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Learn how to effectively rezone your SimCity 4 city for denser populations and explore utilitarian vs. Kantian approaches to neighbor deals for waste, power, and water management.

Alright, so you've hit around 40,000 Sims and you're ready to take your city to the next level by zoning denser. Don't worry, there's no need to demolish anything – you can just zone right over the existing lots. Keep an eye on your data view to see which areas haven't 'up-sized' yet, and try to place these denser zones closer to the city center. You don't have to do it all at once, either.

A quick heads-up: if one side of your city doesn't have a neighbor yet, it's probably best to hold off on zoning denser there for now.

Now, you might have to wait a bit for these changes to really show. If your population isn't climbing, make sure you've got enough recreational facilities and that you haven't hit your demand cap. If it's still sluggish, consider starting a new city next door if there's space, or focus on developing another neighboring city. But usually, you'll see a population boom soon enough. One last thing to check if you're stuck is your commute time – sometimes that's the real culprit holding you back.

REFER: B6.09: Abandoned Building & High Commute and No Development and PART 7: Metropolis

B6.03: Utilitarian Approach: Neighbor Deals

Some players swear by neighbor deals for keeping their cities clean and beautiful, especially when it comes to waste management. The idea is that as your city grows, you can easily get clean power and water from neighbors. It's like Jeremy Bentham said, aiming for “The greatest happiness for the greatest number.” This means sometimes one city has to be the 'scapegoat' for the good of the region. In practice, this often means designating one city as the 'dump' city, zoning a lot of landfill there. Since supply drives cost, having a large supply makes it cheaper.

And yes, I know about 'rule utilitarianism' versus 'scapegoating' – no need to email me about it! Plus, the 'dump' city does get paid for taking the trash, so it's not entirely a victim. You can use this same oversupply trick for power and water too.

B6.03.1: Waste: Obliterate & Regional Dump

Dump and Obliterate: I've never actually tried this myself, but it sounds totally possible, though it borders on cheating. You create a dump city, use it until it's full or you're ready to move on, and then you simply delete it. If you go this route, try to keep development minimal in that city – just enough to run the dump or power plant. That way, when you obliterate it, it won't mess with the demand in your main cities too much.

Dump for the Region: This is also possible, though I haven't tested it on a huge scale, and mostly with power. I'm not sure if it works as well for waste. Basically, City B can sell power to City C even if B bought it from City A, as long as they're all neighbors in a chain (A > B > C). The downside is that each resale adds cost, so the furthest city in the chain will have a hefty budget strain. To counter this, you can have the last city sell power back to the first – now that's what I call cheating! I'll cover that and other 'cheapo' methods in the Cheats section.

REFER: SECTION D: Exploits or 'cheats'

B6.03.2: Kantian Approach

Self-Sufficient: Personally, I prefer this approach for power, water, and waste. It's more of an individualistic path where no single city suffers for the whole region. Plus, the money you save on exports can be used to upgrade your city's power sources. The tricky part is garbage. Even with a recycling plant, you'll still need a landfill or a waste-to-power plant, both of which are bad for the environment and desirability. But then again, exporting it causes environmental issues elsewhere unless you plan to abandon that city.

Time Vortex: This method is a bit of a cheat, but it can prevent trash from ever appearing if you're willing to spend the Simoleons. Here's how it works:

1. Build a landfill in City 'X'. Pause the game and make sure the landfill hasn't been used at all when you save and exit.
2. In City 'Y', export trash to City 'X'.
3. After you're done playing in City 'Y', pause the game and cancel the deal.
4. Now, build a landfill in City 'Y'.
5. Initiate an import deal with City 'X' and save and exit, ensuring the landfill in 'X' isn't used.
6. Go back to City 'X' and dezone the landfill.
7. When you need to do this again, just return to step (A).

This is actually the most environmentally friendly cheat because no city actually ends up with the waste products.