World Economic Forum
Paris was one of the first cities to implement 15-minute city thinking.
Moreno himself has received several death threats and been viciously attacked online. Some commenters on social media wished for him and his family to be killed by drug gangs, suggesting that he be nailed into a coffin or run over as a punishment for his ideas.
16 Deutsche Welle 16
The number of cities worldwide that have implemented the 15-minute city concept so far.
How to explain these visceral reactions – especially when the object of the haters’ ire is ultimately just a way of making life better? At the root of the conspiracy theories, Akhmouch suggests, is a simmering resentment about Covid lockdowns, and the restriction of personal freedoms during the pandemic. “Some people want to commute and move, so there is always a need for some things to be accessible outside local neighbourhoods,” she explains. “Local amenities are fine if you live in a wealthy neighbourhood, but people in a poor neighbourhood might want to get away from where they live. “One underlying assumption is that we have to reduce usage of individual cars, which makes sense in large metro areas where cars are stationary 80% of the time but account for 50% of space, when you factor in sidewalks, parking lots, roads and everything else,” Akhmouch continues. “There are credible alternatives like walking, cycling and more public transport, so policies making life difficult for drivers make sense, but that does not suit everyone.” The personal nastiness aside, however, the concerns of the conspiracy theorists should probably not be dismissed as madness. After all, they arguably hint at a deeper truth about the overreach of government power, and the dangers of living in a surveillance society. The experience of Xinjiang, where the Chinese government has overlaid the region with a security camera every 150ft, is a case in point. Many people would surely agree that personal freedoms should not be given away cheaply, but should those concerns scupper efforts to improve quality of life, or reshape cities as healthier, happier places to live? “We live in strange times,” is how Moreno puts it. “Look at the popularity of Donald Trump or far-right populist Javier Milei in Argentina. These people benefit from spreading fear and promoting false
ideas. As the 12th century philosopher Ibn Rushd said, ‘ignorance leads to fear, fear leads to hatred, and hatred leads to violence’. Some people will take the 15-minute city concept as an opportunity to expand globalist control – but that idea is totally insane.”
The balance of truth
Beyond the conspiracy theories, there are legitimate concerns about how 15-minute cities could be implemented. Some critics say it resembles a lifestyle approach to planning that mainly suits urban professionals, even as there is insufficient discussion around affordability.
When Oxford put forward its 15-minute city proposals, protestors gathered in the streets, with some claiming that it was an attempt to reconfigure the city as a ‘Stalinist-style, closed city’ to enslave local citizens. One fair criticism is that there is, so far, relatively little analysis of how to create local jobs, particularly for manufacturing or service workers, and some neighbourhoods simply cannot become leafy suburbs with trees and bike lanes. Nevertheless, neither the WEF’s past track record nor the lack of analysis on job creation, let alone the extreme interpretation of the concept as some kind of trap to limit a populace’s freedom of movement, are grounds to dismiss 15-minute cities as a complete waste of time.
Moreno, for his part, is the first to admit the idea needs polishing, though he firmly believes in the proximity paradigm as “a completely new way to reconcile a sustainable city with a modern city through the development of local economies, local services and local employment”.
The truth, in short, probably lies somewhere between the utopian ideals and the conspiracy theories – but it seems implausible that a focus on ecology, proximity and solidarity in urban design is all that bad in the end.
“Cities are laboratories for experimentation and there needs to be a reality check on what kind of engagement is expected for particular outcomes,” emphasises Akhmouch. “The concept is not a template, but a palette of ideas.” ●
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