It was the star at the recent C40 international summit of mayors in Buenos Aires: the city of 15 minutes competed with the superillas of Barcelona for the attention of international municipalism. In recent years, Paris has become a benchmark for this new model of urbanism, in which inhabitants can satisfy their needs (work, consumption, leisure, education and health) within a perimeter of 15 minutes, either on foot or by bicycle . The Parisian mayor, the socialist Anne Hidalgo, explained this initiative to the mayors of other metropolises, which has some similarities with neighborhood policies from Barcelona and considered an example to be followed by macro-cities in Latin America such as Bogotá or Buenos Aires.
Since the pandemic, this formula devised by the Franco-Colombian urban planner Carlos Moreno It is on the lips of many leaders. Hidalgo made it one of his banners in the 2020 municipal elections. In the Paris City Hall, there is a department dedicated to the city of 15 minutes. Numerous other French cities —many of them with socialist and green executives—, such as Nantes, Montpellier or Mulhouse, imitated this example and have councilors who dedicate themselves almost exclusively to this objective: to conceive cities with a greater proximity and where its inhabitants can satisfy their needs without using a motorized vehicle.
“Since the health crisis, there is a real demand from the inhabitants themselves to reduce the daily rhythm and improve the quality of life & rdquor ;, explains to EL PERIÓDICO DE CATALUNYA the urban planner Sébastien Marrec, a researcher at the University of Rennes and who is preparing a doctoral thesis on bicycle promotion policies and urban transformation in Paris. Although it had been devised before, the concept of the 15-minute city became fashionable with the multiplication of telework due to covid-19. “Since then, sedentary lifestyles have grown and this favors people prioritizing other ways of getting around – other than the car or motorcycle – to shop or pick up the children from school & rdquor ;, he adds.
The school, at the center of the initiative
In the case of the French capital, this transformation started from the schools. “The school It is the capital of the neighborhood. Whether you have children or not, everything revolves around school hours & rdquor ;, Hidalgo recalled at the summit in Buenos Aires. Perhaps less well known than the closure of traffic to vehicles on the banks of the Seine or the limitation of the maximum speed to 30 km/h, one of the main transformations in recent years in Paris has been the pedestrianization of most streets, or sections of them, where there are educational centers.
“Of the 300 streets of this type in which traffic is to be closed, there are already 168 that were pedestrianized —114 of them in the last two years—& rdquor ;, indicates Marrec. These changes entail a considerable investment, about 400,000 euros for each street. They are part of a more ambitious operation, called Beautify your quartiers (Beautify your neighbourhoods), which involves planting trees and building numerous bike lanes.
In addition, it has been promoted reuse of school spaces for other activities beyond educational ones. Since the spring of last year, patios reopened over the weekend for any citizen. The objective of this measure: to offer new rest spaces in the town with the highest density of buildings in Europe. If parents want to play with their children, they no longer need to go to the big Parisian parks. Currently, the playgrounds of about 50 schools and about 30 nurseries are open on Saturdays.
“Marketing operation”
However, “the fact of giving buildings new uses is not something new, the City Council has been trying since the 1990s & rdquor ;, recalls Martin Vanier, professor at the Paris School of Urbanism, who is rather skeptical about to the 15-minute city project. “In reality, Parisian neighborhoods have always stood out for their proximity and their density of shops and services. Paris is a quarter of an hour city from the end of the 18th century& rdquor ;, Vanier maintains. In fact, he crosses out this concept “of marketing operation that discovers a reality that has always existed” in the French capital, known for decades as one of the European cities where people move the most on foot.
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“I can understand that in Latin American metropolises, where services are very unevenly distributed, they are interested in this concept of the 15-minute city,” declares this geographer. “But, in the case of France, it would be much more interesting to promote this notion of proximity in the rural territories or peripherals”, such as banlieueswho suffer from the lack of public services and local businesses.
One of the most common criticisms of the Paris of 15 minutes is the fact of reinforcing the process of gentrification, especially intense in a town that, due to its professional attractiveness and high real estate prices, expelled a good part of its more modest inhabitants. At the moment, the French political class is concerned about the discomfort that the implementation in the coming years of low emission zones in all the big cities. The circulation of older and more polluting vehicles will be prohibited in them. A measure that will reduce pollution, but likely to provoke protests similar to the revolt of the yellow vests.