A 15 Minute Mirror

15 Minute Cities & Clarity

Imagine a world where your job, school, coffee shop, and parks are all within a 15-minute walk. Writer Addison Del Mastro joins us to discuss his passion for the 15-Minute City, while seeking more straightforward and accessible ways to define it for the public, policymakers, and urban designers.

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Show notes & links

• Read Carlos Moreno’s The 15-Minute City
• He Wanted to Unclog Cities. Now He’s ‘Public Enemy No. 1.’
• Find Addison del Mastro at The Deleted Scenes; here’s some of his writings on 15 Minute Cities:
  • Addison’s review, Who’s Afraid of the ‘15-Minute City’?
  • 15-Minute Suburbs
  • 15-Minutes Of Fame
• Wikipedia walk: 15-minute city, Agenda 21, COP 21

Here’s the 99% Invisible The 15 Minute City episode, listen to it to learn the background of the 15-Minute City, so we can critique it to make it better:

https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/605-15-minute-city/

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Episode Takeaways

1. Definition of the 15-Minute City: The 15-minute city concept reimagines urban living by organizing cities into interconnected neighborhoods where daily needs, such as work, education, and leisure, are accessible within a 15-minute walk or bike ride. Drawing inspiration from Jane Jacobs’ advocacy for walkable, human-scale cities, this idea combines traditional urban planning principles with a modern emphasis on sustainability and accessibility.
2. Focus on Local Living: The model decentralizes urban life, moving away from the hub-and-spoke city structure dominated by centralized downtowns. It promotes localized services within neighborhoods, ensuring they are self-sufficient and resilient against disruptions, such as pandemics or natural disasters, by reducing dependence on central urban cores.
3. Environmental Benefits: By prioritizing walking and cycling, 15-minute cities aim to reduce carbon emissions from vehicles, which contribute significantly to urban pollution. Additionally, the increased incorporation of green spaces mitigates the urban heat island effect, creating cooler, more pleasant environments and improving air quality.
4. Enhanced Quality of Life: The reduction of commute times in a 15-minute city translates into significant time savings, allowing residents to focus on personal growth, family, and leisure. Walkable neighborhoods also promote physical activity and improve mental well-being by creating a sense of community and reducing stress.
5. Urban Planning Priorities: This model requires a shift in zoning laws to allow for mixed-use developments rather than rigid single-use zoning. Active transportation options like walking and biking are prioritized, complemented by efficient public transit systems that connect neighborhoods seamlessly, ensuring mobility without reliance on personal vehicles.
6. Inclusion of Green Spaces: Parks, community gardens, and green corridors are integral to the 15-minute city model. These spaces promote physical and mental health, provide areas for community interaction, and enhance urban climate resilience by absorbing CO2, improving air quality, and managing stormwater.
7. Social Equity Focus: A core goal of the 15-minute city is to address systemic urban inequalities by ensuring that all communities, regardless of socioeconomic status, have equal access to high-quality services and amenities. Housing policies must also prevent gentrification and displacement, ensuring affordability remains a priority.
8. Challenges in Implementation: Retrofitting existing car-centric urban layouts is a costly and time-intensive process. Cultural resistance, especially in societies heavily reliant on cars, requires education, incentives, and public campaigns to encourage behavioral change. Additionally, coordination across sectors like transportation, housing, and economic development is crucial for successful implementation.
9. Economic Implications: The 15-minute city model supports local businesses by increasing foot traffic within neighborhoods, fostering vibrant micro-economies. Infrastructure projects and green initiatives create jobs, while residents benefit from reduced transportation costs and proximity to essential services, leaving more disposable income for other needs.
10. Technological Integration: Smart city technologies enhance the functionality of 15-minute cities by optimizing resource use, managing traffic, and providing real-time updates to residents. Energy-efficient buildings, solar panels, and smart grids align with the model’s sustainability goals, while data-driven planning ensures service gaps are addressed and resources are allocated effectively.

Guest Bio

Addison Del Mastro writes on urbanism and cultural history. Find him on Substack at The Deleted Scenes: https://thedeletedscenes.substack.com/

“In many ways this is traditional urbanism, but also introducing something traditional in a society that has forgotten it, is in some ways revolutionary.”

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Episode Transcript

Intro

Journey with Purpose: [00:00:00] Addison, let me describe a neighborhood to you. It’s a place where you can go to work. You can shop, you can send your kids to school. You can go to the doctor, the dentist, and you can go to the park, And all of this is within a 15 minute walk or bike ride, or maybe a public transit ride, be it bus or subway. What’s wrong with this?

Addison del Mastro: Well, Absolutely nothing is wrong with that. In fact I’ve heard of that before. I would just call that a neighborhood. I would like to think that most people, if you put it that way would also call it a neighborhood and would also intuitively understand exactly what you’re describing. 

Journey with Purpose: Welcome to the Journey with Purpose episode 33. I’m your host, Randy Plemel. If we haven’t met before, I’m a former architect now owner of a small, but mighty design firm called Expedition Works. Will we help the public sector engage with residents in a meaningful way. Because an expedition is just a journey [00:01:00] with purpose.

Now you’ve, might’ve heard the term 15 minutes city before, especially if you’re interested in cities or urbanism. We’ve been working on a series of interviews about it, about the good and bad. And then this happened: 

99pi: This is 99 Percent Invisible. I’m Roman Mars. Last year, there were demonstrations happening in countries around the world, protesting against an urban planning concept called the 15 Minute City.

Journey with Purpose: Yes, that’s the amazing 99% Invisible. They dropped a 15 minute city episode last week in their feed. Right when we’re editing this episode.

There’s probably a word in German for when someone drops a story right before you were going to drop yours. So I can either be really frustrated or really the way I’m thinking about right now, it’s actually really freeing so we can get rid of all the stuff around explaining what a [00:02:00] 15 Minute City is. And you can go and listen to their episode. It’s in the show notes, it’s right below. And they even have some snippets of interview with the researcher and the person who coined the term 15 minutes city Carlos Moreno. So go over to 99pi.com, listen to the episode, it’s in the show notes, and then c