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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

#141

Post by ejb999 »

TurkishPoptart wrote: post #92

As the mental health and drug crisis grows, I simply don't want to walk anywhere, and don't want my family walking places. Plus, it's incredibly inconvenient to do grocery shopping on foot. Yes, I know that people do it and it's possible and I've done it when living elsewhere. Still, this 15-minute city is an initiative created by the WEF which should be ignored and not implemented. If the WEF is so concerned about t…

>>As the mental health and drug crisis grows, I simply don't want to walk anywhere, and don't want my family walking places.

Good point. There is very little motivation to make cities more 'walkable', if your walk requires stepping in or over human feces and discarded needles and homeless people camped out on the sidewalk. That problem needs to be fixed first before there is going to be widespread support for proposals like this.

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

#142

Post by costcofries »

ejb999 wrote: post #119
costcofries wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not American but I really agree with this comment. Each time I do go to America, everything just feels very.. American. Lots of concrete, big vast spaces of industrial, roads that seem far too wide and just overall very, overwhelming and big. Just my personal observations of course.

True in a lot of areas in the USA, but someday when you are in the US explore some of the less populated areas in small to mid-sized towns, far away from the major population areas. Sometimes I think people that grew up in, and live in a big city forget that not everyone in the USA lives like that. There are still a tremendous amount of beautiful places in all 50 states.

I don't doubt this and I've seen some of it firsthand! I only meant to compare the larger cities of Canada and America and the observed differences. Each of our lands has their own distinct beauties.

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

#143

Post by jdlyga »

hammock wrote: 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 an apartment complex that has a full-sized grocery store in it in the US. It's actually not what you think. The grocery store and shops are on the bottom, with 5 floors of apartments on top. There's no big giant parking lot, but a parking garage that's built into the apartments. Shoppers park in the 1st floor of the garage (free for shoppers). It's a very walkable area, since it's about 500 feet from a riverside pedestrian path connected to tennis courts and a nice park. It's a little bit of a unique situation since it's across the river from a major city, and most people (rich or poor) take the bus or ferry in instead of driving.

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

#144

Post by jobs_throwaway »

chamanbuga wrote: post #134
jobs_throwaway wrote: post #128

Do any Seattle-ites not have a car? How do you get around? Asking as a NYer who would consider living there if the car-free life wouldn't be too painful

Living the car-free life in Seattle is depressing due to gloomy weather. Life in Seattle is great if you accept the grey and live outdoors as much as possible. For that you need a car.

I was afraid that'd be the answer. Do you use your car for everything, or are you able to handle day-to-day stuff on foot and use the car mostly for adventures?

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

#145

Post by allturtles »

jimmaswell wrote: post #95
allturtles wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This comment seems to be based on a misconception of what "supermarket" means. These days supermarket pretty much == grocery store. The grocery stores that existed before supermarkets (with limited selection, probably no meat department, maybe no self-service, maybe no prices listed on the items) don't exist anymore. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supermarket . edit: this is in a U.S. context, I don't know how the…

Does this fit your definition of the kind of grocery store that doesn't exist anymore? They have a few misc. items, but it's almost all just food, and a fairly small building. https://maps.app.goo.gl/KSnn5Fq37DQwiSpAA

No, it doesn't fit the pre-supermarket definition. It's self-service, prices are labeled, it has a selection of various items in each category, it has a meat department. Plus it has the word supermarket in the name.

This is what a pre-supermarket grocery store looked like: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grocery_store#/media/File:1909...

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

#146

Post by Rediscover »

crowbahr wrote: post #105
gtk40 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't spent a lot of time in Seattle so I can't comment there, but in my experience urban supermarkets are more likely to have a parking lot underneath the building or in general have less parking than a suburban supermarket. Example: https://goo.gl/maps/AeXZhm6ZfYntEE1p7

That's what the supermarket in Lower Queen Anne looked like when I lived in Seattle.

Out of curiosity, which one: QFC or Safeway?

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

#147

Post by bobthepanda »

rhino369 wrote: post #118
throw0101c wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The way “supermarkets” are in the US, I don’t WANT to be a 15 minute walk from one. In a walkable neighbourhood, they'd just be a store front: * https://www.google.com/maps/place/197+Roncesvalles+Ave,+Toro... * https://www.google.com/maps/place/1435+King+St+West+Toronto,... Or at the very least, much smaller: * https://www.google.com/maps/@43.6395232,-79.4172267,3a,75y,3...

Chicago neighborhoods on the near north side (which are some of the most walkable in America) have large supermarkets. They just have parking garages (either above or below them). They are slightly smaller than suburban ones, but not that much. Whole foods has plenty of them in all big cities. It's just a cultural reason why some cities lack them--probably because people don't cook at home as much in NYC, for example…

In NYC it’s more a combination of lack of suitable lot sizes, and rent per sq ft. Supermarket buildings easily require 10,000 sq ft.

There is also very heavy competition from more traditional markets, like those found in Chinatown with very cheap meat and produce prices.

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

#148

Post by burnished »

hammock wrote: 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…

Where I grew up we had the kind of huge parking lot stores you are talking about - where I live in Seattle now those dont exist. Some places have parking lots but none of them are big enough for a rousing game of hide and go seek.

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

#149

Post by coldpie »

j_heffe wrote: post #137
coldpie wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is truly shocking how much damage the car has done to our cities and lives. Here in the Twin Cities, we have three enormous concrete canyons completely dividing up the city[1], destroying any chance at walkability or density for miles. All for the sake of people who don't even live in the cities to drive 30 minutes in their personal luxury steel cages from their suburban mansions to spend 30 hours a week here and…

Not to mention the opposition of public transportation here. People are already up in arms about the light rail expansion cost, plus the people angry about losing parking on Hennepin Ave for the proposed 24 hr bus lane.

If you haven't, give your congresspeople & city representatives a ring about the TCB :)

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

#150

Post by et-al »

jobs_throwaway wrote: post #128

Do any Seattle-ites not have a car? How do you get around? Asking as a NYer who would consider living there if the car-free life wouldn't be too painful

I know folks who live in Seattle and they get around by bike fine.

However they all own cars as well to go to the outdoors on the weekend. Feel like that’s half the reason of living in Seattle.

If nature is not high on your priorities, I dunno why one would trade NYC for Seattle. State income tax?

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