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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

#331

Post by fineIllregister »

com2kid wrote: post #262
fineIllregister wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That doesn't match my experience in Boston. Multiple neighborhoods I lived in had walking access to Stop & Shop, Star Market, Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, Target, bfresh, cheap overstock/clearance stores, a farmers market, and other independent grocers, many catering to nationalities/ethnicities with large subcommunities in the area. Just a train or bus ride away I could go to Market Basket, Roche Brothers, Wegmans, a…

May depend on the part of Boston, my wife used to live there and her area didn't have much, she was either walking a mile or taking the train to a different area. Different parts of Boston is incredibly varied though, I shouldn't have made a general statement.

The only area where that isn't true is basically West Roxbury, which is the most car-oriented area of Boston.

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

#332

Post by silisili »

battery_glasses wrote: post #281

This underscores how important small businesses are to the health of a city. I live a in less walkable neighborhood on this map - but about a year ago a small (tiny really, ~700sqft) corner store opened up 2 blocks from me. It sells coffee, pastry, simple sandwiches, but also pantry staples (flour, sugar, milk etc.) and has a really good beer and wine selection. I can't do my normal grocery shopping there, but being…

I lived in a neighborhood like this too, and it was fantastic. I hated the city, but loved where I lived. I've been wishing to find something like it ever since, but it was a very old neighborhood and everything now seems to be planned, isolated communities.

We need zoning revamped, and you'd see a lot more of this.

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

#333

Post by lazyasciiart »

Dig1t wrote: post #280
lazyasciiart wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The wingnut right thinks that “15-minute city” is a global Jewish conspiracy to lock everyone into defenseless small neighborhoods and then I dunno, aliens?

idk about conspiracies, I'm not talking about that. Here is an unbiased article describing the scheme: https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/23073992.traffic-filters-w... "People can drive freely around their own neighbourhood and can apply for a permit to drive through the filters, and into other neighbourhoods, for up to 100 days per year. This equates to an average of two days per week." This is enforced with surveill…

It’s a congestion charge. Here’s a great link from your article:

READ MORE: Council staff abused after conspiracists circulate fake news about traffic filters

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

#334

Post by dag11 »

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…

The two supermarkets I use most in downtown all have parking underground and are optimized for pedestrians.

QFC: https://goo.gl/maps/yt2X53i8adHddNA7A

PCC: https://goo.gl/maps/aXT2U24qXvA1VH6t9

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

#335

Post by Symbiote »

tantalor wrote: post #330
battery_glasses wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It shows up on all 3, I think it might be a labeling issue. My guess is that its a classified as a "convenience store", but in reality its closer to a coffeeshop and bottleshop that sells pantry items.

The term is "bodega"

See the OSM wiki for their terms.

It started as a British project, so "bodega" isn't one of them.

https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:shop%3Dconvenience

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

#337

Post by Symbiote »

goostavos wrote: post #162
watermelon59 wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seattle has so many intersections that are completely bonkers. They’re not only poorly walkable, they also make driving extremely stressful.

Queen Anne has a 7-way stop! The first time I encountered it I was thoroughly stumped. Actually, I'm still stumped years later every time I go through it. At some point, I just commit and hope for the best.

Two of the roads could easily be closed without inconveniencing anyone.

The space saved could align the remaining roads into almost a 4-way stop, or a roundabout.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/2563+Queen+Anne+Dr,+Seattl...

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

#338

Post by zw123456 »

When I first started reading this article, I'll admit, the first thought, as a life-long Seattlite, that crossed my mind was, here we go again, some dumbass writes about what it is like to live in Seattle. Goddamit. But when I saw the chart that showed walking distance to a park at the top of the list then I started to realize this one hit the mark. I actually purchased the home that I did because it is one block from my favorite park in the whole world, it is a magical place, to me, I discovered on a bike ride training for the STP. And I vowed I was going to buy a place near this park someday. Call me crazy, but parks, just in general, are so extremely important to the quality of life and sometimes I think people overlook the importance of having a lot of public spaces like that.

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

#339

Post by Symbiote »

Spivak wrote: post #227
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.

America really lost the cultural victory here. In pretty much anywhere else in the world a place's unique atmosphere, customs, architecture and way of organizing would be generally respected even if to an outsider it's unfamiliar or odd. You see this idea everywhere, it's not "corn is one America's staple crops and the use of corn syrup which is sweeter and more abundant than cane sugar gave Americans a preference fo…

Even with a positive spin on it — the USA has huge shops, personal ability to travel long distances etc — you find plenty of Americans who don't approve. Like in the article.

Cultural things Americans themselves have more agreement over are often more respected abroad: cinema, music, American fast food, American sports, etc.

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

#340

Post by jdeibele »

mulmen wrote: post #312
Gigachad wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you guys not have red light cameras? Australia has them everywhere so running a red light is almost never seen.

Washington takes privacy and the presumption of innocence seriously. You can read the relevant state law here: https://apps.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=46.63.170 . The cameras can't take pictures of the driver or occupants and court time is accrued when anyone other than the registered owner committed the infraction: (f) Automated traffic safety cameras may only take pictures of the vehicle and vehicle license p…

Oregon has a slightly different approach: the photograph has to show the driver. They then mail a notice to the registered owner. The last I knew, it was possible to say "no, that's not me" without being required to say who it was. You do have to send in a copy of your driver's license so they can (presumably) compare the two photos.

https://www.portland.gov/police/divisions/photo-enforcement makes it sound like a business can pay the fine on behalf of the driver without having to reveal who the driver was.

The Arizona laws seem similar. There was a man who got 37 tickets, all while wearing a gorilla mask: https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix-traffic/2...

In Oregon, all photos had to be reviewed by law enforcement until less than a year ago. https://www.wweek.com/news/city/2022/03/10/legislators-scrap...

Mobile speed cameras still have to be manned by a uniformed police officer. https://www.portland.gov/transportation/vision-zero/speed-ca... I have a bit of sympathy for that since I can imagine a person being threatened to remove the evidence.

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