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15-Minute Cities: How To Separate The Reality From The Conspiracy Theory:
The 15-minute city itself is a simple idea. If you live in one, it means that everything you need to go about your daily life – school, doctors, shops and so on – is located no more than a 15-minute walk from your house.
The concept... calls for city design that is centred on people and their needs rather than being designed for cars.
I honestly cannot think how this can be twisted into some sort of plan for 'socialist control', unless someone is being completely dishonest about it. For those of us in pretty good health, we can choose to walk more than 15 minutes to get to the places we need. We need to be considerate of those who can't, and those who do not have access to private forms of transport.
So what's this all about, then? The usual, I reckon: money.
A really good example of this is our local chemist, which was in the centre of our little neighbourhood. At least its last two incarnations were run by pharmacy chains, and both times they had eventually closed. This last time, they wanted customers to visit another branch, which was another ten-minute walk away, and via a route that isn't great for those with limited mobility. An independent pharmacist then proposed reopening the chemist, and ran into strong opposition from the large pharmacy chains, who claimed it would affect their own business.
Luckily, strong neighbourhood support and proactive local councillors meant the community eventually prevailed.
Date posted:
22nd February 2023