15 minute cities

[DirtMechanic]

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.

They lost ww2 to communism. Its called socialism, but imo America let them down somehow.

 

[cpp gardener]

Here they want us out of our cars and onto bicycles and public transit. The problem with that here is like in most of Australia. It’s too freaking hot for most of the year to ride a bike more than a block, unless you carry extra clothes and there is a shower to use once you get there.

The big problem is that there are so many people and they keep making more. Everybody has to live somewhere and most of them want to live at the beach.

 

[DirtMechanic]

Here they want us out of our cars and onto bicycles and public transit. The problem with that here is like in most of Australia. It’s too freaking hot for most of the year to ride a bike more than a block, unless you carry extra clothes and there is a shower to use once you get there.

The big problem is that there are so many people and they keep making more. Everybody has to live somewhere and most of them want to live at the beach.

I dunno. Maybe the problem is they do not want your opinion. You are pesky, you gotta admit it.

 

[Tetters]

If only people could realise, it is wake up time. The situation is getting to a point of no return, and IS affecting all countries around the globe.
The actual population is decreasing, and infertility is being achieved by nefarious means. There are many more deaths, and as in my own case adverse reactions to a certain recent imposed medical procedure. Shops here are shuttered up in many towns, villages and cities, and in a short time we will be stuck with digital currency too. We are increasingly being monitored.
Do your homework as we have been doing. It's a real case of hope for the best, expect the worst, and take what comes.
Have a look at what is happening in London regarding the ULEZ scheme.
Look for REAL truthful news rather than the mainstream rubbish being dealt out. I for one don't want to live with communism.
Oh, and grow more vegetables to store up!

 

[Ruderunner]

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.

I think you misunderstood me. I'm not saying that cities shouldn't have a plan at all, rather it should be based on what the citizens want.

That's opposite of the government telling the citizens how to live.

The situation in Phoenix doesn't sound to far off from Cleveland, stores opened in the suburbs and left the downtown area. 40 years later, the pendulum is swinging back.

Anybody in the area now?

 

[redback]

Your critical comments are very enlightening. I can see now that town planners need to go out and explain what they are planning and await comment before launching into road closures and restrictive road usage. The surveillance of citizens goes well beyond road cameras and is a different worrying development.
There are other aspects of this 15 minute idea. In fact, the word 'city' encompasses all of human activity.

1. Increased housing for the homeless.
2. Better design of buildings for thermal performance.
3. Bicycle tracks and wheelchair access (as per Mr Yan and ccpgardener) need to connect the entire city because a bike can do 30 kilometers very easily and one day any of us can be handicapped. So, it's the whole of the city plan rather than bits of it.
4. Quadruple the green space of the city. This should include edible gardens for the locals as well.
5. There is a changing of vehicles coming. Electric cars and covered three wheeled vehicles are on the way. We will need more than one type of traffic corridor.

 

[Mr_Yan]

In fact, the word 'city' encompasses all of human activity.

???

 

[redback]

???

Just about everything happens in the city. Every human experience can be had in the urban landscape. 'Civilization' is defined by the word 'City'. Apart from the city there is only 'rural' and urban dwellers can experience that with travel. Okay there is a weakness there in that last sentence.
Correction - "The city encompasses most kinds of human activity."

 

[Meadowlark]

... In fact, the word 'city' encompasses all of human activity.

That is completely bizarro to someone who grows most of their own food organically, lives about as free from Government interference as is even imaginable in this World and can't even remember when the last time any Government representative had any effect on my life at all.

 

[redback]

That is completely bizarro to someone who grows most of their own food organically, lives about as free from Government interference as is even imaginable in this World and can't even remember when the last time any Government representative had any effect on my life at all.

...and sits on his computer that was invented and made in a ....
If you want to delete that sentence it's okay. I was being general but the words 'town', 'village', 'gathering place' etc. . could replace 'city'. The reality is that about 80% of the world's population lives in what are called 'cities' and the number is rising. There is a centralization of the population into cities because the services there are far superior to regional areas. I don't approve of this. Perhaps the planners should tell what they propose to reverse this trend.

 

[Ruderunner]

...and sits on his computer that was invented and made in a ....

GARAGE IN THE SUBURBS, at least if one is using an Apple product. Otherwise it was invented in a government office circa 1950.

If you want to delete that sentence it's okay. I was being general but the words 'town', 'village', 'gathering place' etc. . could replace 'city'. The reality is that about 80% of the world's population lives in what are called 'cities' and the number is rising. There is a centralization of the population into cities because the services there are far superior to regional areas. I don't approve of this. Perhaps the planners should tell what they propose to reverse this trend.

That's kind of the problem, there's many ways to define cities. NYC, might be the biggest 15 minute city, but there's lots of much smaller places that fit the basic idea. Multiplies more. I live near a couple smaller cities that have most of the amenities found in big cities, including traffic lights!

Cheese and rice, sometimes you city folk need to get out of the city and see what is beyond the freeway.

 

[Meadowlark]

... The reality is that about 80% of the world's population lives in what are called 'cities' and the number is rising.

Sorry, I don't believe that. Here the trends are the opposite.

Post Covid, people are desperate to get out of the cities and become more independent. Maybe the best indicator of that is raw land prices. They are through the roof!! I literally could not afford my place today, not that I would sell it at any price...it has more than tripled in value post COVID and I get requests to buy it at those tripled prices weekly.

Many people want out. I can't imagine being trapped in today's cities. That is not living and not something I will ever do again in my lifetime.

 

[redback]

GARAGE IN THE SUBURBS, at least if one is using an Apple product. Otherwise it was invented in a government office circa 1950.

That's kind of the problem, there's many ways to define cities. NYC, might be the biggest 15 minute city, but there's lots of much smaller places that fit the basic idea. Multiplies more. I live near a couple smaller cities that have most of the amenities found in big cities, including traffic lights!

Cheese and rice, sometimes you city folk need to get out of the city and see what is beyond the freeway.

You're not talking to a city folk or a suburbanite. I'm a fringe dweller. Yet here we are exchanging ideas (on a tool invented in a shed) just like city folk. One of the reasons that smaller regional towns are shrinking is the rejection of strangers - in particular migrants with different ideas and cultures.

 

[redback]

Sorry, I don't believe that. Here the trends are the opposite.

Post Covid, people are desperate to get out of the cities and become more independent. Maybe the best indicator of that is raw land prices. They are through the roof!! I literally could not afford my place today, not that I would sell it at any price...it has more than tripled in value post COVID and I get requests to buy it at those tripled prices weekly.

Many people want out. I can't imagine being trapped in today's cities. That is not living and not something I will ever do again in my lifetime.

Both trends exist. You're a fringe dweller like me. My property is booming thanks to a new suburb destroying good farmland and sprawling towards me. Covid is a big revision, and many office blocks sit empty now thanks to 'work from home'.

 

[Meadowlark]

... One of the reasons that smaller regional towns are shrinking is the rejection of strangers -

More bizzarro! Small towns here are NOT shrinking. The flight from the cities is on and it is on BIG Time!