Districts and policies
From The City Wiki · Reference page · 17 entries · game data version 1.10.11
Districts and policies: The districts the game makes, drawing your own, and every district policy with its cost.
A district is a part of the city with its own name and policies. Open City Hall › Rules › Districts to see them, rename them, set their policies, or draw your own.
The districts the game makes
The game makes a district of every neighborhood: a clump of three or more homes close together, named for its main street. Their names float over the map in the Neighborhoods tab of the side panel. A district's policies apply to everyone living there, and to the shops, garages and factories in it.
Drawing your own districts (the district drawer)
Don't like the districts the game made? Draw over them. In City Hall › Districts press Draw districts on the map (or open it from the Neighborhoods side tab). A panel opens on the left with your drawn districts, each with its colour, its name (click to change it) and a delete button, plus + New district, Paint or Erase, and the brush size.
Pick a district below, then drag on the map to paint it. What you paint leaves the district the game drew. Shift-drag erases; Ctrl-click picks the district under the mouse; [ and ] change the brush.
- Make a district bigger or smaller by painting more squares onto it or erasing squares from it. The map is painted in squares 2 blocks across.
- A drawn district takes every lot painted with it, homes and the rest, from the district the game made; what is not painted stays as the game drew it.
- Start from the game's districts copies every district the game drew as a drawn district of its own, with its name and policies, so you can reshape them.
- Deleting a drawn district gives its squares back to the districts the game drew. Drawn districts are saved with the city. In a friend's co-op city, the host draws the districts.
Brush sizes
| Brush | Radius | |
|---|---|---|
| Small | 2 blocks | |
| Medium | 4.5 blocks | default |
| Large | 8 blocks |
District policies
Set each district's policies in City Hall. Some cost the city a little every day for each person living in the district.
| Policy | What it does | Cost to the city | Setting |
|---|---|---|---|
| Income tax | Lower (-10%) makes people happier and brings in less; higher (+10%) the other way round. | Free | Lower, usual or higher |
| No heavy industry | No factory is built or rebuilt bigger in the district. Those there stay. | Free | Switch |
| Parking price cap | No garage in the district charges more than $10. | Free | Switch |
| Recycling | Rubbish piles up half as fast, and people like it. | $1 per resident a day | Switch |
| Neighborhood watch | Half as many break-ins. People feel safer. | $0.80 per resident a day | Switch |
| Quiet nights | No sirens are heard in the district (the cars still come). People sleep better. | $0.25 per resident a day | Switch |
| School fees waived | Families there pay no school fee. The city goes without it. | Free | Switch |
| Rent control | Rent is a fifth lower: people are happier, and pay a tenth less income tax. | Free | Switch |
| No street parking | Nobody may park at the kerb: the police ticket cars left there. The streets are clearer and quieter, but drivers with no garage near home are angry. Make sure there are parking garages nearby. | $0.15 per resident a day | Switch |
| Street parking meters | Cars parked at the kerb pay the city by the hour. Drivers with no garage near home mind it a little. | $0.10 per resident a day | Off, or $1, $2, $3, $5 an hour |
| Rubbish collected twice a week | The bins go out twice a week, not once, and people like it. The households pay a fifth more on their power, water and sewer bills for it, and the trucks do twice the rounds. | $1.50 per resident a day | Switch |
| Street sweeping | Sweepers go round the district's streets every week. Cleaner streets make people happier. | $0.60 per resident a day | Switch |
| Free smoke alarms | The city fits smoke alarms in every building: half as many fires start in the district. | $0.50 per resident a day | Switch |
| Flu shots | Free flu shots at the clinics and hospitals: residents in reach of one get a shot over the following weeks (three in four take it), and it protects them for about a season. Those with a shot fall ill half as often and spread it half as much. (In Easy mode illness works as it always did, and the shots change nothing.) | $0.02 per resident a day | Switch |
| Encourage buses | More people here leave the car at home and take the bus when a route goes their way: fewer cars, less exhaust. Costs a little for signs, timetables and a nudge on the fare. Trains and taxis are not in the city yet. | $0.40 per resident a day | Switch |
See also
- Transport – Bus stops, stations and airports.
- Road rules and fines – Every rule the police enforce and its usual fine.
- All reference categories
- How the City Works
The reference pages are made from the game's own data, version 1.10.11. Numbers can change between versions.