The state government is asking for comments on town planning the city of Adelaide into the year 2050. Although not strictly gardening talk there will undoubtedly be a call for more greenery in the city. I notice that Europe and America are changing over to 'the 15-minute city' idea of more pathways and less roads. Does anyone have experience of this concept working?
15 minute cities
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No. Here we either call that level of control a planned neighborhood or communism. It is a dichotomy.
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Oh there are here too. We are a major medical and tech area, center of the GDP of America given the megalopolis areas forming a triangle around us. It is centered in an area formed by Florida, North Carolina and Texas. I just do not like that many people. Makes me want to move. Nothing personal of course.
I drove from Florida to California in 1985. We passed through Alabama on that elevated freeway across the tidal lands to the south. There's no doubting the infrastructure or the technology or the wealth of the southern states. Although the peanut seller by the side of the road looked poor and neglected.
Move to Australia - our deserts don't have petrol stations with supermarkets every hundred miles.
Move to Australia - our deserts don't have petrol stations with supermarkets every hundred miles.
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Don't tempt me. Not only could I grow eucalyptus trees, I could raise teddy bears too.
Does anyone have experience? Well, most of human history was that way. Up until the industrial revolution many towns were based on how far one could walk.
This changed with the advent of motorized transportation and cities began to spread out, suburbs became a thing. But even so, it took a century for big cities to become impractical to live in without personal transportation. Indeed there are still places where one can live that way.
My problem with planning a 15 minute city is the planning part. The changes mentioned above happened organically, the citizens made the change, not the government.
My home town of Cleveland had that history and is slowly starting to return to it's history. Particularly in the 70s and 80s many stores that surrounded Public Square closed and became offices, beginning in the 2000s many of these offices are being turned into apartments. One local grocery chain has turned an old bank into a grocery store, other stores are opening as well. But this change started because downtown workers got tired of commuting from the suburbs. There's always been restaurants and delis, go to the original Slymans and get there early.
This changed with the advent of motorized transportation and cities began to spread out, suburbs became a thing. But even so, it took a century for big cities to become impractical to live in without personal transportation. Indeed there are still places where one can live that way.
My problem with planning a 15 minute city is the planning part. The changes mentioned above happened organically, the citizens made the change, not the government.
My home town of Cleveland had that history and is slowly starting to return to it's history. Particularly in the 70s and 80s many stores that surrounded Public Square closed and became offices, beginning in the 2000s many of these offices are being turned into apartments. One local grocery chain has turned an old bank into a grocery store, other stores are opening as well. But this change started because downtown workers got tired of commuting from the suburbs. There's always been restaurants and delis, go to the original Slymans and get there early.
At one time and it still might be. Springfield, MO. Was known for it's trees.
My little Sister worked on the Park Board down there they was always putting in walk ways and Biking trails.
big rockpile
My little Sister worked on the Park Board down there they was always putting in walk ways and Biking trails.
big rockpile
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I've never heard of "15 minute cities".
My quick view - if you can't ride a bike from one side or the city to the other in 15 minutes or less it's too big and you need to get the halibut out of there. Case in point. Today my family and I rode bikes to church on the otherside of downtown from home. We made it in 10 minutes. And, I was carrying my coffee in a steel travel mug.
My quick view - if you can't ride a bike from one side or the city to the other in 15 minutes or less it's too big and you need to get the halibut out of there. Case in point. Today my family and I rode bikes to church on the otherside of downtown from home. We made it in 10 minutes. And, I was carrying my coffee in a steel travel mug.
zigs
Cactus Grower, Kent.
If you asked folk if they liked the idea of everything being within a short walk or bike ride away from home with no traffic or cars polluting the neighbourhood they'd probably say yes.
But if you impose this on an area, fine people for driving, block off roads and stop people coming in then businesses will close down (as they already have in UK cities where they have forced low traffic neighbourhoods onto people).
You already have to have a ticket to get on a train here, you need a smartphone to buy one, hardly any stations have ticket offices anymore. They are getting rid of petrol and diesel cars, if you haven't got a driveway you can't charge an electric car (if you can afford one) as there aren't any charging points.
If the shops are closing down (most high streets have boarded up shops now and some have tent cities springing up) then the shops that are left can charge what they want for food. You can't leave the area to shop around as you can't drive anymore.
So when people can't afford food from the few shops left, those too will close down as they won't be able to absorb the cost of shop lifting.
Then what?
There's a movie about a 15 minute city, it was made in 1970. 30 million people are crammed into New York and not allowed out. Most of them live on the streets and are fed protein biscuits.
It's set in the year 2022 and it's called Soylent Green.
But if you impose this on an area, fine people for driving, block off roads and stop people coming in then businesses will close down (as they already have in UK cities where they have forced low traffic neighbourhoods onto people).
You already have to have a ticket to get on a train here, you need a smartphone to buy one, hardly any stations have ticket offices anymore. They are getting rid of petrol and diesel cars, if you haven't got a driveway you can't charge an electric car (if you can afford one) as there aren't any charging points.
If the shops are closing down (most high streets have boarded up shops now and some have tent cities springing up) then the shops that are left can charge what they want for food. You can't leave the area to shop around as you can't drive anymore.
So when people can't afford food from the few shops left, those too will close down as they won't be able to absorb the cost of shop lifting.
Then what?
There's a movie about a 15 minute city, it was made in 1970. 30 million people are crammed into New York and not allowed out. Most of them live on the streets and are fed protein biscuits.
It's set in the year 2022 and it's called Soylent Green.
Thanks for the responses. This one above, seems to sum them up. The trouble with it is - I've been to Phoenix. Without planning there was no footpaths, all the traffic and restaurants were ribbon developments along the roads that surrounded an almost dead city center of abandoned and demolished building sites with their scattered concrete slabs not even used for parking. Who needs parking when the only remaining occupied building in the city center was a drive through bank? Maybe it has been reborn since 1985.
In my 80th year I am unable to ride a bike. Many people who are older or wheelchair bound are now unable to go out at all in these awful places. This scheme is being rolled out in cities across the globe.
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Well they celebrate Bastille Day for a reason. I for one just have always seen the English as more forward thinking than all that. Still, here we are across the pond with grease in our hinges that is barely 200 years old.
Sainte-Mère-Eglise church has a door downstairs that is like 1100 years old. The door has seen this before. None of this is new. What is new is the acceptance.
I have a preference toward a more violent europe rather than allowing communism to pretend it has validity there and sneaking in the back door through the treasury. Just my opinion. Trump taught us the need for post election triplex communication, where currently the duplex communication only exists between the treasury and the government they pay to in turn tell them what they are allowed to do to you
Never let them say you are too stupid to vote on their works. They will. You say how can I be smart enough to vote for an elected official but too dumb to review the manager?
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Thanks again. Your comments are very - er - lively. I never realized the British situation had devolved into retail collapses and potential food shortages. I thought the Barcelona and Amsterdam situation came from people demanding change.
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