SimCity tips you may not know

Things that make sense:

• RCI 2:1:1 still best balance without taking into account regional trade/specialization.
• When choosing a location the resources are listed so you may want to modify your strategy based on the available resources.  For example: Lots of coal, little wind - industry heavy/coal power city might be an easier route.  Or link up with a heavy wind power city.
• Place water facilities near a river, this area will not dry up.  I'm still seeing issues with rain not really replenishing wells.
• Minimize intersections to reduce traffic.
• Wind is cheapest and cleanest energy, but takes up room.
• Industry is fine with coals/oil power, but residential areas are not.  If you have these resources it generally makes more sense to sell.
• Watch the wind indicator with placing industry/other polluters like sewage/garbage.  Don't have residential downwind.
• Trees can help as an pollution buffer but distance is really best.
• Check service capacity regularly, try to update as needed before receiving a critical issue notification. (power, water, sewage)
• There is no reason not to share services (police, fire, ambulance), you can make a little money and you get no penalty.  And if your region does better so do you.
• Proximity matters, and everything (power, water, sewage) all use the roads for pathing.
• If your coal level in your power plant falls below 50%, your power generation drops to half.

Specializations:

• In general
• Can connect service roads, take advantage of service roads they allow a lot of flexibility
• Keep trade depots close to the resources they service.  If trading keep close to highway/port/rail. 
• Closed loops are best for anything that requires traffic/deliveries.  Try to keep your specialization separate from general town stuff.
• Tourism
• High population, and transit best first
• Other cities in region populated
• Place cultural point
• Expo center/events the goal
• Water ports and airports still don't seem to have enough benefit for cost
• The signs bring in tourists
• Gambling 
• Need sufficient population
• Mass transit helps, but not as crucial as tourism
• Need extensive police force
• Make sure casinos cater to your city's wealth class
• The signs bring in tourists
• Mining needs space and pollutes
• Delivery trucks are key, trade depot location
• HQ, smelting factory as soon as possible metals mean more money
• Need coal for alloys, not really as profitable unless there is a sufficient coal deposit locally
• Oil
• Leads to plastics and fuels
• HQ to get refining division
• Trade HQ
• More storage/trucks
• Freight via water and rail
• Trade ports you need to unlock the storage types
• Really need the water expansions for high level trade, rail alone is much less effective

Silly quirks you just have to know:

• Best order for implementing services early on (order of criticality)
• power
• water
• sewage
• clinic
• fire
• trash
• police
• Don't worry about citizens complaining about needs that you verify are already met, if nothing is critical they just whine anyway.
• Town hall additions, keep in mind these are shared for the Region.  So you don't want to double up and waste a slot,  but make sure your buddy will keep it open or you'll lose access to the features when it closes.
• Best 1st choice overall - financial
• Allows setting detailed tax rates
• Best balance is 12:11:10 (yes the poor should have the highest taxes...)
• Can take out higher loans (100k)
• Next usually Utilities, it allows more efficient buildings for saving space
• If you already have a big enough transit issue, or specifically need traffic to/from the region, plop Transportation next.
• Safety is a big money sink so not needed unless you have a specific need for upgraded services generally more small buildings are more efficient. (possible exceptions: haz-mat - tech/police - gambling)
• Tourism, only if needed for specialization
• The basic school system is dumb you don't have to worry about the school "type"
• When you get a high school you can get rid of the grade school, apparently kids are then born smarter and can go right to freshman year.
• Higher education
• Add mass transit before adding college, school buses don't run there.
• Extremely expensive to maintain for little direct profit benefit, but you need expansions based on your specialization, great works or clean energy goals.  So you need to keep in sync and plan well. 
• At least it unlocks things for the region.
• The more cities you share resources with, the smaller the share is that each city can have.  So one big city and one small city will still have equal chance to buy.  So it's best not to share with a second city that doesn't really need it.