A chat at the Denver library made me rethink city planning
I was at the main branch in Denver last Tuesday, just grabbing a book on urban design. A librarian saw me looking at old maps and asked if I knew about the '15-minute city' idea. She explained it's a plan where everything you need is a short walk or bike ride from home. I spent the next hour reading about it and now I can't stop noticing how my own neighborhood needs better grocery stores and parks close by. Has your city started talking about this kind of change?
That librarian hit on something HUGE. Does the 15-minute city idea ever run into problems with older suburbs that were built only for cars? I live in one and the nearest bus stop is a 20-minute walk down a road with no sidewalk. It feels like you'd have to rebuild everything from the ground up.
Yeah, the "rebuild everything" part is so true. My friend in a suburb like that tried to go car-free for a month and gave up after a scary walk to get milk. It just shows how the old design locks people in.