Is Seattle a 15-minute city? It depends on where you want to walk
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Re: Is Seattle a 15-minute city? It depends on where you want to walk
#2I like the idea of walking 15 minutes to get all the things.
But man when I think of the costs involved in making sure there is a High School (in the US they tend to be large and draw from a distance) within 15 minutes of everywhere (no small cost to drop in a high school somewhere), or plop down a grocery store in a neighborhood ... that sounds both super expensive and politically difficult, and for some good reasons.
Heck I'd be annoyed if someone decides "Sorry we're rezoning / creating an incentive to build a restaurant in the plot next to you, not enough restaurants nearby. Good luck..."
Re: Is Seattle a 15-minute city? It depends on where you want to walk
#3I like the idea of walking 15 minutes to get all the things. But man when I think of the costs involved in making sure there is a High School (in the US they tend to be large and draw from a distance) within 15 minutes of everywhere (no small cost to drop in a high school somewhere), or plop down a grocery store in a neighborhood ... that sounds both super expensive and politically difficult, and for some good reason…
> a High School
(This is going to sound like we're playing Sim City 2000) but don't forget to add a hospital (a proper one, with an emergency room), a fire station, a police station...
> a grocery store
Are there many neighbourhoods which don't already have some kind of grocery store?
Re: Is Seattle a 15-minute city? It depends on where you want to walk
#4I like the idea of walking 15 minutes to get all the things. But man when I think of the costs involved in making sure there is a High School (in the US they tend to be large and draw from a distance) within 15 minutes of everywhere (no small cost to drop in a high school somewhere), or plop down a grocery store in a neighborhood ... that sounds both super expensive and politically difficult, and for some good reason…
Zoning laws are too strict. Buy a home and convert it to a grocery store? No can do, in many places.
Re: Is Seattle a 15-minute city? It depends on where you want to walk
#5I like the idea of walking 15 minutes to get all the things. But man when I think of the costs involved in making sure there is a High School (in the US they tend to be large and draw from a distance) within 15 minutes of everywhere (no small cost to drop in a high school somewhere), or plop down a grocery store in a neighborhood ... that sounds both super expensive and politically difficult, and for some good reason…
I was thinking the same thing. This doesn't seem like it's a realistic goal, as much as I do really like the idea. 15 minutes of walking isn't really much in terms of feet or meters or however you want to measure it. 15 minutes of biking time, that's better. I guess I live in a "15 Minute Area" if you only count the bike time. Maybe more like 20 if you count the time I end up sitting at intersections?
Re: Is Seattle a 15-minute city? It depends on where you want to walk
#6I like the idea of walking 15 minutes to get all the things. But man when I think of the costs involved in making sure there is a High School (in the US they tend to be large and draw from a distance) within 15 minutes of everywhere (no small cost to drop in a high school somewhere), or plop down a grocery store in a neighborhood ... that sounds both super expensive and politically difficult, and for some good reason…
Zoning laws are too strict. Buy a home and convert it to a grocery store? No can do, in many places.
I agree generally about zoning laws. But I also think they do a good job of keeping joe schmo from trying to turn a random plot into a car repair business that is just not suited to the job. Rando business guy doesn't care if the area is suited for it and neither do their customers.
I speak from experience as I lived in a house near a guy who decided to do just that... broken down cars parked everywhere (leaking all sorts of stuff), noise at all hours.
Gotta be a balance between things.
Re: Is Seattle a 15-minute city? It depends on where you want to walk
#7I like the idea of walking 15 minutes to get all the things. But man when I think of the costs involved in making sure there is a High School (in the US they tend to be large and draw from a distance) within 15 minutes of everywhere (no small cost to drop in a high school somewhere), or plop down a grocery store in a neighborhood ... that sounds both super expensive and politically difficult, and for some good reason…
My guess is that most USA urban neighborhoods in, say, 1960 (or 1930), met the 15 minute criteria.
Still, I'd guess you'd be right that it would be enormously expensive and difficult to bring this back.
But it was once this way, and it was human decisions that made it not this way. If we want it to be this way again and start, it can be eventually.
Re: Is Seattle a 15-minute city? It depends on where you want to walk
#8I like the idea of walking 15 minutes to get all the things. But man when I think of the costs involved in making sure there is a High School (in the US they tend to be large and draw from a distance) within 15 minutes of everywhere (no small cost to drop in a high school somewhere), or plop down a grocery store in a neighborhood ... that sounds both super expensive and politically difficult, and for some good reason…
Having schools distributed within walking distance should be done by city planners ahead of time.
Re: Is Seattle a 15-minute city? It depends on where you want to walk
#9Really neat visualization. Would love to see it for other cities (perhaps Paris would be a good one for comparison, since it's touted as the fifteen-minute city par excellence).
Re: Is Seattle a 15-minute city? It depends on where you want to walk
#10I like the idea of walking 15 minutes to get all the things. But man when I think of the costs involved in making sure there is a High School (in the US they tend to be large and draw from a distance) within 15 minutes of everywhere (no small cost to drop in a high school somewhere), or plop down a grocery store in a neighborhood ... that sounds both super expensive and politically difficult, and for some good reason…
Having schools distributed within walking distance should be done by city planners ahead of time.
Unless you're building a new city from scratch or have a lot of open land I think you're way far from what the article is about.