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Notes -
The concept of '15-minute cities' came up a few weeks ago, but since then it appears to have piggybacked off a local dispute in Oxford to become the locus of the latest so-called 'far-right conspiracy theory'. The proposed measure certainly codes as dystopian to me on this side of the pond, even as someone who is generally supportive of new urbanist ideas, but I can't speak to how it plays in Europe.
I've often felt that the culture war battle lines on these urban planning issues have not been as clearly drawn as those on gender, immigration, or abortion, mostly due to a lack of attention, but that time appears to be coming to an end. Though seeing as we already can't build anything, I suppose it isn't much of a loss.
I think it would be good to separate out the specific methods used to achieve something like the 15-minute city and the actual goal of very walkable cities. I think the method can be quite bad despite the goal being very good. I've been living in a 15-minute city situation for nearly a decade now and it is truly a great way to live.
I've been living in a 15 minute town for decades now, and it's not so fun on a wet, windy, November morning when you're walking to work and the rain is blowing horizontally in off the harbour. I've several times been drenched arriving to work and ended up trying to dry myself off in the bathroom, then sat all day in damp clothes, because it's not always fine dry weather when you're walking or cycling.
That's why I'm very glad I have someone with a car to give me a lift on the wet mornings, and if anyone in power is idiot enough to think about banning cars from the town centre, I want a parallel law passed that they have to walk to work in the mornings in the pouring rain like the rest of us plebs.
Id rather get wet a few mornings a week than deal with obesity and heart disease from physical inactivity. I charitably attribute Americans' fatness to your car-centricity: if you think it's actually just pure moral torpor, and the cars are an unrelated co-incidence, then fair play to you.
Car-development gives diffuse malus and discrete bonus (ie a dry and comfortable commute), whereas walking is the inverse
The diet really doesn't help.
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