Where are the slums?

[Wolfsun]

Why no slums? Or maybe I just never noticed them? Or maybe I'm just so freaking good that they never have a chance to develop (and if you believe that there's a bridge in Brooklyn I know you'll want and I'll sell it to ya - great deal...).

Seriously? How come no slums?

[Tarik Torgaddon]

There are plenty of slums here in America. Los Angeles, Detroit, St. Louis, Oakland...

[BLÀde]

there are slums here also we call them housing commission districts. :P

[セルリアン]

As a city building veteran who has spent a considerable amount of time playing other city games (specifically SimCity 4) I haven't really seen "slums." I think the closest I've seen is that in SimCity 4, if you had a nice building (say, medium wealth) and the conditions that were required to make the building disappear, it lowers in wealth value, and more people are able to live in the lower wealth dwelling. If this is representative of slums or just squatting, I don't know.

But I'd love to see some representation of slums, ie, if you have astronomical residential demand but no zones, some people might start building shacks near workplaces.

[Lonesome 77]

Publicado originalmente por Cerulean:

But I'd love to see some representation of slums, ie, if you have astronomical residential demand but no zones, some people might start building shacks near workplaces.

Reminds me of Tropico 4.

[charlesnew]

@Cerulean That's actually something this game lacks. Right now buildings just get abandoned if the requirements aren't met, but it would be better if they could be taken over by poorer people instead. And housing prices should increase if residential demand increases, which could displace some people if not taken care of.
In fact this game lacks a whole wealth system. There are residential levels, but al they do is pay more taxes the higher the levels are. A detailed wealth system would be amazing, but then again, a detailed anything would be good for this game.

[Digihuman]

Publicado originalmente por Slye_Fox:

Publicado originalmente por Kenneth:

I don't know which dream world you live in but you really need to get a reality-check

It's not a dream world, it depends entirly where you live.
I'm from England, and I too can't think of anything we have that would be a 'slum'.

You've never seen Hackney? (shotsfired)

seriously though, there ARE slums, or at least run-down places that fit a colloquial meaning of the term. The place I used to live, Hounslow, is incredibly run-down nowadays.

[grapplehoeker]

"Let me take you by the hand and lead you through the slums of London... I'll show you something that will help to change your mind."
A slightly altered version of the classic Ralph McTell song ;)
Take a good look at Hackney and Hounslow as Digihuman above says, and then wander through some of the lovelier estates such as Chalkhill in Wembley or Islington, where the police refuse to patrol on foot due to it being unsafe at night. Go a little further and delight in the squalid concrete decripidity of Feltham, Southall, Dulwich, Croydon or Lewisham.
There are slums throughout greater London. If you have never seen them, you haven't been looking.

[Slye_Fox]

Publicado originalmente por grapplehoeker:

"Let me take you by the hand and lead you through the slums of London... I'll show you something that will help to change your mind."
A slightly altered version of the classic Ralph McTell song ;)
Take a good look at Hackney and Hounslow as Digihuman above says, and then wander through some of the lovelier estates such as Chalkhill in Wembley or Islington, where the police refuse to patrol on foot due to it being unsafe at night. Go a little further and delight in the squalid concrete decripidity of Feltham, Southall, Dulwich, Croydon or Lewisham.
There are slums throughout greater London. If you have never seen them, you haven't been looking.

I see plenty of police officers walking around my islington estate.

[Horoai]

So you're telling me Hackney is an informal settlement (not authorized and build by the city) without water and electricity?

[Digihuman]

Publicado originalmente por Yggdrasil:

So you're telling me Hackney is an informal settlement (not authorized and build by the city) without water and electricity?

Colloquial. That's a key word in my post.

Besides, an informal settlement is more commonly referred to as a shanty town, not a slum.

Furthermore, dictionary:

slum
slʌm
noun
noun: slum; plural noun: slums
1.
a squalid and overcrowded urban street or district inhabited by very poor people.
"inner-city slums"
synonyms: hovel; More
a house or building unfit for human habitation.
"he moved from a two-room slum into a local authority house"

You can cite Wikipedia all you like (not that it's a credible source) for one definition you like, but the fact remains that in common parlance, a slum is just a run-down part of a town or city.

[grapplehoeker]

Publicado originalmente por Slye_Fox:

I see plenty of police officers walking around my islington estate.

Heh and I've spent too many 12 hour night shifts patrolling a couple of estates in Islington and Holloway. I've seen the kids who live on the estate burgle their neighbours to pay for drugs or the girls that are sent out by their own parents as prostitutes. There are pavements littered with used condoms and syringes. If that doesn't define squalor, I don't know what does.

[Horoai]

And you can quote sources you don't even bother to mention (how reliable) all you like. The definition from Wikipedia matches the one I would use so that's why I quoted it.

To me, slum has always been a term for the worst possible kind of place to live and not by a western civilization standard. Places like these:
http://www.africaranking.com/20-worst-slums-in-africa/4/
Not some rundown part of town that collapsed after the industry left or a ghetto.


Edit:
I have never been to the places you named but chances are, nomatter how bad these places are at least the buildings aren't made out of infectious garbage. I also don't see how it should be obvious to anyone that these places exist all throughout Europe and are even natural to any town with more than 100 inhabitants, like the OP seems to believe.

[Slye_Fox]

Publicado originalmente por grapplehoeker:

Publicado originalmente por Slye_Fox:

I see plenty of police officers walking around my islington estate.

Heh and I've spent too many 12 hour night shifts patrolling a couple of estates in Islington and Holloway. I've seen the kids who live on the estate burgle their neighbours to pay for drugs or the girls that are sent out by their own parents as prostitutes. There are pavements littered with used condoms and syringes. If that doesn't define squalor, I don't know what does.

Yeah, no idea what estates you've been on, but mine is kept quite clean.

[Digihuman]

Publicado originalmente por Yggdrasil:

And you can quote sources you don't even bother to mention (how reliable) all you like. The definition from Wikipedia matches the one I would use so that's why I quoted it.

To me, slum has always been a term for the worst possible kind of place to live and not by a western civilization standard.

So, you want sources, do ye?
You can go by your own definition if you want but that doesn't change;
- Google dictionary (my original quote)
- Oxford Dictionary ("A squalid and overcrowded urban street or district inhabited by very poor people.")
- Collins English Dictionary ("A slum is an area of a city where living conditions are very bad and where the houses are in bad condition.")
- Merriam-Webster Dictionary ("a densely populated usually urban area marked by crowding, dirty run-down housing, poverty, and social disorganization")
- Dictionary.Com ("Often, slums. a thickly populated, run-down, squalid part of a city, inhabited by poor people." and "any squalid, run-down place to live."
- Cambridge Dictionary ("a very poor and crowded area, especially of a city:")

And of those, aside from Google, all of those are commonly-used, major, reputable English Dictionaries. Do you still wish to argue in the face of that or would you like to quietly accept defeat?

[Horoai]

Publicado originalmente por Digihuman:

Publicado originalmente por Yggdrasil:

And you can quote sources you don't even bother to mention (how reliable) all you like. The definition from Wikipedia matches the one I would use so that's why I quoted it.

To me, slum has always been a term for the worst possible kind of place to live and not by a western civilization standard.

So, you want sources, do ye?

Nope. Keep your sources and your own definition and stick with the point:
Show me a country in Europe where what I would call a slum is common place. I think I have been pretty clear on what I would call a slum. Show me that this is common all over Europe.

If your definition is different (and it seems less distinguishing) then fine. But you had everything to know that's not what I mean so stop calling me delusional or a denier of the existance of poverty over semantics.

Fighting over what's the right definition of what is petty.