The 15-Minute City: Global Change Through Local Living

Cities define the lives of all those who call them home: where they go, how they get there, and how they spend their time. But what if we built our cities differently? What if we traveled differently? What if we could get a cashback on time and use it to live in a new way?

In this fascinating, meticulously researched and reported, and readily accessible book, longtime Financial Times journalist Natalie Whittle looks at metropolises all over the world to consider the idea of the 15-minute city, defined as a city that is designed so that everyone who lives there can reach everything they need within 15 minutes on foot or by bike. Whittle helps us to understand its pros, its cons, and its potential to revolutionize modern living. With global warming reaching a crisis point and the post-pandemic world bringing a previously unimaginable decline in commuting, Whittle’s timely book serves as a call to reflect on the ＂hows＂ and ＂whys＂ of our basic relationship to our neighborhoods, cars (＂Above all, the 15-minute city asks us to turn away from the perceived con-venience of the fossil fuel car＂), all of our daily comings and goings.

Building her study by carefully considering how we use space and time, Whittle traverses both, collecting models from ancient Athens to modern Paris and New York that demonstrate how one idea could change our daily lives--and the world--for good.