Simons

Once again, since I don't have any new finished project to present, I'll go back and review my older work in this post.

The town of Simons, with a population of 497, with a higher than average vacancy rate of >20% (compared to 18% average for rural small towns) and an average household size of 2.4 people, and some level of variance. The town is not serviced by rail, like Terrace is, even though there is no regional rail duopoly (like in many parts of the US, with Union Pacific/BESF and Norfolk Southern/CSX) and the region should generally be well served by rail. Still, there are high-capacity silos and grain elevators to store wheat and other cereals for transportation to rail hubs. This makes for a rural town that is far from ideal, but is realistic, and (I think) brings attention to many of the issues faced by small towns in our own Great Plains. Some examples of similar regions are below:

Madrid, Iowa: https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=12/41.8942/-93.7364
Peterson, Iowa: https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=16/42.9178/-95.3403
Waterloo, Nebraska: https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=16/41.2864/-96.2843
Cheyenne Wells, Colorado: https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=15/38.8181/-102.3526

The necessary components are here: a stream, a small downtown, religious institutions, storage areas for produce from surrounding farms, and square residential blocks of a uniform width and height (here, about 400 feet squared). More unique traits include an older windmill and water mill, as well as a wayside shrine- an older religious monument rare in the United States and somewhat rare in Europe after the French Revolution destroyed many of them. There are also apartments, which are somewhat rare in rural areas dominated by the house and the car.

I encourage everyone reading this blog to imagine a town and draw it, but thinking through all the features that the imagined style of town would need.

Thanks for reading,
Jacob