Have you heard about that urban planning concept called the 15-minute city?  It’s where most daily necessities and services like work, shopping education, health care and leisure activities can be easily reached by a 15-minute walk or bike ride from any point.  The aim is to make cities more liveable and connected, with less private car use, meaning cleaner air, greener streets, and less planet-heating pollution. The idea has gained some traction internationally.  In Canada, Ottawa has proposed 15-minute neighbourhoods and Edmonton is looking at 15-minute plans.  To some, this idea is an urban planning concept that promotes healthy and sustainable living.    However, the concept has whipped up social media conspiracy theories about tyrannical bureaucrats wanting to take our cars and control our lives to the point of a “Hunger Games” scenario, for those who are familiar with the movies.   When I think of the 15-minute community, the place where my mom and dad lived out the last years of their lives comes to mind, Sydney-by-the-Sea on Vancouver Island, 26 kilometres north of Victoria.  My dad loved living there because their condo was within walking distance of just about everything, grocery stores, restaurants, dentists, doctors, hair salons, various retail stores, and so on.  He walked almost every day and that’s likely why he lived to age 99.  Will there be more and more communities within cities that have most people’s daily necessities within reasonable walking or biking distance?  Probably, despite conspiracy theorists worried they will become government controlled urban prisons.   

That’s Coffeetalk.  I’m Vic Dubois.