The 15 minute city concept is not new. It is just a new name for the "new urbanist" developments that have appeared in many U.S. cities over the past 20 years. There are a fair number of them in Hillsboro, in the Portland area. They are quite nice and I considered living in one of them. The only thing that stopped me was that they tend to be expensive, and my wife insists in living in conventional suburban living. Nevertheless, it is an attractive option for many people, including myself.
But here's the problem. The covid-19 debacle brought to reality what I considered the stuff of right wing conspiracy theories. That is, politicians keeping me from living my day to day life like working, running my business, going to the gym, and dining out with the wife. Since these kind of controls are much more easily imposed in the new urbanist developments (15 minute cities) than in conventional suburbs, the appeal of the former has been destroyed for a lot of people, including myself. Throw in the ham fisted attempts to push such developments through the corrupt force of government rather than letting people choose through the free market system, and the appeal of such developments is destroyed even further.
There is a reason why a lot more people are skeptical of governments and big business and subscribe more to conspiracy theories. You do have to admit the political class has done nothing to assure that such is not the case. But in fact, have done many acts over the past three years to, in fact, suggest to many people such conspiracies are real.
Now does it make sense why many people subscribe to conspiracy theories about the 15 minute city concept?
