Reality and fakes: why "15 minute cities" have been targeted by conspiracy theorists

The 15-minute city is a concept in urbanism that assumes walking distance is the main factor. In accordance with it, the city should be divided into many districts, in each of which you can find everything for a comfortable life.

Within a 15-minute walk – just a walk, not a car trip – there should be places of work or study, a shop and a cafe, a sports ground and a park, and cultural institutions. Why has such a useful concept been criticized and attacked by conspiracy theorists? After all, cities that have everything you need within 15 minutes of walking or cycling have been named an excellent initiative to promote a healthy and sustainable lifestyle.

This concept was developed in 2015 by one of the city planners in France. The idea was appreciated, and it spread around the world: Melbourne, Paris, Copenhagen dream of making urban areas comfortable, reducing car traffic and limiting environmental pollution.

However, some took the innovative idea “with hostility”, it sounds to them like a conspiracy aimed at restricting people’s freedom of movement, as an attack on personal freedom. A simple search on Twitter reveals numerous posts:

• one user called the idea “a 15-minute dystopia”;
• the second tweeted: “15 minute blocks are climate prisons”;
• others speak out about alleged lockdowns within the quarter.

In a video posted by a user, an alleged Canadian woman protests as she is not allowed to step outside her “15-minute perimeter”. However, a little journalistic investigation showed that the video was taken from a Canadian documentary filmed in 1993, filmed in 1993 – 20 years (!) Before the concept of a 15-minute city was invented. The film is about the 1990 Oka Canadian settlement crisis – a land dispute between an indigenous Iroquois community and a Quebec settlement in Canada, so 15-minute towns here, as they say, “no way.”

Why did a completely innocent strategy give rise to so many conspiracy theories? Especially vigorously it is discussed in the British Oxford. The local council has announced a traffic filtering plan to reduce the number of cars passing through downtown. Under this plan, local residents will have to apply for permission to drive on certain streets.

The government’s decision fueled misinformation that people would be restricted to their neighborhoods and would need permission to leave. And all this has become so widespread that in Oxford they even held rallies and demonstrated against this initiative. The authorities had to come up with clarifications that they were in no way going to physically restrain people. Liz Leffman, spokesperson for the Oxford District, explained:

“We’re getting a lot of calls and emails from concerned citizens out of genuine fear of being locked up in their own homes. This is categorically untrue!”

Members of the local council, meanwhile, said they had received numerous death threats. Here is another example of how fakes and hatred on the Internet can cause very real harm…

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