Don't build statues on a town's centre tile

[odisseus]

A town should never select its own centre tile to build a statue of company owner, even if that tile is empty.

Additionally, if the town has a regular street grid (2x2 or 3x3), it shouldn't build statues on tiles that are aligned with the grid.

[Eddi]

i thought statue was always meant to be replacing a house? that would address both of those issues.

[LaChupacabra]

I have a different opinion...
I very often build a statue in the strict center of the city - I just like symmetry.
I don't understand why it should be banned at all? You can always make it easier for a city to choose a place for a statue by cleaning the area you want. It is neither time consuming nor expensive, so I don't know what the problem is. The city will NEVER remove the road by itself and build a statue site on its own - this is not a coincidence.

[odisseus]

The problem is that removing road tiles from the street grid hinders the town growth, especially when other directions are blocked by terrain or industries. In the extreme case, overbuilding the centre tile will make the town unable to grow at all.

Of course, a malicious player can still overbuild any road tile with e.g. a canal. But I believe that the town should never aid in blocking its own growth. Moreover, the statue, of all obstacles, cannot be deleted by normal means.

[Emperor Jake]

The town will still grow if the exact centre tile is blocked. As long as there is a road connected to one of the tiles surrounding the centre tile (I forget the exact radius), the town will be able to grow.

[odisseus]

I've just made an experiment and confirmed that you are right. The town stops growing only when I overbuild all roads within 3 tiles of its centre.

Curiously, a town with an overbuilt centre tile tends to grow mostly in one direction rather than evenly around its centre.