Sim City is one of those games where you have to recognize that it is TOO good a simulation. Stuff happens to make the city incapable of surviving without urban renewal and taxes and stuff. To "win" at Sim City, you have to guide your city through maybe a hundred or even a hundred fifty years before you can say you are a success. It is far too easy to let the city take a nose dive.
The main reason I don't like Sim City is after I played it, I realized that urban planners have a really tough job and it isn't fair to gripe about the sloppy job they do.