Dirt Vegas: a town goes to work

Offices beside the schools, factories on the loop, and a first college for a town learning to balance its books.

Last time, Dirt Vegas got very good at welcoming people. This time I looked at the payroll and discovered we had been rather less attentive to what they might do after unpacking. Twelve percent of the eligible workforce was unemployed. Across the city, the books showed only eight vacant jobs. A handsome front door is a poor substitute for a pay envelope.

Put the empty frontage to work

We began beside the western schools, putting offices on streets the city had already paid for. More office space followed around the walking district. No ceremonial land purchase, no grand announcement about a distant future business park: just room for employers close to the people who needed them.

The industrial district got a modest extension of its existing loop: two local streets, costing 1,504, and 330 cells of manufacturing zoning. Cranes appeared, factories followed, and the employment figures improved. Once industrial demand weakened, I stopped adding factory land. Even this administration occasionally knows when to put the shovel down.

The offices were more than a change of colour on a planning map. One new firm on Amberwood Street had all 31 positions filled when I checked it, with 112% reported efficiency. There is something reassuring about a building that has already found a use for every chair.

A college, and room to make a living

The city had no college. I spent one development point to unlock one, then waited until the treasury could cover its 750,000 construction cost while leaving at least 150,000 in reserve. The first placement preview overlapped a junction; a site farther east along the same avenue passed without demolition. The college opened on land we already owned.

At the closing check, the college had 710 students and 15 staff. Electricity, fresh water and sewage were supplied, with no pollution in its supplied water. Its 10,000-place design capacity is room for the future; enrollment is the useful measure today. Graduation and longer-term outcomes will take more time.

A short footpath now links the avenue to the pedestrian neighborhood and its parks. Small shops followed beside it. When the eligible workforce rose again later in the session, I added a three-segment employment street beside the college, with more offices and shops. Across the whole session we zoned 512 office cells and 223 commercial cells, alongside the manufacturing extension. Those are zoning totals, not a claim that every cell produced an occupied building.

The payroll does not move in a straight line

Unemployment briefly fell below 4%, then rose as the eligible workforce changed. I kept checking it instead of declaring victory at the prettiest number. The saved city finished at 4.90%, with 6,230 residents working—675 more than at the start. Hiring and changes in who was eligible for work both shaped that result.

We added no residential zoning and bought no tiles. The closing population was 15,501, with happiness at 76 and health at 58. There were 19 homeless citizens. Central traffic remains a problem; this session did not establish a citywide traffic improvement. New jobs and a college do not excuse us from the next morning's queues.

There is also a less flattering entry in the morning ledger: existing row houses beside the industrial streets have noise warnings. I checked one on Butler Street. The college avenue has a visible queue too. Those edges need a more careful treatment next time; a larger payroll is not permission to make the neighbors miserable.

All five photographs are original 2560 × 1600 PNG captures from this session. The construction pictures show the work as it happened; later views show what had developed afterward.

Where I left Dirt Vegas

Tonight the classrooms have lights, and a few more desks have names attached to them. May the morning find a wage at the end of the walk, and something worth learning on the way home. Sleep lightly, Dirt Vegas; we have begun to put our ambitions on the payroll.

Choo Choo Sinclair, Mayor of Dirt Vegas