Need a proper public house

Have everything except university and sports arena. But for me it makes sense being in the NJ/NYC metro area.

Bar should be way higher on that list. Seems a lot of people haven't experienced the freedom of being able to walk home drunk from a bar, or at least take a subway/bus, without worrying about dealing with a car. Or worse relying on the friend who had a few beers but is still "good" to drive.

As an American you could ask me what should be in a 15 minute neighborhood and I'd answer things but I can't walk off of my street without taking my life in my hands. The only thing I can walk to is my neighbors' houses.

I'm in the UK. I have all except a hospital, movie theatre, university, and sports arena within a 15 min walk of my house. I live in a suburb in a large city (not London).

I can get to a hospital, movie theatre, and a university within 20 mins on a bus. I can get to 3 sports areas in about 30-40 mins on a bus in different directions.

My area is not a 15-min city, but is moving that way. My own street has been split up and blocked to through traffic (which I love), and there is proposal for a pollution tax to dissuade polluting traffic in the city.

But at the moment I cannot realistically commute to work as the public transport capacity is just too low to make it comfortable and safe (I work early and late hours).

I think the concept is great but I suspect they need most of the elements to be in place before they can achieve critical mass and change behaviour. Certainly for me I'm still doing a lot of driving.

I live in a city of 1/2 million and have not even one of these within a 15-minute walk. Some, I could not care less such as bars, but a grocery store, gym, and park would be nice.

@ajsadauskas @fuck_cars I’m in Toronto’s Danforth area, so basically everything except a professional sports arena is within 5-20 mins walk.

The framing of that poll has such a sinister American conspiracy theorist edge: “if your local government decided…” — like having these things nearby can only be forced upon you and you must fight back.

My 15-min walk list:

1. restaurants/bars/cafes
2. grocery store
3. ~~some kind of tech store, like Microcenter but smaller with less items because you wouldn’t want a big ass Microcenter near you~~ game/hobby store (trading cards, figurines etc.)
4. a park/open air theater or amphitheater
5. gym options (Pilates, yoga, weights etc)
6. pharmacy
7. day care
8. some clothing stores
9. hairdresser/barber/nails
10. bus/train stop

I sincerely disagree that post offices and banks have to be within walking distance when we have mailboxes and online banking. Also, I’d like to be able to drive my car out with ease to get to other cities or states if needed. I assume 15min city urban planning accounts for the desire to long distance travel at will.

I am also not sure it’s a good idea to have schools because schools are kinda big and require lots of parking space.

I live in Brooklyn. Almost all of these are well covered. It's pretty great. Hospital, mall, and sports arena are a little outside a 15 minute walk.

I think "places to see live music" should be on the list. There's one by me but it tends to be for bigger acts. If I want to see a smaller band play I usually need to travel a bit.

Living in rural US I sadly don't have any of those within walking distance. Some would take over an hour walk, and most are not even accessible to walk. A decent bike ride can get me to a few, but I hate riding on county roads. Far too many people get hit around here.

My sister is fortunate enough to live close to a lot of this stuff.

And there are no sidewalks 😂

I can't reach any of the above in 15 minutes. In fact I can't reach anything in 15 minutes as it takes me 5 to just reach the gate - very rural middle of nowhere, population 50, with a single road and some street lamps as the infrastructure.

Everything where I live (Austrian city), except for the hospital. That would be 20min.

@ajsadauskas @fuck_cars I live in Philadelphia, so all those are within a 15 minute walk from me except the university, mall, movie theater, and sports arena. But these are all accessible by transit, whether bus or subway.

On the short distance, the nearest bar to me is 40 ft (12m) away!

I'm gonna make a few assumptions: One is that this is just a neighborhood in my hypohetical ideal world (or rather, near-ideal). Second: we're talking about high qualiy versions of these places, and not the "just barely good enough to not go under" versions that abound. Last: "should" means "necessity" and not "luxury."

Groceries are a no-brainer.

Parks — hell yes. In fact, I'd prefer if everyone had access to all kinds of nature within "walking" (walking + public transportation) distance: parks, woods, botanical gardens, community gardens, wildlife reserves.

Pharmacies should be obsoleted: drugs should be devriminalized and un-gatekept. People should have the freedom to put whatever stupid, life-altering substance they want to into their body (with caveats like informed consent and heavily recommended medical professional supervision). Distributors could be home-delivery through the post and the over-the-counter section in your local grocery store.

Bus stops... Yes for some neighborhoods, but ideally more trains or trams, especially in suburbs.

Post offices are dying out. Letters and spam are the kinds of things people should have access to in their immediate neighborhood, but are becoming obsolete thanks to the internet (which should be a public utility instead of run for profit). I'm about 50/50 on whether there should still be home-delivery for everyone and all packages, or if there should be local holding centers for most (although, once again, any delivery network should be considered a public service instead of a few companies monopolizing the role), and at-home delivery for the most important packages/incapacitated people.

Banks are a no. Credit union, yes. Or maybe no and just let money become the digital currency it's slowly been turning intobfor the past 40 years. Ideally, society (and by extension this ideal neighborhood) would function without capital.

Gas stations: hell no. Convenience stores yes (or just all-in-one grocery stores). Maybe EV charging stations... Maybe.

Having a barber is way more convenient than people give it credit, and it doesn't benefit from centralization. At the very least, everyone should have a neighbor who cuts hair well.

Bonus round: things that should be within a 30-minute commute (by transit)—mall, movie theater, hospital, elementary school, day care, university, restaurants, bars.

No to stadiums, but yes to sports fields in the parks.

Things not on the list that should be: museums, clinics, dentists, optometrists, psychiatrists, veterinarians, pools, gyms, community centers/general use indoor halls, fire stations, makers spaces... probably others that I'm forgetting.

Sorry that this 15 minute walk is turning into a jog.

I live in a big city and every single one of these things is within 15 minutes walk from my door except a sports arena, although if you substitute that for a gym with a pool and basketball court there's half a dozen.

I love it because I never need to use my car. Although there are consequences... Heavy traffic, loud music at night, unruly people in my neighborhood, ambulance sounds, people who rev their cars and motorcycles, trash on the street sometimes, etc.

I grew up a bit far outside of any neighborhood which meant every single trip involved the car and 20 plus minutes of driving. That lifestyle is perfect for some people because they appreciate the isolation. But it also meant planning well ahead and if you needed a quick run to the hardware store or some convenience item it would take half a day. The percentage of my childhood life in the car was too damn high.

Zero. In my car... still zero.

I have a 90-minute drive to work because moving to walkable range would be too expensive.

The houses near my office start around 4-5 million dollars. Apartments within walking distance cost $3,000/month for 600 square feet.

Shopping mall is the only one on the list I can't walk to in 15 min or less. Love living in a walkable city, it's so rare in America these days.

As someone who lives within 15 minutes ot a sports arena, i agree with not having one

Other than the primary school (~20 minutes) and the physical bank, which we barely have any left off in Norway, they're all within 15 minutes.

- Trondheim

@ajsadauskas @fuck_cars I love how the majority think you should have to drive to a bar