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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

#51
Cool map. If you select Elementary schools and all of the amenities except Link stations, the map basically highlights Seattle's Urban Villages (plus a few extras).[1]

[1]: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/seattles-... (using this for the nice map image because Seattle insists on publishing hulking PDFs)

Re: Is Seattle a 15-minute city? It depends on where you want to walk

#52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sorry, but I've read that article twice and I'm still not sure what they're actually saying. Are we talking about neighbourhoods not having a store selling fresh fruit and veg­eta­bles, or not having a grocery store of any kind ?

It's pretty clever - they use SNAP benefits as a proxy (you can buy what they call staples; fruits/veggies, bread, meat & fish, milk, etc but no hot or prepared food: https://fns-prod.azureedge.us/sites/default/files/snap/SNAP-... ) but they map to all of the stores who accept SNAP and combine that with a map of supermarkets from a Nielson directory. They then map the number of census tracts and compare against that…

Being more than 10 miles from a real market of some sort in an actual rural area seems a pretty low bar. Population density is certainly lower but 10 miles isn't very far if you need to drive to the next town over.

Re: Is Seattle a 15-minute city? It depends on where you want to walk

#53
post #48

I'd be super interested to see an analysis using exactly the same methodology as this performed on various other cities (SF, NYC, LA, maybe some European cities like Amsterdam or Cologne) for comparison. I would bet Seattle is near the top for the US in walkability (probably behind NYC only)

I can’t imagine Seattle being more dense than San Francisco, though I can imagine it’s in the top 5

Re: Is Seattle a 15-minute city? It depends on where you want to walk

#54
post #38

The way “supermarkets” are in the US, I don’t WANT to be a 15 minute walk from one. They are usually surrounded by a mile of blacktop and concrete, for all the drive-in shoppers in the front and all the trucks offloading goods or picking up deliveries in the back. Would much rather be near a decent small or midsize grocery with no or limited off-street parking, and which receives its deliveries on the street in the e…

I live in downtown Seattle. In the more dense urban areas such as Queen Anne and South lake Union the grocery stores aren't like that. They have underground parking and street parking. If you get into more residential areas such as Pinehurst, Lake City, etc then you find more grocery stores that are similar to what you're describing.

Re: Is Seattle a 15-minute city? It depends on where you want to walk

#55
post #38

The way “supermarkets” are in the US, I don’t WANT to be a 15 minute walk from one. They are usually surrounded by a mile of blacktop and concrete, for all the drive-in shoppers in the front and all the trucks offloading goods or picking up deliveries in the back. Would much rather be near a decent small or midsize grocery with no or limited off-street parking, and which receives its deliveries on the street in the e…

The more dense the area, the more likely you're in a 15 minute city and the more likely there is a supermarket with no big parking lot. Compare the Whole Foods in the UES Manhattan vs the Whole Foods in Manhasset.

Re: Is Seattle a 15-minute city? It depends on where you want to walk

#56
post #38

The way “supermarkets” are in the US, I don’t WANT to be a 15 minute walk from one. They are usually surrounded by a mile of blacktop and concrete, for all the drive-in shoppers in the front and all the trucks offloading goods or picking up deliveries in the back. Would much rather be near a decent small or midsize grocery with no or limited off-street parking, and which receives its deliveries on the street in the e…

All of the grocery stores in the core of Seattle are exactly like that--urban centers with underground parking. Some even have apartments on top of them so you could live above the store if you desired.

Re: Is Seattle a 15-minute city? It depends on where you want to walk

#57
post #2

I 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…

Good point in that European high schools (generally) do not have large sports facilities and therefore are suited to typical urban multi-story buildings. Kids do sports at private/public sports clubs that are usually located outside town or in suburbs.

So high schools within 15 min walk/bike in Europe is much more doable than in the U.S.

Caveat: this is how it was when I was growing up in France; it may have changed since then, though I looked up my old high school and it's the same.

Re: Is Seattle a 15-minute city? It depends on where you want to walk

#58
post #50
post #48

I'd be super interested to see an analysis using exactly the same methodology as this performed on various other cities (SF, NYC, LA, maybe some European cities like Amsterdam or Cologne) for comparison. I would bet Seattle is near the top for the US in walkability (probably behind NYC only)

it makes the top 10 according to this: https://www.walkscore.com/cities-and-neighborhoods/ honestly surprised that SF is more walkable than NYC with this criteria

I'm guessing because NYC is not just Manhattan.

Re: Is Seattle a 15-minute city? It depends on where you want to walk

#59
post #50
post #48

I'd be super interested to see an analysis using exactly the same methodology as this performed on various other cities (SF, NYC, LA, maybe some European cities like Amsterdam or Cologne) for comparison. I would bet Seattle is near the top for the US in walkability (probably behind NYC only)

it makes the top 10 according to this: https://www.walkscore.com/cities-and-neighborhoods/ honestly surprised that SF is more walkable than NYC with this criteria

SF top neighborhood: Tenderloin.

...starts to question list.

Re: Is Seattle a 15-minute city? It depends on where you want to walk

#60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I think it's possible that we lost this because, while people do genuinely like it, they like quiet, space, and privacy more.

I don't think you can broadly make that statement and back it up with data. Some people do in fact like space and privacy, some really don't care.

I'm one of the latter and I enjoy having no yard and neighbors.

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