Is Culdesac America's first 15-minute city?
A new experiment in urban, car-free living may prove impractical for people who have children... or real jobs.
A housing development in Tempe, Arizona — billing itself as America’s first car-free planned community — is being hailed by some as “a profound commitment to redefining the essence of community engagement.” Others say it’s “just a fancy prison.”
Located about 15 miles east of downtown Phoenix, Culdesac Tempe is built on a site that was once a mobile home park and (ironically) a 50-year-old automotive repair shop.
Here’s how the company describes what it’s like to live there now:
Culdesac Tempe delivers life at your front door through community, mobility, and open space. You will live in a community with award-winning architecture and plentiful open spaces. Save time by walking out your front door for shopping, a coffee, or a delicious bite to eat. In addition, you'll enjoy the social benefits of living in a village-style community and enjoying arts and culture events onsite.
Right now, Culdesac’s only retail offerings are a Mexican restaurant, an ebike sales and repair shop, and a grocery store offering what the company can best describe as “curated essentials.”
So what do you do if you need a bottle of wine, a dry cleaner, or an urgent care facility?
“Honestly, you’d have to walk out of the community for certain services,” NBC real estate reporter Diana Olick said while covering the new concept in a recent TV spot. “There is a grocery store within the community, but … I think it would be hard for families to live in a community like this,” because parents of young children spend an awful lot of time shuttling their children to school and other activities.
Not only that, but a family would need a large unit and according to the company’s website there is currently only one three-bedroom unit available, for which the rent is listed as “from $2,850 per month.”
Across the street from Culdesac is a light rail line that is the lynchpin for the company’s marketing strategy, allowing them to claim residents will “save money by forgoing the need to own a private vehicle.”
While that may be true — an Uber ride from Culdesac to downtown Phoenix would cost around $20, while the light rail would cost $2 per ride — the trip on the light rail would take about 50 minutes, according to Google Maps, while it would take less than half that time by car.
True to WEF-ian principles, there is no ownership of these individual units. Rents average around $1,500 for a one-bedroom apartment, not including utilities. While pets are allowed, they incur a “pet rent” of $35 per month per pet, along with a non-refundable one-time fee of $300. All utilities, fees, and rent are payable through the company’s app.
Only a few hundred people currently live in Culdesac, but the developers aim for 1,000 eventually and hope to replicate the concept in other cities soon.
The experiment is clearly aimed at eco-warrior empty nesters or young single people, ideally with remote jobs that pay at least $60,000 a year (or those who have successful Only Fans pages).
An electrician who helped install the wiring in the Culdesac apartments noted on Reddit that he would never be able to live in this neighborhood since he needs to own a truck for work.
Likewise, a user named JaredtheGeek described why the dream conflicts with reality in a comment on the Jalopnik blog:
Making my town car-free wouldn’t eliminate my need to own a car. I work 20 miles away. My daughter regularly sees a doctor that’s 20 miles in the other direction. My closest supermarket is a good 5 miles away, and I can’t imagine it being built any closer without it replacing 50 homes.
Even if I have nice restaurants within walking distance, maybe I want to go to my favorite Brazilian Steak House near the airport (another ~20mi) or I want to visit my in-laws (another 15 miles). It’s stupid to believe I could exist solely by walking, Ubering, or taking public transit. Public transit would take my 1hr daily commute and make it 4-5 hours.
[We did chuckle a little at the thought of eating at a Brazilian steak house — clearly JaredtheGeek is not current with the orthodoxy about the evils of cows in a dramatically changing environment, and that his future diet will largely consist of factory-processed bugs. Yumm!]
Vanessa Fox, 32, moved to Culdesac with her dog last year. She told The Guardian she “had always wanted to live in a walkable place only to find such options unaffordable.”
For her, Culdesac provided a sense of community without having to rely on a car every time she left her apartment. “For some, cars equal freedom, but for me, it’s a restriction,” she said. “Freedom is being able to just simply walk out and access places.”
We wonder what Ms. Fox will think of her freedom when Chinese-style repressive algorithms are implemented in these planned communities. When she receives a fine for using too much electricity, or when she is arrested for leaving her approved zone she may yearn for the freedom that a privately owned analog car can provide.
Not that Culdesac planners have this specific scenario in mind. But think about it — it’ll be far more convenient to bring about a future dystopia in a place like Culdesac, where there’ll be no escaping the Boston Dynamics or Ghost Robotics robodogs patrolling the quaint, car-free streets. Best of all, no need for forceful coercion into this concentration camp — just happy, smiling, diverse faces in the marketing materials and the promise of lattes and freshly-baked pain au chocolat (made with cricket flour, of course) right outside your car-free front door. Sounds heavenly!
The thing is, they are half right for all the wrong reasons.
The reason cities are un-walkable, and dare I say unlivable, is not by accident. It is the direct result of urban planning in general and zoning in particular. As soon as they divided the space between where people live, work, shop, and go for entertainment, transportation became necessary.
Mass transit is great. Of course it has it's own problem because it isn't economically feasible to make it go to where people live. Most places, like where I live, mass transit exists. It just doesn't reach where people actually live. It just shuttles between commercial zones.
The imaginary utopias of walkable cities were built before there was zoning. Businesses were on the ground floor and residential living was above. It worked great as long as people were physically capable of walking up to the upper floors. If you were handicapped or elderly with reduced mobility, you were screwed.
Lack of access for services is also a rampant problem. Imagine getting a firetruck or ambulance into that place. How about a simple garbage truck? How about a delivery truck or moving van?
Any business setting up in that type of location will have a limited clientele. The only way that they can make it viable is by charging premium prices to the few people that have access.
Even in the poster child of walkable cities, Amsterdam, look at what happened when they tried to do this: https://youtu.be/sJsu7Tv-fRY?si=G0alfG9sDA7ztTuC