Helicopter 1 reporting heavy traffic

I've recently acquired SimCity 4, and so I'm going to be spending less time than usual blogging and more time than usual building cities. I seem to run out of steam once I hit around 25,000 people: that's when I hit the limits of my transportation infrastructure and I have to tear down pretty much the whole town to put in freeways and/or trains. Feh.

But at least I can take solace that there's a mayor worse than me: Frank Melton, of Jackson, Mississippi.

Among our mayor’s greatest hits:

• He once stopped a school bus on a busy interstate because he “needed a hug” from the kids inside.

• He’s been known to strap weapons to his chest and leg that he has no authority to carry or conceal, then wear them in public.

• He regularly suits up and leads SWAT-style “raids” on homes, businesses, and even roadblocks in busy traffic—without cause or a warrant.

• He has tried to close down the city’s strip clubs for moral reasons, despite no authority to do so.

• He once bulldozed an elderly woman’s house, promising to build her a better one. He then forgot to build it.

• He recruited a team of kids to torch a row of dilapidated shotgun houses, without clearance or first turning off the utilities.

• He keeps a house full of young men, including minors and/or felons, without having the proper foster-parent credentials.

• He once hid two of those young men wanted for armed robbery from the district attorney and county sheriff, driving away with one of them in his car after deputies stopped them and tried to serve a warrant on the young man (who later assisted with the duplex demolition).