A few weeks ago I was talking to one of my neighbors and dear friend about some of the recent goings-on in local politics here at home and around the state. She then brought up something she had heard about and asked for my take on it – this “insidious” idea of making everyone live in “15-minute cities.” What?
I responded by saying it’s not an insidious thing, it’s an urban planning concept that’s been talked about for some time. In fact, I said, I was talking about it when I was planning director at Salt Lake City 10-12 years ago. Why do you think it’s “insidious,” I asked? Well, she replied, it’s a government plan to make everyone give up their cars and live in small high-rise apartments with no yards. Oh, wow, I said, really?
Apparently the concept was noticed locally recently when The Point, the redevelopment project of the old Utah State Prison site, got a lot of press attention for announcing that the 15-minute city concepts would form the basis for the new development.
But where was my friend getting the idea that this was some liberal government conspiracy to make everyone live in ways that were, uh, what, anti-suburban? Oh, wait, this was beginning to sound a lot like an old bogeyman from years ago, Agenda 21!
There’s nothing coercive about the 15-minute concept, I tried to explain. It’s a set of principles for urban planning to achieve some new and “better” ways to organize communities and meet the needs of various community members. Like all planning concepts, it would have to go through local planning processes, be adopted by local elected officials, and enacted through standards land use regulations, just like zoning is today. Hmmm, my friend said, maybe.
Later, as I recalled this conversation, I thought here we go again. The extreme polarization of our society and politics is driving ideas and concepts in attempts to divide us. I remember how nutty things got with Agenda 21 back in the day, when even ultra-conservative talk show host Glenn Beck co-authored a series of novels about the bad times brought on by compulsion to Agenda 21.
Could this be what was happening again, this time with 15-minute cities? Today I saw this piece in Governing magazine titled Culture Wars’ Break Out Over Public Transit, Urbanist Ideas, and I guess the answer is … Yep! The story’s subtitle is:
From claims about an “Agenda 21” to attacks on 15-minute cities, a range of conspiracy theories have taken aim at progressive ideas around urban mobility and city design.
Alex Roy, co-founder of mobility consultancy Johnson & Roy, speaking at an urban mobility conference in Miami in early May, is cited in the story, saying:
“There’s been a constellation of lucid, well-intentioned urbanists talking about the need for better city design, and improvements to the design to accommodate new modes, and improve upon things we know to be true, which are pedestrian zones, walkable neighborhoods — 15-minute cities. These are commonsense ideas,” said Roy, adding, in the last year, these generally “commonsense ideas” have seen pushback as even urbanism falls victim to American “culture wars.”
Skip Descant, author of the Governing story, gives a good anecdote about how such things get turned into culture war fronts, instead of concepts for discussion and rational debate. He says,
Even in my own small, rural town in Yreka, Calif., a recent City Council meeting to approve a housing plan was disrupted by residents saying the plan and the city’s planning department were part of a dark global conspiracy known as “Agenda 21,” pushing a plot to erode property rights and advance “15-minute cities.”
“We’re not going to have any more nice traffic in Yreka. That’s all going to go away, because they’re going to make driving crappy, so that you stay home, so that you ride your bike instead of drive your car,” said one resident, offering an image of her own sort of hellscape where bikes fill the streets. It was a comment that drew loud applause from those opposing the housing plan.
Forget the idea of having some real discussions about various ideas and concepts for our urban environments, instead the goal of some seems to be to drive wedges and alarm people. To what end? Power, really. It’s all about who gets to be in charge and do what they want. Fear becomes the driver, fear of something different, even if it has the potential of being something better.