Planner of the "15-minute city" faces flak.

When Carlos Moreno first introduced the phrase “15-minute city” at COP21 in 2015, it would have been hard to imagine that nine years later, he’d find himself vilified and threatened across the world, his concept for sustainable urban planning attacked by figures as wide-ranging as Jordan Peterson and Rishi Sunak.

A "Superblock" in Barcelona

The fundamental idea behind Moreno’s blueprint is that residents can reach essential services within 15 minutes by walking, biking or public transit. In the book, Moreno frames his vision as a critique of modernist planning, in which separate zones are designated for sleeping, eating, working and leisure.

Moreno cites a lack of long-term political thinking and the existence of important economic actors that resist change as barriers.

“It must be admitted that there are limits to how far these ideas can go, and those limits lie in political life on the macro scale,” he says. “Ultimately there’s a roof on what I can do which I can’t go beyond.”

Complete Bloomberg article here.