Originally Posted by
50PlusCycling
If that were actually the intention of planners, no one would be vilifying it. I live in Tokyo, and I can find anything I need within 15 minutes of where I live. That wasn’t the result of organized planning, it was the result of, ‘gasp’, capitalism. People move where the jobs are, businesses and retailers move where the people are, and that’s all there is to it. Leave people alone to take care of themselves, their families, and their businesses, and they can do perfectly well, and any big city worthy of the title is already a 15 minute city.
The problem is that planners use ideas like “15 minute cities” as an excuse or smokescreen to pursue other social agendas, the results of which often being opposite to what was promised or expected. California’s Proposition 47 is a good example. It was called “The Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act,’ and with a title like that, people thought it must be a good thing, and voted for it. But it turned out this act actually rolled back the penalties for theft, fraud, and drugs, and instead of making neighborhoods and schools safer, it has caused an explosion of crime and violence, and an exodus of businesses and people from California’s largest metro areas. There are parts of San Francisco which could have been considered “15 minute cities,” but retail theft, crime, violence, and homelessness have caused entire blocks of businesses to close, meaning that you can no longer walk to a nearby shop or store (because they’ve all left), you have to drive much further out.
But that IS the intention of planners. They want to undo what was done with uniform zoning all over North America. No one was ALLOWED to put a store in a residential neighbourhood for decades.
I don't know anything about California or proposition whatever, I'm not going to follow that red herring. But in order to change decades of misguided planning they need to plan a little, not just undo the restrictions and allow anything anywhere. Hence planning the concept of 15min cities. Like you say, many cities outside of North America are already laid out like this. The point is to bring retail and commerce into the suburbs as well as the downtowns.