SimCity, but with Permits

A browser-based city simulation that replaces omnipotent city planning with electoral politics and permitting, this game casts the player as an elected mayor who must shepherd every rezoning, building permit and policy change through hearings, council votes, appeals and courts. Underneath the public process sits a functioning economy - residents with ages and incomes, businesses that hire and leave, land values, rents and taxes - so decisions have measurable consequences. A typical arc shows a tech-driven rent spike, a rezoning proposal, homeowner opposition at a hearing, concessions that reduce density, a developer asking for tax breaks, appeals and lawsuits that stall construction for years, and voters blaming leaders at the next election. That sequence exemplifies the core argument: sensible urban interventions routinely die or mutate through political bargaining and organized opposition.

Mechanically, play involves negotiating concessions at contested hearings, winning votes on a seven-seat council, managing political capital, and tracking why choices backfire via heatmaps, graphs and plain explanations. Cases can outlast mayoral terms; high-turnout groups wield outsized influence; a local paper reports scandals and policy moves. Multiple starting scenarios range from a 200-resident hamlet to a 300,000-resident metropolis. There is no binary win condition - its sandbox model rewards sustaining office long enough to realize your vision. The game runs free in modern browsers and saves locally for offline play.