Covington - Update 61 "Chestnut Hills and South River Bend"

[ejc]

whow that's a huge railyard!!

and also the overview looks really REALLY great.. it's a nice MD you've build here

together with ennedi & paroch we're gonna make a nice OSITM-group this month with frequent & nice updates...

DEAL!?? 


E!

[oldrogue]

Congrats Jon......wonderful and much deserved award.....

Napa...beautiful country.....by the way....never use the word "cheaper" in Napa County...it's a mis-demeanor.... ..... is Sonoma State the destination?   Good school....even if it isn't the destination....

oh, downloaded the roundhouse by oppie that you have and should put it in my region today...thanks for the info...

Duane

[Nardo69]

Congrats to the well deserved award!

So you're not only a great  BATter but also a great MDer ... I love these farms and lines of trees and your traffic layout yet I am not completely happy with the passenger station layout (Okay, this is my nagging area ...  )

I like also your avenue work and your university is just great.

Take care (and I think I know you are doing your backups ...)

Bernhard 

[JBSimio]

TopCliff:  Thank you!  You're absolutely right... it's not fair at all.  But some poor soul has to test this stuff and make sure it actually works... 

Pat:  Wait no longer, my friend... your update is on the way!

Robin:  Thank you!

Ejc:  Welcome to the thread and congratulations to you as well!  I'll do my best to keep up with you guys.  It is some very good company to be in if you ask me.

Duane:  Thank you!  The destination is actually Napa Valley Community College.  I'll make sure to only use that naughty word in quotations...   

Bernhard:  Thanks!  No true rail buff would like my passenger layout.  Then again, this is all based on the US where passenger rail is pretty uncommon at best.  While it is meant to be historically based on the rail roads, I'm also taking the more current approach in which many of these routes have pretty low traffic rates.  Cars and busses will be the main transportation vehicles here...

Update Time!!!

I have been slowly building up Covington and the metro area.  Let's start with a quick comparrison view, shall we?

8.01


That was then...

8.02


... and this is now.  The biggest changes are the railyard over in Holden Township and the addition of Riverside Drive on the east side of town.  The idea is to have a sort of beltway around the built up areas without actually building a full expressway loop (although that may come later... who knows?).

For this update, I thought it would be nice to review the downtown area.  And what better way to do that than with my rather poor excuse for a map?

8.03


I know, I know... it's not the prettiest thing ever made.  I tried to smooth the edges, but it made the whole thing look really terrible.  So I opted for chunky yet legible instead!  And even that didn't work out as well as one might hope...   Anyway, hopefully this finally helps show all the different road names I keep throwing around and helps to locate some of the other points of interest.  I also labeled the two neighborhoods we'll take a closer look at this time around.

8.04


Indian Village is the same poor part of town we looked at once upon a time.  No one really seems to remember how the area got its name.  Chances are good that the ever evolving mode of political correctness will force a name change eventually... something like "Urbanly Challenged Area named in honor of historic Native Americans."  Then again, this is the south, so maybe nobody will really get too concerned.  It's hard to say sometimes.  Either way, not much has really changed in this neighborhood, but I thought some closer looks were in order if we're ever going to get a true feel for the city.

8.05


Lee Street cuts through Indian Village just east of downtown.  This is a rather seedy stretch of shops, bars, and theaters.  There is a mix of historic and newer buildings here, but they all seem to be catering to the same groups of people.

8.06


Most of Indian Village is made up of wood framed tenement buildings from the turn of the century.  An effort to revitalize and upgrade the area in the 1930s saw a number of brick row houses built to replace vacant lots or decayed buildings, but they have faired no better here. Eventually, city leaders just accepted the fact that the financially challenged people (there's that politically correct stuff again!) needed a place to live and so stopped trying to turn this into something it wasn't going to be.

8.07


A few blocks to the north, things begin to look slightly better.  This commercial area is along Friendly Avenue just as it curves north on its way to meet with Market Street.  Perhaps the local church is enough to keep the businesses a bit more respectable.  Too bad that theory didn't appear to help the guy who was in his back yard last night!

8.08


As we move further north, Indian Village becomes a bit more transitional.  Some industrial areas have been rebuilt around the I-40 and I-85 interchange.  The businesses along Market Street are in much better shape than those on Lee Street.  Interstate 40 basically serves as the border between the two neighborhoods and Shacktown begins just north of the expressway.

8.09


It's probably pretty obvious how this area got its name.  This area was originally plotted as a fairly nice working class neighborhood.  Today the houses are a bit rundown and often overlooked by many home buyers as being too small.  Most of the houses are now single or double rental units.  There honestly isn't too much more to see here, so we won't really linger too much.  It just seems that if we're really going to see Covington, we should see all the areas even if they're not that exciting.

And so we wrap up this look at the near east side.  It goes without saying that these aren't the best parts of the city anymore.  If you look closely, there are some glimpses of what these neighborhoods used to be like... but time marches ever onward and things always change.  I'll try to find something a little more upbeat to showcase next time.  Until then, I leave you with the latest region view of metro Covington.

8.10


Thanks for stopping by!

JB

[Pat]

Jon this is just totaly great here!!! I love that transportation map, sure its crud but it gets the job done and I bet that you got some cartographer working overtime to get the map done ehh... I love the bit about the Indian Village and the area by Lee Street  ... Till the next update!!!

[thundercrack83]

Hey, Jon!

Love the update, your progress is astounding. The new downtown looks great, and with the comparison between the two regions shots, I can see what you've done! And that map looks good enough for me--I can see all the places you talk about!

Keep up the great work here, my friend. It's always a pleasure to see what you've got happening here!

Dustin

[Jmouse]

Hi Jon. I can see your progress on the transport map which is always interesting to watch. And I'm glad to see you showing all parts of town. I like the way you've laid out the neighborhoods to reflect the wealth level, and I especially like those little houses in 8.09. You've done a good job on the commercial area in 8.07, too - those are some really effective BATs you've used.

You've made a good start on your month in the spotlight, and I hope you'll keep those fantastic overviews coming along with all the other good stuff!

Later...
Joan

[threestooges]

The map is great. Graphically well done or not it gets the job done and that's just what is needed. The overviews are nice but you are right, getting the names matched with the roads really helps put things together. "Urbanly Challenged Area named in honor of historic Native Americans" has a ring to it, but it might not fit well on the maps. It's an interesting selection of shops that have developed on Lee St. but what is also interesting is the burnt out row house you have there. They look good put to use like that. As far as the incident on Market St., perhaps it was just a shave and a haircut coupled with a sneeze (kidding of course). Shacktown may be old, but at least it looks like it's kept clean. Glad we got to see these parts of Covington. It really adds dimension to everything else we've seen so far. Glad to hear you've heard about your new job. Napa is a very nice place and I hope the place you get works well. Cheap is an interesting term to use up there, but I'm sure it'll work out well either way. Look forward to the next update and I'll be interested to see what you come up with next.
-Matt

[sebes]

I enjoyed reading your update again JB! Your sence of humor is the major cause of that, but also the pictures you show are great. The map, well, it serves the purpose, and I could not make a better one myself. So, also compliments for that one my friend!

[oldrogue]

Great update Jon.....love your way of telling a story...and a tour of "all" parts of a city is what makes it real......Napa CC.....not to shabby my friend.  I went to a community college about an hour east of there in Yuba City...course that was back in the dark ages .... You are moving to an area that will sure be a wonderfull area to browse in and am interested in seeing how it affects your city building and batting.
Take care and I am now on official "waiting for a Covington update" time.

[Nardo69]

Now that is a nice update!

Even though I never crossed the Big Lake I know about the rather low traffic frequency of the US railways - sometimes only train per week and direction but with a length (and slow speed   ) that waiting at a level crossing seems to take ages ...

On the other hand I do like that rather "European" Layout with Marrast's station and no level crossings 

I also like the second last picture. In General I try to have some rather smooth streets and rods (flat or sloped) but here I like these "bumps") of that gray street - it just fits there!

Take care and don't forget to make backups

Bernhard 

[JBSimio]

Pat:  Thank you!  Unfortunately I don't have the best editing software in the world (or I just don't know how to use it!) and my attempts at making the map 4 times its original size to make room for street names didn't do so well.  Glad you enjoyed my somewhat inappropriate humor... 

Dustin:  Thank you!  The transportation maps might be a little decieving really.  I've covered a lot of area, but there is quite a bit of fine tuning to be done.  I'm really still trying to build up the population base so I can detail areas without having to worry as much about upsetting the balances.

Joan:  Thanks!  I'll definitely keep the overviews coming.  I feel it helps keep things in perspective... it's something I personally always like to know.  I always see so many great pictures here and find myself wondering how they all fit together, so this is just my way of showing that.  The houses you mentioned are one of many great examples of SimGoober and Barby making our game so much better.  They're such simple little houses, but Shacktown wouldn't exist without them.

Matt:  Thank you!  All those shops along Lee Street just grew that way.  I think I had to bulldoze one small high wealth office, but otherwise I just kept hitting the "Make Historical" button... and there you have it.  The burned out shell was another happy accident.  It's part of my SHUR Brownstone set, but it comes up at random and isn't always an easy one to get.  The fact that it landed on a corner where it was easy to see just made it that much better.

Sebes:  Thanks!  Occasionally, my sense of humor gets me in trouble for being a bit irreverent, but as long as people realize that I'm just kidding around it's usually OK.  Maybe everyone should just stop taking themselves so seriously and then I wouldn't have to worry about it...      

Duane:  Thank you!  I'll have to look Yuba City up now just to see where you mean.  I'll be curious to see if my batting styles change once I get there too.  I know my trips to LA inspired some ideas that haven't seen the light of day yet, so who knows?

Bernhard:  Thank you!  I do plan to use the rails for mass transit where I can make it fit, but I have no intention of spending a lot of time on that part of the process.  There is another region I've been toying with that is meant to be very rail based... but that's another story entirely.  The bumpy street was actually a mistake that I didn't catch until it was too late.  I normally try to smooth things out better as well, but I missed that area and didn't want to redo it after saving all those houses as historical!    I also like the result though, so I gues I got lucky.

Update Time!!!

I thought we would continue our little tour of some of Covington's residential neighborhoods.  This time, we'll visit the south side where things begin to look a little nicer.

9.01


Here is another map (slightly better looking than last night) which shows where we're headed.  Just south of where Randlemann Road and Freeman Mill Road join up is a bit of government housing.  We'll skip that tonight since I think last night was enough ghetto to last everyone a while.  We'll head a little further south from there.

Freeman Mill Road and Randlemann Road create a narrow wedge known as Oak Park.  The area is made up of mostly single family homes ranging from the more modest to the upper middle class with a few mansions thrown in for good measure.  There is a rather large industrial area further to the south along Randlemann Road, but we'll get to that later.  For now, let's just stick with where all this southern hospitality comes from.

9.02


There actually is such a thing as Oak Park and this is what it looks like.  It is a long narrow strip east of Freeman Mill Road.  There are a number of these open areas dotting the neighborhood, some of which are developed parks like this one and some of which are just open areas.  This is actually my attempt to mimic a similar feature I remember from living in Greensboro.  There were all sorts of these little parks that were almost a tossup between an empty city block and a very wide boulevard.  That probably doesn't make much sense, so I'll just move on.  What's that?  You'd like a closer look?  Lucky for you, I came prepared today...

9.03


Oak Park (the actual park... not the neighborhood) was little more than a strip of untouched land until city leaders decided to "improve" the park around 1957.  Biking paths and a really nifty fountain were added along with some recreation areas.  The project was initiated in the hopes of attracting wealthier redevelopment in the surrounding areas.  Those results are still mixed at this point, but many of the smaller houses are slowly disappearing so it seems to be working.  It may just take a bit longer than those leaders had hoped.  Most of them are no longer with us and probably don't care much at this point anyway.

9.04


Overlooking Oak Park is a small strip of homes which survived the construction of I-85 through the area.  This section was actually cut off from its rightful neighborhood by the expressway, but it has fared quite well and is now considered part of Oak Park (the neighborhood, not the park... are you confused yet?).  I'm really only showing this picture because it is one of my few attempts at making a terraced neighborhood.

9.05


Oak Park is characterized by a number of different things.  There is no real grid here... in fact many map makers would argue that there is no rhyme or reason to any of the streets here!  This is a look at one of many churches in Covington (this is the Bible Belt after all... you should probably book tickets for the upcoming church update if you're interested).  Behind it is Carter Elementary School.  Oddly enough, despite many schools being named for presidents down here, there doesn't seem to be one named for Lincoln anywhere.  But I digress... hey look!  There's a pretty nice soccer field there too!

9.06


Here another one of those narrow strips of land that I was talking about.  It's really just a nice open area... it doesn't even have a name, but the city does cut the grass.  So I guess that makes it an official park.  The housing stock still has some catching up to do here, but it's only a matter of time.

9.07


And yet another place where the land was just left alone for some reason.  In this case, it was probably the terrain itself that made this area tough to build on at one time.  After a while, people got used to it being a nice green space and started complaining anytime somebody tried to build there.  So it became a park!  Sometimes progress actually cooperates.

Overall, Oak Park is a pretty nice part of town.  It's not the richest or most sought after area by any means, but it holds its own.  The neighborhood is a great place to raise a family and prices make it an ideal area for first time home buyers.

That's about it this time.  There is actually a bit more to finish for this area in the next city tile, so we'll probably be back another time to see how things have come along.  Thanks for reading!

JB

[Jmouse]

JB, You've done it again! The map looks very good, and the neighborhoods are great - more so because I feel like I've seen it all before. I'm used to the good - plenty of green spaces, and the bad - freeways dissecting neighborhoods.

You've done a good job on the parks without overdoing it, and there is, indeed, a subtle change in the quality of the neighborhood. (I don't know how you pulled that one off, but somehow you did!) Churches are always a personal favorite, and there are so many pretty ones like the one you chose.

I really enjoy visiting Covington - it's very inviting and, well, comfortable - and I hope you'll take that as the compliment it's intended to be!

Later...
Joan

[Simpson]

Hello my friend,
I'm sorry, I don't see five update of your cities
Your updates are very good abd the map region is magnifical
I love the field they are beautiful
So 
I will be more here when they are an update 

[bat]

Wonderful new updates there! Great work on the overviews! Also beautiful pictures of your suburbs!
Looking forward to more...

[Pat]

Jon simply stunning stuff here and don't worry about it I totaly understand the warpped sense of humor that you have lol.....  Hey your mapping is good and you are working with what you got,  so don't be disappointed by it...

[thundercrack83]

Oak Park does look beautiful, my friend! I think I may look into moving there! The schools, the parks--it looks like a great place to live.

I'll be looking forward to seeing more!

Dustin

[oldrogue]

I agree with Thundercrack.....I could live there....mind you.... I'd have to loose some serious size......

[paroch]

I really enjoyed the last two updates Jon.

You really have created a different look and feel in each of the three neighbourhoods.  And I think I like ShackTown the best.  Obvioulsy not for its beauty but because it feels so authentic.  It's not easy to keep such distinct looks on a shared quad, so well done.

And I can't see a soccer field at the Carter School, a football pitch yeah, but what is this "soccer" you talk about 

All the best

Paul

[EDGE4194]

Jon- very good job with the Oak Park neighborhood. I love the history you provide with each pic. Looking forward to more...