The 15-minute city is the new hot thing the elites are all talking about. Whether it’s in the New Yorker or in Davos, the 15-minute city has gripped the conversation by storm. An idea created by urbanist Carlos Moreno, the 15-minute city is one where a citizen can have all the services they need within a 15 minute walk of their home. They can enjoy work, school, restaurants, shopping, parks, cultural activities, and everything else without walking more than 15 minutes one direction from their home.
The 15-minute city is now used as an example of what could’ve been in America, an idea that would’ve been possible if not for the evil car corporations and the evil gas companies. Proponents of the idea argue that suburbs & urban sprawl are the antithesis of the 15-minute city, and inconvenience everyone.
But is that really so? Are the suburbs that inconvenient? No matter how much the zeitgeist pushes the idea that people enjoy dense, urban cores where everything one would possibly need is within 15 minutes walking distance, folks are moving out of these dense, urban cores into the burbs of major metropolitan areas across the United States. They’re moving to the outskirts of Austin and Dallas, of Phoenix and Boise. Why?
Of course, there are a variety of usual factors that are easily identified; affordability, larger homes, crime, etc. However, the allure of the 15-minute city should have people moving to urban cores in droves, right? Why are so many people happy and content with the suburbs?
Well, the suburbs are the new 15-minute city.
“But I can’t walk to a school, a movie theater, find ethnic food, or go to a park in 15 minutes of walking from my burb! Look at this poor planning!” - one would say, and they would be correct. But, they could drive there. With a car.
The suburb is the new 15-minute city because of the automobile. Pick a desirable suburb, and you can drive to all these places within 15 minutes. Sure there might be some traffic some days so it’ll take you 20 minutes instead of 15, but a few badly timed stoplights can impact your walking through an urban core as well. And often times, there are more amenities available to a suburbian resident driving a nice, air conditioned SUV on their arterial roads than a city dweller walking by foot.
For instance, from my location in the burbs, just within a 5 minute drive, there are:
- Numerous restaurants, including a variety of ethnic foods run by mom and pop stores as well as major fast food chains (McD, In-n-Out, Chipotle, Wingstop, Blaze, you name it), coffee shops, both independent & chains, breweries
- Costco, Walmart, Target, Home Depot, Lowes, Best Buy, various grocery stores and chains, pharmacies
- Schools - multiple elementary schools, middle schools, and one high school
- Specialty shops - Grill stores, internet cafe (yep!), Fedex & UPS
- Mall - million square foot plus mall with all the mall amenities, arcades, bowling, food court
- Movie theaters - multiple, don’t like one? choose another
- Local parks - miles of walking trails connecting to hundreds of acres of parks by greenbelts
- Gyms - multiple within a 5 minute drive, including public swimming pool and other exercise facilities
- University - yep, within a 5 minute drive
Within a 10 minute drive:
- Libraries
- Multiple world class hospitals featuring specialists
- Water park
- Golf courses (if you’re into that sort of thing)
- Industrial area with large multinational corporations
- Convention area and event spaces
- Local farmers market
- Large regional park
- Community college
- Casinos
- Nurseries (for plants)
Within a 15 minute drive:
- Major lake & state park with extensive hiking trails & aquatic activities
- Wineries
- Local farms selling local produce & specialties
And this isn’t unique to just my little suburb. Pick an address in the middle of many of the suburbs in the outskirts of major metropolitan areas and they’ll offer the same set of amenities within 15 minutes. Sure some might not have a mall within driving distance, or some might not have a casino or a convention center or a water park, but the basics will generally be there; everything you’ll need for the most part, within 15 minutes or less.
Even large cities are not 15-minute cities, except for the very very few:
For example, this excellent visualization of Seattle as a 15-minute city by Nat Henry demonstrates which blocks have access to what amenities: https://nathenry.com/writing/2023-02-07-seattle-walkability.html
Play around with the check marks, and see what amenities are available within 5 minutes! There are only a handful (I count 9 or 10) of city blocks that are within 5-10 minutes of supermarkets, libraries, parks, restaurants, coffee shops, and all three types of schools. Of course, Seattle is not the perfect urban core, but with all its best efforts only a few blocks offer to the pedestrian the same amenities as a sububanite with a car within the same time.
“But this is what we’re trying to change!” proponents say. Well, it’s obviously not working! People want their space, and with the suburbs, they can have their amenities too, and there’s no reason to make the idealized, fantasy 15-minute city exist. And even many urban living proponents, once they have children or enough money to afford a home, will end up buying a single family home on the outskirts and enjoy the amenities by car.
But isn’t owning a car expensive? Sure it is, but everything else is cheaper - the cost per square foot of any urban core in the US versus its suburbs is so drastic that the cost of a car pales in comparison. And many people like cars. They like their space, their backyards, their clean sidewalks, and their lawns. They like the ability to drive to a Costco within 5 minutes, pick up a bunch of toilet paper, and have it not get wet from the rain on the drive back.
The suburbs are the new 15-minute city. Sure, some suburbs kind of suck, but reasonably priced, well-accessed, safe, clean suburbs are available in much of the outskirts of tier 2 cities all throughout America. And people are moving to them; Plano, Scottsdale, Irving, Boulder. They offer all the benefits and amenities of a large city provides within a 15 minute drive, plus the safety, privacy, space, and affordability that people want.
We already have 15-minute cities; they’re called the suburbs.