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BloombergBusinessweek November 16, 2020in a growing number of other cities it’s becomea powerful
brand for planners and politicians desperatetosellresidents
on a carbon-lite existence. Leaders in Barcelona,Detroit,
London, Melbourne, Milan, and Portland, Ore.,areallwork-
ing toward similar visions. They’ve been furtheremboldened
by the pandemic, with global mayors toutingthemodelina
July report from the C40 Cities Climate LeadershipGroupas
central to their recovery road maps.
Withclimatechange,Covid-19,andpoliticalupheavalall
challengingtheidealsofglobalism,thehopeis torefashion
cities as places primarily for people to walk, bike,andlingerin,
rather than commute to. The 15-minute citycallsfora return
to a more local and somewhat slower way oflife,wherecom-
muting time is instead invested in richer relationshipswith
what’s nearby. “These crises show us the possibilityforredis-
covering proximity,” Moreno says. “Because wenowhavethe
possibility to stay closer to home, people haverediscovered
useful time—another pace for living.”
It’sa utopianvisioninaneraofdeepsocialdistress—but
onethatmight,if carriedoutpiecemeal,withoutaneyeto
equality,exacerbateexistinginequities.Skepticsalsowonder
whethera citythat’snolongerorganized aroundgettingto
work is really a city at all.Dreams of breaking down the segmentedurbanplanning
that dominated the 20th century—with industryontheout-
skirts, residential areas ringing the city, commerceinthe
core, and auto networks connecting longdistances—of
course aren’t new. Urban thinkers have beenadvocatingfor
the preservation or return of walkable, sociallymixedneigh-
borhoods at least since the 1961 publicationofJaneJacobs’s
paean to Manhattan’s Greenwich Village inTheDeathand
Life of Great American Cities.
This advocacy has slowly filtered into mainstreamplan-
ning orthodoxy. Copenhagen pedestrianizeditsmainshop-
ping street in 1962, the first of many denselybuiltEuropean
citiestotakethisapproachintheirdowntowncores.In
theU.S.,theso-calledNewUrbanismofthe1980sand’90s
created a planning template (first fully realizedinSeaside,
Fla.) that saw a preference for row housesandapartments
over detached houses, as well as for walkable,tree-lined
streets and a careful dispersal of schools, stores,andparks
to reduce the need to drive. Since the turn ofthemillennium,
risingconcernsoverairpollutionandclimatechangehave
ledtofurtherinnovations,suchasthecongestioncharge
Londonintroducedin 2003 forcarsdrivingintothecenter
andmassiveexpansionsofpublictransitnetworksin
cities from Moscow to Medellín.
The15-minutecityconceptdrawsallthese
trendsintoanintuitiverubricthatordinary
residents can test against their own experiences.
It’s also served as a response topressureswrought
by property speculation and risingtourism,which
have pushed up rents and drivenresidentsandbusi-
nesses out of some long-standingcommunities. The CHAIRE ETI15-minutecityseekstoprotectthevitality that made diverse,
locallyoriented neighborhoods attractive in the first place.
Parishas been moving in this direction for some time.
Underthemayorship of the Socialist Party’s Hidalgo, who
wasfirstelected in March 2014, the city introduced bans
onthemost polluting motor vehicles, transformed busy
roadsflankingtheSeineintoa linearpark,and,ina bidto
maintainsociallymixedcommunities,expandedthecity’s
networkofpublic housing into wealthier areas. It wasn’t
until2020,however, that Hidalgo grouped these efforts
togetherunder the umbrella of the 15-minute city, pluck-
ingtheterm from the academic realm and giving it new
politicalurgency.
Duringher reelection campaign, she teamed with the con-
cept’soriginator, Moreno, a former robotics specialist who’d
realizedthat his primary interest was the environment in
whichrobots functioned. Hidalgo had already laid much of
thepoliticalgroundwork for Moreno’s blueprint in her first
term;nowshecouldlinkallthosebikepathsandcarlane
closureswitha visionthatmatchedthevibrancyandconve-
nienceofa metropoliswiththeeaseandgreenery of a village.
Sincewinning reelection in June, she’s doubled down,
appointinga Commissioner for the 15-Minute City, Carine
Rolland.A Socialist Party councillor who’d previously served
ina culture-oriented role in the 18th arrondissement, Rolland
alsobecameParis’sculturecommissioner.“It’struethatParis
is alreadya 15-minutecitytoanextent,”shesays,“butnotat
thesamelevelinallneighborhoodsandnottoallsections
ofthepublic.”There’smuchtobedoneintheworking-class
districtsonParis’seasternedgeandinmanyquartersclose to
theBoulevardPériphériquebeltway,forexample. In
areaslikethese,socialhousingtowers
frequently predominate,
and grocerystoresand
communityfacilities
such as sports
centers and
clinicsare
sparse.⊲ MorenoTHE NEW ECONOMY