Community Director Note: Dyanamics of Hood

Rayne Wilsonoff
The hood is changing, it's getting smaller as more sims decide not to return after college, emigrate to other hoods or simply leave. Also residents having fewer children. This change is not a bad thing as the hood wants to stabilize and focus on the charm of small town living. Many other residents have applied for emigration and are currently waiting on external things-like promotions, children reaching certain ages and such before they leave.



With the population decreasing, do we have a need for multi-family housing? There are still sims that desire the convenience of living on McIntosh and walking to work and entertainment areas-they don't want the traditional single family homes. But is multi-family living the way to go? Or should we encourage the building of single family townhomes. The Apple Valley Boarding House is still empty, there haven't been any boarders since it's existence and that lot is 3x2, perhaps it can be converted into a series of flats, but under what surname? Perhaps simply building a 2x2 home for downtown living is best and it can be rented-perfect for those just starting out. Except there are not too many sims just starting out (especially with the surname law). Most families are pretty well off and stable in their finances, there are only a few that have a lower income. Is our hood becoming elitist?



To counter-act the possibility of becoming elitist, I propose that we tear down the Apple Valley Boarding House and create a nice multi-sim living community. With 3-4 units, community gardens and direct access to the Celebration Park behind the lot, this multi-sim lot can be very beautiful and desired amoung younger sims returning from college, but not ready to move home yet due to circumstances. We'll have the surname be the name of the community (McIntosh Parque Place or simply Parque) for easy transmission of funds. We'll limit each unit to 2 sims each and limit the rental period to one season (6-7 simdays). Rental fees would cover garden maintaince and home maintaince. The rent would be low, less than $1000 each simweek (or $1000 the entire rental period).



The current townhome on McIntosh will be rebuilt into a single family townhome and then placed on the market for those sims desiring urban living, yet have more than 2 sims in thier family and desire to put thier roots down.



This would help out a few college graduates and sims that desire to stay in the hood, while their family desires to move elsewhere.