If you are going to build, I would recommend joining an active community because that will add value to your Upland experience. How to find them — follow the Spark. Let’s look at the four Tier 1 cities in Upland (SF, Manhattan, Chicago, and LA) to see what is going on.
Update (follow the live updates on Twitter @Andia2Upland): A look at the Spark being used right now places 6 Los Angeles neighborhoods in the Top 10 in Upland. The 6 LA neighborhoods are Hollywood, Venice, Rancho Park, Leimert Park, Century City, and Morningside Park. Rounding out the top 10 are Portage Park (Chicago), Glenview (Loyldoyl’s node in Oakland), Outer Sunset (Keyser12 and DJ Shorts), and North 101 (Santa Clara). Prediction: LA is coming for the #2 spot. Watch out Chicago!
Total completed builds in Upland Tier 1 cities:
SF — 10235
Manhattan —1926
Chicago — 5308
LA — 2046
SF (release date: 2019; Spark Airdrop [link]: Q1 2021):
Given that the Spark token first airdropped just over a year ago, this is how the map of completed construction looks today.
Outer Sunset leads the pack with over 1200 buildings completed. If you add Inner Sunset, there are over 1350. All the blue areas have respectable numbers of completions, with dark blue representing 250 buildings. Starting at the top and going clockwise, these dark blue neighborhoods include: Marina, Pacific Heights, Mission, Bernal Heights, Exclesior, Midtown Terrace, Parkside, and Outer and Inner Richmond. Congrats to all the players who invested in their SF communities!
Manhattan (release date [link]: August 2020; Spark Airdrop [link]: Q1 2021):
Even though the city was released after SF, the city was minted out before the Spark token dropped.
The leading neighborhood is located in East Village with 128 buildings. The Upper East Side does well (Upper East Side, Carnegie Hill, East Harlem, and Harlem), as does Chelsea. Notice that the overall number of completed builds is much lower than in other cities, as properties are tiny and active nodes are more visible elsewhere.
Chicago (release date: June 2021 [link]):
Portage Park is the clear leader in Chi-town. It is the clear leader in Upland itself, as there is no more active community than PP. The node has even more completed properties than Inner and Outer Sunset combined. Some other built-up areas: Avalon Park (the only one in South Chicago), O’hare, Hermosa, Bucktown, Oldtown, and Little Italy. Notice that second-tier nodes have roughly 100 builds completed ten months after completion.
Los Angeles (Release late Jan/early Feb 2022 [link]):
Roughly two months after LA collection release, it is time to see how the city stacks up. Venice is the clear leader, followed by a series of emerging nodes in San Pedro, Wilmington, Morningside Park, Leimert Park, and Hollywood. Notice how LA construction already surpassed Manhattan. In my mind, LA is the Tier 1 city to watch as it races to catch up to Chicago. Next time, I will profile the smaller cities that are making it big in the Upland Metaverse.
Final Thoughts:
These trends will play out over the rest of the year, until community collections, racing, rentals, and other utility are added to the game. I am personally investing 80% of my Spark into Morningside Park to ensure it plays a prominent role in the future of Upland LA’s metaverse. Where are you building?
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