15-minute cities are a conspiracy "fact"
Through public hearings, the democratic process allows citizens in Edmonton a say in decisions that affect their lives. Lawmakers say that's "frustrating."
A public hearing has one job: to allow the general public to give testimony on a proposed issue or action. Those in charge may not like what they hear, but they are supposed to receive comments, questions, and concerns from their constituents.
At a late June public hearing in Edmonton, Alberta, nearly 100 citizens signed up to voice their thoughts on the city’s new district planning program, otherwise known as “15-minute districts.” Most of the speakers expressed criticisms of the plan, including environmental management concerns, impact on housing prices, fears about ‘extreme densification’, and potential damage to historic neighborhoods. Many were also worried about this plan becoming a gateway to lockdowns and restrictions on freedom of movement.
Those concerns were so prevalent, in fact, that the council had to amend its policy to clarify. They added a sentence stating: “The district policy and district plans shall not restrict freedom of movement, association, and commerce in accordance with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.”
That seems pretty straightforward and how participatory democracy should work, right?
Well, not everyone agrees. Enter Timothy Caulfield, Canadian research chair in health law and policy at the University of Alberta, who rose to prominence in recent years by calling anyone who disagreed with any portion of the COVID narrative a conspiracy theorist and anti-vaxxer. It’s likely he has been tasked with playing interference in Canada so globalist policies get implemented. More on him later.
Edmonton’s mayor, Amarjeet Sohi, was conciliatory to the concerned citizens at the hearing, saying: “If we can bring more clarity by having a preamble in the District Plans that says everything we do continues to comply with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and if that gives some comfort to some people, I see no harm in it.”
But Caulfield says the additional language “legitimizes” a conspiracy theory and is a direct threat to democracy.
We're seeing this happen all over the world with a bunch of different conspiracies where policymakers are just kind of, ‘we give up, we'll do something to respond to it.’ And the problem is, it kind of normalizes the role of conspiracy theories in our lives... Let's make policies and laws based on the truth, not on fiction. And, of course, what we now have is this conspiracy theory kind of codified in Edmonton policy.
Of course, we all know 15-minute cities are not a conspiracy theory — they are a very real concept being proposed and embraced by the likes of the World Economic Forum, the United Nations, C40 Cities, and progressive politicians around the world. Phasing out cars is an essential pillar of the plan.
Listen to Edmonton City Councillor Andrew Knack describe the joys of living in a 15-minute city.
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“You’re not going to worry about traffic, because people won’t need a car… We want you to live in an area where everything that you need is a 1.5 km walk in every direction.”
Snarky side note: who doesn’t want to walk 20 minutes to get groceries in Edmonton, a city where average high temperatures are barely above freezing for at least 5 months of the year, but closer to 19º or 20º Fahrenheit in the coldest months? Sure, public transit could be an option, as long as you don’t mind your bus being chronically late.
"In a city of proximity in which services are always close by, mobility is a choice,” says Colombian-born Carlos Moreno, professor at the Sorbonne and inventor of the 15-minute city concept. “On foot, by bicycle, by public transport or electric vehicle, you go where you want because you want to, not because you have to."
In what is surely the most brilliant analogy for our future, former Canadian politician Randy Hillier produced an ‘expert model’ video to demonstrate what our globalist overlords are aiming to create with 15-minute cities.
Stepping into his chicken coop, he explains to Glen Jung of Bright Light News in his classic Canadian accent:
These residents of the 15-minute community… they're not locked in, but they just stay there. They're free to come and go but they don't.
Everything they need in their life is right here in their 15-minute community.
They own nothing but they are exceptionally happy… And it's so wonderful because I get to take everything they produce and they just keep producing.
The globalists are going to continue to push for this to happen and will denounce any criticism as a conspiracy theory.
Welcome to your new life — if you can call it that.
The root cause of the problem is that the people making the decisions are not really considering the needs of the population, but instead catering to the people who are making money off the decisions that are reached.
People creating housing developments are wanting to capitalize on scale. That means either building on far away properties that can be bought cheaply with no infrastructure to make them livable or in ultra dense housing that makes for expensive development and congestion.
The way that they get away with it is through weaponized zoning. Historically, many people had their homes built in as part of a business. Maybe a shop or office with living quarters upstairs. Maybe they had a couple extra apartments built in as well. Many people had a home with an extra apartment over the garage or in a basement. Now, those are a relic of history. All development is restricted to large scale developers who also have plenty of money to fund elections to make sure that they are favored in all the decisions made. That doesn't include the effects of corruption.
Once living quarters are separated from where people make a living, people need transportation whether private or public. The consolidation of retail businesses has not helped in this. You get a retailer that comes into a community that buys property out where it is cheap and people need transportation to get to them. This drives the small businesses out and only makes the problems worse. You end up either out in a distant suburban development without any infrastructure or in a dense urban environment where the small businesses have been driven out. Either way, you need transportation to get to far away retail locations.
Simply saying that city planning is the solution ignores the fact that it is city planning that has created the problem.
This is such a complex issue really. Walkable cities ARE wonderful, and were the NORM for thousands of years pre industrial revolution. Some cities & bad-actors likely could abuse a walkable city, and they certainly might in future "manufactured crisis" with lockdowns... "15 minute city" as a term has been corrupted. It's just good urban design actually. Any govt can abuse lockdowns regardless of if your community is walkable.
With more wars & strife, less available to access easy fossil fuels, and more financial crisis, we're likely to see car costs + insurance + fuel prices get more and more expensive and eventually skyrocket. This is just the reality of unlimited growth on a finite planet -- no conspiracy theory there. Unless fusion is developed in record time (unlikely) or massive high-quality oil is found (also unlikely), a more expensive car-culture will become the norm. I love my truck, but we share it as a family. I don't want to spend 1/3 of my income to insurance companies + gas companies + car makers on two vehicles for my family. I'd rather spend the money other ways. And I like cars just fine in the right environment! (rural and suburban -- cars are not ideal in huge cities)
The danger of vilifying walkable cities (15 minute cities I guess) is that it politicizes a benign subject: good urban planning. Vilifying walkable towns gives power to NIMBYs stuck in the past so they can squash otherwise logical planning for walkability and biking infrastructure. The reality is many boomers think their past was normal for all of humanity -- we're living in a temporary & likely magical time of crazy cheap energy. I wish it could continue! I don't want it to change either.
I personally love rural areas and small towns in the county -- I would not live in a big city.
Our future will almost certainly be far more expensive and more limited just due to 8 billion people with many seeking a western lifestyle. This will require good urban planning for people who choose to still live in cities. More bikes, less cars. More walking, less driving.
It's good to give people options. Don't like a walkable "15 minute city"? Move to the country! :)