The 15-minute city: Where urban planning meets conspiracy theories

LONDON — It is an old, seemingly innocuous idea among city
planners: The closer you live to your workplace, shops, schools, and other
amenities, the better your quality of life will be.اضافة اعلان

But the concept of so-called 15-minute cities, in which
life’s necessities are only a short walk or bike ride from home, does not sound
utopian to everyone. To some, it sounds like a restriction on the routine act
of driving a car. To others, it sounds like the first step to draconian
government lockdowns that will confine people in their homes.

 A view of a boulevard running through a Paris
residential neighborhood. 

Regardless, it has become a source of widespread confusion,
disinformation, and conspiracy theories.

A quick history of the 15-minute cityThe idea behind 15-minute cities is not a new one, and is
familiar to anyone who has strolled around the historic villages of Europe or
remembers bustling Main Streets in the US before the postwar sprawl that
arrived with the Interstate System.

Proponents say 15-minute cities are healthier for their residents and for the environment, as they encourage walking and discourage a reliance on cars.

More recently, developments that market themselves as places
to live, work, and play have helped breathe new life into America’s inner
cities. In 2012, Portland, Oregon, adopted a plan for “20-minute
neighborhoods”, in which residents could live within a half-mile of amenities
such as grocery stores, parks, and elementary schools.

The concept gained new momentum during the pandemic, which
altered both the daily lives of millions of newly cooped-up commuters, as well
as ideas about the future of urban design. Proponents say 15-minute cities are
healthier for their residents and for the environment, as they encourage
walking and discourage a reliance on cars.

Is the idea actually catching on?So it would seem.

In responding to the challenges posed by the pandemic and
climate change, a number of cities around the world have adopted policies
inspired by the 15-minute model, aiming to improve their livability and
sustainability.

One of the most aggressive efforts has been in Paris, where
before the pandemic, Mayor Anne Hidalgo effectively declared war on cars in an
effort to reduce their planet-warming emissions.

She later made the idea of a 15-minute city a centerpiece of
her successful reelection campaign in 2020.

One of her advisers, Carlos Moreno, a French academic,
popularized the model of the 15-minute city (or “la ville du quart d’heure”)
and outlined three key features during a TED Talk in 2020.

“First, the rhythm of the city should follow humans, not
cars,” he said. “Second, each square meter should serve many different
purposes. Finally, neighborhoods should be designed so that we can live, work,
and thrive in them without having to constantly commute elsewhere.”

So why are some people afraid of 15-minute cities?It is that first part — a focus on people, rather than cars
— that has driven some recent pushback, as 15-minute cities replace COVID
lockdowns and mask-wearing as the latest perceived threat to personal freedoms,
at least among some people.

Jordan B. Peterson, the psychologist and commentator who is
widely critical of the modern left and runs a popular YouTube channel, has
warned of “idiot tyrannical bureaucrats” deciding where people can drive and
said 15-minute cities “are just another fad hijacked by wannabe
authoritarians”.

“Neighborhoods should be designed so that we can live, work, and thrive in them without having to constantly commute elsewhere”

Last month on Twitter, Peterson pointed to a report from C40
Cities, a group of 96 cities around the world working to mitigate the effects
of climate change, that said “any city where a private vehicle is necessary to get
around is likely to be fundamentally unequal”.

The concept of 15-minute cities has also been caught up in
broader conspiracy theories about efforts to remake society as the world
emerges from the pandemic. The focus of many of those theories is an effort by
the World Economic Forum called “The Great Reset”.

That initiative began in 2020, with the help of a cinematic
video narrated by the then-Prince of Wales, now King Charles III, who called
for “bold and imaginative action” in pursuit of a more equitable and
sustainable future.

 High Street in Oxford, UK. 

But the far-reaching, if vague, plan from the group, a
nongovernmental organization best known for its annual meeting of business
leaders in Davos, Switzerland, soon became fodder for concerns — some more
reasonable than others — about an unelected global elite’s using the pandemic
to reorder life as we know it.

The Davos group itself later acknowledged in a video that
the “Great Reset” branding “hasn’t gone down well” and that it sounded as if it
was “masking some nefarious plan for world domination”.

Where the controversy has become realThe debate over 15-minute cities has been especially
pronounced in Britain, where a number of cities, most notably Oxford, have
adopted policies that incorporate parts of the idea.

In Parliament last month, Nick Fletcher, a Conservative
member who represents part of Yorkshire, in northern England, called for a
debate about “the international socialist concept” of 15-minute cities, which,
he said, “would take away your personal freedoms”.

Days later, Mark Dolan, a host on GB News, a Fox News-style
TV channel that began last year, warned viewers of what he called the
“dystopian plan” being pursued by several communities that depends on “a
surveillance culture that would make Pyongyang envious”.

In Oxford, a centuries-old university town that has long
been bedeviled by traffic congestion, local officials have referred to the
15-minute-city concept as part of their long-term development plans. But the
idea has also gotten tangled up in a more immediate dispute over efforts to
limit traffic.

A city’s plan leads to confusion, and disinformationOfficials in Oxford approved a plan last year to install
“traffic filters”, which would limit access on six roads in the city during
certain times of day. The filters are cameras, not physical barriers, that take
photos of vehicles’ license plates. Fines are then issued to those without a
permit.

But the far-reaching, if vague, plan… soon became fodder for concerns — some more reasonable than others — about an unelected global elite’s using the pandemic to reorder life as we know it.

Officials said the system was intended to reduce traffic and
move it out to the “ring road” that encircles the city. But it led to
widespread confusion about where drivers could go and when, fed by
disinformation online that claimed people would be confined to their
neighborhoods, which they would need government permission to leave.

In addition to the traffic filters, some areas in Oxford
have been designated “low-traffic neighborhoods”, a system used in cities
across Britain in which bollards or other barriers prevent vehicular traffic on
certain streets, to the dismay of some drivers and residents.

Within weeks, confusion over the traffic filters prompted no
fewer than seven different fact-checking efforts (including by the Associated
Press and USA Today), as well as a statement from local officials saying that
government employees had been subjected to abuse because of “inaccurate
information” about the plan.

Moreno, who has been a key promoter of the 15-minute city,
addressed the disinformation surrounding the concept in a recent interview with
The Times of London.

“People can be totally crazy,” he said. “But I am not
affected. I will carry on spreading the message to improve the structure of
urban life. This insane campaign of hate won’t win.”

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