need a little help

[Fabeo2]

im really hoping this isnt a dead forum.

Im trying to up the demand in commerce and giving the city jobs but buildings wont build on commerce so ive tried lowering taxes and beautifying the city but it doesnt help much because after all this buildings start appearing slowly but then sooner or later all my buildings are being abandoned so i try putting in subways and bustops everyone but it doesnt help and i have no income and slowly running into debt soooooo someone please help me before i pull my hair out and strangle myself :P

[mp01vic]

Commercial demand, especially commercial office, will tend to remain low until your regional population is fairly large, at least 200,000. Try building small commercial zones and continue to build industrial and residential zones. Let your population build. Don't bother building too much social infrastructure right away, I usually only build power, water and fire stations in my new cities and I let them grow. Build a police station here and there if you really need them. Schools, hospitals, and parks are all nice things to have, but you dont need them right away. You'll get lots of low-income residential sims for the first little while. Only start building other infrastructure in small areas to get some medium and high-wealth sims. Sounds counter productive to work this way, but it keeps cash flow high and lets you get your population up. You can solve the social problems later when you have the cash to do so.

This method tends to go against what you think you should do when you're building a city, but it works.