• Put your powerplant in a far corner of the board.
• If you have a river near the centre of your world, build near it.  Any housing near a river is attractive to the Sims.  Be careful though, do not build such that you cannot grow from there.
• Build 3×3 area first before building larger blocks
• Do not build too big too fast, but make sure you have a good balance. I’ve found starting with 4 light housing blocks, 2 med and 2 dense blocks to be useful.  2 light and 2 med business blocks are good.
• Build your industry zones along the edge of the world. Yes you need more road and it takes more money, but it will protect against lots of pollution.  You will fight this battle throughout the game.
• The Sims will scream for Police and Fire in the beginning.  Ignore them. These service cost lots of money.  Wait till you have solid income.
• Build the Fire station first, then the police station.
• You can never have enough water towers in the beginning.  Plan for that.
• Pay attention to taxes.  This is your best tool for regulating income and growth.
• Build parks to improve those borderline neighborhoods. Yes they take some money, but well worth it to turn a neighborhood around.
• Don’t go nuts with roads.  You will not notice at first, but they can really add up.  As your town grows, make larger blocks.  Plan for buses.  I’ve only once used a train system and that was when my city was becoming like Tokyo.
  

Have other tips, let us know.

I’m going to start with these first and see what we get after I get this past at least 1990. I think some cheats only work after a city is at a certain size or past a certain year… Stay tuned! Oh, BTW, if you did not already know, you get to the cheat code entry window by shaking your iPad, and shake it hard!  So far, I got 5 confirmed, and 2 that I’m pretty sure are not working..

BTW, I just put a list of SimCity Tips together to improve your game play.

‘i am weak’ – All buildings, zones, utilities, infrastructure, trees, and water are free.  Confirmed
‘pay tribute to your king’ – All rewards and opportunities become available. Confirmed

‘UFO Swarm’ – After entering this cheat, start a UFO disaster. Confirmed

“Pay tribute to your king” – Gives you extra rewards. This worked once and then not again. SemiConfirmed

‘nerdz rule’ – High tech industry overtakes existing industry. – Confirmed

‘garbage in, garbage out’ – All garbage buildings become available regardless of year.  UnConfirmed
‘power to the masses’ – All power plants become available regardless of year. UnConfirmed

I was just emailed this… Have yet to confirm any of these.  I’ve tried them off and on, but have not done any real deep testing:

Under the Utilities menu, open the Power Plant window. Then close it with the X button in the upper right-hand corner.
Under the Civic/Special Buildings menu, open the Rewards & Opportunities window. Then close it with the X button in the upper right-hand corner.
Under the Utilities menu again, open the Garbage Disposal window. Then close it with the X button in the upper right-hand corner.
Now go back to the Civic/Special Buildings menu and open the Landmarks window. The landmark list should now be very long and contains all the buildings and structures in the game (excluding infrastructure). You can place any building now.

‘water in the desert’ – All water facilities become available regardless of year.
‘let’s make a deal’ – All of your petitioners to whom you have connections to starting making deals with you.
‘UFO Swarm’ – After entering this cheat, start a UFO disaster.
‘the birds’ – A flock of birds fly over your city.
‘stop forcing advice’ – Supposedly shuts up the advisers. Not verified.

‘i love red tape’ – All ordinances become available. Unknown side-effects (not verified): City hall description becomes “Miles and Miles of Red Tape”.

‘call cousin Vinnie’ – After typing this code, you will see a Local Fundraising Event appear in the Meet window. He’ll offer you some cash, and if you accept the deal, he’ll give you a large wad of cash. You can only use this code once.