Several updates to the map now including the beginnings of the new aqueduct system, water towers, and various other odds and ends including a new arena from Yill.
It is simply an average town quarter with inexpensive flats. That gives good reasons to roleplay not only the sunny life of rich people. 
Yep, what isn't evident in the shots is an area that isn't finished yet. The city is essentially divided into 4 levels. The level most prevalent in the screenshots is the 3rd level where the more common housing is as you said
The 2nd level is where the various large manor houses of the great Noble Houses will rest as well as the market place. The upper level contains the city armory, and various other government buildings nestled against the cliff. In the lower level there are gardens, a grand library, an amphitheater and other things but that area needs fleshed out more as well. As it is the housing district is nearly complete with small things to add like lightposts, clotheslines, and various other trinkets that will make it feel less like a ghost town.
I just hope that the citizen will decide to paint their house front sides a little, at the moment the houses are a bit too gray-in-gray for my taste.
For the most part this is done intentionally due to the nature of the governing class and building codes, as well as style. Keeping that a bit more monotone allows us to draw attention to certain things with splashes of bright color here and there to attract the eye.
Must be a place full of tree-huggers, with that one tree in the center of the benches.
That tree is a Qeion tree, a very special tree to the Vaalorians. The trees are colonial sharing a common root system. When the town was built that grove was preserved. In actuality that tree isn't the correct size, it needs to be a good deal bigger. The trees can grow to a height of 90 meters and that tree surely is one of the ancient ones.
Next up will be to finish the aqueduct system, add some bath houses, and then work on some of the lower gardens near the library. After that, the noble houses need finished up. Hopefully we'll keep going at this pace.
