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Cost of Living - Urban Density

Adds Urban Density, which affects a wide variety of statistics on transport, public services, and environment. But you need to be careful as rapid changes in urban density can lead to Real Estate Bubble or Urban Decay.

NOTE - THIS MOD REQUIRES COST OF LIVING TO RUN

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More Detailed Description:

Urban Density presents a rather unique challenge of dealing with undesirable fluctuations. You may want to steer it as you want but most of its inputs have a massive inertia. Plus to that, any changes can have consequences as way too fast growth of urban density can cause Real Estate Bubble while declining density can fuel Urban Decay.

Both Real Estate Bubble and Urban Decay are actually parts of a larger cycle. If urban areas are in boom, bubbles can follow. Bubble will drive inhabitants away as rents become less affordable. At some point, bubble can kill urban growth and cause urban decay. Some regions become even less livable places, further accelerating the decline or even creating slums. Decaying areas or slums will bring lots of problems as they can be defined as 'concentration of poverty.' These outliers can do more than you expect from overall statistics. However, decline will stop eventually, revitalizing urban areas. What you can do here is preventing or at least alleviating negative impacts of such fluctuations.

While Urban Density itself has some important mechanics related to its growth & decline, it also has numerous links with other policies and simulations. You can obviously run more efficient public services & transit in densely developed cities. But density itself will come at a price such as higher expectations from commuters or more pressure on social fabric (including higher cost of living).