PARIS: Urban planners are fending off abuse fuelled by conspiracy theories about their “15-minute city” regeneration projects which suspicious social media users claim are the road to “climate lockdowns”.

The 15-minute city premise is simple — all amenities such as parks and grocery stores must be accessible within a quarter of an hour walk or bike ride from a person’s home.

Developed in 2015 by an academic in France, the concept has taken off worldwide since the Covid pandemic, with cities such as Paris, Melbourne and Copenhagen seeking to make neighbourhoods more liveable and cut car use to curb climate change. But, as with Covid measures, unfounded online theories about the initiative have flourished.

Top results in a search for “15 minute city” on TikTok contain mostly scornful videos, including claims that the schemes will restrict residents’ movement and fine them for leaving their home districts.

A search on Twitter brings up the hashtag #15minuteprisons in third place after #15minutecities and #15minutecity. The 15-minute city concept is credited to Carlos Moreno, a professor at Paris’s Sorbonne University. He said he had received numerous personal insults over the idea.

“Never have there been proposals for restrictions — on the contrary, this is a new opportunity: more choice, more services, more desire to thrive in one’s neighbourhood,” he said.

“Since the start of 2023, the concept of the 15-minute city has been subject to conspiracy theories, produced and shared by people already well known for spreading disinformation about Covid, the climate, vaccines and politics,” he said.

“The only arguments they have are lies, manipulation and insults.”

Public transport plans

Particular claims debunked in recent weeks have targeted the English city of Oxford and Edmonton, Canada. Claims surfaced in various languages, including English, French and Portuguese.

“You can’t leave a 15-minute city whenever you please ... The city walls or restrictions or zones or whatever you want to call them won’t be used to keep others out, they’ll be used to lock everyone in,” says one man in a video viewed more than 59,000 times on Facebook, commenting on the Edmonton plan.

Sandeep Agrawal, director of the School of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Alberta, said there were no grounds “whatsoever” for claiming the plan would implement such restrictions. “The 15-minute plan intends to provide better connectivity to the rest of the city” by improving public transport links, he said.

“District planning is an ongoing process which involves consultation with the public at various points of its development.” Among moderate critics of the concept, Toronto-based urban planning lecturer and author Jay Pitter has argued it cannot be transposed from European to North American cities and could worsen inequality by spurring gentrification.

Conspiracy theories

In Oxford, councillors reported receiving abuse over plans to limit private vehicles on bus routes at peak hours. Social media users shared an article that falsely claimed residents would be “confined to their local neighbourhood and have to ask permission to leave it, all to ‘save the planet’.”

Published in Dawn, February 16th, 2023