Paris Mayor: It's Time for a '15-Minute City' • Hacker News Board

Re: Paris Mayor: It's Time for a '15-Minute City'

#161

Post by rsynnott » Sat, Feb 22, 2020, 4:32 PM UTC

luckylion wrote: post #33

mschuster91 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When it comes to opening times of stores, us Germans are way behind everybody else...

Need to make sure that restocking is done during the day or the customers won't notice that you have to move large containers through the store! I understand that most stores would see little traffic at night, but on the other hand they'd also not need full staff, and they absolutely could do all the maintenance work at night. It annoys me similarly as "everybody must have the same two days off". So inefficient.

My local (small, urban) supermarket isn’t even 24 hours (7am to 11pm, I think) and is constantly restocking throughout the day anyway. If sales volume is high enough, that’s presumably necessary.

Re: Paris Mayor: It's Time for a '15-Minute City'

#162

Post by jackjeff » Sat, Feb 22, 2020, 4:35 PM UTC

hk__2 wrote: post #146

wozniacki wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comment seems highly tone-deaf. Look at some of the comments above about pollution and what it has done to areas immediately outside of the city core.

The air quality in Paris has significantly improved over the past few years, thanks to multiple initiatives to reduce the car traffic, both at the city and regional level [1]. [1]: https://www.la-croix.com/France/qualite-lair-sameliore-Paris...

Improved in places. Got worse in others. https://www.airparif.asso.fr/actualite/detail/id/213

Some of the places where it got worse are far away from Paris… so who cares about the poor people who live in a far-away suburb near the freeway. It's not like they vote for Paris' mayor.

Re: Paris Mayor: It's Time for a '15-Minute City'

#163

Post by rsynnott » Sat, Feb 22, 2020, 4:36 PM UTC

thaumasiotes wrote: post #31

soared wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Paris doesn’t have stores comparable to cvs from what I’ve seen. Monoprix is a grocery store but scaled down.

> stores comparable to cvs I named them because they're open 24 hours and they seem like the closest fit to a convenience store. CVS is a "drug store", selling products in three basic categories: (1) grooming supplies (hairbrushes / fingernail clippers / makeup... this kind of thing); (2) a very stripped-down grocery inventory, including only prepackaged food (cereal / milk / poptarts / cookies / candy, but no fruit…

I think CVS-style shops are a uniquely American thing, no? I was pretty confused by them on first visiting San Francisco (why is this a combination of products that makes sense? Is the candy aisle right beside where you buy statins some sort of elaborate joke?)

Re: Paris Mayor: It's Time for a '15-Minute City'

#164

Post by rsynnott » Sat, Feb 22, 2020, 4:40 PM UTC

stevesimmons wrote: post #30

tehlike wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it 1% interest rate over there?

Yes, in Eurozone countries, 10 year fixed mortgage are typically 0.99%. It's amazingly cheap. Down from 3.5% ten years ago. The downside of low rates is house prices correspondingly very high.

Except here in Ireland, unfortunately; absolute lowest mortgage available is 2.3%.

Repossession is especially difficult here, which raises the risk for the lender, and the banks unwisely gave out ECB trackers (as opposed to the EURIBOR trackers more common elsewhere) back in the day; some of these can be as low as 0.5%, so everyone else has to pay for that legacy.

Re: Paris Mayor: It's Time for a '15-Minute City'

#165

Post by rsynnott » Sat, Feb 22, 2020, 4:43 PM UTC

uinerkrj wrote: post #117

Cities are terrible places to live. To prove my point, can you walk to a natural area (beach, forest, mountain, etc) within 15 minutes? Of course not, other than maybe a tiny manicured park full of people. That "green area" pictured in the diagram will be the only green area, it will be a flat park of some sort, and it will be your only choice of place to visit. It will be more like a museum for trees than any kind o…

I mean, it’s all down to personal preference, really. I’d hate to live somewhere where I couldn’t walk or get around by rapid public transport. Car oriented suburbs (or, worse, rural areas) are my idea of hell. And if I want to go to a mountain or a beach (which is something I want to do way less than, say, going to work or the supermarket or going for a drink with friends, all of which are walking distance) I can get on a train.

Mind you, this is a city of 1.5 million people; mega cities like Paris have their own challenges.

Re: Paris Mayor: It's Time for a '15-Minute City'

#166

Post by rsynnott » Sat, Feb 22, 2020, 4:47 PM UTC

hk__2 wrote: post #113

lizknope wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While there is nothing illogical about it there is more to a city than just the people who live in it. Millions of people live in a suburb and commute to work in a larger city. Their employer pays taxes in that city. The employees eat lunch in that city. The city may be a tourist destination (Paris certainly is)

Of course, and improving the lives of those people is important but should never be detrimental to the Parisians themselves. For example, tourism means lots of Airbnb’d flats that are thus taken away from the people who could live there, and higher rents for those who can.

This is fixable; some cities have effectively banned Airbnb. More should.

Re: Paris Mayor: It's Time for a '15-Minute City'

#167

Post by jackjeff » Sat, Feb 22, 2020, 4:56 PM UTC

hk__2 wrote: post #97

pi-err wrote: post #69

I live in Paris and whatever you think of the current mayor, this is pure marketing babble for the elections next month. Paris has always had this very dense city core where 99% of daily life is 5-10’ away. It’s a great concept for dense metropoles, but it only works because the city is so small: 100 square kilometers in an ocean of much lesser density. 80% of “Greater Parisians” live outside Paris itself. Unfortunat…

The city mayor first cares about the people of that city; there’s nothing illogical here.

First the 15mins walk thing is probably already true in most district in Paris. But what you do not realize is that only a tiny minority of privileged people can actually afford to live in Paris. It's a bit like if the right of vote was restricted to people with high income.

Paris is TINY. Paris is SMALLER than the borough of Brooklyn in NYC.

Paris is 3x smaller than just the inner boroughs of London and 16x smaller than London.

The Paris business district (La Défense) is actually located OUTSIDE Paris. The business district spreads across 4 different municipalities!

Even if Paris fused with all the neighboring counties (92, 93 and 94) it would still be smaller than London.

Because of political concerns any project that would benefit commuters just takes forever.

Re: Paris Mayor: It's Time for a '15-Minute City'

#168

Post by cma » Sat, Feb 22, 2020, 5:02 PM UTC

wozniacki wrote: post #122

yardie wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel the last few years of chaos has less to do with the mayor and more to do with the national legislation. The mayor is not negotiating pensions and fuel taxes. Which is where most of these protests are about. It can both be true that Paris is a well run city with a president who invites protest every week.

A lot of things Paris is but a "well run city" may not be one of them, just like SF is many things but a well run city. SF gets its share of attention on HN. Time other cities do too. Even if you discount all of the following ( including from France's own national broadcaster - France 24 ) as biased news, we can agree on one thing - there's a lot of strife in the streets of Paris, hidden from plain view. From 3 month…

Am I reading Hacker news or Stormfront?

Re: Paris Mayor: It's Time for a '15-Minute City'

#169

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Feb 22, 2020, 5:08 PM UTC

d--b wrote: post #51

It’s all an election stunt to try and justify that her war on cars won’t affect Parisians. Ie. If you have everything you need in a 15min walk, you shouldn’t suffer that the traffic is reduced. But the things you occasionally need are getting harder to get. Plumbers, electricians don’t want to come to the city anymore. They will facture in the awful traffic and the fines they get for the lack of parking space. Basica…

[deleted]

Re: Paris Mayor: It's Time for a '15-Minute City'

#170

Post by esotericn » Sat, Feb 22, 2020, 5:21 PM UTC

toohotatopic wrote: post #133

esotericn wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A 25 year repayment mortgage with 0% interest is 4% a year (1/25).

After 25 years, the apartment is not worth nothing. People who ignore the bubble expect to sell the apartment after 25 years for the same price, or refinance with another mortgage. With some luck, the apartment is even worth more.

Sure, that doesn't change the fact that you need 4% per year to buy it.