WaPo: The 15-minute City

[fortnightlily]

Gift Link: wapo.st/3N295GW

If U.S. wants more 15-minute cities, it should start in the suburbs

This touches on some of this board's favorite topics, like zoning laws and eliminating parking requirements.

My area (suburbs of DC) has seen a lot more of these 'town centers' start to crop up. Except all the new housing are 1-2 bedroom luxury condos or townhouses with $1000+/mo fees with fitness centers but no green space. Not many options for, say, middle class seniors, people with disabilities, or families with children. And the people who live in all the single-family home neighborhoods surrounding these still drive to them and park there because the pedestrian corridors between things isn't great. The rest of the main traffic arteries are a sprawl of big-box-store shopping centers where you have to walk through massive parking lots and dodge cars to get to the stores themselves, rather than having the stores at the sidewalk level and the parking around back. 

[scm1011]

Ha, my city is one of the three 15-minute cities mentioned in the article. I love where I live, and even though its adjacent to Boston I rarely cross the river because I have everything I need here within a 15 minutes walk / bike-ride / transit trip of my home.

We do have some of the same problems mentioned in your post, OP. Where I live was solidly middle-class until recent decades and the majority of new housing is focused on luxury condos. Three-deckers that historically housed middle-income renters are being scooped up by developers and the apartments sold as $1M+ luxury condos. A lot of lifers are being pushed out and are angry about it.

[mrsukyankee]

I live in a London burb equivalent. Due to how England regulates building, we do have a mix of social housing, lots of apartments and houses. Unfortunately, it's gotten very expensive as it's a very desirable area to live despite not having a dedicated tube station. We do have several buses that go in a variety of directions so you can easily get to 3 tube stations with 3 different tube lines and several train lines. I can walk to a butcher, fish monger, multiple types of grocers, veg shops, cinemas, theatres/entertainment centres, restaurants and bars/pubs within 15-30 minutes. We don't go into central London very much as we find most of our entertainment here. I am so happy to be living here (we moved in 2 weeks before the pandemic shut everything down in the UK). We're finally making some friends here too, which is great.

I work in central London which is a 40 minute commute, on average, using a bus and tube, from my door to my office door. I go into the office 3x a week. Other than that, I probably only head into London once or twice a month.

[jlt19]

I live in a development referred to as “new urbanism”. It has all of the things you mentioned were missing from the places near you. Lots of green spaces, everything is walkable, trails, lakes, canals, SFH, multi-family housing for sale or rent, a “seniors only” block of tiny houses, and they’re even building a large retirement home soon. We also have a few restaurants/bars, a market, some shops and services (salons, vet, dentist, groomer). One elementary is close by and the new HS will be less than a mile away (other elementary, MS and current HS are miles away in the middle of farmland).

It was built to be a walkable community, but that went down the drain as soon as one person bought a golf cart.

And there is no way that everyone that lives here could work here. We can barely keep the places open that we do have, because while we’re a large community, we need others that don’t live here to patronize them to keep them open. Especially in the winter.

Most of the problems could be solved if it wasn’t a one person development and more of democracy, but that’s what we all bought in to, so no one else to blame.

There’s no transit that comes anywhere close to us. So cars are a must for many of us to get to work, especially now that more and more companies are slowly killing the WFH opportunities 😠

It’s a nice idea (the 15 minute city) but I really don’t think it’s realistically feasible for most suburban areas other than those by major cities with already established mass transit.

[penguingrrl]

I love that concept! And other than Hs commute (he needed a new job after we bought our house and were settled in our community) we mostly have that. I can walk to a grocery store, a few gourmet markets, a great public library, 3 different pharmacies, a pet food/supply store, and several other things within minutes of my house. Traffic is very slow and it's a very pedestrian and bike friendly community. Since moving to our house in 2017 we have consistently had lower mileage on my car because I preferentially bike or walk to these places. And when I finish school in May (our community college is about 5 miles away and the route is not bike/walking safe) there are a few potential employers for me walking distance as well. Obviously I can't control whether a law firm right here will be hiring, but I absolutely plan to see if they are so I can walk to work if possible.

[aurora]

I thought the article's point about city size throughout history being limited by commute times based on the available technology of the time was pretty interesting.

We're about a 10-min walk from a grocery store and a few restaurants and small shops. It's huge for quality of life, especially when I can take the bus to work (further away) or work from home.

[sunshineandpinot]

This is my absolute dream.

[pixy0stix]

There's been a few apt developments here that tried to do the very barest of minimums with parking. Instead of the people living in the developments not having/using cars, they sprawled out into the surrounding neighborhoods completely filling on street parking with cars. The target demographics of the apts were college kids, and the developments were close to campus (easy 5-10 min walk and you're on campus). Plus one is right on a rapid transit line. Most of the students don't need a car, yet they have one anyway.

Our dependence on cars is ridiculous.

[gerberdaisy]

I don't live in a city, but have a similar life to what the article mentions in our village. We are 5-30 minutes walking from everything, would be less but we are on the outskirts of town. In the summer its perfect and walk lots of places. Winter is harder due to snow, and it gets dark so early. We are just past streetlights and sidewalks, making it pretty dangerous to walk anywhere at night.

Since we've moved here 3 years ago, I find our quality of life has drastically improved. We'll drive to our old neighborhood within a larger city and think how we can't believe that to go anywhere was a 10 plus minute drive, literally couldn't walk to anything besides a neighbor's house. It was such a different lifestyle and one I don't want to return to.

[macmars45]

pixy0stix some of my favorite years were my college ones because I had no car, transit was great and I lived on campus or a 3-5 minute walk away. My senior year I worked at a childcare center. I got off work when the buses were only running routes 1x/hour in the neighborhoods farther from campus so sometimes I'd just walk the 45 minutes home. When it was dark and snowy a coworker would drive me.

[wawa]

Nov 28, 2023 18:28:57 GMT -5 jlt19 said:

I live in a development referred to as “new urbanism”. It has all of the things you mentioned were missing from the places near you. Lots of green spaces, everything is walkable, trails, lakes, canals, SFH, multi-family housing for sale or rent, a “seniors only” block of tiny houses, and they’re even building a large retirement home soon. We also have a few restaurants/bars, a market, some shops and services (salons, vet, dentist, groomer). One elementary is close by and the new HS will be less than a mile away (other elementary, MS and current HS are miles away in the middle of farmland).

It was built to be a walkable community, but that went down the drain as soon as one person bought a golf cart.

And there is no way that everyone that lives here could work here. We can barely keep the places open that we do have, because while we’re a large community, we need others that don’t live here to patronize them to keep them open. Especially in the winter.

Most of the problems could be solved if it wasn’t a one person development and more of democracy, but that’s what we all bought in to, so no one else to blame.

There’s no transit that comes anywhere close to us. So cars are a must for many of us to get to work, especially now that more and more companies are slowly killing the WFH opportunities 😠

It’s a nice idea (the 15 minute city) but I really don’t think it’s realistically feasible for most suburban areas other than those by major cities with already established mass transit.

it's not like it's impossible for us to build new transit to dense suburbs where it doen't already exist. The old street car suburbs were a far far more sustainable model than the vehicle dependence we've spent the last 60 years building and if we want to move the needle it's a viable example to follow for a path forward.  Especially for all those people don't want to live in cities, and for places where the actual city center is wildly out of price range for many.  and to be clear WE HAVE TO MOVE THE NEEDLE.  WE CAN'T JUST KEEP DRIVING OUR CARS FOR 45 MINUTES A DAY.  LITERALLY CAN NOT.  The world is on fire. Even if they're all electric cars it's still a totally unsustainable model with incredible impacts. 

Richmond's new BRT line is an standout example.  If we put one of those everywhere that once upon a time would have had a streetcar?  We'd be making HUGE progress.
The Silver Line in DC is another, fuckton more expensive and suffering from the issues still dragging down the rest of the metro system, but still has and will continue to result in long term transformation to more sustainable use patterns for the areas it serves.  It's a work in progress, but the changes in the past decade have been really big, and they show no signs of slowing down.  

Silver line centered changes: www.axios.com/local/washington-dc/2023/11/20/tysons-virginia-housing-development

Richmond BRT: nextcity.org/urbanist-news/richmonds-bus-rapid-transit-has-been-a-surprise-success

And yes, this new stuff getting built in tysons is expensive "luxury condos".  We need more affordable and workforce level housing.  But we also NEED more housing supply of any type in areas that enable at least a car-lite lifestyle.  We can't all just keep heading further and further out into the countryside to live in 3/4 acre former farm fields.  And if a fancy condo or townhouse keeps somebody in transit reach of the city?  GOOD. 
and yeah, not everybody can live right next to their jobs.  Which is why we also need offices and jobs located in places where people CAN access them by transit, bike, and foot - traditional outer ring office parks are a fucking dead end - so even if not everybody can be right there, at least they can do what I do and transit in from their further away little walkable bubble and then be in another little walkable bubble so they don't feel like they need a car to get lunch or run an errand or go to a meeting.  My office is in a very walkable and transit friendly place, and we have two cars in the garage downstairs for everybody to use if they have to attend a meeting somewhere we can't transit to, we don't provide parking for employees, we DO provide a transit subsidy and a walk/bike benefit, and like...5 people drive here daily.  From an office of 50.  (side note - biggest offenders of non-transit accessble meetings?  State DOT. Go figure)

Also of note - Tysons has required and monitored Travel demand management plans for all the new stuff.  They have to count how many people are driving there and take actual action to reduce it if they exceed their goals.  so there's follow through there. 

I don't live in a city.  I'm in a very much a suburb, and not even an inner ring suburb since I put myself halfway between two major metros - but I can walk to many non-work destinations because that was a requirement of mine when we bought a house and I have commuter transit to get into the cities. So that's what I do.  It is actually not that complicated and is a model that can be replicated in a lot more places. (and is!  with varying degrees of success)  

But it takes local political support to make transit projects happen, and it really really takes people who don't HAVE to ride transit clamoring for transit to get it to happen, and it take a mindset shift in people who see their car as their mobile storage unit, status symbol and safety blankie instead of just a way to get around.

eta: the land use side of it is even more complicated, with any shifts to allow for denser housing or a wider mix of retail/office/residential riling up the NIMBYs deeply concerned about their "neighborhood character"  None of it is easy.

[fortnightlily]

I know everyone criticizes LA, and LA is definitely lacking in terms of mass transit (though there are busses, and they started building the "subway-to-the-sea" when I left), but one thing I loved about it was how there were apartment buildings everywhere. And not just huge dense high-rises, but blocks and blocks of cute smaller buildings with lots of character with like 10-100 units. And the streets and blocks that had these apartments buildings, or more of the traditional-suburb single-family-home lots, were sandwiched between the major roads that had the commercial strips with tons of smaller shops and businesses. Parking was a pain because there weren't massive parking lots anywhere. And the weather made it amenable to walking. The main thing missing was the job part of the proximity puzzle. Traditional office work was often still off in clustered office parks that you had to drive to. And if you wanted to go visit friends who lived in another part of the city you pretty much had to drive.

It would be amazing if we brought back above ground light rail/street cars. But I've been holding my breath for the DC area Purple Line forever.

[quesyrah]

The first time I heard the term “15 minute city” was when people were spreading a nasty conspiracy theory that the government burned down Lahaina to build one.

I’m going to have to read that article when I have time.

[wawa]

Nov 29, 2023 12:14:32 GMT -5 fortnightlily said:

I know everyone criticizes LA, and LA is definitely lacking in terms of mass transit (though there are busses, and they started building the "subway-to-the-sea" when I left), but one thing I loved about it was how there were apartment buildings everywhere. And not just huge dense high-rises, but blocks and blocks of cute smaller buildings with lots of character with like 10-100 units. And the streets and blocks that had these apartments buildings, or more of the traditional-suburb single-family-home lots, were sandwiched between the major roads that had the commercial strips with tons of smaller shops and businesses. Parking was a pain because there weren't massive parking lots anywhere. And the weather made it amenable to walking. The main thing missing was the job part of the proximity puzzle. Traditional office work was often still off in clustered office parks that you had to drive to. And if you wanted to go visit friends who lived in another part of the city you pretty much had to drive.

It would be amazing if we brought back above ground light rail/street cars. But I've been holding my breath for the DC area Purple Line forever.

it's happening.  Some day.  They promise!  

In the meantime we could build 5 different corridors of BRT though.  I'm still holding MY breath for MoCo to bite the bullet and make ANY dedicated lanes happen though.

[jlt19]

wawa I don’t disagree with you about it being possible, and absolutely agree SOMETHING will have to give. I just live in a place that I find it unlikely to gain much traction until it’s too late. Kind of like the majority of the US, I suppose.

St Louis built a one line rail system around 30 years ago and it never really did anything. And don’t get me started on the trolley system they tried to rebuild, that is now apparently going to be the topic of a documentary.

I think a lot has to do with still being a very segregated/racist metro area. And people are continuing to move further and further away from the city.

There are a few 15 minute cities just outside downtown but as you said, they’re not affordable for the vast majority.