https://www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2023/06/the-15-minute-city-is-a-working-class-nightmare
By Michael Lind
Is there a global conspiracy to confine people to “15-minute cities”? At the recent UK local elections, MPs and councillors heard this message from voters. The commitment of a growing number of cities such as Bristol, Ipswich, London, Birmingham and Oxford to limit car usage in particular districts and neighbourhoods has been seized upon by the paranoid as further evidence of a “Great Reset” directed by the economic elites of Davos that uses climate change as an excuse for social regimentation. In parliament the Conservative MP Nick Fletcher denounced the 15-minute city as an “international socialist concept”.
In the 20th century the factory was the site of the most intense class conflict. In the 21st century it is the automobile, writes Michael Lind.
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— The New Statesman (@NewStatesman) June 19, 2023
Consider work. The majority of Americans in the private sector work for companies with more than 500 employees.
Some of these firms may have establishments in many neighbourhoods, but other jobs require employees to commute to a central office or warehouse or store.
— The New Statesman (@NewStatesman) June 19, 2023
Mere access to public transport is not enough.
Except in a few of the world’s densest cities, such as New York, Tokyo and Paris, public transport is no substitute for the speed and convenience of point-to-point travel in an individual vehicle.
— The New Statesman (@NewStatesman) June 19, 2023
If cars and trucks are banished from the pedestrian village, how are medics in ambulances to get to victims of heart attacks? How are the infirm elderly to be taken by relatives and friends to medical appointments?
— The New Statesman (@NewStatesman) June 19, 2023
The car has become a symbol of the low-intensity class war between the metropolitan overclass and the mostly suburban, multi-racial working class in western democracies.
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— The New Statesman (@NewStatesman) June 19, 2023
