A study of London[0] found that being bombed during the blitz was a net positive for the city, economically speaking, because the neighborhoods affected were rebuilt with more density.
This gave me the idea that we could improve long-term urban wealth by following an "urban Cheney's algorithm". A city could be divided into let's say 8 sectors, like pie slices extending from the center, and demolished on a schedule (e.g. one sector per decade). The orderly and predictable demolition would provide an even greater boon to the city than the Nazi bombing campaign provided to London, especially because the wide range of demolition would allow easier renovation of structures like roads, sewers, and transit lines and depots.
It would also allow for planned relocation so that residents who are being disrupted could be guaranteed housing without cost increases, since it would cost essentially nothing relative to overall cost to provide them replacement homes in the higher density neighborhood just rebuilt. I believe Rohnert Park, which borders Santa Rosa, is already doing this (not with pie slices though). Definitely this is a known SimCity tactic to build a high density high wealth city! You just have to get the feeder road layout right.
This gave me the idea that we could improve long-term urban wealth by following an "urban Cheney's algorithm". A city could be divided into let's say 8 sectors, like pie slices extending from the center, and demolished on a schedule (e.g. one sector per decade). The orderly and predictable demolition would provide an even greater boon to the city than the Nazi bombing campaign provided to London, especially because the wide range of demolition would allow easier renovation of structures like roads, sewers, and transit lines and depots.
[0] https://academic.oup.com/joeg/article/21/6/869/6213370