I have not played the second part yet, only the first, however, I know that you should aim for living and shopping to be close by, best with some of the mixed used buildings. Then Industrie not too far away and downwind. Then set up public transport. A bus line that only serves living, or only runs in the industry sector is unhelpful if they never meet anywhere. People want to go from living to commercial and industry. Create alternatives to cars. Create foot paths and bike lane shortcuts.
Have an eye on the intersections, do you have traffic lights were a give way sign would be better? Do you follow the road hierarchy artery roads - collector/ distributor roads and then local roads? The higher up the fewer intersections you want on the road.
The USA have a two party system with majority takes it all, you can barely call it a democracy tbh.