Re: Santa Barbara County - Update: The End.

[daryl7478]

Happy New Year! This is possibly my last comment of 2010. Bye!

[cubby420]

Happy New Year to you as well! Excellent pic too by the way!

[io_bg]

Fantastic picture! Happy New Year to you, too!

[Tomas Neto]

Nice image!!! Happy new year my friend!!!

[nbvc]

Nice city.

[dedgren]

Happy New Year, Raphael!  That is the best SC4 fireworks pic I've ever seen.


David

[marsh]

Be-a-utiful Fireworks!

,marsh 

[Skimbo]

Nice fireworks

Skimbo:First of all, I didn't think anyone would look so closely at my pics. This is nice to know.
The reason for the missing hole is probably that I know almost nothing about golf courses. 

Golf courses normally have 9 or 18 holes, some clubs have more courses than one (27, 36, 45, 54, 63 holes etc.)
Sometimes there are practice courses with 3 or 6 holes.

A driving range exists normally as well.

[ldvger]

Raphael-

Spent the last couple of evenings catching up on your MD and am impressed with your "alternative reality" version of SB.  As always, it brought up lots of memories to see the familiar names, so now that I'm all caught up, this evening I spent several hours on Google Earth, looking at all the old haunts, many of which are now gone but many that are, surprisingly, still there.  My son, daughter-in-law, and grandson just recently moved back to the SB area, Goleta, actually, after many years in Long Beach.

I was especially tickled to see you include my alma mater, San Marcos High School, which in reality is located at the NE corner of Hollister Ave and Turnpike Rd., and the football stadium is north and east of the classrooms rather than across a road, as you have placed it.  The stadium is Valley Stadium and was a day-time only field until my graduating class made thier class gift of stadium lights to the school.  Saving enough money for lights actually took almost 10 years...each graduating class donated thier fund-raising money towards lighting the stadium and my class was the one to finally top of the lighting fund, so we got the credit for the lights.  One of the major fund-raisers for the lighting fund was selling matches, each book imprinted with the slogan "Light Valley Stadium".  My senior year, 1972, was the first time night games were played there and I have lots of proud and fond memories of finally being able to play home games in our own home field. 

You did an excellent job with the tiny little SB airport.  I flew in there in 2005 and can tell you, the terminal is MUCH smaller than you have built it in  game.  I think there are only 3 boarding/disbarking gates and I know there are no jetways at all.  All planes are boarded from the tarmac.  If you go back to Google Earth and take another look at the SB airport, you will see a tiny parking lot near to a red-tile roofed structure that is kinda L-shaped...that red tile roof is the passenger terminal.  And I know this is not a recreation, it's just that the airport you have built is very large for a relatively small area.  I also read that you hope to grow your population to around a million....that's about 10 times the actual population of SB now, so the larger airport you have built is probably a good idea.  Just hurts my heart to think of SB/Goleta having a million folks living there...it's primary charm is it's smallness.  When my family moved there in 1968, population was 45k and we only had to dial 4 numbers on the phone to call anyone locally.  Now it's just over 100k population and all the citrus orchards are long gone...

Lora/LD

[RickD]

Downtown Tour

26.1

Let's take a tour of downtown Santa Barbara.

26.2

The intersection of 1st Avenue and 1st Street is officially the center of downtown. This is the financial and office district. At night it is pretty much deserted.

26.3

Highrise construction in Santa Barbara started at the end of the 1970s. Until then height restriction laws prohibited buildings with more than 12 floors. The first highrises developed along 1st Avenue. The new zoning density plan limits new skyscraper developments to the area between 1st Avenue and the freeway. This is to protect the historic old town and to achieve a dense and visually appealing skyline.
However, all proposed and approved projects have been postponed during the economic crisis. There is currently no new skyscraper under construction.

26.4

Market Square is the historic town center.
The famous farmer's market is held every wednesday and saturday. The flea market on sundays is very popular with tourists. The town hall and Stock exchange are also located around Market Square.
The neighborhood features countless small speciality shops, Bars, Delis and a thriving nightlife. It is the hustling and buzzling heart of the city.

26.5

Several old buildings around Market Square give evidence of the city's spanish and mexican heritage.

26.6

Another busy place is Wiggum Park. It is famous for street artists of all kinds performing there during summer.
The Coca-Cola Tower is one of the few exceptions where highrises were approved outside of the high density zone.

26.7

Wait a minute, Oregon? What's this sign doing here? The house belongs to a certain Mr. Mortimer van Mortinson. He was born in Portland, Oregon and moved to Santa Barbara in 1956 to marry the love of his life. But he always stayed an Oregonian at heart. After he made a small fortune with his brewery he bought this building and put up the sign to honor his home state.

26.8

I-5 runs through downtown Santa Barbara on a sunken alignment. It also marks the southern border of the CBD.

26.9

The interchange between I-5 (left to bottom), US-101 (left to top) and N6 Avenue (to the right) is infamous for its sharp turns, dangerous weaving, and insufficient capacity. Especially that I-5 narrows to only one lane on the flyover from south to west is a terrible bottleneck.
The interchange has been build in the 1960s and was cramped into the already densely developed downtown.

26.10

Along 1st Street.
The numbering system of the roads in the downtown grid is quite unique. Better get familiar with it before driving around town looking for an address.

26.11

The intersection of North 5th Avenue and 1st Street.
Roads in downtown are numbered. The Avenues run East-West direction, Streets run north-south. The central axis are 1st Avenue and 1st Street.

26.12

S 7th Avenue/E 4th Street.
The numbers increase in all directions. S 7th Avenue is the seventh road south of 1st Avenue running in east-west direction.
The system is a bit a bit confusing at first. But it enables you to identify your location quite easily when you are familiar with it. Just make sure you get the prefix right. E 76th Street is at the opposite side of the city than W 76th Street!

26.13

The central station is on the left. The old and dilapidated Union Station has been replaced by this generic office building.
Don't worry about the level crossings. I'll deal with them very soon.




Wow, I got so many comments. I am terribly sorry that I have no time to answer them all individually. I could barely manage to get this update done. 

Thank you so much for your kind words. It is the main reason that keeps me motivated to continue.

[GreekMan]

WOW! very impressie work! I do think you should put more buildings to the right of downtown. the area above and to the left of the coca cola buildings

Where did u get those boat marianas in the first picture?

[noahclem]

Beautiful update!  I love the way you've planned your city with regard to high-rise buildings. It's also really cool how you use all kinds of transportation networks. Your use of RHW, as before, is especially impressive. Your city center looks beautiful at night--though I wouldn't say that it's pretty much abandoned as you've said

[travismking]

I really like how your downtown skyline is clumped together and rather small and not spread out and sprawling like mine tend to be Great update

[Nexis4Jersey]

Wow , this last update left me speechless....I really like , the view in 26.1 , the interchange in 29.9 , the tram in 26.11 reminds me of around here , 26.13 came out really good.

[threestooges]

Heh heh, so I can see I can save my comments about level crossings. I'll be interested to see how you tackle them within the developed space you already have. It'll hopefully give me some ideas for other options to consider for some parts of Greenacre. I know it's not meant to be a replica of the real Santa Barbara, but I will admit there was a disconnect when I first saw downtown. I do like it though. The bell-curve height profile of it seems pretty realistic, and the blend of shorter buildings in with the taller ones adds to the overall picture as well. The market in 26.4 also caught my eye. Nice little open space saved within the city. It's a rarity, but always nice to find. Looking forward to the next update.
-Matt

[turtle]

Wow, that is one very well proportioned downtown. I agree with Greekman, though, that area just to the right of downtown seems ripe for re-development once SB recovers from the crisis 
Excellent downtown and transportation system!

[ecoba]

Very impressive downtown, Raphael ! The first picture was jaw-dropping at the realism, I especially love how you can see the mountainous terrain near the bottom; very accurate for California's coast.


Ethan

[penguin007]

Great city there you have my friend!! I love the use of the trams in that style of city never seen it used before and the RHW looks very realistic

Will

[Skimbo]

What a nice downtown =)

Great selection of buildings, they fit well together

My favourites are the pics 26-01, 26-09 and 26-11

[sumwonyuno]

It's great to see Santa Barbara rebuilt!   

I know you were interested in putting my Central Pacific Plaza lot in your city.  Releasing the lot is on my priority list.  I can't promise when exactly it'll be released, but I for one will be if one of Santa Barbara's new developments looks familiar.     (It looks like my lot may look at home among your chosen highrises).