how in hell do you expand?

This is a "BASICALLY" good game; however, making any progress is very slow going not the least the inability to expand the city limits.  You are required to have a population of 10,000 for the expansion to become available but THEN you are required to collect items to REALLY be able to expand and that is where the problem lies.  How does EA expect a person to expand when the items needed VERY RARELY (if at all) are available to collect?

I have a population of 55,000 plus people with the Beach and other areas open for expansion.  In all the time it has taken to get to that stage I have only "found, been offered, had made available" THREE 🏀 items of all that are needed for those expansions.  If EA is going to make you have a certain number of people for expansion then you SHOULD be able to expand based on those population numbers and NOTHING MORE.

Also, trying to achieve what the game asks, health facilities, schools, transport etc is almost as impossible due to the COST of those things compared to the amount of income generated.  $40,000 coins for a school when a population of 55 plus thousand people only generates $100 or so dollars per day in so called taxes (maybe)?  And that is just one example of the disproportionate financing problem with the game.

EA NEEDS to adjust the cost of things to be proportional to income, or visa versa; and,

EA NEEDS to get rid of the "extra items needed" for expansion and let people expand based on population numbers alone.

Now, I know EA is not going to do any of these things or even entertain the notion of the game having problems and to be honest, I doubt they even care so long as people are playing it and putting up with the game as is OR spending real money to advance.  I hope I am wrong, but their history of ignoring "customer concerns" is fairly well known.