City Cinematic Recap and 90s Intro - Cities: Skylines - Altengrad 90
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- Опубліковано 1 тра 2024
- Showcasing the entire finished city as it looked right before entering the 1990s. Talking about the introduction to 90s economy of Central Europe.
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Altengrad is a time-progression Cities: Skylines series where I build a Central European city, located until 1989 in the Eastern Bloc, taking inspiration from Germany, Poland, Czechia, Slovakia and Hungary. The series starts around the year 1920 and slowly advances forward in time, which means the city will naturally evolve all the way to modern times. The city is not a recreation of any one real-life city or country, but it takes inspiration from them.
PC specs are in the channel's About page. No, the game doesn't run like this in real time. Cinematics are recorded slow and made faster in editing.
/ akruas
Major sources:
(I) Archive of the Czech/Slovak/Czechoslovak TV and cinema news (various programmes, news clips or shows from relevant periods)
(II) Recent Czech TV programmes like historie.cs and others
(III) Museum visits, historical exhibitions or lectures
(IV) Looking at various historical photos, for example from pastvu.com, fortepan.hu
(V) Talking with older relatives, friends, colleagues
Pictures used:
(1) Eastern bloc economies GDP 1990 by Miacek / Wikimedia Commons / CC-BY-SA-3.0, creativecommon...
(2) T700 1 by Ondrej Ertl / Wikimedia Commons / CC-BY-SA-3.0, creativecommon...
(3) BAHNA 2018 - 434 crop by Adam Hauner / Wikimedia Commons / CC-BY-SA-4.0, creativecommon...
#citiesskylines #altengrad - Ігри
you know, it would be really cool if you were to continue past the modern day, perhaps ending in 2040, redoing infrastructure based on current urbanist doctrine and trying to predict future changes
If I remember correctly, he actually wrote in a comment a few videos ago that he already has plans for the future.
@@jeremiasnaton8736 wow ok then, excited to see what he does
the whole premise of Altengrad is (at least it used to be) that it would be basically from the 1920s all the way into the future
That would be cool. If they could actually be connected through the space elevator. Asturis would be more than likely the colony of whatever European country this represents.
@kophullloh516 😄😄
> have a bad day
> new altengrad episode landed
> have a good day
As a 90s kid from Bulgaria (which has a kind of similar development) I would love to see some tiny ugly shopping centers in the residential districts, maybe some chaotic outside (black) markets taking over previously huge empty public spaces and random buildings popping up in the space between the panelki because of restitution. Ah, memories...
What is restitution? Thank you and God bless. 🙏
@@DonnaChamberson Land and property that was confiscated by nationalization in the early communist period was ceded back to owners (or really descendants of owners and people that bought the rights). Of course, the land was redeveloped, so you had weird situations as a result.
For the 1990s (especially later 90s), I definitely recommend decommissioning the Factories and Barracks near the city center and converting them into shopping malls viz Ringhoffer/ČKD into Nový Smíchov and Zlatý Anděl, Slovanský dům and Myslbek as well as suburban mega-malls like OC Hostivař and OC Letňany. Also very important is the development of villa bedroom communities and American style sprawl, like Újezdy nad Lesy, Satalice, and logistical centers on the city periphery like Černý Most and Zličín (maybe introducing the first IKEAs, and drivethrough McDonalds) etc. and most importantly, BILLBOARDS EVERYWHERE. Put those awful commercials on every surface, on building facades, along the high way, in fields, everywhere!
On the flipside, also start pedestrianizing the historic city center.
Love your content man! A few suggestions for the 90s:
- A revamp of parts of the city riverside walk
- turning parts of the historical downtown into entertainment districts (clubs, pubs, restaurants, nightlife)
- Modern congress center + stadium + infrastructure project
- Tourism
- Upgraded university campus
Amazing video as always.
For ideas:
1.I think you need to build a large casino-something like Zlaté piesky in Bratislava
2. 2+ shopping centers,one somewhere around the center and maybe two at the ends.
3. You need to start to build a lot of suburbs
4. Some new office centers-maybe something like the VUB tower in Bratislava-generaly more highrises-Gloria tower
5. Goofy shaped buildings all over-some kind of densification
6.more highways
7.parking lots
8.villas for mafia bosses on the city hills
9. McDonald’s,IKEA,lot of lidls and so on
Also new private and state Bank buildings with crazy architecture
a mini vegas
90's East-Europe city needs used-cars markets. I remember visiting used car market in an abandoned Soviet military airfield and some other places in Tartu, Estonia. People were just selling foreign cars in open spaces, it was all unregulated black markets. Later on there were private companies importing cars and selling them in open-air parking lots surrounded with mesh fences.
Also, every 90's city needs a couple of McMansion districts, probably mafia houses in East-Europe. Some were (still are) gated tiny districts in exclusive lots overlooking the city.
Thisss!!!!
Well, in Poland i remember lot of roadworks. Highways were slowly built, cities roads were extended, more lanes apeared, many intersections got overpasses and pedestrian underpases. Those stupid soundbariers started to be place everywhere. In Posen, full rapid tram system was open, and Cracow had started thier own one, opend partialy in 2008. Airports become more important. In cities scyscapers tended to be more popular just like a suburbs od parking in every free place in the centre. On the other hand, many rail lines were closed of even demolished and industries went bancrupcy. The major difference was spotted only after entering Europen Union. :)
It would be cool if you could show history of Stadion Dziesięciolecia (10th-Anniversary Stadium) in Warsaw which became this enormous outdoor market (people called it Jarmark Europa) in 90's where you could buy everything from clothes and kitchen stuff to alot of stuff from west hence the name with that stadium showcased in 19:30. In later decades it could also be bulldozed and make room for new modern stadium which was IRL built (Stadion Narodowy) for Euro 2012
YES, thats a really good idea
Great job as usual! I would suggest a couple of events:
- Dissolution of Czechoslovakia should be a major topic.
- Withrawal of Soviet troops, creation of the Czech Armed Forces and joining NATO.
If you dont have that many ideas, you could make a zoo/theme park in one episode, it could fill up some gaps. Or maybe an old football stadium that will get rebuilt in the modern times. Or all of these together like how they are in the Debrecen great forest park, these were all built in the 90s
I saw a new stadium in the other side of the city, but maybe the old stadium could be expanded or maybe demolished and rebuilt
@@ErickMSouza-uu3dm. Given the older stadium was built in the 30's episodes, it's probably either demolished or in utter ruin by this point.
Zoo is a great idea, a great “filler”. Could be somehow close or connected to the botanical garden as it’s in Prague
Have you considered adding an airport to the city? I don’t mean a huge JFK-like airport but something sizeable - let’s say along the lines of Warsaw-Modlin airport. There are decent assets on the workshop for that, and I believe it would tie in nicely with the opening of tourism and travel market.
I really love this format. I'm not even halfway through the video but I enjoy the storytelling and how much I can learn while watching an amazing city build. Thank you for making such great content.
This is probably one of the coolest creative projects I've seen, not just of c:s, or in video games, but in just in general.
In East Germany, there were alot of track closure, and even the trams and trolleybusses where removed in a big number. So yeah, thats a thing, that would be a episode. But also, the staying tram networks got their low floor vehicles and removed the oldest trams, and did a rework of the tatra trams. So if you want to do something like that, would be nice. And with busses: mostly western busses, the IKARUS got mostly removed. I love this series and staying tuned for the next episodes! Thank you for this series!
I want to see the development of a central business district away from the city center, a la Prague, Vienna, and Bratislava. I'm guessing that's generally where the highway tunnel is heading.
I also want to see a large professional football stadium, but I'm guessing that's for the 2000's as that's when the main club in Prague and Bratislava rebuilt their stadiums.
He built one
@@ErickMSouza-uu3dm Wait, I'm confused. At the beginning of this episode 90, you can see a large stadium in the bottom left corner of the screen, next to the university campus (I believe). But if you go back to episode 89, that stadium isn't there in the cinematics. Is this a spoiler for one of the next episodes?
@@SamuelBrylski this is what i am thinking
Love this series so much. Great to just get a nice look at all the projects in the city so far. For the 90s I would love an episode just focused on "updating" a lot of the older sections of the city, not necessarily rebuilding them completely but just adding a few more modern things here and there. New vehicles, trams, trains etc, maybe with the introduction of capitalism we start seeing a bunch of advertising billboards all over the place?
Agreed, but maybe this would be better for the 2000s, when this fictional country joins the EU. He could rebuild a lot of places/parks in the city
This is a list mostly based on experience with a Polish town, but here we go.
The list of things that just have to happen in every CE town in the 90s:
1. At least one (but probably all) heavy industry has to meet some kind of terrible end after sudden privatization and a tough fight for survival in the 90s (small town industries had a particularly bad time then). After that, the possible outcomes for industrial areas would be:
- partialy get mothballed and then modernized / restructured sometime in the 00's/10's,
- get totaly closed and then turned into some new industry in later dacades,
- get totaly closed, turned into ruin, and then buldozed for some new infrustracture/apartments later
2. Since the "official" ways of buying things like old shopping centers weren't very efficient (or weren't possible at all), there needs to be some large unofficial market with stalls selling various products ranging from vegetables to clothes to (often smuggled or even stolen) western products and bootleg tapes
3. There were a lot more cars and not a lot of new parking so cars close to city center need to be parked everywhere a car can or cannot be parked, like squeres, sidewalks or edges of parks.
4. There still was a need to build more housing. Noone knew how to do it yet, but everyone wanted to do it differently than it was in the past, so there were a lot of new, small, crazy and totally out-of-place-looking buildings here and there. Often theese would be renovations or replacments of old prewar buildings. The amount of theese is the mesurment of how well the town was doing in the 90s (less crazy buildings mean a worse situation).
5. Some new shopping centers, preferably next to a freeway close to the edge of town, looking either very basic or very kitch (nothing in between).
6. Sketchy clubs in an ex-military/industrial warehouse
7. Remember to turn those soviet flags into russin tricolor at the embassy!
8. Lots of small businesses and shops, and a looots of ads everywhere
9. Since there were a lot more cars available, more roadwork was necessary. The late 90s, 00s and 10s should be times of constant development of road networks and parking
10. Optionally, some larger project like a smaller skyscraper or something of the sort
Some other cool things to possibly add:
A. Some of the old diplomatic, political or military infrastructure showing signs of NATO takeover/cooperation
B.Some signs of organized crime as it was quite prelevant in 90s. From mobs to drug manufacturing
Overall 90s didin't feel like a time for large projects but lots of small changes that changed how everything looked. I feel its quite important for the hard situation to be visable, and then for it to slowly get better in the latter decades.
Perhaps I will repeat myself, but I think it would be possible to build a stadium - an arena and associated infrastructure for holding public events, concerts, and various events. For example, at that time the Ice Hockey World Championship was held in Czechoslovakia, and the Eurovision Song Contest was held in Yugoslavia. The destruction of the Iron Curtain would be clearly visible.
And thank you also for not abandoning Altengrad. Objectively the best series of videos on Cityes Skylines.
Very few people know that, in fact, the fall of communism was a plot staged by Kofola in order to be able to reach foreign markets in large scale!
Just kidding - great introduction! As you mentioned, the 1990s was a crazy time, even in Poland. Poeple who had buissness skills, knew English well, were creative or just had luck could reach a completely new level of wealth and life quality. Others, were often left behind, being prone to an enormous unemployment rates and falling down into poverty. A lot of people migrated to the West. From today's perspective, the country and society as a whole made an enormous leap forward, especially after joining the EU. But the cost of it was often paid by the ones at the bottom of the economical ladder.
What I may suggest to build in 1990s:
- Big western-brand supermarkets, often with very cheap and ugly buildings and surroundings.
- The beginning of urban chaos. Old planned large-scale housing estates gave way to new block of flats developed by new, private companies. The more you go into 1990 and 2000s the more chaotic and urban-sprawly the new districts (at least in Poland where in 2003 the central government abolished all former urban plans).
- Posh, but kitsch housing estates for new rich people (often in form of gated communites).
- New factories build by western brands.
- Large influx of private automobile ownership, linked to the decline of railway and bus transport system.
- Undeground tramway tunnels as a cheaper alternative to the metro (as I mentioned the Kraków's case several times there) ;)
PS. However, a video about Kofola - the Czechoslovak response to the imperialistic Coca-Cola - and their history in the free market journey might be a nice addition! ;)
As a 90s kid myself I'm also super excited to finally see this time period in my favourite town of Altengrad!
To give it a realistic feel I'm guessing some factories will have to go under and turn into ruins. Also some ugly bazars/markets need to pop up on the squares or empty lots all over town. I'd like to see you continue the residential developments, this time ran by the co-ops (spółdzielnia in Polish) or shady developers who collected money from people to construct housing projects and if the construction material prices went up they'd just abandon these projects. Last but not least, how about the ugly repainting of the blocks of flats. I'm guessing Czechia also suffered from this as much as Poland and you'll know what I'm talking about - orange mixing with green and yellow? Perfect!😅
late 90s and early 00s saw a huge boom of shopping malls in Bratislava, Slovakia... Avion, Polus (now Vivo) and Aupark were first malls of its kind in the city... also, Ikea and McDonald's entered the market, too... later we got Eurovea, Central and most lately Bory... and stores like Tesco or Billa were open in every corner of the country, too... so I'd suggest ading these malls and stores here and there would be really nice touch... I'm looking forward 90s in your take 😎
The recent most shopping center is nivy bus station which is something he could build in the 20s
@@juliuserikbunda3946 that's correct, I forgot that one
25:56 The tram depot could get some updating. We still have bunch of the OG 1930's red trams chilling there. And those were taken down from service a while back.
And talking about that. I think Altengrad could get some new trams in the 90's. Perhaps KT8D5 could fit in as a last farewell to the previous regime. There is a model on the workshop and it'd be lore accurate to get them at this point since most of the cities did got them between years 1989 - 1990 (Pilsen, Ostrava, Sarajevo, Pyongyang). And even cities that were getting them earlier, since mid 80's, were still receiving last orders till the 1990 (Prague, Košice, Brno, Most - Litvínov).
IMO this tram could fit the 90's Altengrad quite well.
Series attention on the downfall of ČKD should be done too! And Poldi Kladno etc.
A lot of realistic vehicles in the workshop just aren't very good looking up close, the next upgrade will need to be some recent western tram
1) I would love to see some overgrown tracks, abandoned factories, stations and yards - this is a sight etched deep into my memories as a 00's kid from Poland. I loved to imagine the past glory days of all this massive infrastructure that stood dormant. Many companies simply collapsed, unable to survive in the harsh market conditions and facing predatorial competition. Some railway closures are also a must. Less significant regional railways and industrial sidetracks got decimated after the collapse of communism. A lot of freight and passenger traffic got transferred over to private cars and trucks as these became more easily available and railways fell into disrepair due to lack of funding. Czechia and the GDR avoided the brunt of it, but Polish railways got massively wrecked and are only slowly starting to rebuild. Industry wise - I see the panel factory going under and getting overgrown with trees/bushes until the parcel is bought by an investor in the later decades.
2)Import older used western buses and trams into the city. It took a while until the cities became affluent enough to start purchasing new vehicles for public transport again, which itself got sidetracked due to the massive importation of used cars from the west. Cars were seen as a symbol of freedom and affluence by the newly liberated peoples. The transit networks needed something with which to survive these times of change as the communist-build vehicles started to slowly decay. A lot of modernizations also took place, particularly when it came to trams, as the cities tried to keep their fleet afloat.
3) Obviously introduce western cars into traffic. Mainly older ones but also some new ones. Maybe open the first showroom of a Japanese/Western car manufacturer?
combining history lessons with cities skylines is just the best idea ever!
this dude teaches me more history than my social studies teacher
Dear Akruas, the city of Altengrad is a masterpiece as is this whole series! It is by far my most favourite Cities: Skylines build on UA-cam and I have loved your history lessons read to the background of construction visuals. I cannot wait to see how the city progresses with time! Thank you so much for putting it up for the world to see!
We deffo need shopping malls. Kinda copied from american ones with parking lots. Probably turned into offices and kinda expensive flats in 2020s 😅 Or chaotically placed smaller apartment towers since the cities back then didnt have a lot of height restrictions
Here's an idea perhaps for Altengrad in the 1990's or perhaps early 2000's. Some kind of modern suburban shopping mall. Or a complex like that with vast parking lots and big box stores like a Bauhaus, Ikea, and Metro or something along those lines. Ive seen a lot of those on the outskirts of eastern block cities and I wouldn't be surprised if Altengrad started seeing them pop up too along a highway or major arterial at the city limit.
This might be more into the late 90s/early 2000s however, to higlight the influx of western influence you could build a modern embassy complex for the US, France, UK etc. (like the buildings next to the Brandenburger Tor in Berlin on the Unterdenlinden avenue)! Although from what I searched both the French and the US embassies there were completed in the early 2000s. But that was mainly because in the 90s Bonn was still the de facto german capitol so there was no need to improve upon the East Berlin properties. Also, to be fair this only happend in Berlin and not the other V4 countries (at least to my knowledge). Anyway it could be a good topic for an episode... Thanks for building this amzing city until now!
I'm really happy about such an overview. Great opportunity to look back.. I am definetely looking foreward to some more amazing infrastructure builds!! For the very far future I would also enjoy some sort of Transit overhaul where the city builds some rail connections throughout or rather around the city, even more than there already are.
I love how you always present a unique perspective on this recent history that can often get twisted to fit certain people's agenda. I really appreciate your presentation of history as simply what happened, and the repercussions of people's actions. You never try to cherry pick specific examples to force a certain belief or economic model as superior, but rather look at how macro historical events impacted the lives of individuals.
I love how much time you take with this series.❤
Its very nice to do such cinematic recaps since the city is changing lots video by video, amazing
This series has been so good. I've learned so much about cities and life in the Eastern Bloc that I probably would've never learned otherwise, especially since I don't speak the languages, and the resulting city is just incredible for something built in a computer game. One of the best things I've ever found on youtube.
As some people here already remarked - some more and less chaotic markets would be great. From my childhood memories, nineties were all about the smallest of business ventures - as consumer goods companies were slow and careful at entering those new markets, and we used to buy everything at markets - clothes, appliances, bicycles - you name it.
For inspiration - in my city, a stadium parking lot was downsized to fit a market. A place in the city center where the communists cleared old buildings but didn't get to put in something new also turned into one (you have a perfect spot right near the new city hall!). In general, a lot of kiosks popped up in absolutely random places - effects of city code getting lax and no previous thought of commercial properties in large enough amounts to facilitate competing businesses within one district
JUst amazing. Such a beautiful build. Really like these cinematic episodes...
My 90s/early 2000s experience in Hungary was that the time to get to my great grandparents' village has gotten quicker every summer as they were expanding the highways, but the rail infrastructure was getting worse. I also have a fond early memory of cycling on the just built highway ring around the city, before they let cars go on it. Other than this... still much less cars, but everything was dirty, falling apart and the buses and trams were getting really old.
I also have this memory of my grandfather getting his company car, an Audi which he had to check on in the parking lot constantly, since the lot was mostly empty and there were zero other western cars. Don't know if this is somehow applicable in the game - putting in some western cars and keeping the gigantic lots mostly empty maybe.
Oh and the paving of the roads in the outskirts! At the beginning of the 90s, many roads at the outskirts of Budapest were not yet paved but they disappeared by 2000.
So my suggestion would be:
- Dirty up the historic buildings if the colors can be changed easily to grayer shades.
- Build a highway ring around the city.
- An airport would be reasonable. The passanger number in Budapest has increased dramatically during the 90s, so the airport has been expanded significantly.
- The outskirts with dirtroads are missing from Altengrad if I am not mistaken, but maybe they could be applied somehow, or at least some remaing cobblestone should be paved over.
- Empty barracks taken over by hooligans is a very 90s thing too. The ones abandoned by Soviet troops and due to the end of drafting/the joining of NATO.
- Some homeless camps would also be representative of the 90s, as the numbers went from virtually zero - since not having a job was illegal before - to homeless people being everywhere.
- Buildings with a specific ugly green used on the metalic surfaces.
- Some McDonald's or other fastfood joints must be added to Altengrad. The McD of Nyugati Railwaystation in Budapest is a very iconic 90s thing, maybe such could be added to one of the Stations.
- Billboards and billboards covering up many of the historic buildings is another 90s thing. Unfortunately its only reversing recently, but its definiately the defining feature of the 90s.
LiAZ still exist, it's one of the main bus manufacturers in Russia, but that's obviously a completely different LiAZ
Dude... I came here to watch some cities skylines construction and instead got a lesson in history... and I'm not disappointed!
Great, GREAT video!
The most iconic thing about the 90s in Central Europe was probably this wild, uncontrolled capitalism. Back then every square in every city was a marketplace, people were selling all kinds of things and you could see outdoor stands on every corner. Might be worth to introduce some of that in the series :)
Additionally, it was a period when first shopping malls started to appear around the region, so that might be a nice project for the 90s in Altengrad. It might be worth to also build a stock exchange, to highlight the economic transition. Maybe even some skyscrapers :)
For me the 90s are associated with colorful, tasteless advertisement bilboards everywhere, you should add them all around the city
I think public transit centered video would be nice. In Poland 90s are remembered by public transit being cut, especially railways and trams. Also many local buses were cut and in place of them private companies came in. For railways and trams you could talk about how infrastructure was ran down after communism and needed repairs asap.
0:41 truly looks like a Google Maps image. such a realistic build.
The format is really cool but from a worldbuilding perspective it would be awesome if you asserted Altengrad's happenings, events surrounding things and stuff that Altengrad as a country is involved in, getting that immersive storytelling even if its just casual narration.
One thing im really excited for is theres lots of opportunities for events surrounding Altengrad perhaps joining the EU and NATO and any controversy that could come out of that, but yeh it would be awesome if there was some background storytelling aswell as your awesome factual appraisals of the cityscapes of central europe
Maybe it would be a project for the 2000s, but i'd really like if Altengrad hosted the Olympic games. I think an olympic village and all the infrastructure needed for the different sports would be really cool
I love this series so much
Here are some ideas for the 90's;
1. Arrival of western businesses to Central and Eastern Europe (McDonald's, IKEA, car dealerships etc). This also leads to a bigger change in the landscape as advertising also arrives in larger scale (billboards, neon signs etc.).
2. Freedom of movement and the start of mass tourism; after the Eastern block fell and the freedom of movement was implemented, a significant amount of new infrastructure was needed. New hotels, maybe a regional airport, boat and bus sightseeing, restaurants, pubs, night clubs, amusement parks, zoos... well basically anything that attracts tourists to YOUR city. Pedestrianisation of the old town and adding lots of entertainment there seems to be a big thing in most of the former socialist countries in Central Europe (and obviously everywhere in Central and Western Europe). I would imagine that this is the case in Altengrad as well.
3. Capitalism and consumerism; shopping malls, movie theaters, supermarkets etc. All the new privatised and western companies would also need new office space, so maybe a new office district is needed. Maybe even an financial district included with that.
4. Nature; as you actually pointed out in an earlier episode, the decay of the environment was one of the things in the 80's that raised opposition in the society. Maybe the freedom of the 90's would spark a project where a natural park is established outside the city.
5. Education; freedom of thinking and freedom of movement will bring a new challenge to the universities. New faculties are needed as new subjects are being taught and the freedom of movement brings exchange students from around the Europe to the city.
6. Suburbanisation; as the collapse of socialism would end the housing projects of the state, I'd love to see some single family houses, duplexes and row houses filling the gaps and surrounding the socialist era districts. Maybe even some local suburban centers of commerce.
7. 90's would also see a lot of decay in the old manufactories of the socialist era. So abandoned factories for the young adults to organise illegal raves is a must! :)
8. Football stadium; might be more of late 90's or early 00's, but I'd love to see the football stadium from the 1930's to be renovated/redeveloped.
All in all, I have to say that I have no experience about the Central/Eastern Europe in the 90's but as been living in Helsinki for my whole life, I became quite familiar with Tallinn and saw how the city changed in the past 30 years. I especially remember Mustamäe market in the 90's, where you would find everything from pirate CDs to old Soviet army supplies.
I would also like to use this opportunity to thank you for this awesome series. I've been subscribed from the start and can't wait for future episodes! Keep up the good work!
Will you plan one episode to talk about blooming of tall building in central Europe ?
By the way, I'm following Altengrad since the 1st episode. I'm incredibly amazed by your series. The content is full of details, covering engineering, architecture, economy and politics. I'm really really really so impressed !
As a hungarian, it is eerie how similar the history the cities of our region is.
One of the most infamous example of the "wild privatization" of vehicle manufacturers in Hungary was the sad story of the Ikarus Bus Manufacturer, others were the Ganz-MÁVAG Train Manufacturer, the Rába Wagon and Truck Factory. Not to mention the implosion of the heavy industry, textile industry and the food industry.
If you'd like some realistic ideas for the post-communist industrial decay, look up the Ikarus and Csepel Factories of Budapest, vast district sized factories employing 10000+ people just vanished in a few years, the "carcasses" are the worst (best) examples of industrial urban decay. Multiple hungarian cities had almost their entire industrial districts get abandoned. I''m sure the same happened in the other 3 Visegrad countries.
As for building ideas for the 90s:
-entertainment district in the impoverishing areas of the old town
-giant hypermarkets in the outskirts
-oversized malls in empty downtown lots (like next to the train station, or the riverfront)
-uncontrolled suburbanization either right next to the panelblock districts or eve outside of the city (with all of it's unplanned effect, like tiny one lane streets, no mass transit, no services)
-some glass high-rises (both offices and residential)
-some stadiums/convention centers
But -as you and likely most of your viewers know, most of the major developments would only come in the 2000s.
I'm actually really excited about the nineties! And since you mentioned suggestions, I cannot talk extensively about 90s urbanism in Eastern Europe, but here are some suggestions based on my knowledge of how urban planning was treated in Russia in the nineties:
- explosive automobilization, replanning of central parts of the city to fit as much road infrastructure as possible at the expense of quality of living, especially in historical center.
- disregard for historical value of buildings, many important landmarks lost to fit in new ugly mall or elite condos tower.
- also maybe introduce a mayor? a populist who uprooted himself in the city so much he became a de-facto local autocrat with a huge weight in federal politics, treating the city as his personal fiefdom.
- said mayor's gigantic vanity project. Something a city in heavy transformational crisis really doesnt need. A new convention center or an opera or something. It needs to be build in capitalist romanticism style of postmodernism, with ugly ass unmatching neoclassicism details made out of styrofoam everywhere.
- nouveau riche megamansions in a gated neighborhood right outside the city. Preferably in a picturesque place that is actually a natural reserve.
- everything covered in billboards. Everything. Everywhere looks like Times Square. Building facades are now just free real estate for marketing agencies.
It would be interesting to explore the changes in nuclear power, particularly regarding the decommissioning of older reactors due to safety concerns. One example is the Kozloduy nuclear power plant, where Reactors 5 and 6, based on the VVER-1000 design, were completed in the late 1980s and early 1990s and in the 2000s, the older reactors, which were based on the outdated VVER-440 design, were decommissioned. Incorporating this aspect into the city would be interesting, and delving into modern nuclear power plant design would add to the story of Altengtad.
i grew up in the early 2000s in a somewhat planned City in a region that was part of east Germany. When i grew up there i had to watch the city shrank in size from year to year. After all places that i hat connections to e.g. Schools, Places were i lived an so on, i moved to the west of Germany. Maybe this could be some insperation for the 2000s, that some Districts may become empty as Industry and so on moves away.
And as always - very nice video. Love the combination of citybuilding and history
I always love these videos i love how u can tell stories with cities skylines in a fun and interesting way keep up the amazing work!
Here for the algo, best CS series running at the moment!
It would be great to see the rise of shopping malls and Western companies influence. Such as first McDonald's, Ikea and so on. Then old factories demolished/transformed into shopping malls. There could be shopping malls built at the end of the city too.
I'm really interesting in historic city planning, one of my favourite topics. Keep up the great work!
Tack!
Thank you!
Really nicely done town.
7:00 Black car doing some sick skids
Fantastic discussion, I would like to add to what you said about the attitude of "well you can't complain about how it turned out for you in the end", because you absolutely can, and even if it was just the long term we counted that doesn't really help with all the pain of the 90s. Keynes said it best "The long run is a misleading guide to current affairs. In the long run we are all dead. Economists set themselves too easy, too useless a task, if in tempestuous seasons they can only tell us, that when the storm is long past, the ocean is flat again."
Economists and politicians of both the west and former east should have done what they could to ease the transition, and while it's true that western economies didn't have to "wait" I think we have a duty to each other as Europeans (and humans frankly) to help those who have been oppressed and held back. To just leave our neighbors, who we knew had been mismanaged for half a century to the wolves and raising our hands and saying "in the long run the market will fix it" didn't help anyone who lost their income. On state owned companies I would like to say as someone who is not qualified at all that what they needed wasn't private ownership but to be able to close if they just couldn't be salvaged (which private ownership achieved but at what cost you know?). If western European governments had taken their responsibility and invested instead of letting it be done entirely buy private companies you could have gotten the capital needed without bleeding central Europe of its long term income and ownership of it's own industries. Of course the second part of this is that the people of the eastern block weren't forced to privatize against their will, and eastern Germany wasn't forcefully occupied, this transition was an internal political decision with strong support even if it was overoptimistic. I think it's important to acknowledge that the eastern bloc liberated itself from russian/soviet rule and focusing so much on how German reunification was a western "takeover" etc denies the agency of the people who lived there and at that time.
(as you said it in the video is of course true about east/west Germany, but it's not like the east Germans wanted to keep their old system, thousands literally risked their lives to flee from it)
90s were wild to us all there. Cannot wait to see those changes happening in Altengrad.
Surely I would like to see those modern ugly-ass city malls in the old town area, the slowly change of the old town into a recreation area, instead being just a place flooded with cars. It would be nice to see all those "fresh" stores and supermarkets from the West, maybe even some fast-food restaurants?
Great showcase and storytelling!
In the next episodes I would like to see more areas of leisure and fun (music festivals perhaps).
And please .. grow up the trees ;)
I feel like a lot of people in the comments are confusing the 90s and the 2000s, maybe due to young age. The 90's for my social milieu was generally a time of social degradation, the big factory my family worked at started restructuring so new generations entering the job market in the 90s would have it much harder than their parents (thus spread of petty crime, addictions, emigration). The urban space was filled with billboards and littered with tacky commercial esthetics; lots of flashy small shops or bars would open, particularly in the touristically attractive city center. While working class suburbs woud suffer cuts in maintenance, public transport etc while social laxing would open way to things like graffiti and petty vandalism. My country experienced growth of some businesses (hotels, financial, banks, pharmacies), while other things were collapsing (like haevy industry or state owned farms) leading to massive social problems as unemployment of 20%. All of which had an effect on urban look - shiny scyscrapers in major cities on one hand to abandoned factories, railways, farms on the other. The rich build villas in the suburbs, the poor idled in uncared concrete blocks. My company was only privatized in the 2000, so personally I was lucky enough to live the social security of a socialist workplace while having access to capitalist consumer goods, but I'd have to be blind not to see the 90s for what they were to broad layers of society. All that started changing later, in the 2000s. EU money started flowing for infrastructure projects which broke the decade long stagnation, job markets in the west fully opened reducing the unemployment here to almost nothing (thus rasing the wages). But that's a different decade.
PS: I'm a long time viewer, first time commenting - Altengrad reminds me a lot of my own city. A version of it I'd love to live in IRL :)
I can imagine the first panel blocks falling into disrepute over time, with lots of graffititi and general urban decay. And yeah, some bazaars and markets with bootleg items on a couple of corners of the city, or those weird little table stands I used to see in Russia in the 90s with (probably bootleged) VHS tapes of Disney movies and western blockbusters.
I have an idea concering the park on the monastery island. You could reconstruct or even demolish the memorial there, as a part of decommunisation, and rebuild the park, making it somewhat inspired by the pre-war park that was present there.
You could roleplay that Altengrad joins the EBU and wins Eurovision (like Yugoslavia did in 1989 and Estonia, Latvia and Ukraine in 2001, 2002 and 2004 respectively) so building of a new stadium or something
Great summary! Loved this episode!
Followed you for asturis but i will keep supporting
Tatra was much more desirable for investors because it held (and still holds) many patents for terrain suspension system which allows for much better terrain permeability of the truck, even compared to a western competition. Of course this meant cuts in their product range and focusing mainly on forestry machinery, mine dumpers and army trucks.
LIAZ on the other hand was just one of a many post-communist truck companies, such as IFA (DDR), Rába (Hungary) or Star (Poland). All of these companies obviously failed to compete against western truck companies and were bought or went bankrupt.
Not that this needed to be included in the video, i just felt that this could be interesting deeper dive into the topic.
Also suggestion:
Some example of a "bussines baroque" architecture style, something like hotel Don Giovanni in Prague.
Would be fun to include the construction of a new international airport for Altengrad, showing the country opening up / getting major foreign investments.
Will you proceed to work on Altengrad past the 2020s, and perhaps make it slightly futuristic?
From what I remember, yes
Would be nice to see a train station renovation and to see more neighbourhoods filling the gaps between the old and new parts
Brilliant series 👏
By the way, someone in the comments section of this video actually recommended that one of your future projects could be a pre-war Fallout style city, which would certainly be unique due to the nature of the source material: Lot of 50's and 60's inspiration, but with some BIG differences. (Might have issues with some of the assets from the games, of course; I'm not sure if anybody has created a Mr Handy or a Super Duper Mart in Cities Skylines before.)
hell yea keep it going
i have on suggestion not for anything to build but in the next episode i would really like to see you compare a far away shot of the whole city in episode 50 or right before world war and then episode 90 at the end of the communist era. you could also do this later on once you reach modern times and it would show how the city have changed
Maybe its fits 2000s or even 2010s more, but what about general modernisation? Beautification of public spaces, remake of parks or empty spaces, more parkings and remake of some roads (espencially as some of them are quite jammy), colourfull repiating of flats like it was done in Poland and Czechia (Suprsiengly conversation of Soviet buldings is very Central European thing, my friend from Russia was suprised about quality of those buldings). Maybe a random company in Altengrad could go bankrupt and its facility would became abandoned and overgrown, and you should add the urbanist devil itself - advertisement billboards, as free market arrived to Altengrad
You could build a supermarket in that empty lot next to the skyscraper by the river.
Wow, gefällt mir richtig gut 👍🏼 Sehr schöne Stadt, tolles Design, sehr natürlich wirkend. Absolut stimmig sämtlicher Elemente. Man möchte nahezu in Altengrad wohnen 😊❤
There should be a giant soccer stadium on the outside of the 80’s residential development.
Great story teller
It would be a nice touch if you want to revisit some places near industrail building, to create some kind of memorials of victim after 70 and 80 uprising. Good example might be December 70 victims junction in Gdynia (Węzeł ofiar grudnia 70 in polish). It's not a huge project, but it might be a nice touch
I love how walkable the city seems to be. I cant freaking stand the way we in the US build our cities to be carcentric. Im disabled, so driving isnt an option for me anymore, and its a terrifying prospect when i consider the possibility of being priced out of walkable cities and forced to walk hours to the nearest grocery store. I think the US could learn alot from european cities.
The irony of this comment is hilarious considering there have been multiple episodes where it was nothing BUT making the city anti-walkable complete with loads of intersections and proper highways.
For 1990s maybe you should try to build some shopping mall outside of the city near highway.
Like here in Brno Olympia, which was build in 1998/99 and expanded in 2000s.
Also maybe since its 1990s, colors on facades of communist flats and curved roofs would make sence.
Maybe making some new suburban areas on the outskirts of the city.
Would be realistic to build some (not much) single house suburbs
will you go into more detail with the privatization policies?
i remember hearing that employees would recieve shares of the companies at first, though i never heard in detail how it went
Where are you from? I am from Czechia. What you're talking about is very accurate. Good job!
Akraus tez jest Cesky
hi! You should make an abandoned tram line, as in stop trams running there but leave the poles rotated or something similar. Some tram lines have been closed or abandoned after the fall of communism in Poland and i think a longer-ish part of the tram network just staying destroyed would be really interesting!
Reminds me somewhat of Zagreb! Very nice job.
I would love for Altengrad to get an airport
Love you work!
I'd love to see you fix all the horrible infrastructure and make Altengrad an urbanist utopia but that's a plan for 2020s probably.
Q: are you planning to build bike lanes? or is it game limitation that they won't work
yesss
running in the 90's
Thanks for the interesting episode! The new stadium is cool btw! For the 90s Altengrad I’m curious what happens to some factories in the city who collaps and the communist monuments.
I think that you should increase car density in the city. Everyone who wants a car can have one, and there is no limitation like was in socialism. In that regard you should also make an episode about changes in public transport. And make shopping centers on the outskirts of the city, more parking lots and a new thing, parking houses inside the city.
And the rapid suburban population growth in villages should take some place of abandoned part of the map.
26:07 ‘everything they told us about socialism was a lie, but everything they told us about capitalism was true.’ Is such a good quote. It kind of sums up nearly everything about modern liberal social democracy, it’s metaphoric in a way…
Consider building something like the Poznań PST
I’ve wondered if there’s a Google Maps Gen 2 car model on the Steam Workshop for Cities Skylines just for when it hits to 2009-2011?
How long will this series go on? I would love seeing this city in the 2020s.
Altengrad MUST have a giant american style mall district near some big junction on the edge of the city. Something like Bielany Wrocławskie in Poland.