The Bizarre Backlash to 15-Minute Cities 

People who bash this stuff have clearly never lived in a village.

I didn’t know about the conspiracy. When you told what it was, I laughed for a couple of minutes. Being from The Netherlands, I lived my whole life with this concept. Every new neighborhood here was planned with obligatory shops and schools. That’s why I have a Chinese restaurant, a Lidl, a bakery, a Turkish butcher just beside the building. The school building, including social work is opposite the street. There is a playground for children. There is also a little playground for little children a little walk away from my building. On a 10 minute walk is the pharmacy and medical center, and a large supermarket with a post office inside. A 10 minute bike, brings me to a shopping area with all kinds of shops.

A Tom Nicholas and Munecat collab about 15-minute-city hysteria is everything I need for my Good Friday evening.

Hey Tom, just some constructive criticism; when you upload your next podcast either to Spotify or RU-vid, please ensure that you check the peak dbs & the LUFs value for the whole podcast. I was listening while playing Rocket League and even with the game at 50% I could barely hear you. This is something that you'll remember to do over time, but it's really important to do to ensure people aren't needing to change their volume between videos, then getting deafened when they go onto other content like I did. Outside of this though from what I could hear it seemed like a very logical and sensible conversation.

People in the US argue against 15-minute cities because they refuse to let go of their precious highways...the said highways that get lots of traffic because the US is a car-oriented society that view transit as something for profit instead of something for the people. When I lived in Jersey City's The Heights, everything from the supermarket, church, swimming pool, Rite Aid, salon, pet shop, fast-food, good local pizza, and the bank were all on Central Ave, a five-minute walk away. And if we wanted to go to the mall, we could either take a private Spanish jitney, NJT bus, or walk to the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail to get to Newport Centre. Or if we wanted to spend the day in NYC, we took a direct NJT bus to the PABT. Jersey City is an example of a transit city in North America done right, and that's not talking about the fact there's the PATH, pedestrianized downtown, and the nearby Hoboken Terminal for NJT rail. The argument that a 15-minute city is a prison like certain people say is blatantly false when you can most definitely go to other places if you like. It's not like you're FORCED to remain! Meanwhile, people in American suburbia who don't own, can't afford, or can't physically or mentally drive a car feel trapped because of the society that car people created. Prioritizing improvements to transit and the national railway network would solve many problems.

It sounds like a bunch of people came to protest traffic calming by enjoying walking around in the streets. I wonder if the irony will ever strike them.

Why do I feel like I’m watching a librarian interview a rockstar?

The hyper individualization is probably less due to American influence and more because neoliberalism in general. Did these people mostly grow up during the Thatcher era?

I live in neighbourhood where we can walk or bike to everything we need in 15 minutes. And we live across the street from a subway station so we can get downtown in about 20 minutes. We don't own a car. It's a glorious way to live. We are the devil.

You two talking about fifteen minute cities felt like it only lasted fifteen minutes ❤

Anti-ideological dialogue task list: 1) never have these conversations online. 2) IRL, “that’s interesting, I hadn’t heard that. Which books or articles have you read about this and could you summarize them and tell me their shortcomings?”

Having watched both of you guys independently, its awesome to see you doing a joint show! Great content.

Pyongyang is a great example of a fifteen-minute city. A lot of citizens in Pyongyang and the DPRK in general don't own a car, so they heavily rely on transit and bike infrastructure to get around. Pyongyang has twelve trolleybus lines (56.6 km in length), four tram lines (53.5 km in length), a beautiful two-line metro system (22.5 km), green bike lanes have since been constructed on the major thoroughfares so cyclists don't have to go in the car lanes, and the Korean State Railway has multiple stations in the city that connect to the rest of the country, with the main Pyongyang station being the most famous as it's the one where the city's alarm clock (that plays Where Are You, Dear General? at 6 in the morning every day). It's a shame we're never brought up as a good transit city.

Need some compression on your voice Mr. Nicholas. Too much dynamics makes it damn near impossible to get my headphones dialed.

as someone who lives in the netherlands the backlash to 15 minute cities is so bizarre to me, cause these city plans just kinda look like the average dutch city center

I grew up a 15 minute town. There was a weird protest in the town centre where they were protesting many conspiracies including being against 15 minute cities 😅. Like bruh why you protesting against the convince you already benefit from 🤣

We've even had people opposing 15-minute cities in the Netherlands. Where every store is already a 15-minute bike ride away. The entire country is a 15-minute city.

I am a conservative U.S.A. and I hate cars on city streets all I want to do is to cycle or walk to places without being killed by a stupid car most every city is too spread out a 5 mile radius is not far but at least 3 miles of it is parking lots

Annie Kelly’s reporting on the QAnon Anonymous podcast is a very good overview of the Oxford 15min city demo. Munecat covers quite a few of the key points, but I think Annie’s researched it a lot more.

"Local councils, they're so bad at communicating." For real The bit about loads of cars in Oxford, yeah I heard about the number of deaths caused by collisions between cars and bicycles on one specific roundabout.

DO NOT take a drink every time Tom says "like". I nearly died 20 mins in...

The comments about town planning and the anger around it are really interesting. I'm an architect and an urban planner. I think there is definitely more interest in it as a topic now, driven by the fact that video and digital media can make the topic much more assessable to explain. Equally people can tell that the city doesn't work for them, that the car rules all often. On the flip side we are I think trying and talking about being much more radical than we have been for a long time. The 15 minute city will change how easy it is to live in the city, for the better. But people hear about radical change and are reminded of the radical change we did see post war. We pulled whole neighborhoods apart with little consultation and involvement of the people. Some of those moves have scared cities right up to today. I can completely see why people are sceptical about big changes now.

Love the podcast Tom! One small criticism, you say “like”, like, a lot 😂 I’m just not used to it after watching so many of your scripted vids

Fascinating insights from Badger

Next door in Cromer (near norwich) is recently people complainh about the emergency alert system test thats going to happen in the UK. They're getting very aggitated about it....Oh and a shit ton of racism. Thats the level.

It's disturbing to me that although we are so hyper-connected in this modern world, we seemingly cannot simply communicate and have productive dialogues about the things that REALLY matter in our lives... not at least on a scale that makes a real difference. I say this because I write a semi-daily "gemlog" which gets posted to the "web" by way of the Gemini protocol, and I do this because it is just ME, the command line/editor and the tiny server that allows me to do so. I do it because THAT is the way I feel we all should be communicating with our neighbors, in the "off" times that we're not actually conversing/interacting face-to-face IRL. Not "Groups" that are hosted by Big Data, who we know only want to really milk ever last penny from you, if they could. IOW, embrace the "smol web", and TALK TO YOUR NEIGHBORS FFS (and organize, organize, organize)

1:51 - Badger’s like: “damn, the soundboards not on”

A dream team I didn't expect. Honeslty it must be easier to collab with people in a more informal format than in a very elaborate video. Great video

There were a few large audio pops in the ep, e.g. at 54:06

Carl of Swindon, not Sargon of Akkad. ;)

Great! Never heard of 15-minute City, thank you for the info. Congrats on your new podcast, happy to subscribe!

Excited for this!

It may have been my fault for not having seen Munecat's video before tge podcast, but not having heard of the 15-minute cities conspiracy before, I'd argue the podcast didn't explain it really well before diving into the discussion proper. The intro clearly explained the 15 minute city concept, but I'd argue that the most important aspect to understand the conspiracy was the LTNs. For instance, trying to understand it from context clues I jumped from "not letting personal cars leave a residential area" to "not letting cars from 'outside' enter a residential area" to "blocking personal cars from certain areas" and I'm still not sure I know which, if any, of these are the ones beeing used. I don't think the 15 minute city concept itself is that controversial, especially since any restrictions come from the implementation and not the concept. But depending on what the LTNs mean they could be criticized for lots of different things and could have a number of drawbacks, and it just became tiring thinking "what are the positives and negatives of this interpretation of LTNs I just made up and would it help the neighborhood and the world at large?" everytime the context clues pointed to another interpretation of what the LTNs mean. Maybe I'm not the target audience, and maybe I'll be back after reading about and understanding LTNs and will find the episode amazing, but it made for a really underwhelming first episode to the podcast.

One other thing: Oxford is quite dense - at least from an American point of view. There are loads of cities much bigger by population that are low density. Think of Phoenix, Dallas, Las Vegas, Houston, Oklahoma City. Even where I live, in Buffalo, NY, it's sort of dense but kind of sprawled, we have a population density of 6,800/sq/mi and we have about 270,000 people. American cities at the population of Oxford - about 152,000 - sprawl out a lot often. The high population density and compact build of Oxford should be a reason to limit cars in the first place

What video was Tom talking about where Munecat interviewed the Oxford protestors? I can’t seem to find it.

Where is munecats 15 minute city video I can't find it on RU-vid?

When he interrupted after saying you don't know if Sauron of Akkad is still living in Swindon I thought he would tell us

Great new concept, great interview... but watch your "likes". Sometimes the word 'like' in one sentence is used more then I can count... Great content though...

Holy shit, you're practically local--that's rad. Meur ras for the great vids/podcasts, idk how I got here but I''m enjoying it!

How about if we move all of our politicians into a 2 mile square area and told them they needed permission to go beyond it.

Where did Tom Nicholas move from to go to Plymouth?

ear pain at 36:12 btw

Where is the original video of munecat interviewing people at this demo? I can't find it

This would be so simple if the Mayor just came out said this is the problem we’re having (traffic in the historic district) and this is the solution (bypass) do you have any suggestions? It would instantly change from suspicion to problem solving but instead they hide in their offices acting sus instead

why isn't this video 1/4 of its run length. this video is four cities-worth

what you are missing out on is that driving is as fun as a heroine enema. just like a heroine enema driving is very addictive. you are interfering with them getting their next hit right up the bum bum. though a 15 minute city does not prevent you from getting to where you want to go, it does interfere with how you arrive.

oh wow. munecat has a mellow mode

Tom, I love ya mate. But how did those mic pops get missed in editing? Listening with headphones is painful.

Blasting Marley, dancing, drinking, I don't think that the purpose of their demonstration was to demonstrate that 15-minute cities are actually a lot more fun than traffic jams and air pollution. Oh well...

There are ways to stop your self from constantly saying "like". Gets anoying real quick.

The predominant definition of freedom in America does seem to be negative freedom (the absence of external constraints on personal decision-making, aka having keys to a car), whereas I think most people recognise positive freedom (conditions necessary to pursue desired opportunities, so, social safety net, free healthcare, etc., etc.) as being superior. Sounds like the people demanding individualistic freedom have, for all that they're parochial Little Englanders, adopted the American definition. I suspect that, like the MAGA crowd, they're predominantly Protestant (but, unlike the US, including Anglican), even if only culturally, and so their concept of freedom is purely negative and, thanks to their preference for hierarchy and authority, they can't even conceptualize positive freedom. It's great to know that Munecat is exactly as nice as she seems in her more scripted videos :D

It's really weird to listen to Munecat out of her youtube persona. She seems almost nice :D

Munecat continues to disrespect DJ Badger, how shameful...

There is a vast common ground that most people on the planet have regarding urban planning. There is a small wealthy percentage of the population that have outsize influence on its implementation. They also have an outsize influence on what information gets to the masses. Transparency is not in their interest because it usually conflicts with the interests of the majority of the population. The only reason it is not a conspiracy is that it is done by legal means. Even “15 Minute City” conspiracy theorists know this. The mistake they make is not realizing that a majority of the population simply wants to live a different way than themselves.

Surely the problem may come in that zoning areas will highlight social and economic status. It happens now of course but you will get those who will want to discourage mixing of the groups.

If I had the time I'd do a "like" count.

Find it really jarring, that the background music is so loud in the intro

what are these pops for example at 39:48

Get Adamsomething on this podcast pls

This is great

Conspiracy theorists fail to use Occam's razor. They do a lot of critical thinking but they never learned this one crucial technique.

Hippy values are fairly liable to go reactionary I think.

I hope you know that you do say "like"... A LOT! :)

Tuxedo cats rules.

From 15 minute cities to Davos lol I love the conversation

What a beautiful affectionate cat. I used to have one like that; so sad he died, and the one now is a cranky bugger but beautiful to look at. I must have put his nose out of joint as a kitten, or something ! Maybe he will 'soften' as he ages? Cheers from Newcastle AUS.

I didn't recognize munecat without the makeup 😅 I spent the first 2 mins of the talk trying to match the two faces in my head, fun talk tho.

This was a great delve into a topic I hadn't heard about! I'd love for similar accessible city planning to come to my neighbourhood

the joke about 10 minute cities as the next step made me think about how small they would go lol. like a one minute city is just how far you can book it down the road in 60 seconds before the police stop u lmao

DJ Badger won’t be repressed! But in all seriousness, thank you for making this!

Tom thank you. I'm about half way through listening in my car and I am enjoying it. The audio does seem to fluctuate at times so it's not always clear what's been said, maybe that will improve over time. It's great you are trying new things.

Whose house will be torn down to put in these services, yours? They can’t keep the power on now, more power use from everything you use? Doesn’t make sense at all.

I like this

there's a loud noise at 36:11 39:49 49:09 54:05

Too much "LIKE"

The crossover I didn't know I needed

15 minute city is anticar rhetoric, that's where the backlash is from.

From your setup, I'd hoped you were going to have one of the Oxford antis on to express their positions. A nice "chat with a friend" as Muni said, but no debate as such. It's a bit disappointing, to be honest. Perhaps the two of you could do a followup with someone who can express their objections to how it's being implemented.

Capitalists: Let's move to the countryside and start a farm so we can grow our own food and not be so reliant on the market forces, we can exchange those goods and services with our neighbor's goods and services. Socialists: Let's move into a concrete city that allows me to consume anything I wish to buy within 15 minutes of walking. Let's just be fully dependent on the capitalists who are suffering from breathing that clean rural air and god forbid having to drive those big trucks they pretend to love.

Man those conspiracy theories are prophecies lmao

Open air prisons 🖕

Isn't the backlash due to affordability? Who benefits from 15 minute cities, may not be the poor that need to travel there for work.

I respectfully disagree. 15-Minute Cities are the Devil.

I lived in Oxford for school for a chunk of time, specifically in Jericho - or technically just beyond it, on the other side of Port Meadow - on a barge in Bossom’s Boatyard, and as you noted, the city is ancient and so already intrinsically hostile to vehicle traffic and most easily traveled by bike or on public transportation or on foot. It is a moderately well-off city, but there are more working class areas as you venture up along Cowley Road (although this is also where all the artists and bohemians lived, so I’d be surprised if it hadn’t become gentrified by now), but regardless of income differences the whole city is fairly progressive - probably the most conservative residents would be some of the gownies who plague the Oxford Union Society heckling progressive speakers - so it’s hard for me to picture this conspiracy taking hold or gaining any traction among the locals. I’d support your guess that the protesters were brought in from other areas. Truly this is madness!

Most cities in the UK are already 15minutes cities. It’s the US that has their cities all heavily zoned. Correct me if I’m wrong.

Conspiracy facts not theories.. grow up... Another propaganda channel with no audience

I love both of you, so it’s great to have you on together. Main suggestions for next time: - Tom needs to say “like” less. It was very jarring because your scripted videos make you come across as very eloquent, but this podcast was difficult to listen to because you did not communicate your thoughts very well. Lots of “like” and “sort of” and “kinda”. Perhaps consider taking longer to think before you speak, then you can always edit the video down to remove any extended silence. - At least in the beginning, there was a clear delay between you both. This led to Tom cutting off Munecat a few times. Not intentionally I’m sure, but something to work on. - It also seemed as though you did not have an agreed agenda for the call as the order of your conversation was a bit sporadic. I am excited for more episodes and I hope to see you continue to improve :)

If Munecat does not own a badger named 'Cat' I am going to be disappointed.

So Münecat is the chiropractor of journalism? 😛

Yeah, no thanks to 15 minutes cities.