The only thing dumber than the 15 minute city concept is the way it is being implemented which actually has nothing to do with the idea. They are basically shutting down roads because they hate cars for ... 15 minute city reasons.
It doesn't take a lot of thought to figure out why this idea is dumb. People in big cities like the idea of having convenient access to various services in their area. 15 minutes cities basically takes all the downsides of living in a big city (crime, pollutions, noise, etc.) and removes the advantages of having quick and convenient access to a large and varied selection of businesses. Basically, you only get convenient access to what is within 15 minutes and really inconvenient access to anything outside that. A 15 minute walking radius is not enough space to have a descent selection of services which people in big cities like, which is partly why they live there.
For example, people with very specific hobbies can attest to the advantage of being in a big city. You can (or used to be able to, maybe not so much anymore) find a store in a big city that caters to your hobby (for example, model airplanes). If you live outside a big city, you have to order these things and have them shipped to you which has its downsides (takes time, you generally can't inspect what you are getting in person, etc.).
Also, do they plan to have a hospital in every 15 minute neighborhood. That is another advantage of more built up areas. Distance to hospitals and healthcare facilities.
If they implement this in rural areas, it's even more downsides (with no upsides at all, just like in big cities) although I don't think the people in more rural areas will stand for it. But I think that's who they want to attack. Force everyone into cities so they can control them as this policy could be used to make rural towns unlivable.
If they actually wanted to implement this idea (instead of what they are actually doing), they might consider creating policies that would encourage more services at a local level to a neighbourhood. Maybe changing the zoning laws to allow more low intensity businesses in suburban neighborhoods so people can have more options closer to home. But that is not what they did. They intentionally tired to make traffic worse to frustrate people to such an extent that they decide not to bother going anywhere.
Also, if you think this is just restricted to Britain and France, think again. It could very well be coming to a neighborhood near you. And if it does, fight it. No doubt this is a small part of their plan. It can also allow them to more easily implement their climate lockdowns. Basically, restrict you to your 15 minute cell for the good of the environment. It actually makes more sense as a tool to control movement within a population than anything else. Next, 15 minute neighbor hood passports, just like the Soviets had (internal passports, you needed them to travel around the Soviet Union, everyone also had to have their ID on the at all times).
Just another step in the dystopian nightmare they want to implement.
Can confirm, even in the suburbs near a certain large city, it's really hard to feed my model addiction (various types, though right now Gunpla has been a lot of fun since they don't take as much space as, say, trains) because most "fun" stores are hours long drives.
If they tried to rip that away from me, then suddenly they've taken away the biggest time sink hobby I have...and as they are still working to destroy my other hobbies, they are eventually going to corner people in situations like mine into being really, really ornery with no stress relieving outlets.
Gotta disagree. The suburban sprawl model of development that we have been doing for about the past sixty years is not gonna make it, and I will give you the main reasons (and I don’t really think climate change is real or not an issue, there are bigger ones to consider):
paves over our countryside to make way for globohomo box stores and woke corporations, instead of traditional small town main street type development which favors smaller local mom and pop true American stores and businesses
the road infrastructure it requires is ridiculously expensive and is paid for with money borrowed against the debt we borrow from china, soros, etc. once they quit loaning us money or we default guess what will happen to all those roads? They only last about 30 years or so before they need a full reboot. To continue to build in this way puts our country in a very weak position if supply lines were to be interrupted for example, and leads us down a fiscal path to bankruptcy
forcing people to drive everywhere, instead of having the car be an instrument of freedom to be used more occasionally, puts citizens under the thumb of globalist car companies who keep pumping out more and more expensive cars. So we are all paying for two expensive cars every month just because, well when you live in the globohomo sprawl you need two cars
loss of town identity - everything is just six lane roads and sprawl
kids stuck at home till they can drive instead of being able to walk to a job at the hardware etc they just get stuck out in the sprawl dressing up in their sisters clothes and streaming on tictok
It’s not a healthy way to build a civilization. We can have city, and country, but the middle part the sprawl is what is bankrupting us.
15m neighborhoods where you have a school and a store and a church all steps away are a good idea
And yet, you dont take into account how many more schools and big box retailers will need to be built and how many more bodies will need to be stuffed into each 15 minute zone to make paying for that added infrastructure, without debt, feasible.
Go look at the megacities in fiction like Judge Dredd. Thats what you are advocating for. High crime, distopian, state above all else.
Kids in suburbia can usually access jobs - if their parents will let them. Unfortunately, the media has convinced everyone that not having your children in line of sight is bad.
No dumba ass I am not advocating for megacities those are terrible and are the result of sprawl. I'm talkikng about the return to small-town type development, walkable small neighborhoods like our forefathers built and the type of towns which made america great in the first place.
Not concrete jungles - real neighborhoods which are suitable places to call American towns.
"Walkable small town neighborhoods" are either urban hell holes or sprawl. Our forefathers didnt have that, they had a main street that everyone would horse and later drive into where they could walk around, but they lived away from main street. First in farms, then in suburban homes, then in urban high density housing. Housing was always located away from shopping and industry.
You are quite obviously thinking with rose tinted glasses.
The only thing dumber than the 15 minute city concept is the way it is being implemented which actually has nothing to do with the idea. They are basically shutting down roads because they hate cars for ... 15 minute city reasons.
It doesn't take a lot of thought to figure out why this idea is dumb. People in big cities like the idea of having convenient access to various services in their area. 15 minutes cities basically takes all the downsides of living in a big city (crime, pollutions, noise, etc.) and removes the advantages of having quick and convenient access to a large and varied selection of businesses. Basically, you only get convenient access to what is within 15 minutes and really inconvenient access to anything outside that. A 15 minute walking radius is not enough space to have a descent selection of services which people in big cities like, which is partly why they live there.
For example, people with very specific hobbies can attest to the advantage of being in a big city. You can (or used to be able to, maybe not so much anymore) find a store in a big city that caters to your hobby (for example, model airplanes). If you live outside a big city, you have to order these things and have them shipped to you which has its downsides (takes time, you generally can't inspect what you are getting in person, etc.).
Also, do they plan to have a hospital in every 15 minute neighborhood. That is another advantage of more built up areas. Distance to hospitals and healthcare facilities.
If they implement this in rural areas, it's even more downsides (with no upsides at all, just like in big cities) although I don't think the people in more rural areas will stand for it. But I think that's who they want to attack. Force everyone into cities so they can control them as this policy could be used to make rural towns unlivable.
If they actually wanted to implement this idea (instead of what they are actually doing), they might consider creating policies that would encourage more services at a local level to a neighbourhood. Maybe changing the zoning laws to allow more low intensity businesses in suburban neighborhoods so people can have more options closer to home. But that is not what they did. They intentionally tired to make traffic worse to frustrate people to such an extent that they decide not to bother going anywhere.
Also, if you think this is just restricted to Britain and France, think again. It could very well be coming to a neighborhood near you. And if it does, fight it. No doubt this is a small part of their plan. It can also allow them to more easily implement their climate lockdowns. Basically, restrict you to your 15 minute cell for the good of the environment. It actually makes more sense as a tool to control movement within a population than anything else. Next, 15 minute neighbor hood passports, just like the Soviets had (internal passports, you needed them to travel around the Soviet Union, everyone also had to have their ID on the at all times).
Just another step in the dystopian nightmare they want to implement.
Can confirm, even in the suburbs near a certain large city, it's really hard to feed my model addiction (various types, though right now Gunpla has been a lot of fun since they don't take as much space as, say, trains) because most "fun" stores are hours long drives.
If they tried to rip that away from me, then suddenly they've taken away the biggest time sink hobby I have...and as they are still working to destroy my other hobbies, they are eventually going to corner people in situations like mine into being really, really ornery with no stress relieving outlets.
It's a REALLY bad plan.
Just like all other forms of communism, it sounds great on paper. In practice? Totalitarian garbage.
Gotta disagree. The suburban sprawl model of development that we have been doing for about the past sixty years is not gonna make it, and I will give you the main reasons (and I don’t really think climate change is real or not an issue, there are bigger ones to consider):
paves over our countryside to make way for globohomo box stores and woke corporations, instead of traditional small town main street type development which favors smaller local mom and pop true American stores and businesses
the road infrastructure it requires is ridiculously expensive and is paid for with money borrowed against the debt we borrow from china, soros, etc. once they quit loaning us money or we default guess what will happen to all those roads? They only last about 30 years or so before they need a full reboot. To continue to build in this way puts our country in a very weak position if supply lines were to be interrupted for example, and leads us down a fiscal path to bankruptcy
forcing people to drive everywhere, instead of having the car be an instrument of freedom to be used more occasionally, puts citizens under the thumb of globalist car companies who keep pumping out more and more expensive cars. So we are all paying for two expensive cars every month just because, well when you live in the globohomo sprawl you need two cars
loss of town identity - everything is just six lane roads and sprawl
kids stuck at home till they can drive instead of being able to walk to a job at the hardware etc they just get stuck out in the sprawl dressing up in their sisters clothes and streaming on tictok
It’s not a healthy way to build a civilization. We can have city, and country, but the middle part the sprawl is what is bankrupting us.
15m neighborhoods where you have a school and a store and a church all steps away are a good idea
And yet, you dont take into account how many more schools and big box retailers will need to be built and how many more bodies will need to be stuffed into each 15 minute zone to make paying for that added infrastructure, without debt, feasible.
Go look at the megacities in fiction like Judge Dredd. Thats what you are advocating for. High crime, distopian, state above all else.
Kids in suburbia can usually access jobs - if their parents will let them. Unfortunately, the media has convinced everyone that not having your children in line of sight is bad.
No dumba ass I am not advocating for megacities those are terrible and are the result of sprawl. I'm talkikng about the return to small-town type development, walkable small neighborhoods like our forefathers built and the type of towns which made america great in the first place.
Not concrete jungles - real neighborhoods which are suitable places to call American towns.
"Walkable small town neighborhoods" are either urban hell holes or sprawl. Our forefathers didnt have that, they had a main street that everyone would horse and later drive into where they could walk around, but they lived away from main street. First in farms, then in suburban homes, then in urban high density housing. Housing was always located away from shopping and industry.
You are quite obviously thinking with rose tinted glasses.