I've written more posts than I care to remember on 'fifteen minute cities', Clean Air Zones, Low Traffic Neighbourhoods, so called 'active travel', the crap state of cycling and pedestrian infrastructure, and last but by no means least, the pathetic excuse we have for public transport here in the Avon region. After a number of 'interesting' exchanges with a few tone deaf Liveable Neighbourhood zealots from Bristol on Twitter, yet again I feel obliged to return to looking at the issues relating to the way we move around. Please forgive me for repeating points I've made in previous posts but sometimes, constant repetition is the only way the message will eventually sink in with some people!
"It does seem to be a very vocal minority who favour these schemes. A minority of people whose quality of life would undoubtedly be improved by a reduction in traffic thundering past their front door."
Once you are scrunched down into a 15 minute city, how soon before it becomes a 10 minutes city and then a 5 minute city? Then as the final insult, you are locked in your apartment and left to die? This is the final outcome...the control and murder of humanity.
My ideal 15 minute neighbourhood is a large village/small town where there's a strong sense of community. One where the shops are independent. One where the food that's consumed is produced and reared in its rural hinterland. One that's well connected to the neighbouring small towns so we're not trapped in a prison:) This will only come about once cities start to get broken up into smaller units and people move away from them to smaller, independent settlements. Ones where we can live freeer lives. Okay, we can all dream, can't we?:) My gut feeling is that attempts to restrict people to 15/10/5 minute 'neighbourhoods' in the larger cities are going to be met with increasing resistance...the genie is out of the bottle on this one...
Dream on the WEF who is actively pushing all this wants to squash everything independent like a bug. You will shop at the English equivalent of Wal-Mart, own nothing and like it.
In England, your problem will be that even though you have overcrowding and a shortage of food and drinkable water, you'll still have forced immigration that will overcrowd those 15-minute cities.
Over here in the States, people continue to move into the cities, adding to the crowding there.
I propose we move out of the megacities and back to the countryside, where you can raise your own food. There are tons of small towns where very few people live. All these places need is revitalization. They need more mom-and-pop stores, a few more grocery stores, and more local businesses, and then they could be sustainable.
Megacities aren't sustainable and will lead to overcrowding, starvation, and lawlessness.
We need to get back to communities that work together.
I live in Keynsham which is a small town between Bristol which is massive, and Bath, which for a city is pretty manageable. I moved to Keynsham almost a year ago to be closer to family. For me, it works because it's a small town with a sense of community. Bristol has grown to the point where it's dysfunctional. It's riven with social and racial polarisation worse than many other British cities I know. In some of the poorer suburbs on the southern fringes, there are people who have hardly ever been into the city centre because they feel they wouldn't be welcome. Somehow, Bristol has to be broken up into smaller, more manageable and better to live in communities. Somehow, there has to be a way of reversing the trend of people leaving smaller towns to move into the city. I'd just prefer it to not happen via societal breakdown although, the older I get, the less optimistic I am...
Way ahead of you, I did so five years ago, I live in a county with 11,000 people and no traffic lights. There is no amount of money you could pay me to live in a city or suburb.
Hello Mr. Raven, I'm aggregating my responses to your comments in this one response because...it makes life easier:) Firstly, the town I live in, Keynsham, had a population at the last census in 2021 of 19,261. With new housing developments since then, there's probably 2,000 more people. It's big enough, probably more than big enough to be honest. I moved there to be closer to my family. That meant having to make some compromises but for me, being close to family is important...
Will the WEF squash everything independent and force us to shop from the UK euivalent of Walmart? Not without a massive fight. There's a culture of supporting small local producers of crops and livestock where I live. One that comes alive at the monthly farmers market and is sustained between them by a decent array of farm shops selling local produce. There's a healthy network of local producers who, allied with the more established farmers (mainly livestock) will not go down without a fight. My gut feeling is that farmers in the UK have been pushed far enough and any more pushing is going to result in a fightback. Probably one that the 'woke' element up the road in Bristol would not support but one I'd certainly get behind.
As for land, we're guerilla gardening land in the complex of flats where we live and getting away with it:) We're involved with a community vegetable plot in our local park. Last but by no means least, right next to where we live is a field that's too steep for any developer to build on and one we're seriously looking at how to guerilla garden.
You are sooooooooo naive. Wait until Covid 2, The Empire Strikes back and more lockdowns, if you think the WEF who is heavily promoting 15 minute cities is going to leave any independent producers, sellers or organizations in these deliberate prison statelets then you have no idea what we are facing.
Seriously good luck with guerilla gardening I support that, but that is going to get you marked out as a reactionary thought criminal in the new order.
Here's a tangentially related follow up post on my other blog:
Liveable Neighbourhoods - listening to people's concerns
https://thestirrer.blog/2023/07/13/liveable-neighbourhoods-listening-to-peoples-concerns/
"It does seem to be a very vocal minority who favour these schemes. A minority of people whose quality of life would undoubtedly be improved by a reduction in traffic thundering past their front door."
Once you are scrunched down into a 15 minute city, how soon before it becomes a 10 minutes city and then a 5 minute city? Then as the final insult, you are locked in your apartment and left to die? This is the final outcome...the control and murder of humanity.
My ideal 15 minute neighbourhood is a large village/small town where there's a strong sense of community. One where the shops are independent. One where the food that's consumed is produced and reared in its rural hinterland. One that's well connected to the neighbouring small towns so we're not trapped in a prison:) This will only come about once cities start to get broken up into smaller units and people move away from them to smaller, independent settlements. Ones where we can live freeer lives. Okay, we can all dream, can't we?:) My gut feeling is that attempts to restrict people to 15/10/5 minute 'neighbourhoods' in the larger cities are going to be met with increasing resistance...the genie is out of the bottle on this one...
Dream on the WEF who is actively pushing all this wants to squash everything independent like a bug. You will shop at the English equivalent of Wal-Mart, own nothing and like it.
In England, your problem will be that even though you have overcrowding and a shortage of food and drinkable water, you'll still have forced immigration that will overcrowd those 15-minute cities.
Over here in the States, people continue to move into the cities, adding to the crowding there.
I propose we move out of the megacities and back to the countryside, where you can raise your own food. There are tons of small towns where very few people live. All these places need is revitalization. They need more mom-and-pop stores, a few more grocery stores, and more local businesses, and then they could be sustainable.
Megacities aren't sustainable and will lead to overcrowding, starvation, and lawlessness.
We need to get back to communities that work together.
I live in Keynsham which is a small town between Bristol which is massive, and Bath, which for a city is pretty manageable. I moved to Keynsham almost a year ago to be closer to family. For me, it works because it's a small town with a sense of community. Bristol has grown to the point where it's dysfunctional. It's riven with social and racial polarisation worse than many other British cities I know. In some of the poorer suburbs on the southern fringes, there are people who have hardly ever been into the city centre because they feel they wouldn't be welcome. Somehow, Bristol has to be broken up into smaller, more manageable and better to live in communities. Somehow, there has to be a way of reversing the trend of people leaving smaller towns to move into the city. I'd just prefer it to not happen via societal breakdown although, the older I get, the less optimistic I am...
How small is small? Like 100,000 people? When I say small town I mean like 300 people , lol!
Way ahead of you, I did so five years ago, I live in a county with 11,000 people and no traffic lights. There is no amount of money you could pay me to live in a city or suburb.
Have fun living in a pod and eating the bugs. Yes I am an ugly American who has a car and land in the countryside away from people, not sorry!
Hello Mr. Raven, I'm aggregating my responses to your comments in this one response because...it makes life easier:) Firstly, the town I live in, Keynsham, had a population at the last census in 2021 of 19,261. With new housing developments since then, there's probably 2,000 more people. It's big enough, probably more than big enough to be honest. I moved there to be closer to my family. That meant having to make some compromises but for me, being close to family is important...
Will the WEF squash everything independent and force us to shop from the UK euivalent of Walmart? Not without a massive fight. There's a culture of supporting small local producers of crops and livestock where I live. One that comes alive at the monthly farmers market and is sustained between them by a decent array of farm shops selling local produce. There's a healthy network of local producers who, allied with the more established farmers (mainly livestock) will not go down without a fight. My gut feeling is that farmers in the UK have been pushed far enough and any more pushing is going to result in a fightback. Probably one that the 'woke' element up the road in Bristol would not support but one I'd certainly get behind.
As for land, we're guerilla gardening land in the complex of flats where we live and getting away with it:) We're involved with a community vegetable plot in our local park. Last but by no means least, right next to where we live is a field that's too steep for any developer to build on and one we're seriously looking at how to guerilla garden.
You are sooooooooo naive. Wait until Covid 2, The Empire Strikes back and more lockdowns, if you think the WEF who is heavily promoting 15 minute cities is going to leave any independent producers, sellers or organizations in these deliberate prison statelets then you have no idea what we are facing.
Seriously good luck with guerilla gardening I support that, but that is going to get you marked out as a reactionary thought criminal in the new order.