It is a commonly held belief that cars bring freedom and independence, but the reality may be the opposite. Car dependent cities are Orwellian in many aspect...
The 15 minute cities conspiracy theory came from covid deniers who, when it became clear that governments weren’t trying to instate perpetual lockdowns, needed a new thing to latch on to and came up with the idea of “climate lockdowns”.
The actual 15 minutes cities idea is literally just to have the things you need daily within a 15 minute walk of your home. It’s pretty sensible and not harmful to your mobility at all. But now the guy that came up with the idea gets death threats because of people spreading this bullshit.
Most things aren’t created out of malice, like the 15 min city idea. Communism was created in the same light, people trying to come up with a better system.
If we don’t do these kinds of things very carefully though, it will be exploited. Obviously death threats aren’t the answer, but there is legit cause for concern here
I’m concerned we’ll all be stuffed into little apartments, with “everything we need” in a 500m radius. That’s going to be a disaster if the wrong people get into power. There’s a reason the Canadian Charter of Rights includes “free movement”.
The current status quo in most of the US and Canada is that in large areas nothing but large single family houses are allowed to be built, which forces people into spending thousands a year on their cars to get anywhere. The alternative being proposed is building areas that can have a mix of housing types and uses, so people can live without needing a car to get anywhere, not to stop being from having cars and going places.
I assume your mention of Shanghai is referring to their COVID lockdowns, which I also think were too severe, but as far as I am aware have completely ended. This was also in response to a virus, and has nothing to do with urban design.
My mention of Shanghai was how they have a horrible ruling class, that has implemented a Social Credit Score. Do or say something they don’t like? No more taking the train out of the city. People become bound to the zone they are designated. Sounds a little dystopian no?
The large single houses thing is not true either, I live in Canada and my neighborhood has big corps sweeping through buying properties and building cookie cutter condos in place of the houses. Many don’t even have parking
There’s a lot you could criticise about the Chinese government, and yet you choose more conspiracy theories. The social credit score in the way that you speak of it comes from a misunderstanding of a vaguely worded Chinese policy document, which lead to various pilot projects by some companies, cities and ministries which have all been conflated into one thing. Here’s a good video which goes over the whole thing which I’m sure you won’t watch but will still have many opinions about.
The issue you describe in Canada is part of the problem that I describe. Here’s a zoning map of Vancouver for example:
In all of the yellow areas, only single family homes and duplexes can be built, which have very low densities. This means anytime there is space where something more dense can be built, the most dense thing possible is built. If there was less restrictive zoning which allowed more mixed uses across the area, what’s known as missing middle housing, that is all of the other housing types in between single family homes and large condo towers, could be built.
Thank you for enlightening me on the Social Credit Score, it’s good to know it’s only court ordered in cases where people aren’t allowed to take the train or fly. That’s still not great though. I work under some (overly nepotistic) execs for a corp and they use similar vague style tactics. It’s honestly both a weapon and a shield that leaves the players powerless and the game masters with too much control. I wouldn’t want a country run this way.
I also think of people like Xu Xiaodong who had his score reduced to “D” until he paid $40,000USD for calling a fake martial artist a fraud ಠ_ಠ. The courts in China are another discussion though. I’m just saying there is too much room for weaponization in scenarios like this. If it can be exploited, it will.
The missing middle housing stuff does look interesting, and I see your point with it. If it doesn’t impede peoples sunlight or take away yards/gardens while mixing buildings like that, it might be a good solution that we could agree on.
The 15 minute cities conspiracy theory came from covid deniers who, when it became clear that governments weren’t trying to instate perpetual lockdowns, needed a new thing to latch on to and came up with the idea of “climate lockdowns”.
The actual 15 minutes cities idea is literally just to have the things you need daily within a 15 minute walk of your home. It’s pretty sensible and not harmful to your mobility at all. But now the guy that came up with the idea gets death threats because of people spreading this bullshit.
@mondoman712 @Shake747
#StocasticTerrorism
Most things aren’t created out of malice, like the 15 min city idea. Communism was created in the same light, people trying to come up with a better system.
If we don’t do these kinds of things very carefully though, it will be exploited. Obviously death threats aren’t the answer, but there is legit cause for concern here
You’re concerned about having a supermarket too close to your apartment?
I’m concerned we’ll all be stuffed into little apartments, with “everything we need” in a 500m radius. That’s going to be a disaster if the wrong people get into power. There’s a reason the Canadian Charter of Rights includes “free movement”.
Shanghai China is the usual example here.
The current status quo in most of the US and Canada is that in large areas nothing but large single family houses are allowed to be built, which forces people into spending thousands a year on their cars to get anywhere. The alternative being proposed is building areas that can have a mix of housing types and uses, so people can live without needing a car to get anywhere, not to stop being from having cars and going places.
I assume your mention of Shanghai is referring to their COVID lockdowns, which I also think were too severe, but as far as I am aware have completely ended. This was also in response to a virus, and has nothing to do with urban design.
My mention of Shanghai was how they have a horrible ruling class, that has implemented a Social Credit Score. Do or say something they don’t like? No more taking the train out of the city. People become bound to the zone they are designated. Sounds a little dystopian no?
The large single houses thing is not true either, I live in Canada and my neighborhood has big corps sweeping through buying properties and building cookie cutter condos in place of the houses. Many don’t even have parking
There’s a lot you could criticise about the Chinese government, and yet you choose more conspiracy theories. The social credit score in the way that you speak of it comes from a misunderstanding of a vaguely worded Chinese policy document, which lead to various pilot projects by some companies, cities and ministries which have all been conflated into one thing. Here’s a good video which goes over the whole thing which I’m sure you won’t watch but will still have many opinions about.
The issue you describe in Canada is part of the problem that I describe. Here’s a zoning map of Vancouver for example:
In all of the yellow areas, only single family homes and duplexes can be built, which have very low densities. This means anytime there is space where something more dense can be built, the most dense thing possible is built. If there was less restrictive zoning which allowed more mixed uses across the area, what’s known as missing middle housing, that is all of the other housing types in between single family homes and large condo towers, could be built.
Thank you for enlightening me on the Social Credit Score, it’s good to know it’s only court ordered in cases where people aren’t allowed to take the train or fly. That’s still not great though. I work under some (overly nepotistic) execs for a corp and they use similar vague style tactics. It’s honestly both a weapon and a shield that leaves the players powerless and the game masters with too much control. I wouldn’t want a country run this way.
I also think of people like Xu Xiaodong who had his score reduced to “D” until he paid $40,000USD for calling a fake martial artist a fraud ಠ_ಠ. The courts in China are another discussion though. I’m just saying there is too much room for weaponization in scenarios like this. If it can be exploited, it will.
The missing middle housing stuff does look interesting, and I see your point with it. If it doesn’t impede peoples sunlight or take away yards/gardens while mixing buildings like that, it might be a good solution that we could agree on.