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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

#251

Post by Symbiote »

com2kid wrote: post #219
Zagill wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing about cars specifically enables this. Building cities so that you have to drive to travel any significant distance, however, guarantees that you need a car to take advantage of competitive pricing. But that's self-apparent... Building dense cities that can be accessed by bike and on foot would have the same effect. Spreading out your city so that what could be a 15 minute walk is now a 15 minute drive isn't a…

> Building dense cities that can be accessed by bike and on foot would have the same effect. I love density, but, in my experience this is not true. London doesn't have a large competitive market of grocery stores. Neither does Boston or New York City. Density means higher real estate prices, that means grocery store sizes go down, and the barrier to entry goes up. Yes you can get more small specialty shops (which is…

Huh? London has Tesco, Sainsbury's, Waitrose, Morrisons, Aldi, Lidl, Asda, Co-op Food, Iceland and Marks & Spencer Food.

Here's a map of all of them: https://maps.walkingclub.org.uk/shops/

Alternative map: https://www.toptiplondon.com/food-drink/london-supermarkets-...

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

#252

Post by lph »

mdorazio wrote: post #126

>Of the 89 neighborhoods considered, only nine are “15-minute neighborhoods” walkable for 90% or more of their residents. I'd love to see the median rent in those nine compared to elsewhere in the city. Can any Seattle residents here provide some insight?

It's not about rent so much as density. Seattle has this "urban village" concept where designated areas have zoning that allows apartment buildings and usually has a commercial strip. I'd guess the urban village map [1] overlaps the 15-minute zones pretty closely.

Outside of the urban villages, Seattle is comprised of neighborhoods of single-family homes. Those areas can't all be 15-minute walkable because catchement areas don't have the population needed to support those amenities.

But it's also certainly a class issue. The people walking to the grocery store are mainly the poor, students, and a small core of idealists who go out of their way to live a "city lifestyle". Everybody else drives everywhere. Which has a strange effect that wealthier neighborhoods are less likely to have things like a pharmacy, because the wealthier are in the habit of driving everywhere. I get my prescriptions filled at Costco, five miles from my house, even though the closest pharmacy is one mile.

[1] https://i.pinimg.com/736x/87/cd/9f/87cd9ffd44c33154445747de3...

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

#253

Post by sandworm101 »

frosted-flakes wrote: post #247
sandworm101 wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe is Seattle, where weather means you can have door/windows more often than not. But opinions change north/southern in places that alternate between heating and air conditioning. Noise is less of an issue and walking takes much more commitment. It was -15c last night outside my place. I would love to be 15min from a large supermarket. At the moment I am a 25m drive from the nearest place selling bananas. Even if…

You don't live in a city though.

15k people. It's spread out but is called a "city" on the sign. All the grocery stores are centralized and beside each other on the main drag.

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

#254

Post by _Wintermute »

Dig1t wrote: post #107

Seeing the UK’s implementation of 15 minute cities, where cars are locked down to zones, movement is tracked by ubiquitous camera surveillance, and residents have to apply for a special pass to leave their zone. Talk of 15 minute cities in the US makes me nervous. When we talk about 15 minute cities here, do we mean zoning changes to build things differently? Or are we talking about authoritarian enforcement? Edit: O…

Are you talking about LTNs? They were initially turning some residential roads into cul-de-sacs to limit through traffic, but a minority of motorists feigned concern about emergency service access so many were replaced with no entry signs and cameras, now the same minority are feigning concern about a surveillance state?

It's definitely non-locals using small resident roads as short cuts who are now slightly inconvenienced performing mental gymnastics.

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

#255

Post by sandworm101 »

ryukafalz wrote: post #246
sandworm101 wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lol. Maybe is Seattle or SF. Biking in unplowed snow/ice is far slower, when it is even possible.

Unplowed? Sure, but cities should be plowing. Driving on unplowed snow/ice is also far slower. :)

The city doesn't plow the sidewalks and bike trails, at least not until the roads are passable. First priority is emergency services and highway connections to the outside world, not shovelling out bike trails through the woods. Even then, we drive on compact snow for 1/3 the year.

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

#256

Post by canucker2016 »

ryukafalz wrote: post #246
sandworm101 wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lol. Maybe is Seattle or SF. Biking in unplowed snow/ice is far slower, when it is even possible.

Unplowed? Sure, but cities should be plowing. Driving on unplowed snow/ice is also far slower. :)

But it seldom snows in Seattle, so they don't bother to invest in any snow-clearing infrastructure - the city just shuts down for a day or two after a mild snowstorm.

San Francisco is known for its hills, but Seattle has some pretty bike-unfriendly hills as well, unless you've got an electric motor attached to your bike.

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

#257

Post by sandworm101 »

WeylandYutani wrote: post #239
dullcrisp wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I look forward to the day when we all drive semi trucks to work so that we can journey cross country to stock up on goods and not have to deal with the corrupt long-haul trucking industry.

I have a weakness for fresh food so stocking up once a month doesn't appeal to me.

Depends on definition of fresh. I like fresh bread and so make it at home. One can definitely bulk-buy ingredients for fresh bread.

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

#258

Post by nicoburns »

kortilla wrote: post #88
nicoburns wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live within 30 seconds walk of 2 cafes, 2 grocery shops, and a pub (I can see them down the street from my window as I type this). And you literally can't hear them from my house. There's also a primary school nearby which occasionally gets noisy, but there's no noise from the shops.

What? It takes 30 seconds to walk across the street

I also have to walk along the street a little, and cross a small road that intersects my road. It's still probably less than 30 seconds, but it's close enough. It's 30 seconds if you include walking down the stairs inside my house, slipping my shoes on, etc.

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

#259

Post by ryukafalz »

sandworm101 wrote: post #255
ryukafalz wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unplowed? Sure, but cities should be plowing. Driving on unplowed snow/ice is also far slower. :)

The city doesn't plow the sidewalks and bike trails, at least not until the roads are passable. First priority is emergency services and highway connections to the outside world, not shovelling out bike trails through the woods. Even then, we drive on compact snow for 1/3 the year.

Then this goes back to what I said initially:

> you just need the infrastructure to let you do so

Yes, if your city treats cycling as an afterthought, it will be less practical to cycle. If your city treated driving as an afterthought, it would be less practical to drive. You get what you build for and what you prioritize.

> Even then, we drive on compact snow for 1/3 the year.

Oulu has snow for half of the year and still has a substantial cycling mode share, because they prioritize it: https://youtu.be/s3Sx_OH_wok

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

#260

Post by WaxProlix »

wenc wrote: post #244
WaxProlix wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Downtown (CBD): Expensive International District: Euphemism for Chinatown, not expensive Pioneer Square: It varies, but fairly expensive despite the rampant homelessness Pike Place Market: Very expensive Ballard: Expensive new buildings, more affordable older ones Capitol Hill: Expensive, generally South Lake Union: Expensive Madrona: Expensive

> International District: Euphemism for Chinatown, not expensive It’s not a euphemism. Euphemism refers to a word that conceals something unpleasant or embarrassing. It is anything but. It is working class yes but nothing wrong with that. The full name (since 1999) is Chinatown-ID. The majority of the inhabitants are Chinese but it encompasses Little Saigon and the less prominent but still existing Japantown (Uwajima…

You are technically correct, the most socially isolating kind of correct.

If you can think of a word with different, or fewer connotations I'll gladly swap it in. Mea culpa for the hasty pasting, though.

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