City Cultural Properties
City cultural properties are each individual city's workday, and propensity for having large or small families. City cultural properties are not to be confused with a city's cultural value, which is different and affects what each city can build, as well as contributes to the owner's score. City cultural properties are noteworthy in that if you use a city's settlers to found a new city they will take their cultural properties with them, removing the trouble (as a cost in both action points and happiness) of changing their culture.
A good way to avoid the happiness and action point cost of changing the family size is to change the family size once on your first city in the direction and found cities off that city, meaning you only have to pay the cost once. Beware that once it is changed it is very costly to move back. If you are really daring, you can change the culture two or more times in one direction. This is rarely a good idea, as it will most likely cause overcrowding or population scarcity, depending on which direction you move.
People like shorter workdays, and will sometimes move to a city with them. However, a city with too small a workday may not have enough work to expand and build larger industries. The maximum workday is 12 hours while the minimum is 1 hour, though you will rarely reach either of these extremes. Find a good balance for your cities.
Family Size
Click on "Pop" on the city overview page. In the popup, click "Born". Raise or lower the family size. You can also access this by clicking your gems, then clicking "change the culture of this city". Changing the family size in either direction will entail a large hit to your city's happiness.- Large families are good in the early game, when your cities are growing and need the people. Later in the game, larger families can cause overcrowding in your cities.
- Small families are good in the later game, when your cities are full and more people would just be a drain on limited housing and food.
A good way to avoid the happiness and action point cost of changing the family size is to change the family size once on your first city in the direction and found cities off that city, meaning you only have to pay the cost once. Beware that once it is changed it is very costly to move back. If you are really daring, you can change the culture two or more times in one direction. This is rarely a good idea, as it will most likely cause overcrowding or population scarcity, depending on which direction you move.
Work Day
The work day is easier to mess with than family size. Raising the work day will cause a happiness loss, while lowering it will cause a happiness gain (though not enough to offset the loss of raising it). You can change the workday by clicking "Work day" on your city overview. You can also change it by clicking your gems, then clicking "change the culture of this city" You can raise or lower the workday by an hour or a quarter hour at a time.People like shorter workdays, and will sometimes move to a city with them. However, a city with too small a workday may not have enough work to expand and build larger industries. The maximum workday is 12 hours while the minimum is 1 hour, though you will rarely reach either of these extremes. Find a good balance for your cities.