of Office.
Let's throw in some green space. Where's parks?
If I put these parks spread out a little bit,
I can cover the whole area.
They say that every resident needs about three or four
thousand square feet of open space.
But I don't know if this game factors that in.
Then I'm gonna throw in some High Density Residential
around the perimeters here, along the boundaries.
I'm leaving a little bit of room on the corners
to help encourage those sort of neighborhood markets,
that you'd like to see on the corner.
All the zoning is built out now.
So I think the next thing to think about
is probably the public services.
Let's see. We got Medical Clinics, Hospitals,
a Sauna. I wouldn't consider that a civil service.
So let's look at the emergency services.
Maybe let's get a fire station here,
about mid block on Cannes Blvd.
And let's throw a couple of sub stations or firehouses
out in the outskirts to make sure
there's coverage out there. There we go.
Alright. Oh, look at all those smiley faces.
Alright. Did something right!
Go look at my messages. Make sure I'm not missing anything.
"Health care, standard in any other city of this size,
except ours." Okay, now I'm starting to get some feedback.
They'd like some health care. What are the other comments?
Oh. #This. #City. #Sucks. Period.
Alright. That's some raw feedback.
I think if I get some additional public services here,
and electricity and power, I can probably
convince these residents otherwise. Police services.
Probably makes sense to keep them by the Fire department.
Public safety likes to stick together.
Now we got more smiling faces. Oh, good.
Let's make them feel better already.
Alright. So let's focus on the primary hospital.
Hospital, police, fire, all together,
on both sides of the city.
So let's get some Elementary Schools in here.
Those are always handy to have nearby any residential zone.
They also can double in the real world.
They can double as parks-based.
Maybe we should put in a couple High Schools.
Alright. One town, two high schools.
That's good for healthy rivalry.
There we go. I'm starting to see some smiling faces there.
(laughter) Alright. That makes me feel good.
If you look at the bottom,
my demand for all residential, commercial,
and industrial is zero. So, let's hope that's a good sign.
We zoom in here in the residential neighborhood,
we can see some homes popping up.
People are walking around.
You can see the cars driving around.
New homes going up here. Everybody seems happy.
Let's see. I got more messages.
"Did somebody lose their wallet?"
Well, at least it's not negative feedback.
Good messages. "Good morning everybody.
What a beautiful sunrise. Paradise on earth."
Alright. So it looks like we're making everybody happy.
I feel good about this city.
I feel like it's a good balance of land uses.
We got a nice, unique design and street pattern in there.
There's a little bit of a combination of the grid system,
and a little bit of the street pattern,
that might be more dictated by the terrain.
It's laid out nicely. There's a couple different
neighborhoods. Everything's not bifurcated.
Everything's sort of speaks with one another,
and inter-relates in one way or another.
I think if you gave me twenty years,
I might be able to really build this thing out,
and get some good public transit in there,
and a good connected street network,
and make sure that all my services
were being provided accordingly.
I think that I built a city
that you could live, work,
and enjoy all your life needs in this city.
(gentle music)