Paris Mayor: It's Time for a '15-Minute City'

[M II A II R II K]

Paris Mayor: It's Time for a '15-Minute City'


February 18, 2020

By Feargus O'Sullivan

Read More: https://www.citylab.com/environment/...-parks/606325/

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Even in a dense city like Paris, which has more than 21,000 residents per square mile, the concept as laid out by the Hidalgo campaign group Paris en Commun is bold. Taken at a citywide level, it would require a sort of anti-zoning—“deconstructing the city” as Hidalgo adviser Carlos Moreno, a professor at Paris-Sorbonne University, puts it. “There are six things that make an urbanite happy” he told Liberation. “Dwelling in dignity, working in proper conditions, [being able to gain] provisions, well-being, education and leisure. To improve quality of life, you need to reduce the access radius for these functions.” That commitment to bringing all life’s essentials to each neighborhood means creating a more thoroughly integrated urban fabric, where stores mix with homes, bars mix with health centers, and schools with office buildings.

- This focus on mixing as many uses as possible within the same space challenges much of the planning orthodoxy of the past century or so, which has studiously attempted to separate residential areas from retail, entertainment, manufacturing, and office districts. This geographical division of uses made sense at the dawn of the industrial era, when polluting urban factories posed health risks for those living in their shadows. --- Car-centric suburban-style zoning further intensified this separation, leading to an era of giant consolidated schools, big-box retail strips, and massive industrial and office parks, all isolated from each other and serviced by networks of roads and parking infrastructure. But the concept of “hyper proximity,” as the French call it, seeks to stitch some the these uses back together, and it’s driving many of the world’s most ambitious community planning projects.

- Paris en Commun’s manifesto sketches out some details for what this future walkable, hyperlocal city would look like. More Paris road space would be given up to pedestrians and bikes, with car lanes further trimmed down or removed. Planning would try to give public and semi-public spaces multiple uses—so that, for example, daytime schoolyards could become nighttime sports facilities or simply places to cool off on hot summer nights. Smaller retail outlets would be encouraged—bookstores as well as grocery stores—as would workshops making wares using a “Made in Paris” tag as a marketing tool. Everyone would have access to a nearby doctor (and ideally a medical center), while sports therapy facilities would be available in each of the city’s 20 arrondissements. --- To improve local cultural offerings, public performance spaces would be set up, notably at the “gates” of Paris — the large, currently car-dominated squares around the inner city’s fringe which once marked entry points through the long-demolished ramparts.

- Still, piecing together an entire modern working city around this 15-minute rubric would pose a challenge. In addition to its residents, central Paris attracts vast numbers of tourists who must be fed, housed and transported from neighborhood to neighborhood. Millions more commute into the city for work on regional transit from the vast greater Paris metro area. The people living in self-sufficient squares like the one above might find their rents rise along with the charm. And Paris can’t be transformed into a city that solely serves the needs of affluent locals. --- Her office has not announced any specific budget or timetable for the 15-minute city concept, which remains perhaps more of a rough blueprint for the future than an imminent makeover, should she be re-elected in March. As a rethink of the way cities should be planned—and exactly who they should serve, and how—it’s an idea that other cities are likely to watch with great interest.

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Paris en Commun has created a diagram to illustrate the concept of what should be available within 15 minutes of “Chez Moi” (home).






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[jg6544]

Couldn't agree more.

[38R]

Paris has 21,000 people per square kilometer, not mile.

[Pedestrian]

Can't speak to Paris but in the US and North America this is a pipe dream.

First of all, it's increasingly irrelevant what shopping it available within walking distance but people are going to stores less and less often. They are buying online and/or having things delivered.

Second, services are concentrated. San Francisco, for example, has one trauma center in the city. If you want really cutting edge medical care (and who wants "second best"), you are probably going to want to go to one place: UC Med Center. Chances are you are going to pick what you think is the best lawyer in town who could be anywhere, likely downtown. I get my primary care from the VA--there is only one VA hospital and it is where it is. I rarely go to the bank any more but banks are maybe the one service, along with restaurants, that are widely distributed and likely within walking distance.

As to employment/work, your employer may let you work from home, depending on what you do. But otherwise, you are likely to have a workplace that has only one location in the city or region and you have to go to it. Maybe that's within walking or biking distance (mine once was) or maybe not (previously it was not).

The idea here seems to be that everything is small scale and artisanal. That hasn't been true since the industrial revolution.

By the way, isn't Paris about to get a new Mayor? I just read Macron's candidate dropped out of the race due to scandal so he has got a new one. But in any case there is an election.

[Truenorth00]

Such an amazing concept. I would be happy to have something similar within a 15 min drive! Let alone 15 mins by transit or by foot.

[10023]

Originally Posted by Truenorth00

Such an amazing concept. I would be happy to have something similar within a 15 min drive! Let alone 15 mins by transit or by foot.

Well in Paris a 15-minute walk generally covers a longer distance than a 15-minute drive.