Is there a way to tell a citizen where to live?

One occasionally irritating problem in Tropico 4 (and 3, looking back on it) is that there seems to be no way to control who goes to live in which home; more often than not it's first-come-first serve -- and no matter that the apartment building I just put up right next to the garage by the fisheries is a much nicer place to live, three of the fishermen will stay in the tenement five miles down the road near the city center.

Is there any way to change that short of forcible evictions (causes unhappiness) or dynamiting the tenements?

EDIT Bit late, but came up with a workable method that causes a lot less unhappiness than evictions: Drastically increase the rent in the building you want cleared. Even the people who can afford it will likely abandon it for someplace nicer if they can, and when it's empty, it can be safely dynamited and replaced with a better residential building.


Solution 1:

No, you may be a dictator, but some decisions still belong to the citizens. In the real world, there are plenty of things that influence where someone lives other than convenience. Given time and a nice enough alternative, they may eventually move, but not without some resulting stress (unhappiness).

Solution 2:

..no matter that the apartment building I just put up right next to the garage by the fisheries is a much nicer place to live, three of the fishermen will stay in the tenement five miles down the road near the city center.

Are you sure they can afford it? IIRC, people in Tropico will pay up to 1/3 of their household salary for rent, which means that if they're getting paid $5, they'll pay only $1 for the house, unless they're married to someone who works.

Very often, they'll pick a high quality place near their workplaces, and will often move houses if there's a better home.